Minor Project: Story Development 02

After revising my idea and thinking about what Phil had commented on, I need to look for the origin of anxiety and after doing a bit of research this is what I had found: From a scale of 1-100 100 being the most likely to cause anxiety.

• Death of a spouse - 100
• Divorce - 73
• Marital separation - 65
• Death of a close family member - 63
• Major personal injury or illness - 53
• Marriage - 50
• Marital reconciliation - 45
• Retirement - 45
• Major change in health or behaviour of a family member - 44
• Pregnancy - 40
• Sexual difficulties - 39
• Gaining a new family member   (birth, adoption, relative moving in) - 39
• Major change in financial status (lot better, or worse, off) - 38
• Death of a close friend - 37
• Changing to different kind of work - 36
• Major changes in number of arguments with spouse (lot more or lot less) - 38
• Taking out a mortgage - 31
• Major changes in work responsibilities - 29
• Son or daughter leaving home - 29
• Trouble with in-laws - 29
• Major change in living conditions (building or remodelling home or deterioration of home or neighbourhood) - 25
• Change in residence - 20
• Major change in type or amount of recreation - 19
• Taking out a loan - 17
• Major change in sleeping habits (more or less or different times) - 16
• Major change in number of family get - togethers (more or less) - 15
• Holiday - 13
• Christmas - 12

Looking at these results, a death of a family member is a way forward in thinking about how the anxiety originated from. I agree that the bald head visually is striking and quick to portray, but I think having an image with her and her family and then news reports showing a crash or an accident shows this just as well. 

Outline so far: 

Exterior scene- nice and colourful, nice houses - a sunny day. Children are waiting at the bus stop. They are all talking together and having a good time, when one of them looks up from the conversation and they all begin to slowly turn around in sync to spot the child in the bedroom looking down at them - they seem to be talking about her. We see a swish of the curtain as they close together. 

Enter the bedroom - Close up of her eyes to zoom out and to reveal the child is at the window,  walking away as she catches the glimpse of the faces down below. She stumbles and trips over her school bag on the floor. She hears a bus pull up but the impact forces a picture to fall from her desk.  A picture frame of her family. They look happy together with them about to enjoy a ride at a theme park we notice on her jumper a badge saying: 'Life is for Living'. The child's expression crumbles as she holds the picture closely. The camera reveals clues around her room - Drawings that she had done for her mother, postcards on the wall of great places to be, holiday destinations and  pans down to reveal some newspaper articles involving an accident that had happened. She turns around as the door opens, its her dad. She shakes her head. He closes the door again. Suddenly, we see the walls of the bedroom move inwards a little bit - it happens quickly; the room has shrunk. The girl looks around seems to be a bit startled and places the picture frame where it belongs. The end shot left at the picture frame and the badge left on the desk, she can hear the sound of the bus taking off with the children. 

Next Day. 

The child is in their school uniform. They look determined this morning. They pick up their school bag and the walls of the room shift back a little bit. We hear the children talking again. The child crosses the window not wanting to look out but she does, everything looks dangerous, dark and eerie, the line of children are now monster esk, (shadow monsters, foggy silhouettes with bright eyes) horrible looking. The child this time turns around and flees for her bed, knocking the badge onto the floor, pulling the covers over herself to separate her from this horrible world she thinks she is living in. She peeps out over the covers and saw that the room is smaller and more angular and the window is very far away - a tiny square of blue light. We see a shadow go over the window and puts the room in to darkness we hear the sound of the school bus pull up. Cut to the next day.

Next Day. 

The room is tiny now. The child is trapped. We hear the sound of the children talking again this time it seems a long way off. We hear the sound increase, increase and increase and with the room shifting towards her again, snap and splits up the side of the walls - its a prison - the door opens. The fathers silhouette is so far away you can just hear a mumble from across the room. She looks over from under the covers, scared and shaken for the door to close once again. 

Next Day. 

The child is in darkness, which doesn't appear to be her room but a blank canvas (almost a dream like world) with the bedroom window being a dot within this dark space. We see paper fall down in front of her which seem to be her drawings that she had done for her mother, one being a butterfly. With this in her hand we see a butterfly land on the page and fly off into the darkness above her she lifts up the page and under the page is the badge from her mother - saying 'Life is For Living'. 

Next day. 

Establishing shot of the outside with the same children at the bus stop talking to each other and discussing we see her window.

Enter the bedroom. The child is fully dressed ready for school. She brushed past the window as she looks down the children are normal looking and the world seems to be back to normal, we the audience see from the corner of our eye though that there is still something not quite right with the world outside, but she seems to not notice it this time. We see this as she walks past grabbing her bag walking towards the door. We see her put her badge on in the mirror. She looks happy and ready for it. She walks away revealing the room is back to normal in the mirror but with a big split on the wall where she was standing. The camera lingers there as we hear the door open and asking if she is ready. Black out. 

End. 

Credits. 

After scene.

We hear the bus pull up outside with the light shining through the little angle from her doorway we catch a glance with her and her dad, she begins to move slowly as she looks around the room its normal sized. We see her bedroom door close from her bed leaving her room in darkness to reveal its not all back to normal as she saw it, a buzzing noise loudness until the door is shut leaving it in darkness.....

Minor Project: Character Design - Style

I want to really hone in on a style and try and get better at drawing characters altogether. Whilst sketching I thought that this character was a little too young in the pencil sketches so I tried to age her a little in the painting. Whilst painting her she seemed to get happier and happier, maybe I was enjoying it too much aha. So unfortunately she wont be my character but this was useful to see what the proportions and style will include within the project.

Minor Project: Room Thumbnails

Here are some quick drafts of the interior of the house I want to create and trying to really think about how anxiety will come through with the house aesthetics. I want to house to really feel like anxiety and this includes: 

• Imprisonment
• Harsh angles
• Exaggerated perspectives
• Dark/Dull 
• Angular

Minor Project: Story Development

Following from my last idea about the cancer patient I have decided to exclude other disorders within my animation to solely focus on the subject of anxiety.
Whereas, my previous idea was a more literal approach to social anxiety I would like to convey it in a more poetic sense using visual metaphors; bringing the outside to the inside.
After a discussion with Alan I need to figure out my ending first, some thoughts Iv'e had are...

ACT 1 - Establishing the outside (normally, as we see it), introducing inside - which is a contrast, including angular shapes, anxiety ridden space. A small intro to the character and her social anxiety of the outside world.

ACT 2 - Possibilities... (in conjunction with the 'Possible Endings')
1 - as the room gets smaller she has to place the precious item in different places, the last resort is the window sill.
2 - Introducing the idea and/or construction of a 'safe zone' (this could be a pillow/duvet fort, cardboard box).
3 - Introducing her efforts trying to grow flowers, referencing to her father.

ACT 3

Lead up
 - The interior environment will be completely enclosed around her making it un-livable, this represents her mind. This could include windows smashing, bed breaking, ceiling/walls splitting (progressive action, the closer to lead up the bigger the splits etc), items being blown out the window, cupboard doors opening etc...

Possible Endings

1 - A precious item (family picture, loom, souvenir from holidays) falls out the window, forcing her to leap and get it, once in her grasp the room goes back to normal - shot of her hand and item in sunlight half in darkness - symbolizing the first steps to a possible recovery.

2 - Within her room she has a safe zone, this could be a large cardboard box, she enters this when the environment is at its worst. In the box is where she imagines the outside world to be good with her postcards, holiday snaps and notes from loved ones - during act 3 (the climax) these postcards scatter in front of her, forcing her to leave her safe zone. The notes from loved ones slip and fade away as she scrambles for them. She manages to grab one - a first drawing she drew for someone (this could be a butterfly or something etc) she hugs this close to her with her eyes closed wishing the environment to stop. When she opens her eyes a butterfly is on the end of her nose, it flutters around the room and leaves via the window. The room is back to normal but the same 'bad energy' lingers, She picks up her blown safe box and it reveals a small split in the wall.

3 - Pan shot of her room, a photo of her dad standing next to his biggest sunflower. Dirt mounds around her room but concentrated in the safe zone. As 'lead up' happens a dying flower falls from the top of her cupboard, this forces her to leave her safe zone, she is holding the flower close to her trembling, the room gets progressively worse. Shes unaware what to do when the room damages the curtain pole, this reveals a ray of sunlight into her room, the dying flower leans towards the light, she gingerly puts the dying flower into the sunlight being cautious of the sun ray. This perks the flower up (not blossoming) representing a connection between her and the outside world and a growth of the character. Shot is a pan of her looking form flower to sun ray, next shot (CU of eyes) showing her curiosity of what she has experienced. Last shot revealing the back of her and the room normal again but with the same mishaps of the last idea, reiterating that its a cycle.

Note - I need this character to slowly break the cycle of anxiety - although she wont be cured fully.

Following on from this I will be designing the inside and outside world. The inside world will have influence from German Expressionism, angular furniture ... (I want this room to embody anxiety, an asphyxiation of her mind state) - the outside world to be quaint, colorful and inviting. I haven't decided on a location, though I am thinking of the houses similar to those in Rochester, which are tall terraces with an old England influence.
My character will be aged 6-12 I'm unsure what age exactly as of yet depending on what scenario I go forward with.

Minor Project: Idea Update

After having my tutorial with Alan I have thought up another Idea with Phil to adapt my story to keep it simple within story telling. The difficulty is to represent social anxiety and not a haunted house. Therefore with this idea of her being in her room it is a safe place for her but also a prison at the same time.

The animation will be centered around her morning routine, with her waking out of bed and getting ready for school but when she looks outside or attempts to leave the anxiety kicks in. Over the course of the animation the room gets subconsciously smaller and more angled throughout to make it feel like an imprisonment. Here I have split my animation into three Acts:

Act 1 - Day 1

Showing contrast between her room and the world outside (camera pan from her postcards on the wall to the surroundings of her room) . She gets ready for school by putting her clothes on, but then goes to look out of her curtain and saw the local school bus as it scares her (the outside world at this point is stylised and angular). She trembles back and the anxiety kicks in. The audience see a character across the road through a hole in the curtain who is bald.

Act 2 - Day 2

The same routine, but she saw a character across the road that the audience caught a glimpse of.  He suffers from a condition - cancer. His immune system doesn't allow him to leave the house and she sits and watches as she can see he wants to be outside but can't be. Looks down at the children waiting at the bus stop talking about her as they turn around the anxiety kicks in again and she trembles back.

Act 3- Day 3

Her usual routine getting dressed, and she looks across the road to see if her 'friend' is there and you see the curtains close with a shadow of the parents with the mum crying on the dads shoulder. By this time she sees her room getting smaller and she wants to leave the house, she grabs her postcards on the wall and you see her take a deep breath. Cuts to the front door opening (camera around knee height) and you see her take her first step outside.

Following from this I will look into the principle of my design and what people who have social anxiety really feel to put this back into the bedroom.

Minor Project: House designs

This afternoon I have been focusing on designing the house I started out with a few concepts and then decided to paint in black and white to get the values correct and going back to basics to try and improve my painting. This is the idea I have come up with so far. I want a dark looking building with points and long curves. I haven't finished this yet as I really want to push it as far as I can but at the same time I don't want to get too involved in a design that isn't final yet.

Minor Project: Social Anxiety Disorder

After some feedback from Phil I have decided to work with Social Anxiety disorder and working with visuals metaphors.In other words, their will be two worlds within my animation the inside world: the house, german expressionism inspired, dark colours, grey, purple, browns and suffocating; and the world outside their window is lovely, colourful, playful and enjoyable, bright colours yellows, greens and blues. We will see the character overcoming their social anxiety and her trying to leave the house to previal make it back into the world but the house won't let her leave. It physically stops her from leaving but in the end the character will previal and make it back into the world. 

This animation will be a visual metaphor of being imprisoned by fear and anxiety. After firguring out what my idea is, I have gone away and researched what it is like to have social anxiety disorder, here are some symptoms and a couple of short films about the condition. 

 

And here is a documentry about Social Anxiety.

Matthew’s story

Matthew skipped class today. It’s the first day of the new semester, and he’s afraid that the professor will go around the class and have the students introduce themselves. He knows it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it really stresses him out. Whenever he has to speak in front of more than just a few people, his voice starts shaking and his face gets red. He always feels so humiliated afterwards.
Since public speaking is Matthew’s worst nightmare, he’s been avoiding a speech class he has to take in order to graduate. He’s also dreading his brother’s wedding, even though it’s over six months away. As the best man, he’ll have to give a toast at the reception and he’s already nervous about it.

Symptoms: 

People with social phobia tend to:

• Be very anxious about being with other people and have a hard time talking to them, even though they wish they could
• Be very self-conscious in front of other people and feel embarrassed
• Be very afraid that other people will judge them
• Worry for days or weeks before an event where other people will be
• Stay away from places where there are other people
• Have a hard time making friends and keeping friends
• Blush, sweat, or tremble around other people
• Feel nauseous or sick to their stomach when with other people.

After researching into this disorder it actually makes me think that I myself have experienced anxiety and I think to a degree I understand what these people are going through. Altogether this research will allow me to understand my character better when designing and animating.

Also in the second video they describe Social Anxiety with a voice in the back of your head. This idea of someone telling you to not to do something I can use this for my house in telling my character, ''not to go'', ''Where are you going?'', ''They wont like you out there''. 

Some more personal stories on this disorder can be found here: http://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/personal-stories/all-stories/6