Story Idea

Posted by Sam Hayes On Monday, February 01, 2010
After this morning's briefing, I can tell this unit is going to be a tricky one, so I decided, like a lot of people I expect, to get cracking early. I've have a full story, with the three stages that I think incorporates all of my given objects well as well and has a good opportunity to be entertaining. I have written the story with all the current details in a long list of events, which I've posted below. As I do not have a scanner with me, it has been taken with a camera, but this weekend I'll scan everything paper in. I've typed the written ideas below so they are readable.



I've broken the story up into 10 parts. Parts 1-3 being the beginning, 3-7 being the middle and 7-10 being the end (This will probably change when I get feedback and alter the story)

1.

The story begins with a ghostly boy walking down a path in the daytime, he is on a country road,with no-one else around. He spots in the near distance, at the bottom of a hill, towards the coast, a rural lighthouse with a lighthouse keeper outside, walking towards it, on his way inside. The ghost stops and stares towards it.

2. 

There is a flashback into the ghost boy's memory of where he was coming from: a graveyard, it shows him with three other boy ghosts, who look slightly older than him. One starts screaming and waving his arms and the others clap him, another ghost then points to the boy and he tries his best 'frightening' face, trying to look scary. All the other three ghosts point and laugh at him, making him feel useless and he runs out of the graveyard. It then cuts back to the ghost now, and he has a smirk on his face.

(At this point my goal is to have made the audience  understand that the ghost is an 'outcast' for not being frightening enough, and doing what a ghost should do. Him running towards the lighthouse keeper I hope suggests that he is planning to scare him.)

3.

The ghost runs down a hill towards the lighthouse and follows the keeper inside the doorway.

4.
The ghost is following the lighthouse keeper up a spiral stairway inside the building, the keeper has a headstart, and is just walking up, the ghost is trying to catch up by running behind him. The ghost finally catches up, is right behind the keeper, as he opens a door off of the stairs. The ghost raises his arms, about to scream and scare him, when the keeper simply shuts a wooden door behind him, unknown to the ghost's presence, leaving the him outside on the staircase.

The lighthouse keeper is now in his living quarters, he sits down in a chair, with his back to the window and begins to read a book. Meanwhile, the ghost is trying to push the door open, but he is too weak and the door is just lightly rattling.

5.
The ghost soon gives up and is shown sitting outside the lighthouse looking frustrated. He looks at a seagull flying through the air, it lands on the lighthouse's window ledge up above. He smiles and gets up, his expression shows hope, as if he has an idea. He runs further away down the path, and then time passes.

6.
The next part, it is almost dusk and shows the ghost returning to the lighthouse, with a trampoline in tow. He is dragging it towards the ground under the window. Meanwhile, it shows the keeper look at his watch, get out of his chair and go over to the window, he is looking out to sea.  As he turns around so hes no longer facing the window, the ghost bounces up and pulls a scary face, obviously, the keeper cannot see him, and leaves the room, going up towards the beacon. As he is leaving the room, the ghost continues bouncing, each time looking more annoyed. The ghost is shown getting off the trampoline and looking very frustrated as he cannot scare the keeper.

7.

Suddenly, the light on the beacon shines, as the keeper turns it on, the keeper is shown standing on the railing, looking out to sea, the ghost looks up at the beam, back to the trampoline and grins. He takes a run up, with a lot of effort him jumps on the trampoline and bounces right up infront of the beacon light. This projects him into the cloudy sky into a 100ft shadow of a ghost. The keeper obviously finally sees him, looks terrified, screams and runs back to his living quarters and hides in his room.

8.
The other three ghosts in the graveyard are then shown, looking into the sky at the huge figure, they look at each other really surprised and run in the direction of the beam.

9.
The small ghost stops bouncing, gets off of the trampline and is laughing really hard, he clapses against the side of the lighthouse and glances towards the hill. On the top of the hill, he sees the three ghosts coming towards him.


10.
The little ghost gets up and walks towards them, the nearer he gets, he sees they are all clapping him and one is whistling him with congratulations. He takes a bow and grin It ends showing the keeper hiding under his bed covers, whilst in the distance outside his window the four ghosts can be seen walking back over the hill towards the graveyard.


That was much longer than I thought although i'm confident that with some editing it can be condensed to a minute long, I'm sure i'll have received feedback after the workshop next week, which might even suggest I shorten it.

A few reference pictures to help visualise the story:

 
  
  


If anyone managed to read it, if you have anything that you think will improve it then i'll appreciate it.

1 Response to 'Story Idea'

  1. Unknown said...
    http://samhayes101.blogspot.com/2010/02/story-idea.html?showComment=1265052503765#c5136737854927900917'> 1 February 2010 at 19:28

    i think the narrative is great! i can imagine it now! the only tihng as you said is the length, a little long, maybe cut out little tings like him sitting down by the lighthouse, the first scene you could hurry, but i surposse you have to give a little time for all of the transactions ect. but yes wait untill we are in the workshops.

     

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I'm a student studying CG Arts and Animation at the University for the Creative Arts, I'm living in Kent.

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