Project 1 Storyboards and Proposals

Proposal #1:

The first idea was my original plan for the narrative of this project: a dog wanders through a suburban area that has been destroyed by a nuclear blast. It is not evident that a bomb has been the cause of all the destruction, but visual clues and objects the dog comes across would be a give-away for the circumstances of the setting. Although, this version of the story, as opposed to the second one, is much more vague with said imagery. A deflated ball and destroyed house show the apocalyptic nature of the setting, and the shadow of an arm on a wall along with a broken, frozen clock are the clues for the nuclear bombs. The dog eventually makes it to the doorstep of a destroyed house, scratches at it briefly, and lays down in front of the door to finally die. With this story, and the other idea as well, I wanted illustrate the devastation that would come from a nuclear war, and the hopelessness that will inevitably come with it. People like to romanticize being able to survive a nuclear apocalypse and rebuild society, but there's practically no chance that anyone will survive such a thing, regardless of circumstances. Angles will be long to focus on the surrounding landscape when the dog is walking, with plenty of close-ups to emphasize certain objects and the deteriorating state of the dog itself. Since I will be constructing a cut out of the dog with movable parts for the limbs and head, plenty of side shots will be included for use of this. 

Proposal #2:

For the second idea, the same basic premise is there, but with a different setting and slightly different ultimate outcome. The dog no longer has a destination in mind, and is instead rummaging around in the debris for food. It has also been relocated to the center of a town, rather than a neighborhood, with plenty of destroyed buildings and vehicles to emphasize this fact. Numerous, less subtle hints to the nuclear nature of the destruction are shown, first starting with an old newspaper with a headline hinting at war, to the charred hand of a corpse and a sign proclaiming a building is to be used as a fallout shelter. The dog is startled by the aforementioned burned corpse, and runs off into an alley, where it finds a collapsed billboard advertising a vacation to somewhere where the valleys are green and the weather is beautiful, and is depicted as such. The dog paws and stares at the billboard, before looking back down the alley and forlornly staring at the reality of its situation. It lays down in front of the billboard as the animation ends. It is ambiguous as to whether or not the dog dies as in the first idea, but the same hopelessness and crushing sense of reality remains. Angles of shots would be similar to the first proposed idea, with long shots to show the destruction of the area, and close-ups on the dog and objects of interest to tell the story using imagery.

For both ideas, a cut out would be used for the dog for ease of animation (using movable and removable limbs, head, etc.) and the backgrounds would be drawn. Color will be minimal, with the scenery being practically black and white, but the dog and certain objects being colored to help them stand out and emphasize their importance.