Year Three Project: Initial Ideas

  August will be a time where I will be preparing myself for my third year of this degree. I am excited, and a little anxious as this year will be the project that defines me. I arrived on this course as a worldbuilder, so after discussion with Phil, Alan and others I have considered settling on a project that will allow me to tell a story though the environment.

  The idea I have presently considered involves a scientist, recording his observations as a newborn alien specimen, brought in by explorers,  is cared for and matured. As time goes by, the scientist's backers, the company he works for, feels the project is not worth it. Either it is taking too long or there is so far nothing worthwhile coming from studying the creature. The scientist however grows attached to the creature, and when the company has finally had enough they try and shut the project down by force.

The first stage of this project will be to work out who this scientist is. In order to demonstrate character development he needs to warm up, so at the beginning he could be cold and jaded. His peers and juniors could be rockstar-type scientists working on far more interesting projects while he, approaching the end of his career is stuck with this project, which to begin with involves studying quite a simple specimen. He could be a career man: He has family but has sacrificed attachment to them in favour of fostering his career. His wife could have had enough ,frustrated as to why he is spending entire nights in the lab and never coming home. This specimen could be the one thing he has grown attached to for the first time in many years. It could be hideous, a monster on the outside but with the ability for compassion inside.

  The scientist himself, to keep things streamlined, could be only a voice within the animation. While the monster's final form is kept relatively mysterious until the very end.

  The scientist's recordings could be flawed; signs of stress, moments where he has to put the recorder down in order to handle a situation or has to answer a phone call from his bosses. Things are somewhat loose for now, but can solidify as progress with the script is made. Once I have a script, I can work out the true length of the animation, what period the lab would reflect and what the narrative of the laboratory will tell (which will have similarities and differences to what the scientist is saying in his recordings, telling two narratives within the animation).

  I have a basic idea of who this scientist is, what comes next is to make them something more cohesive.