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New Script For Pitch

The document provides details about a proposed stop motion animated short film. It will parody 2001: A Space Odyssey and follow two American astronauts who land on the moon. Their ship's autopilot malfunctions, forcing them to land manually. They discover a strange obelisk that transforms one astronaut into a cartoon monkey. The film is intended to have a serious tone throughout before ending on a random and humorous note to contrast the seriousness. The filmmaker seeks feedback on test animation shots and proposes the short for a BBC commission.

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71 views5 pages

New Script For Pitch

The document provides details about a proposed stop motion animated short film. It will parody 2001: A Space Odyssey and follow two American astronauts who land on the moon. Their ship's autopilot malfunctions, forcing them to land manually. They discover a strange obelisk that transforms one astronaut into a cartoon monkey. The film is intended to have a serious tone throughout before ending on a random and humorous note to contrast the seriousness. The filmmaker seeks feedback on test animation shots and proposes the short for a BBC commission.

Uploaded by

api-477398135
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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New Script for Pitch

Context

I wanted to create a film that is uplifting in tone


and is optimistic. I think a lot of shows on Tv and
streaming services are very heavy and quite
depressing to watch. I wanted to make a film which
stands out for just being a distraction from everyday
life especially with Covid -19 making people’s lives
unhappy. I think a well-made feel-good film would
fill a requirement in our generation for happy
content.

Client
I will be producing my animation for BBC 4 who have
commissioned 13 animations to be produced with a
budget of £10,000. The best films will be shown at
BFI Southbank cinema and then shown on BBC4 in a
special show. Each film needs to be between 2-10
minutes long and because it will be shown on BBC 4 it
will have to suitable to be show before watershed,
there is no prize money for this however it gives
animators a good opportunity to get their work seen
by industry professionals and maybe land an animating
job as part of the BBC or another 3rd party company.

My idea

So, my film is a stop motion comedy/ horror parody of


‘2001 A Space Odyssey’. It will be around 4-6 minutes
long and will include 3 characters. 2 American
astronauts, Dave and Al and ‘Huston’ as a background
character.

The film starts off with the Lunar model descending


to the moon. While landing the auto pilot
malfunctions and forces the crew to restart the
computer and land manually. After a short celebration
on their successful landing, they realise they have
landed next to a strange box which unknowns to them
is the Obelisk from ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’. The lead
astronaut, Dave goes in for a closer look and touches
the obelisk which turns him into a large carton
monkey which throws a bone at the retreating lander
resulting in the ship exploding.

My production will be very serious right till the end


and the final stupid and random punchline is there to
contrast the seriousness of the rest of the film.

This was not however my initial idea originally; I


had wanted to do a ‘Robot Chicken’ style comedy with
4 or 5 short 1-2-minute sketches making up the
runtime. The overarching story line is the Americans
and Soviets landing on the moon together and
squabbling like children on the playground.

However, after conversations with my tutor, family


and peers I decided to change the core idea of my
production. A lot of people commented on how hard it
would be to make the whole 5-minute production funny
all the way through, I would also be greatly limiting
my target audience as this kind of juvenile and
childish humour is very specific and not everyone
finds it funny.

Why am I producing it?

I wanted to do something that stands out against


other students works. Due to the complexity and
patience required of stop motion I hoped it would be
an unpopular choice which would allow me to stand out
against my class mates. I believe that done correctly
stop motion can look better than normal films as it
allows for far more freedom to tell the story without
the limitations of actors, sets and visual effects.
I also feel that my film’s script is very original
which is backed up by my target audience research. No
one else in my class is doing a comedy probably
because they are hard to do and is a massive risk.

Social context

My production is not a political piece and will not


being trying to change the audiences mind about
anything or trying to show them a different way of
viewing the world. Its only purpose is to be funny
and make the audience laugh.

In terms of diversity my production will not be very


good and will include white men and maybe a female
narration for Houston. This is however realistic
which I have decided is more important as the film is
meant to be realistic right up until the last moment.

Restrictions:

Due to covid- 19 my production must be filmed in a


covid safe manor, it was this reason that I have
chosen a stop motion as I can film, without anyone
else and am not really restricted by covid. Due to
the nature of stop motion however my production can
not exceed around 6 minutes as it would take too long
to film in the 5 weeks, I have available. I also have
to make sure my script is appropriate enough for my
client who needs it to be under 10 minutes and
appropriate to be shown before watershed.

Target audience research


My target audience research started with my Focus
groups which were slightly worrying, they saw issues
with the pacing, tone and script in general. They
worried that there was not enough content to fill a
6-minute film. There were concerns that when the joke
finally came no one would find it funny as it was
just too random and out the blue.
But the biggest worry was that no one in my initial
focus group and survey had even seen ‘2001 A Space
Odyssey’. With this revaluation I decided to cut any
in jokes or refences from the film and make it so
that anyone could kind of understand the story even
if they have never seen the film. When I wrote the
script, I also added a bit more at the begging to
stretch out the story and add character development.

A lot of people in the survey had similar worries the


main problem seemed to be the ending people didn’t
like the ending either because it sounded too
complicated or that it just would not be funny. Most
people did say however that it was an original idea.
I wasn’t quite sure how to fix this without completly
ruining the script and punchline. What I did do is
extend the story on a bit so I have a sequence where
the gorilla throws a bone at the ship and it explodes
which is also in reference to 2001.

Test shots
Here is my first test shot after the lander arrived,
I realised pretty quickly that my model was so large
that getting it far enough away from the camera would
be hard. I also realised that the inconstant camera
motion was very distracting to the viewer. After a
number of other tests this was the final result.

It used the real moon set; semi accurate lighting and


the motion of the ship was monitored by a tape
measure. This gave a very fluid movement which when
combined with digital effects and set extensions
created a mostly realistic scene. I will be improving
these effects even more leading up to the real film.

As difficult as these were to animate, they were


nothing compared to trying to animate the astronauts
jumping on the moon. The astronauts would have to
look to be jumping while moving their limbs to react
to the surface they land on. The first test used
wires as they would be easy to hid in post however
these wires would make animating the astronaut mid-
flight impossible. Instead, I used a more rigid rig
using chopsticks and duct tape, a cheap alternative
yet effective.

There are some effects that are impossible to do


practically. For these I will use CGI here are
examples of some basic CG for my production. I am
very surprised how well it looks; it doesn’t look too
cartoony or weirdly realistic which is suitable for
my cartoon stop motion production.

Any questions?

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