Thursday 8 March 2012

Unit 5: Animation - The Oafish Lamp Idea 4: Premise, Log Line, 3 Act Structure & Step Outline

Title: Divine Intervention

Premise

A message from a special place to a special someone.

Log Line

The ghost of a deceased man is looking to communicate with his wife. In a last ditched attempt he possesses a lamp which he clumsily tries to control. The lamp eventually falls into a dressing table scaring his wife, when clearing up the mess she notices a photograph of her husband, she looks at the fallen lamp & smiles. She places his photograph on the mantelpiece next to the lamp, as her way of saying that she got the message.

3 Act Structure

Act 1: The ghost makes repeat attempts to gain his spouse’s attention, failing every time. The ghost manages to move a lamp nearby which is the only object he has influence over. To his surprise the ghost successfully possesses the lamp.

Act 2: The ghost tries to move in the foreign body of the lamp but keeps tripping over, eventually resorting to hopping which occasionally causes him to clumsily fall over the lamps wire. The lamp/ghost sees his spouse crying & feels her pain; he leaves the shot which is followed by a crashing sound.

Act 3: The lamp has impacted a dresser knocking its contents to the floor. The woman starts clearing up the mess when she notices a photograph of her & her late husband. She smiles and glances at the lamp, she raises it to its feet & places the picture next to it as if to say, I love you too.

------------------------------------------ Step Outline --------------------------------------------


SCENE 1

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

Camera floats through the house as though it is a ghost.

INT. HOUSE HALLWAY – DAY

A woman is seen crying, the camera pulls back to reveal a ghost who is sad too. The ghost tries to communicate but fails to do so. The ghost tries to move objects around the room but is once again unable to interact with anything.

In a rage the ghost speeds forward to catch up to his spouse but smacks head first into a lamp which shakes in response. The ghost then realises that he can interact with this lamp.

SCENE 2

First the ghost lifts it & then he bends it before getting the bright idea, to possess the lamp. Now in control of a foreign body the ghost tries to walk but falls over. The ghost tries to pick himself up but realises he has no hands; he leaves the lamp body and picks the lamp back up to repossess it.

The ghost then decides to hop but he trips over the lamps lead.

Fade to Black

INT. HOUSE LIVING ROOM – DAY

SCENE 3

The ghost/lamp glances into the living room only to notice his spouse crying, the ghost feels sad. He suddenly has a great idea and disappears from shot. A crash can then be heard which one would assume is due to the ghosts control of the foreign lamp body. The woman stands and leaves the shot.

Fade to Black

INT. HOUSE HALLWAY – DAY

SCENE 4

The lamp has crashed into a dresser knocking everything on the floor. The woman begins clearing up the mess when she finds a picture of her and her spouse happy. She looks at the lamp and smiles before picking it up and placing the picture next to it, the lamps fall was no accident of the clumsy ghost, it was divine intervention.

Fade to Black

1 comment:

  1. Stitch - this is too complex - and you're 'explaining' why the standard lamp is animated - which you really don't need to do. In 'animation land' objects are just alive - get used to it. You don't want to be drawing human characters either. I think there's a much simpler story here; what happens if your action is set in the window of a charity shop or lighting shop - with your oafish standard lamp being plonked in the middle of much posher, much more fragile lights - chaos ensues. Okay - it needs work, but what it doesn't need is people!

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