Inspiration 2: With Love, Angie.

For this idea, I'm thinking of making 2D animated characters and placing them within a 3D designed interior. The following film, by a animation student in Beijing named DongZhen Li, is an example of what I'm talking about.

The idea (and my interest in amorphous, weird figures in general) spawned off this one scene in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I'm too lazy to give a description of the story, but it basically revolves around two characters: Kafka Tamura, a young 15 year old boy, and Nakata, an old man who had lost his mental facilities as a child. In the scene, a strange white amorphous figure emerges out of Nakata's mouth. Hoshino, a truck driver who befriends Nakata, is ordered to kill the amorphous figure. I don't remember the the fight scene between Hoshino and the white figure specifically, but the eerieness sticks with me.

In addition, this past winter break, I drew an illustration of a man with a hole in his chest. I usually do not have an emotional reaction to most of the things I draw, but when I finished the sketch, something welled up inside of me.

Inspiration for Wallflower

I don't have anything really specific in mind for Gut vs. Rationality at the moment, but here are some ideas for Wallflower.

WALLFLOWER

"The TV Show" by Kousuke Sugimoto

I really like how Sugimoto created a story line by repeating the same shots, but gradually added more elements onto them.  For the wallflower, I was thinking of doing something similar, except everything would take place in one house party.

"Nooka Race" by ILoveDust

I just love the character designs in this. Especially the furry pink guy. He looks like a wad of gum hahahha. There's just something whimsical, but gritty about everything in this animation. For Wallflower, I want to go for something whimsical and gritty too, and create characters that are cute/quirky like these dudes.

In both animations, the music is really upbeat and techno-y. I'm not that big of a fan of techno, but I seem to gravitate towards it whenever I want to make a film.

Premises

1) Gut vs. Rationality

Two college-age friends discuss conflict between choosing based on your gut and rationality, and discuss risk. While one believes that going with your gut is the basis of success, the other argues that there must be a sense of rationality to his/her decisions about the future.

Medium: Hand-drawn animation with aftereffects and motion graphics. I want to possibly film the scene first, and then rotoscope over it.

2) Wallflower

We enter a party/some sort of get together where everyone has a weird hat-like creature on his or her head. As the people drink, party and talk, the creatures interact with each other, as if plotting schemes against their hosts. A wallflower stands at the side, watching everyone, with a large, but fairly motherly hat. The party becomes more and more crazy, until finally the wallflower becomes so uncomfortable he leaves.

Medium: 2D animation with aftereffects, an integration of 3D and 2D with maya, or 3D with live action

3) With Love, Angie

A young man wakes up to find a hole in his chest, and a monster form of his girlfriend standing at his bedside. The monster first embraces him, making him feel comfort inside. All of a sudden, the monster changes form and attacks him. He tries to defend himself, but it is futile. At the brink of terror, he wakes up and finds himself alone in the apartment. He sees a note by his bedside from his girlfriend, basically saying she is leaving him. He runs after her.

Medium: 2D animation with 3D background (apartment)

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Right now, I’m leaning towards the "Wallflower". I don’t want to draw anything really “dirty” per se, but rather parody college parties in a light, humoristic way. I’m not sure about the hats yet. I want to create some fun characters with this one.

The second one I am most interested in is "Gut vs. Rationality". I liked the Don Herdtzfelt (sp?) film we watched in class, and thought that it might be interesting to create a dialogue based story. The message is also very personal to me.

In “With Love, Angie” I just wanted to create something inspired by my one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami. It is also inspired by an illustration I did recently. The nice thing about this idea is that the entire film takes place in one area, which would be a loft-style apartment.

You may notice that most of my ideas do not have a very concrete story. This is because I am not so much interested in creating a story, than portraying an idea or thought through visual means.