There is a man who looks at his reflection in a mirror, and realizes that his reflection exists only as long as he is in front of the mirror. So is his reflection leading another life in a parallel world?
The man draws himself on a wall. This double is his reflection in many ways. He is a constant companion. The man and his drawing of himself are always talking. But the animated self(AS) keeps telling the film self(FS) to come to the drawing world. FS tries to pull something out of the animated world, and it bursts into pencil shavings.
So he tries to send someone else into animated world. He succeeds. But instead of going through himself, he starts to play around with this new power of changing the world. He doesn't realize he is also changing the animation world. Then his misdeeds force him into the animated world. His double reveals that he wanted to go into film world. and the only way he could, was if film self came into animated world.
AS escapes into film world and becomes a "real character"
He starts to erase the animated world.
A film maker is making this entire story.
An animated guy is actually directing the story.
He is sitting in an empty room with white walls. Each wall is like a white canvas.
he draws the inside of a fridge on one wall. he reaches into the drawing for a banana and when it comes out of drawing, it is a real banana. but when he tries to eat it, it bursts into pencil shavings/graphite dust. so he draws himself next to the fridge. and Himself eats it. and he feels full.
he draws a window with butterflies. when butterfly enters room it turns to pencil shavings. he looks at his pencil, and it has become shorter.
so he draws shutters on window.
the doorbell rings.
postman at door with a bill. and a second bill. and a third bill.
as the postman turns to leave, he draws a hole in the ground and sends the postman through the hole into animation land.
cut to animated world which is a mirror image of film world. so postman seems to be jumping up and then falling/landing next to a hole in the ground.
cut to film world, when he removes the paper, the hole is gone. and so is the postman.
in animated world, the hole in the ground moves and comes back as he moves the frame back.
so postman looks through the hole and his hat falls in.
cut to a hat jumping out of hole in paper and entering real film world. where it bursts into pencil shavings. The pencil becomes shorter. so he crumples up the paper. in animated world, the hole becomes crumpled. postman cannot fit thru it. a butterfly flies past his face.
cut to film world.
series of events where he manipulates other characters.
(to be figured out-must help bring out or build on his character)
then people are chasing him. so he hides in the shadows of a wall. he adds to the shadows, the shadow of a ladder. he steps out of frame and climbs that ladder that has come into existence to match the shadow. people chasing him run by. but the ladder bursts into pencil shavings. he falls back into frame. so he quickly draws a door in the wall. he steps through the wall.
instead of going through to the other side of the wall, he goes through to the other side of the frame itself, where he is animated.
here he meets the consequences of his actions. he meets crumpled up people. and finally he meets Himself.
Himself has had to put up with all the consequences and angry people who were forced into the animated world. Himself seems older and more ruffled. Himself proclaims his intention of going into the film world and becoming a "real" character and trapping the original in the animated world. The original one asks him to stop as his entry into the film world would turn him into pencil shavings.
But the double does not listen. He exits through the door to the other side of the wall. and starts to erase the whole animated world.
the original is running through the animated world as it gets erased all around him. just as he reaches the doorway,
the whole image pauses.
the camera tracks back.
the entire film is on a timeline on Final Cut Pro (Editing Software). A film maker taps his fingers. He erases the story to the previous scene. Puts in another clip. the disappearing world plays again. the film maker is unhappy with the story. frustrated he deletes the whole timeline. He puts out his cigarette. He leaves the room. The timeline in empty.
Neither of the characters never existed.
A voice over of someone yelling, "Cut!"
Lights come on a stage set.
The camera tracks out. An animated guy stands behind a camera. there are crew members rushing around. they are a mix of film and animated people. The animated guy is the director. He directs the actor who is a film-maker back to the laptop.
He says,"We need to do that scene again. we need to make the audience really believe that the film maker is creating both the worlds of film and animation. you see? Again! Lights!
Lights change. An animated character holds a clap board in front of the camera. "Scene 4 take 7", he announces.
He claps the clapboard.
Cut to black.
End.
jorge luís borges:
"I think Emerson wrote somewhere that a library is
a kind of magic cavern which is full of dead men. And
those dead men can be reborn, can be brought to life
when you open their pages."
August + Sept. 1st week: Final Script + Trial shots (lighting)
Sept 2nd week - Sept end: Shot Breakdown + Shoot (1 week)
October: Edit + Post production (4 weeks)
Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed or inked onto wood or bamboo, pottery, palm-leaf books, paper, silk, canvas and of course, recorded on film, and stored in digital form.
How can the order of events change the story? Is the edit chronological? If I show a memory of a character in an animation, and then erase the frames, does the character forget that memory? How can memory be used as a form?
I will essentially explore Form as a thematic element.
I would like to work on a short fiction, where a character doesn’t
realize his story is being created by a filmmaker. But the latter can
only create obstacles for the former. The character himself has to
react to them, or the story stops. So when the character becomes
suspicious of his constructed reality, how does he escape from it? But
those obstacles will come up through the exploration of form.
