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artist's way open studio (august)
August 17, 2005
Open The Box
by sven at 10:25 pm
I've been wanting to get better at writing actual stories for animation. I'm so visual, my "stories" tend to be silent... And all my characters have a zen-like sense of peace.
Well, tonight I experimented with writing a script. I brainstormed elements I might want to use by looking through pictures in library books: evil dictator, lots of zombies, a tree, a box, etc... "Box" sparked my imagination. I wrote a five sentence summary. Then I brainstormed lots of things the characters could say to each other, writing stream-of-consciousness. Ex: "What's it like in there? It's cold." I pulled out my fave bits and put them together.
After three hours I'd got as far as recording the voices for the soundtrack and splicing them together. Not enough time for animating, though -- and unfortunately the sound levels are damnably low. Sound capture is always a terrible headache.
Anyway, here's the script. I've added in a few stage directions here to help you make sense of it.
TITLE: OPEN THE BOX
[In a small cube-shaped room, a boy is looking at a large cube-shaped box.]
BOY: Ooh! A present! It’s not my birthday... Knock knock!
[BOY raps on the lid of the box.]
BOX: Who’s there?
BOY: Uh -- who’s there?
BOX: Schrodinger’s cat.
BOY: You’re not a cat.
BOX: Mew... Mew... Mew...
BOY: What are you?
BOX: I’m a metaphor.
BOY: A metaphor? For what?
BOX: Depends. Open the box.
BOY: No.
BOX: Open the box! Open the box! Open the box! Open the box! Open the Box!
BOY: Stop that! Why should I?
BOX: Aren’t you curious? Take a little peek.
BOY: What’s in there?
BOX: Something wonderful.
[BOY opens box. Leaning in too far, he falls into the dark opening. He falls through the nebulae of outer space, stars whizzing by.]
BOY: My god. It’s full of stars!
posted by sven | August 17, 2005 10:25 PM | categories: movies