University Project: The Proposal

Part of my last university project of the year was to produce a film proposal for my final film. I had to write a detailed synopsis of my film and produce concept art as a practice proposal. After my last post I did a lot of thinking about my story and how to develop it more. I had to consider what would be asked of me when I put together my film proposal. As follows is what I wrote for my film proposal:

For my final major film I plan to create a piece based on welsh mythology. I have always been fascinated with mythology of any type, and during the summer after my first year, I decided that I wanted to make a film based on welsh mythology.

After reading a book by Diana Wynne Jones, called 'Dogsbody,' I decided that I wanted my film to focus on the 'wild hunt' of welsh legends, a pack of dogs called the Cwn Annwn. These dogs of legend were white all over with red tipped ears, and they traditionally ferried souls to the otherworld. After deciding this, I wanted to explore something to do with death, and perhaps the way we deal with loosing our loved ones to something unknown.

From this vague idea, I began to work on a story of some kind, and eventually came up with a rough plot that I plan to work on and refine into my final film.

Synopsis:

A young girl is standing in a graveyard on a cold winters night. Her mother has passed away and she sits dejectedly by the grave. All of a sudden she hears a noise, and as she looks up a dog leaps over her and disappears into the ground by her mothers grave. As the animal rises, it appears with a small blue light, the theoretical 'soul' of the deceased mother. As the dog leaves with the soul, the girl realises what happens, and unable to let her mother go, follows the dog. As they run together they are joined by more dogs and more souls. They embark on a journey to the otherworld, the young girl coming across many bizarre things as she does so, but never loosing sight of the dog that holds her mothers soul.

Finally they reach the gates of the otherworld, where the souls are guided past the gate and onto a place that the girl can't see. As they near the gate, the girl slams into a barrier. She cannot go any further. Confused at the lack of its companion, the dog waits on the other side of the gate, and the girl falls into despair as she realises she can't pass the barrier to retrieve her mothers soul. The dog looks up and from behind the girl a figure appears. It is Gwynn ap Nudd, the lord of the otherworld. She pleads her case desperately, and the dog passes back through the gate as she does so. She makes a grab for the soul, but is not allowed to do so. Gwynn ap Nudd tried to explain that her mother cannot come back. That she belongs in another world and they cannot exist together. Finally the girl accepts her mothers death and allows the soul to pass to the otherworld.

As of yet, I am unsure of how the ending should go, but a rough idea is:

The scene fades to black and the girl opens her eyes on the side of a cliff. She is woken up by the mythical bard who resides in the valley. He gifts her with a flower and moves on. The girl is left to make her way down the cliff and back to her home.

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Obviously the idea is very much a work in progress. But this is the general idea of the story. I want the girl to be able to accept her mothers death, and I don't want the ending to be entirely happy. The dead don't come back to life. Whatever people believe, the dead don't exist with the living, and I want this to be true in this story. The girl doesn't get her mother back, but she learns an important lesson. I don't want there to be dialogue in this film, just music, and possibly sound effects. I want to challenge myself and make the character animation a focus in this story.