As ye all know for our next brief we have to create an animation short. We started the process with a session of creative writing. First, we had to write a short story using 3 preselected phrases.

This is my original story which had to include these subjects; ‘The first day of school’,’ A phone box’, and ‘a recipe’. I only had the first paragraph done on the first day, so it wasn’t much of a contribution to the group story. I’ve finished it since and I have to say it’s not exactly a riveting read. I wouldn’t like to be animating this story as it has very little going for it. Anyway just for the record here it is.

Little Tommy had been looking forward to the first day of school all summer. His older brother and sister came home each day with such exciting stories about their day’ that he couldn’t wait for his turn. Only one more day to go. He should be sad that this is his last day of just playing, but the thought of making new friends, and all the fun they would have at playtime far outweighed this. His mother had bought him a new schoolbag, a new lunchbox and a brand new ‘Power Rangers’ flask. Better still is the new uniform that she got for him. He’ll be a big kid now, just like his brother and sister.

That’s as far as I’d got on the first day. I added this at a later time,

On the way to school in their mother’s car, they got stuck in heavy traffic. This was usual in the mornings but Tommy didn’t know that. He began to worry. He didn’t want to be late on the first day.

Something strange caught all their attention while they were stopped. There was a man in a nearby telephone box who seemed to be taking his clothes off. Other people were watching too. He was actually changing into a different outfit and when he emerged from the box he looked very odd indeed. He was dressed entirely in green. Green t-shirt, green underpants over a pair of green ladies tights (can't see that catching on), green boots and a pair of green gloves, well…. it was cold. There was one exception to the outfits colour in that he wore a black ‘Lone Ranger’ style mask. “I wonder if he’s a Superhero” said Joe, Tommy’s older brother. “Super mad-man more like” replied Mandy, their sister. “People like that shouldn’t be allowed out” said their mother.

The man stuffed his clothes into a duffle bag, green of course, and jogged up the street and into the local bank. Tommy and his family were able to watch everything as the traffic was only inching forward. “There must be robbers in there and that man is going to catch them” said Tommy to the others. He figured that the man was a real-live Superhero.

The traffic began to free up and so they were forced to continue on their journey. “Aw, can’t we stay and watch” moaned Tommy. “No way” replied his mother, “You can’t be late on your very first day, anyway, whatever that guy’s up to, it’s sure to be a recipe for disaster”. As they approached the turn for the school road, several squad cars whizzed past heading towards the bank. ‘Bloody school’ thought Tommy to himself. ‘That’s the only exciting thing to ever happen around here and we have to miss it’. And from that day on, just like most other little boys, Tommy HATED school.

As a follow up exercise to this we were organised into groups of three, to select elements from each of our stories, and combine them into one story. So this is a rough draft of our joint effort.

YESTERDAYS HERO

Our group story starts with a regular suburban house. We’ll set it in America, for now, as it’s the land of Superheroes. Looking at the ground floor windows we can just about make out the shape of a person sitting inside. The blind is down but the slats are half-open and it appears the person is looking out - through a pair of binoculars. This scene should be arousing our suspicion. Then we get to see, through the binoculars, what exactly this person is watching…. School kids.  They’re getting off their bus at the school gates. Inside the house, sitting at the window is an old man. It’s difficult to see him clearly, as the only light in the room is coming from the half-open slats of the window blind. The striped shadows cast over the figure give him a ghost like presence. The room is shabby, sparsely furnished with old newspapers and dirty dishes cluttering up the surfaces. He obviously doesn’t get many visitors and lives a life of solitude.

As he’s watching the children get off the bus something beyond it. In the distance, catches his eye. It’s a big truck, swerving from side to side out of control. The man (We’ve named him Chris after Christopher Reeve) takes a sharp intake of breath. His eyes widen in panic. The truck is headed for the school bus with some kids still on board. Chris jumps to his feet. He takes off his dressing gown, revealing a Super-hero style suit, and pulls on a matching mask. He rushes into the street, past the school bus, and stops the runaway truck with a single punch.

Standing heroically beside the battered truck, with all the children cheering, the image fades out to a white mist. Alternatively it turns into a photograph in a newspaper, accompanying an article about his heroic deed.  As the mist clears we are back in Chris’ front room, where we see that Chris is actually in a wheelchair. He had barely made it to the front door and was just starting to open it as the truck rumbled past….the driver in full control. He had imagined the whole thing. He’s still in his dressing gown and he pulls of the mask, and returns  it to its usual resting place, on his lap. Looking sad and dejected, Chris slowly wheels his way back to the window. Only now do we see the framed newspaper clippings on the walls. They show articles of the brave act Chris carried out as a young man. Chris WAS a superhero.

Sadly, time has caught up with him, in the same way that it will catch up with us all. Unless of course were vampires, but then, that’s another story…..

We all made a few drawings to accompany the group story;

 

 

The old Hero reminiscing

 

 

 

This is my version of Mackinleys idea to show our Hero lit only by the striped light coming through the half-closed blinds. The wheelchair wouldn't be revealed this early though, if we were animating the group version.

 

 

 

A couple of versions of Chris punching the truck.

 

I also added some colour to the line drawings for a better visual effect. There's a good atmospheric effect to the drawing of the light through the blinds.

I almost have the story for my animation short completed. Well, the first draft at least. I have a feeling there will be many.