When not to go outside - thoughts about camera movements and an outline of the plot

chosen theme – “When not to go outside?”

When there are giants - 1
When someone switches off the gravity - 2
When it’s Halloween - 3
When it’s the end of the world - 4
When the world hasn’t loaded - 5
When it’s copyrighted - 6
When a slice of bread wants to smash you - 6

the beginning:
1 - The title that is crushed by a giant.
2 - God is opening the door and crushing the writing/covering it.
3 - As a “scary” writing on tv screen which our character switches off.
 

 While I was thinking about the way how to connect all ideas of my group into one solid project, I came up with two ideas. All skits are connected, all are starting in the same place and shows the same character. While making my research about “looped” animations (animations made up from similar skits, showing different story-paths based on character’s choices etc.) I noticed that there is a repeated trope of showing the exact same beginning of every skit (for example LOVE DEATH & ROBOTS – Alternate Stories where character of Adolf Hitler always starts from going out of the art academy). I thought that we could use the same trope here. It would give the whole animation a “story frame”. Every skit would have a common factor that could make the animation more approachable and clearer to viewers. It would also save some time because after animating the beginning we would already have the beginning for all skits.

My second idea was to make every skit stylistically a bit different.

 “When there are giants” would start from the perspective of giant crushing houses and people. The whole skit would be maintained in a stylistic of a catastrophic film – chaotic movements, shaking camera, using shots like worm’s eye view. The scene with Moom would be a quick punchline – quickly smashed at the end.

 “When someone switches off the gravity” - would be the one starting with the god character. The camera would be guided standardly for the first part. In the second part, while everything starts to levitate, the camera would do the same. We could also add some interferences in the view to imitate our camera breaking down. After the cut everything would be back to norm again, the camera would show Moom falling from the sky.

 “When it’s Halloween” could be made in a typical slasher style with all cliches of that subgenre like jump scares – it could be a parody. Moom would be observed by a serial killer from the outside, the skit could be filmed by using two perspectives - of Moom and the killer, they would intersperse.

 “When the world hasn’t loaded yet” – all skit is a joke in itself so I wouldn’t experiment with the camera movements here.

 “When a slice of bread wants to smash you” – the whole absurdity of that concept could be contrasted with still camera, with no camera movements or almost no movements.

 We’re starting with gravity skit. The title of animation appears on a wall and soon is covered by door suddenly opened. On the screen appears sleepy god – in pyjama, with a mug full of coffee in hand. He is walking through the room while wiping his eye, yawning. He’s passing through his workshop – computers, plans hanging on walls, weird devices and 3d models related to ‘humanity project’. Whole floor is covered by weird cables, squashed papers etc. In one moment, his foot gets embrangled in a charger plugged in a socket. God trips on the floor and the charger gets disconnected.

 Quick cut on the Earth. Moom is seeking for keys and is ready to go out to work. He slowly and cautiously gathers his keys, his coat – he can whistle (to emphasize the contrast between current very chill scene and next dynamic one). Moom behaves very calmly and cheerful. When he’s opening the door, everything including him, and the camera starts to float. Light goes crazy – it switches on and off, the camera is breaking down (it can show plain black screen, noise etc.), objects are slamming into other objects, walls, or Moon. Everything happens very quickly; it lasts a few seconds until the panicking character flies out of the house. The skit can end here, or we can make a cut and after that show earth being back to normal – Moom would fall from the sky, camera filming him would be overturned.

 After that (and every next animation between skits could be a short interlude – something similar to SMPTE colour bars), with or without the title of the next skit, abrupt cuts like that with some single high sound could add to the whole animation some dynamic.

 The next skit would be the Halloween one. Something added to the environment design like carved pumpkins would be good to show that it’s that particular part of the year. The whole skit could be a parody of slasher horror movies, in particular John Carpenter’s “Halloween” franchise. Moom could act like a typical stupid horror character who hears some noises outside of the house and decides to check it.

 It’s evening, Moom is watching television when he hears some weird noise. A long shot shows a strange silhouette with a knife walking outside of the house (for example a lightning can make for a second the killer visible, his shadow). Moom gets scared because of the storm, he comes to a window to have a look on the outside, he sees something suspicious, but he doesn’t get to focus on that because he hears a doorbell. We could add to the scene something similar to the typical horror soundtrack. There is second lightning which builds up the tension. Moom takes a bowl full of candies, slowly opens the door and goes outside but no one is there. He has a look around and there would be a jump scare of the killer. When the audience would expect the killer to attack the Moom he would just say: trick or treat! Take off his mask and smile. In the background, there would be visible another scene with the real killer walking through the street with a bloody knife or there would be an audible scream, something that would indicate that there is a real killer out there and Moom was just lucky.

 Bread skit – camera shows a side profile of the whole scene. We observe Moom standing in a doorway and a giant slice of bread randomly standing in front of him. The skit is silent, characters are just squinting eyes suspiciously and observing one another. Moom lifts his leg and tries to make a step and sees how the bread bows a bit as it’s closer to smash Moon. Our character backs off, stares at the bread for a couple of more seconds and decides to go outside anyway, he gets immediately squashed.

Next one – when there are giants outside. Moom is struggling to catch his spider (there could be a terrarium in the living room). He tries to do that two times (with glass and a piece of card) but every time the spider just runs away and hides in a different place. In the meantime, we can see the latest news on the tv screen – there is an invasion of giants, everyone is ordered to stay at home. Moom doesn’t see that because he’s too busy with the spider. His pet escapes one more time and hides under the door. Stubborn and exited Moom being sure that this time he’ll catch him opens the door and quickly covers the spider with a glass, he picks him up with a satisfied face which tells “I got you”. Then he realizes that there is a giant walking around in the distance. When Moom tries to get back home he is picked up (his collar) by another giant and tells “I got you”.

(I changed a lot the original story because the plot is in my opinion too similar to the bread skit – the punchline in both cases is the same so I think we should either leave this skit changed or remove the bread skit.)

 The last one would be when the world hasn’t loaded. The character goes about the morning routine before leaving the house. Moom realizes that the street isn’t loaded in properly. He goes outside to check what is going on. While he is walking down the street the world is progressing into a drawing, it changes from finished 3D animation to not textured animation, low poly animation. Moon observes everything – the changes start happening quicker and quicker as he wanders - he starts to panic, runs back to the house as he’s trying to escape. He slams the door and waits a bit. Because nothing is happening, he opens the door out of curiosity and sees how the whole world became a drawing. He sticks out his hand outside and sees how he is also a drawing now. He goes outside again and observes himself and the environment, he can’t believe his own eyes. Everything is peaceful until a huge pencil with a rubber erases him.