Audio Visual Production

Stage 3 - 90 second Narrative (Proposal)

Brief: Produce a proposal for a 90 second narrative and pitch your idea to a producer.

'The Escape'

STORY
This is an animated chase story between the police and the main character, who remains anonymous throughout the film.

The story starts off in a village at dusk. Two police cars screech to a stop, lights and sirens blazing. The next shot is lower to the ground at bonnet height of the car. Just as the car door opens, a silhouetted figure's legs can be seen as the main character (villain) runs across the screen from left to right.

Next there are various angles of the villain being chased through dark streets with the police cars on his tale, creating suspense . The villain leaves the streets of the village and runs into a field. A shot over the shoulder of the villain shows an unrecognisable object in the distance. As the villain runs forward, the object gets closer, lens blurred, but still unrecognisable.

The villain appears to jump over something and turns to face the police. The police car door opens, police officers get out of the car. The villain pulls out a weapon, a long bladed knife. The villain is still only a silhouette, but the knife glistens in the, now, half dusk/half moonlit light. Next shots are ropes being chopped, frantically, with the knife. Shot of the villain (from front). Suddenly a bright light, like an explosion or a fire, engulfs the whole screen (except for silhouettes villain).

The figure moves upward and a basket follows from below.

A wide shot of the landscape reveals the police cars, village, mountains in the background and a hot-air balloon! A shot looking down from the balloon shows the police and village get smaller as the balloon rises upwards. Next are a few scenes of the balloon and the landscape.

The story ends with a shot from the balloon traveling towards the sunrise.

STORYBOARD

JUSTIFICATIONS
The style of the film will be quite dark and mysterious (at the start), and so the story/audience will be reliant on the audio content to gain information about what is happening and create the suspense that is needed.

For this reason I will compose a track for the music. This will start with having a tempo that building quickly and include sharp samples of strings such as violin (for the chase). I will add sound effects of heavy breathing, footsteps and sirens to create the suspense.

The second half of the track will be slower in tempo. It will use strings, but instead of being sharp, they will be smooth and gradually build for a feeling of relief (the escape). Multiple versions of the two halves will be made and a final music track blended to correspond with the visuals.

I realise this is an ambitious project which is dependant on me sticking to my schedule, but by taking some precautionary steps, I am confident that I will achieve my deadline. At the start/end of every week I will review the progress made and plan, in advance, the next course of action.

To avoid confusion between scenes, I will split the story up into three-30-second sections and store all relevant work in three folders, respectively. I will also keep a hard copy backup of these files as well as in my home and university documents. Before animating the sections, I will compare the un-animated scenes with the storyboard, and then double-check.

I will be using Macromedia Flash MX to create the animation. I am familiar with this software and i have the software on my home computer, which will allow me to work on my project easily during weekends and the easter break.