Short story-Treatment file
Concept
My short story will draw from a history of horror in film and other media. In essence it will be taking the visuals of horror, elements that cause us fear or anxiety( darkness, suspense, unnerving sounds and imagery) to create a sense of danger. The story will revolve around one characters ability to face his greatest fears, trapped within the confines of his mind. For some reason he has been unable to get to sleep for many weeks, he is utterly exhausted and decides to try medication to help him, however he mixes the meds with a bottle of wine which puts him into a very deep sleep, where his fears have full access to him.
The short will begin with a clock, which will be a running theme throughout the animation, the concept of time will pop up in several different forms. Also the main character is suffering from a bout of acute insomnia, which will add to his physical and mental appearance.
The beginning of the short will pan through his daily life in a quick sequence of menial activities, such as work and food, watching tv and lying awake on his bed. This pattern will repeat itself over and over to convey the sense of jadedness and exhaustion the character is going through.He will clearly be drained and tired looking throughout.
The actual horror moments don't start straight away. There will be a discernible difference in the style I use for the "real world" section and the "dream world" section. Everything becomes much darker in the dream world with the periphery of the frame dark and smokey, where objects and entities become blurred into each other. Camera work becomes a lot more varied with different angles and tilts being employed, zoom ins and outs, above head shots and below the feet shots or low angled shots.
In this dream world the main character is running from a sinister entity that is slowly following him. He will be running down a maze of dark corridors to get away. Its in this section that the pace of the short becomes more frantic,the character doesn't really emote much in the series of shots in the real world section, but here will be exerting himself and afraid.
After this section the character becomes entangled in a giant web, where he will be forced to confront his fear that he has been repressing. This section will differ from the last by getting brighter, while other memories start to interchange with that of the dream world.
Technique and approach
The short will be a mix of media, originally I thought of hand drawing the whole piece but as I've explored more ideas I'm beginning to build up to more of a mixed media piece. At its broadest view 2 distinct styles will be seen in the 'real world" and the "dream" world. Here there will be a change in the environments and the character. The real world will be much more solid, while our character will be rendered in a scratchy, scribbly style, as if he was becoming unwound. This will change in the dream world where the background will become harder to make out but our character becomes more solid. I will employ different media's and techniques in the dream world too, where stop animation will be employed and the use of chalk and a black board for a smokey, ethereal effect.
Camera work will take influences from thrillers and horrors where the camera angles change a lot, jumping from shot to shot. One should think of such movies directed by Terry Gilliam for the camera tilts used, dark horrors such as those made in the 70s in England such as The Omen and The Exorcist and more resent foreign films such as Chronos and Pans labyrinth by Del Toro.
Aesthetic
The aesthetic of the overall piece will be agitated, dark, sinister and should create genuine feelings of fear and discomfort. The colours will be mostly muted, dark for the most part, suggestive of unknown danger. The atmosphere will be very claustrophobic in the dream world. There will be shifting shapes and scenery. Nothing will be as it seems, just like in a dream, where everything is at once familiar but unfamiliar.
The character will be scratchy and uncomfortable looking in the real world scenes. Will change once in the dream world.
The other major character in the piece will change forms through the use of different media, from sketched form to real world found object like form.
Environment
For the beginning I will use the everyday environment found in my own life. From the bed to the breakfast table, from the bus to the office and so on. All will be found just outside the window.
The dream environment however will be a place of darkness and repression. It is inside his consciousness, but outside of his control. Labyrinths, shadows, lights, creatures, moving walls and doors. It should seem stuffy and closed, but also vast in its dark depths.There will be references to the real world in the dream one but changed in ways that are unfamiliar.
Audio
Audio is as much about horror as the visuals are. For the beginning of the short there will be sparse audio. No background music will exist in the beginning, just clock alarms, eating and general ambient noises from people in the background, I will increase the levels of the noises in the background as we slowly pan into the main characters shoulders and head, to cause a sense of anxious feelings, until it becomes almost unbearable, it will then suddenly stop.
In the dream world the background noises will be muffled versions of the crowd noises from the real world. There will be use of distortions and reverbs for noises and the sound of him running, of course a breathing track will be included, may even run the length of the dream sequence.
When danger is very close a track will come on which will be made up of distorted whale calls, overdriven guitar and nails on chalkboard sounds. I am also considering using smashed plates sounds, loud floor creaking, swinging lights and the sound of clock work.
Sequence of Events
The piece begins with a slow pan through a bed room. We see that it is messy and very much lived in. We jump to certain photos and images, which build up a quick picture of our character in happier times. The camera then comes to a clock which is slowly ticking. The shot then changes to our character, lying in bed, staring with heavy eyes , up at us, we can still hear the ticking. Then the alarm go's off, which triggers the days events.
The next series of shots is our main character, centre frame, going through his daily process, he stays the exact same expression and body stance as the environment around him changes, from having breakfast to sitting on the bus, next being in an office with a phone up to his ear, then having fast food, changes to watching T.V., something with a laugh track is on, then putting a few pieces together on a jigsaw, then lying awake on his bed.
This scene is then repeated, as the camera slowly pans in on the main character, with slight changes such as a different fast food place and a new piece put onto the jigsaw, also whenever other people are about in the environment their ambient voices will either become louder or further away, the shots will speed up.
This will all get a bit frantic until it stops all of a sudden, the pace is drastically slowed down, as the camera lingers over a bottle of wine, with a nearly emptied glass next to it, camera changes angles from looking down on the bottle and glass to a lower angle, slightly tilted looking, looking across the bed side table that the bottle and glass are on. We can see an opened bottle of sleeping pills now beside the bottle and glass, in between the bottle and glass we can see our main character lying down, looking drowsy and falling asleep.
The shot just before he falls asleep is another head shot, as we zoom into his slowly closing eyes, camera changes to low angle shot of a clock on the wall, tick, his eyes close a bit, tick another bit, tick, he goes to sleep.
The last tick after he falls asleep will be very delayed and reverbed. We will hear a strange low voice with effects on it also seeming to say "answer". Suddenly our character is located in the middle of a corridor, he is running, but doesn't seem to be aware of it yet, or he doesn't know why he is running.
The walls around him seem to be flowing, as if they where made of smoke,everything is very dark, he is still running, lights are swinging by their wires on the roof, causing a very disorientating effect. He raises his arm over his eyes to block the lights when he suddenly falls down a hole in the floor. He falls on his back, finding himself seemingly floating in mid air, but he realises that he is trapped in a giant web as he looks around. He looks forward because of a loud noise, he is still caught in the web but the corridor has reappeared in front of him, with the swinging lights above. Camera is looking down a corridor, tilted a bit, as a robed figure slowly appears under one of the furthest lights away. The figure seems to jump from light to light getting closer. Suddenly he is in front of our character, it is hard to make out anything of this character as he is still clad in a robe, but it looks like whoever is underneath it has a hunched back, yet we can't see his face. Now the light seems to stop swinging overhead, something begins to happen with the robed character, steel points begin to slowly protrude out from under the hood, eight in total. Each one finds a place to rest.The robe folds up on itself and then folds back to reveal a spider like creature with human features.
We now see our character reflected in eight black eyes, as it gets closer we stay on the reflection as it grows.The shot then cuts back to our character, a shot from above then below, then from a lower tilted angle, character at left of frame, a steel leg comes down in the forefront.
Suddenly the creature lashes out at the main character, striking him with a single steel leg in his lower left side of his torso, out of the wound black veins start to snake their way up the body. the camera follows these veins as they twist and turn up the body to the head, as the veins reach his head, he can suddenly hear a voice.
The voice will be a revelation, as a hidden event will be revealed by this message, which will explain why he has not being getting any sleep.The short will also end on this revelation.
Nothing in the dream world should be crisp and solid, it ll be more ethereal then that.
Very much what im looking for in the use and technique the charcoal is used here.
In this dream world the main character is running from a sinister entity that is slowly following him. He will be running down a maze of dark corridors to get away. Its in this section that the pace of the short becomes more frantic,the character doesn't really emote much in the series of shots in the real world section, but here will be exerting himself and afraid.
After this section the character becomes entangled in a giant web, where he will be forced to confront his fear that he has been repressing. This section will differ from the last by getting brighter, while other memories start to interchange with that of the dream world.
Technique and approach
The short will be a mix of media, originally I thought of hand drawing the whole piece but as I've explored more ideas I'm beginning to build up to more of a mixed media piece. At its broadest view 2 distinct styles will be seen in the 'real world" and the "dream" world. Here there will be a change in the environments and the character. The real world will be much more solid, while our character will be rendered in a scratchy, scribbly style, as if he was becoming unwound. This will change in the dream world where the background will become harder to make out but our character becomes more solid. I will employ different media's and techniques in the dream world too, where stop animation will be employed and the use of chalk and a black board for a smokey, ethereal effect.
Camera work will take influences from thrillers and horrors where the camera angles change a lot, jumping from shot to shot. One should think of such movies directed by Terry Gilliam for the camera tilts used, dark horrors such as those made in the 70s in England such as The Omen and The Exorcist and more resent foreign films such as Chronos and Pans labyrinth by Del Toro.
Aesthetic
The aesthetic of the overall piece will be agitated, dark, sinister and should create genuine feelings of fear and discomfort. The colours will be mostly muted, dark for the most part, suggestive of unknown danger. The atmosphere will be very claustrophobic in the dream world. There will be shifting shapes and scenery. Nothing will be as it seems, just like in a dream, where everything is at once familiar but unfamiliar.
The character will be scratchy and uncomfortable looking in the real world scenes. Will change once in the dream world.
The other major character in the piece will change forms through the use of different media, from sketched form to real world found object like form.
Environment
For the beginning I will use the everyday environment found in my own life. From the bed to the breakfast table, from the bus to the office and so on. All will be found just outside the window.
The dream environment however will be a place of darkness and repression. It is inside his consciousness, but outside of his control. Labyrinths, shadows, lights, creatures, moving walls and doors. It should seem stuffy and closed, but also vast in its dark depths.There will be references to the real world in the dream one but changed in ways that are unfamiliar.
Audio
Audio is as much about horror as the visuals are. For the beginning of the short there will be sparse audio. No background music will exist in the beginning, just clock alarms, eating and general ambient noises from people in the background, I will increase the levels of the noises in the background as we slowly pan into the main characters shoulders and head, to cause a sense of anxious feelings, until it becomes almost unbearable, it will then suddenly stop.
In the dream world the background noises will be muffled versions of the crowd noises from the real world. There will be use of distortions and reverbs for noises and the sound of him running, of course a breathing track will be included, may even run the length of the dream sequence.
When danger is very close a track will come on which will be made up of distorted whale calls, overdriven guitar and nails on chalkboard sounds. I am also considering using smashed plates sounds, loud floor creaking, swinging lights and the sound of clock work.
Sequence of Events
The piece begins with a slow pan through a bed room. We see that it is messy and very much lived in. We jump to certain photos and images, which build up a quick picture of our character in happier times. The camera then comes to a clock which is slowly ticking. The shot then changes to our character, lying in bed, staring with heavy eyes , up at us, we can still hear the ticking. Then the alarm go's off, which triggers the days events.
The next series of shots is our main character, centre frame, going through his daily process, he stays the exact same expression and body stance as the environment around him changes, from having breakfast to sitting on the bus, next being in an office with a phone up to his ear, then having fast food, changes to watching T.V., something with a laugh track is on, then putting a few pieces together on a jigsaw, then lying awake on his bed.
This scene is then repeated, as the camera slowly pans in on the main character, with slight changes such as a different fast food place and a new piece put onto the jigsaw, also whenever other people are about in the environment their ambient voices will either become louder or further away, the shots will speed up.
This will all get a bit frantic until it stops all of a sudden, the pace is drastically slowed down, as the camera lingers over a bottle of wine, with a nearly emptied glass next to it, camera changes angles from looking down on the bottle and glass to a lower angle, slightly tilted looking, looking across the bed side table that the bottle and glass are on. We can see an opened bottle of sleeping pills now beside the bottle and glass, in between the bottle and glass we can see our main character lying down, looking drowsy and falling asleep.
The shot just before he falls asleep is another head shot, as we zoom into his slowly closing eyes, camera changes to low angle shot of a clock on the wall, tick, his eyes close a bit, tick another bit, tick, he goes to sleep.
The last tick after he falls asleep will be very delayed and reverbed. We will hear a strange low voice with effects on it also seeming to say "answer". Suddenly our character is located in the middle of a corridor, he is running, but doesn't seem to be aware of it yet, or he doesn't know why he is running.
The walls around him seem to be flowing, as if they where made of smoke,everything is very dark, he is still running, lights are swinging by their wires on the roof, causing a very disorientating effect. He raises his arm over his eyes to block the lights when he suddenly falls down a hole in the floor. He falls on his back, finding himself seemingly floating in mid air, but he realises that he is trapped in a giant web as he looks around. He looks forward because of a loud noise, he is still caught in the web but the corridor has reappeared in front of him, with the swinging lights above. Camera is looking down a corridor, tilted a bit, as a robed figure slowly appears under one of the furthest lights away. The figure seems to jump from light to light getting closer. Suddenly he is in front of our character, it is hard to make out anything of this character as he is still clad in a robe, but it looks like whoever is underneath it has a hunched back, yet we can't see his face. Now the light seems to stop swinging overhead, something begins to happen with the robed character, steel points begin to slowly protrude out from under the hood, eight in total. Each one finds a place to rest.The robe folds up on itself and then folds back to reveal a spider like creature with human features.
We now see our character reflected in eight black eyes, as it gets closer we stay on the reflection as it grows.The shot then cuts back to our character, a shot from above then below, then from a lower tilted angle, character at left of frame, a steel leg comes down in the forefront.
Suddenly the creature lashes out at the main character, striking him with a single steel leg in his lower left side of his torso, out of the wound black veins start to snake their way up the body. the camera follows these veins as they twist and turn up the body to the head, as the veins reach his head, he can suddenly hear a voice.
The voice will be a revelation, as a hidden event will be revealed by this message, which will explain why he has not being getting any sleep.The short will also end on this revelation.
Look and Feel
Here are a few images that should translate what I want the piece to look like.
This is sort of what the dream world will look like, however it won't be populated by any people, maybe the walls will shift and move, revealing possible faces.
Examples of how to combine spider and human features to make something truly terrifying.
Imagine this scene with more of a smoky or flowing surface on the sides, and lights swinging back and forth.
Mood and Atmosphere
This is a series of pieces from the artist William Kentridge, who does some wonderful charcoal animations.
The scene where we first see the sinister figure, note that the walls will be moving in the animation.
A image inspired by a scene at the beginning of the X files.
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