PETER & THE SPACE BETWEEN

I think I should take the time to restate my motivation for making this film, because although I've linked to my Why Paper presentation, that was for another film idea I had at the beginning of September. Those are still ideas I want to work with, but the focus has changed.

Working Title: PETER & THE SPACE BETWEEN
Director: Sitji Chou
Composer: Raphael Choi
Method/technique: Hand-drawn animation (digital)
Materials: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects
Format: High-definition video: HDTV 1080p
Sound: 48.00 khz, 16-bit/Stereo
Length of Piece: 4 minutes
Proposed Production Period: January 1, 2011 to April 30, 2011




Project Summary:

To produce a 2-D animated and composited 3-minute film about a man who explores the ideas of human connections.


Synopsis:

A man tries to understand the futility of human connections as impeded by the microcosmic void of space.


Project Description:

Peter & the Space Between will be an animated film about the personal disconnection the protagonist, Peter, feels with those around him. This detachment is justified on a scientific level; you can never truly be close to someone because of the physical barrier that exists between two people. Peter is concerned with the ideas of consciousness and where it lies, and is possessed to prove that your mortal coil is the only thing containing your soul, and that it will simply dissipate into the air, is released, is liberated, upon death. He wishes to prove his theory to appease his selfish curiousity and is able to do this because he has no human connection to hold him back.

Detailed Synopsis:

In a dark room, hanging off of its stand is a telephone receiver. The dial tone rings loudly and steadily. The scene fades to black and cuts to an exterior shot of water and rocks. The camera quickly pans up along the bridge poles to reveal Peter, standing behind the railing. Pulling out, the railing and his surroundings dissolve as a giant rock is constructed and hangs above him. The rock rotates slowly, pieces bursting out and popping into the air. One piece falls, hits Peter on the head, and he splits in two, revealing colourful cells inside. The explode, and combine, forming into an atomic model that transitions into a planet before exploding like a nova. Peter's head snaps back, and atoms build in front of his closed eyes. The scene transitions to Peter, standing on a precipice, and he begins to fall. He begins to slow down, and a ghost-self escapes his body, before he flies up, splits in two, and fights a wind storm. The wind pushes him back as a dark silhouette interrupts the foreground. Peter tries to fight the wind, and runs back, crashing through the silhouette before continuing to fall. He is flipped and stretched, and eventually explodes into a flurry of colour and patterns. The rock appears again, calming the scene down as the camera zooms out, revealing a small vignette of stars. The camera continues to zoom out and Peter falls through the frame slowly and is then covered by a second white silhouette of Peter's falling body. The body dissolves to reveal the rock, that is pulled apart by three rings, transforming into a single line that slowly and elegantly moves through the scene before fading to black. Cut to Peter standing in the first room at dusk, speaking to a woman on the phone. He hangs up, but doesn't put the receiver down correctly. He picks up his coat and leaves, and as he closes the door, the receiver falls of the phone.


Visual Treatment:

The colours will begin with a fairly desaturated palette. This is to kind of suggest the banality of the scene. As the narrator begins to pick up his pace and speaks more emphatically, the colours shift and become deeper and more jewel-like in tone. All animation is done with the lasso tool in photoshop to create very strong angular shapes. There is a rigidity to the forms, but a very fluid movement because of slightly varying key poses that are inbetweened obsessively and carefully. The colours will be flat during the fall, but when the scenes are based in reality, and bubbling gradient will fill the shapes, to make it subtle-y erratic.

Sound Treatment:

There will be a lot of clear ringing sounds and musical bells. The more intense the narration the more musical the sound design. There will be a lot of icey chords and ambient wind sounds, and everything should morph into one another throughout the film.