Project Proposal
October 4, 2011
Rose (Rong) Luo
0042706
Summary: The goal is to produce a 4-minute animated short called Fish Drops/ Rain Drops about a young Caucasian’s thrilled trip at China. A life lesson is learned through his bittersweet journey.
Synopsis: My film is about delivering a message to the audience that people are deeply connected to each other through heart and kind nature, instead of races, classes, culture groups, social-political status, financial position and so on.
Description: I have had three years of studying aboard as an animator and have witnessed many culture collision and misunderstandings happening between east and west. The aim of this project is to first give a detailed, realistic visual presentation of modern China to the western world. The story starts with a young white male being invited by a very rich Chinese family to China for a short trip. The main character, Ethan, will experience culture shock and intense conflict with this cold-blooded, money-oriented Chinese family. The cold treatment that Ethan receives from his “friend” provokes his journey later in the story to find another safe place to stay. Through his vacation at China, he discovers both “cold” and “warm” aspects about China. The feeling that my project is intended to convey is bitter sweetness from the Ethan’s experience. The film is also intended to educate any group or individual who holds a biased opinion against one another. I expect a recall of the audience’s sympathy and awareness towards the individual who suffers from biased opinions and repression after watching the finished project.
Visual Treatment and method of production: I plan to make this project a 2D short animation, and I would like to explore some experimental 2D techniques. Digital cut-out puppets created in Photoshop will be applied for most part of the animation. Some in-betweens will be created through digital hand-drawn. The overall texture will be a combination of watercolor and traditional Chinese ink painting, and this texture will mostly be shown through layouts. The painterly texture will be created by hand drawing on silk paper and then edited through Photoshop.
Sample Visuals:
Sample Visuals:
Sound Treatment: My project contains a complicated narrative. Dialogue, sound effects and music will be the three main elements of my soundtrack. The soundtrack is aimed to create a believable realm of the story. The recording and editing of the dialogues and sound effects will be the heaviest part of sound editing. The style of music will be mainly traditional Chinese music style providing four main types of mood through film: curiosity, anxiety, sorrow and peace. The music will be structured and evolved along the expansion of the plot line. My younger cousin sister, Wang Jing Yi, studies and plays traditional Chinese music instrument. She has generously offered to work together with me and using a specific Chinese music instrument called Gu Zheng to perform the composition, which I created during this summer.
Production Schedule {Fall semester, 2011 (2nd panel review)}
Subject Stage | October | November | December | ||||||
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-31 | 1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 1-6 | 7-16 | ||
Storyboard (With script) | WIP Draft1 | WIP Draft2 | WIP Draft3 | Revision/ editing | done | ||||
Character Size Sheet | WIP | 3 main characters done | WIP | 5 secondary characters done | WIP | WIP | 10 side characters done | ||
Character Design/ Expression Sheet | WIP 3 main characters | WIP | 3 main characters done | WIP 5 secondary characters | WIP | 5 secondary characters done | WIP 10 side characters | WIP | |
Cut out Puppet 3 main characters, | Heads/ body parts | Heads/ body parts/ cloth | revision | done | |||||
5 secondary characters, | Heads/ body parts | WIP | revision | done | |||||
10 side- characters | Heads/ body parts | WIP | |||||||
Layout | Interior, Larry’s family (dinner table+ living room) | Interior, Liya’s family (dinner table) Exterior, Larry’s garden | Exterior, Suzhou City street with tall, building construction | Exterior, Suzhou traditional Garden | Exterior, Larry’s house Interior, Larry’s company | Exterior, Liya’s hometown | Exterior, Train station | ||
Prop Design | Chinese food (all kinds) | Ethan’s camera/ dictionary | Leah’s map/family photo/ panda envelop | Bicycle/ motorcycle/ bus | Taxi/ train/ parts of a plane | ||||
Sound Track | Clean up composition | WIP | WIP | Mixing sound effects into music | Clean up sound recorded at China | Foley recording Voice-over | Dec 5th, cut one min soundtrack | ||
1 min footage animation | 5 seconds Chinese scenery of traveling | 15 seconds Cold Dinner table of Larry’s family, Ethan’s discomfort/ Liya’s help/ Larry’s anger | 25 seconds Liya provides Ethan direction to her family, rain drops | 15 seconds Larry’s angry speech | Dec 6th, one min animation due | ||||
Budget:
Sony PCM D50, Microphone with cable---------------- $ 500
Mini DV tape x 2 ---------------- $ 60
Silk paper x 200 (from China) ---------$ 10
Verbatim 50-Pack 4.7GB DVD-R----- $ 20
Possible Extra cost -------------------$200
Total ------------------$ 790
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