Short Story Synopsis

Dale has been suffering from an acute state of insomnia for the last few weeks. He thought it was nothing at first but he has being losing more and more sleep. On this particular day he had visited the doctor who prescribed him some sleeping pills which have been washed down with an ill advised bottle of wine. As Dale watches his clock slowly tick away from the comfort of his bed he has no idea of the ordeal that is brewing deep within his dreams.
Dale falls asleep and falls into a really vivid nightmare. He is running as fast as he can and doesnt know why but can feel something sinister and terrifying bearing down upon him. He is straining to run fast but it feels as if he is running through water but he ploughs on as fast as he can. Walls are closing in on him; he is lost in a maze. He takes a left turn, then a right, then the path forks and he turns again, around and around it feels as though he is going in circle. There is no logic to this path. He is lost. He turns a sharp corner and glances behind and runs into a web. He is stuck fast staring helplessly down the path he just came from and he starts to hear a ticking noise. He can now see what he was running from; It looks like an old man walking with a crooked back, cane in hand, covered in a dark robe. advancing towards him. The figure is familiar but terrifies him. He struggles desperately to get out the web which just traps him more and more. The man stops and seems to retch. Suddenly eight clock arms shoot out of his mouth and a spider emerges from the man who falls away like a discarded husk. On the back of the spider gleams the visage of a skull.
 So begins a long night, face to face with fears to chill the marrow from the bone, as Dale will have to confront his deepest fears trapped within his own mind. Will there be day after this night, can Dale conquer his fears or will he be driven to his deadly fate?

style and tone

The story is of facing fears so for the most part the animation will have a dark sinister feel, very little bright colours will be used and a lot of muddy darks will fill up space. in my head i can see a sketchy art style, purposely using many lines insted of clean ones, maybe taking advantage of the life art techniques we have been using. i might try some kind  of camera shake or sharp noises to add to the discomfort.

Characters

The main character of the story will be a middle aged man, that has had something change in his life, which brings on the episode of the dream. he will be facing an old version of himself, which will give birth to his fear of death, which will be represented by a phobia of spiders. in a way the laberynth is also a character. at the moment there are no other characters but i think that will change.

here are some possible poster images, i still dont have a proper working title for the short so i will be calling it Nightmare.

 

This image here is my personal favourite, although maybe mixing elements from the first one would also make an intriguing poster.I feel though that the last image contains more of the elements that appear in the story.