Fish

One of the surrealist concept we've been working on is a fish that swims around in the air around Charlie. I asked a friend of mine who has been maintaining her own aquarium for some time which sort of fish would fit our story. She suggested a few species, one of which really struck me.



Pictured above is the Congo Tetra. Below is a quote from Wikipedia on the species:

"A sparsely-planted tank is best, as they like to have plenty of room to swim. They are shy and timid fish, and can be sensitive to water quality, so frequent water changes are a must. Male Congo tetras have longer dorsal and caudal fins and are much brighter and more colorful than the females. Both sexes can be incredibly beautiful with strong lighting and dark substrate."

I also do like the Siamese Fighting Fish, which is also known as a betta. There is much more information on their behavior on Wikipedia since they are one of the most popular species.

"Male and female Bettas flare or "puff out" their gill covers (opercula) in order to appear more impressive, either to intimidate other rivals or as an act of courtship. Females and males will display horizontal bars (unless they are too light a colour for this to show) if stressed or frightened. Females often flare their gills at other females, especially when setting up a pecking order. Flirting fish behave similarly, with vertical instead of horizontal stripes indicating a willingness and readiness to breed. Bettas sometimes require a place to hide, even in the absence of threats. Bettas may set up a territory centred on a plant or rocky alcove, sometimes becoming highly possessive of it and aggressive toward trespassing rivals."

We could apply these moods in our animation as the story goes on to match Charlie. Also:

"A popular misconception is that wild bettas live in very small puddles, and thus are "happier" when kept in cramped conditions. In reality, like any other fish, bettas are healthier, more active and will often grow larger when they are kept in a roomy tank."

My concept of Charlie is quite similar to this.

The Siamese Fighting Fish come in nearly every colour, but also come in nearly every shape. There are dozens of combinations of fins and tails. I find the flowing ones more lyrical in nature.

Another Take

We've worked out a number of things since the treatments I wrote last week. Today, Damien proposed an antagonist, Charlie's ex-boyfriend who bangs at the apartment door and sends hurtful notes to Charlie. I worked up a quick altered version including these changes from my perspective of how I see the animation.


The world is dark and barren, save Charlie and the balcony of her apartment. Crossing through the balcony, is a clothing line that originates inside her apartment and goes off into infinity.

Charlie is working on a poem to express her emotions, but can’t find the right words. When she pauses to consider them, her ex-boyfriend bangs on the door, ruining her train of thought. She crumples up the page and tosses it off the balcony. But as gravity does not exist outside her apartment, the page trails off.

After the second disruption she gives up and goes to the apartment door, the only thing existing inside the apartment aside from the clothing line. The ex continues to bang. Charlie deadlocks the door.

The clothing line starts to move. Charlie goes out on the balcony and sees a note coming in. It stops before her. She takes it off and reads the note. She does not believe in it so crumples it up and tosses it out. Charlie goes back inside the apartment and lies down in the gray, empty corner and goes to sleep.

Charlie is woken up by the sound of the clothing line moving again. She gets up and finds another note waiting for her. She reads it and then looks out into the distance. She cannot see anyone or anything. She puts the note down on the edge of the balcony and goes back into the apartment.

Charlie looks over at a gray wall. She pulls out a piece of chalk and draws a mirror on the wall. She looks at her reflection, but interrupted by her ex banging on the door again. He shoves a note through her mail slot on the door. Charlie picks it up and reads it. It upsets her. He bangs on the door some more. Charlie blocks the slot so he can’t communicate with her.

The clothing line moves again. This time it is a seed packet. Charlie feeds the seeds to her unique pot. It comes to life as the plants grow. The leaves have a message for her. It walks into the apartment. Charlie follows it back in.

Charlie looks around her apartment and realizes how bare it is. She draws a bunch of drawings of her apartment and sticks them on the clothing line. The perspective matches. As she pulls at the clothing line to move the drawings down the line, the papers moves out of view to reveal part of her apartment.

The pot plant has found the sink and waters itself. The flower on the plant blooms to form a fish that swims around the apartment.

The ex bangs on the door again, but Charlie ignores him. The block on the slot strains as he tries to communicate with her. Charlie goes out on the balcony to find more uplifting presents for her. She responds with lines of a poem. Everything around her is bright and lively.

Ex struggles to get his messages in. The door begins the splinter. The block on the mail slot eventually gives out. His notes come flooding in. Along for the ride, flying scissors enter the apartment. Charlie fights them to protect the line, but she can’t stop them all. One of them cuts the line.

Charlie kneels beside the ends of the line. The scissors and the ex go away with chuckling. An idea hits Charlie. She refuses to give up now. She picks up both ends of the line and pulls with all her might. Slowly at first, faster as it gains momentum, the building on the other side gets pulled toward Charlie’s balcony. It stops as it impacts with the balcony. Charlie looks across to the person on the other side and welcomes them to her life.

Bohemian Furniture

Charlie, our main character who is female by the way, not male like the name suggests, lives in a studio apartment in the city.  She is rather artsy and decorates her apartment in a Bohemian style.  I must admit I am unfamiliar with the style so I took some time to look it up on the internet.  From what I gathered, no two pieces of Bohemian furniture look alike as they have very elaborate patterns and colours.  But, the structure of the furniture, like sitting chairs for example, is the same.  Take for instance this image:

The chairs at the bottom only differ by fabric.  This gives us the ability to really experiment with textures.

A closeup on a fabric pattern:

I have discovered the Bohemian style is difficult to research.  It's a style that must be felt, not copied.  It also varies city to city.  Not just European cities, it also appears overseas in New York City for example.  Simply looking up images online doesn't do it justice.  The next step I would say is to look at stores around the city for furniture and decoration in this style.

Fighting Fish

I painted this in Corel Painter IX today.


I really like fighting fish. They're so colourful and have such long beautiful fins and tails. Since we're going to have a fish swim around the surreal environment, I think this sort of fish would work well. Of course they have a whole range of colours. The fins and tail might be a bit of a challenge, but as we learn more about VFX we'll learn how to overcome it.

Treatment (2 of 2)

Hey all,

Here's my treatment for "Down the Line". Enjoy!

The scene opens on the balcony of an apartment high above the city. It is so high up that the city street cannot be seen. It is a very dreary, overcast day.

The balcony itself is dreary. The balcony, made of concrete, juts out into a canyon of apartment buildings that are systematically alike. On the balcony is a potted plant that will not flower and a lazy cat that will not move. Along the side of the balcony is a clothing line that attaches to the side of the building and crosses the canyon of apartment buildings. Where it ends is unknown. On the wheel of the clothing line hangs a wind chime that will not chime.

A girl is standing on the balcony reading a letter addressed to her. All of her worst fears and nightmares come to life in this letter. Eyes red from crying, she folds up the letter into a paper airplane and attaches it to the clothing line. Then, with one swift movement, she sends the plane flying down the line - out of sight, out of mind. The girl leans against the balcony wall in silence. There are no more tears to be shed. Only the truth of the matter remains.

Suddenly, the wind chimes begin to chime, though there is no wind. The clothing line is moving. The girl raises herself and looks out. Paper returns to her, but not in the form of an airplane, but in the form of an origami crane, followed by four smaller cranes. They stop just before the balcony, staring back at the girl.

A small smile creeps up on the girl’s face as she grabs another sheet of paper and draws a picture on it. It is a simple picture, but still an expression of thanks. She removes the cranes from the line and lines them up on the edge of the balcony. Then she attaches the picture and sends it carefully down the line until she can no longer see it. The girls stands there, waiting for a response.

Not long after the lazy cat on the balcony lifts its head. The wind chimes chime again as the clothing line comes to life. A piece of paper comes down the line with a stick figure on it. Shortly after, another piece of a paper with a stick figure in a slightly different position. The girl looks down the line and sees a long queue of paper, each with a stick figure on it. The line speeds up, with the help of the girl. The pieces of paper create a simple animation of the stick figure walking up to a balcony with a bouquet of flowers, lifting them up to another stick figure standing on the balcony. While the line is being pulled across there is a subtle sound of heavy stone being pulled against stone.

The lazy cat that was once lying on the balcony is now standing up, pawing at the pieces of paper on the line. The potted plant has grown a flower bud. Subtly, the world around this balcony is brighter and livelier.

We witness a series of events of the girl passing notes down the line and receiving small presents back each time with the sound of chimes and the movement of stone. With each time the girl is happier. On the balcony, the potted plant comes to full bloom, a wonderfully coloured fish that swims around just below the balcony. The girl feeds the fish as she waits for the next response. Also, the lazy cat begins its adventure around the balcony. It jumps up onto the wall and climbs up as if gravity does not exist.

With the last of the presents, an elaborate and detailed cut out of a line of people, the girl becomes determined to find out who is on the other side. She pulls with all her might on the clothing line. There is a lot of noise of stone against stone as out of the mist across the canyon we see an apartment building moving towards the girl. She stops pulling as she stands in amazement. The building slows down to a stop just as it reaches her balcony. She approaches the end of the balcony and smiles softly.

Standing on the other balcony is the mirror image of herself, smiling back.

Treatment (1 of 2)

Hey all,

Here's the treatments for the Grandpa cleaner story. Yes, there are two with different timelines. It's a case of how much prior knowledge you want.

Option 1

The scene opens in Grandpa’s cozy study, filled with bookshelves and doilies. Grandpa is sitting at an old wooden desk browsing the internet. From another room we hear an elderly woman’s voice reminding him in a nagging manner how the pension doesn’t pay the bills anymore in this day and age so Grandpa needs to find a job. While she speaks, Grandpa looks up at their wedding photo on the shelf above him. Grandpa goes to a popular job searching website, not unlike CareerOne. There he searches for part-time jobs and finds a listing for a cleaner. Grandpa picks up their phone and dials the number on the website. While talking on the phone, he writes a street address and a time down on a sticky note. We close in on the sticky note as we fade to the next scene.

Grandpa is standing outside a laundry mat. He crumples up the sticky note and puts it into his pocket. He enters the brightly lit, sterile laundry mat. Several of the machines are running, but there is no one inside. Grandpa moves across to a door labeled “Staff Only”, which opens as he reaches it. Grandpa moves across the threshold gingerly.

The door shuts behind Grandpa. The room is very dark aside from one ceiling light, but we can make out the shape of metal, industry shelves filled with cleaning supplies. In the light is a table with a couple of chairs. Grandpa sits down in the one closest to him. A tall, lanky mobster steps into the light. He tosses a folder down on the table, which Grandpa opens. Inside there are photos of a mansion. Amongst those is a photo of a man. The mobster reassures Grandpa that all he has to do is “clean up”. Grandpa picks up the photo of outside the mansion. We close in on the photo as we are taken into it.

An old pick-up truck pulls up outside the mansion. Grandpa hops out of the truck in his old janitor’s uniform. He pulls out his mop and bucket full of cleaning supplies out of the back of his truck. Then he makes his way towards the front door. He knocks on the door using the doorknocker. An eye peeks out the peephole and checks Grandpa out. We hear sounds of various locks being unlocked as the door opens a foot with the man hiding behind the door. He questions Grandpa’s presence. Grandpa motions toward the mop and bucket and says that he’s here to clean for him. The man opens the door wider, still hiding behind it to let Grandpa in. The man walks in front of Grandpa to give him the tour of the premises while explaining he had to fire all of his staff because they couldn’t be trusted anymore, but if his mate sent Grandpa then he should be and suddenly he stops mid-sentence! A single shot to the back of the head. The man collapses to the floor. We cut back to Grandpa as he takes the silencer off his piece and tucks them back away in his bucket. Grandpa picks up his mop and bucket and leaves through the front door.

Option 2

The scene opens in Grandpa’s cozy study, filled with bookshelves and doilies. Grandpa is sitting at an old wooden desk browsing the internet. From another room we hear an elderly woman’s voice reminding him in a nagging manner how the pension doesn’t pay the bills anymore in this day and age so Grandpa needs to find a job. While she speaks, Grandpa looks up at their wedding photo on the shelf above him. Grandpa goes to a popular job searching website, not unlike CareerOne. There he searches for part-time jobs and finds a listing for a cleaner. Grandpa picks up their phone and dials the number on the website. While talking on the phone, he writes a street address and a time down on a sticky note. We close in on the sticky note as we fade to the next scene.

Grandpa is inside his pick-up truck on the street dressed in his old janitor’s uniform outside the mansion confirming the street number of the place. He parks on the driveway and hops out of his truck. He pulls out his mop and bucket full of cleaning supplies out of the back of the truck. Then he makes his way towards the front door and knocks on the door using the doorknocker. An eye peeks out the peephole and checks Grandpa out. We hear sounds of various locks being unlocked as the door opens a foot with a man hiding behind the door. He questions Grandpa’s presence. Grandpa motions toward the mop and bucket and says that he’s here to clean for him. The man opens the door wider, still hiding behind it to let Grandpa in. He motions for Grandpa to get started and runs off, back to his office.

We see a montage of different scenes of Grandpa cleaning around the mansion with the man somewhere on the side. The man does a lot of yelling on the phone and working on his computer while Grandpa in each scene is mopping the floor. In the final scene, the man is yelling at his bodyguards and fires them. They leave angrily. Grandpa enters the man’s office to clean there. The man complains about how he can’t find decent, hard-working individuals. He looks towards Grandpa as his expression turns to shock. A silenced bullet hits him between the eyes and he collapses back on his leather chair. We cut to Grandpa as he removes the silencer from his piece and puts it away in his janitors uniform. He goes back to mopping.

It’s later in the day as Grandpa tosses his equipment in the back of his pick-up truck. He goes to the driver’s side, opens the door and hops in. He glances in the seat beside him where there is a white envelope. He picks it up and opens it. There is a great number of notes in the envelope. He closes it and tosses back onto the seat and drives away.

Greetings

Welcome to my empty blog.  Soon it will be filled with animated short film production goodies.  Until then...