The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is a collection of eleven welsh stories based on pre-Christian Celtic beliefs. The tales can be found in two separate manuscripts, and have been translated into English. The tales aren't all from the same time period, but the belief is that the first tales were written around 1060 at the earliest. However, the tales themselves were meant to be communicated orally, and could have been around for much longer than this. It is speculated that they could have been the origin of the Arthurian tales, as King Arthur and his court appear at least once in the tales. Whether they are or not, however, does not change the fact that they are a very important piece of early welsh history and story tale culture.

The reason I am looking at the Mabinogion, is because the cwn annwn appear in the book several times, and reading it might be able to give me some insight on the beliefs of that time, and inspiration for my film.

Film Proposal Concept Art

For the final film proposal I also had to hand in more concept art to give everyone an idea an idea of how my film would work. A lot of the work I sent in came from the initial concepts I put up previously, but I also created some new concept pieces, mainly digital pieces.

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.

- - -

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.

The Beginning Of An Idea

After drawing the first concepts, I began to form an idea for my final film.

I have been thinking about having the young girl standing at the grave of a loved one. She is all alone, and she suddenly hears a strange sound. Out of the jumble of graves, a dog appears and leaps into the ground of the grave. When it comes back out, it is carrying a blue orb, and darts off with it. The girl realises that it is her loved one, and begins to chase the dog across the countryside. She is joined by more and more of the pack as she runs, until they reach the underworld and she discovers that she cannot go any farther.

So far, that's all I have for an idea. It needs a lot of work, but it's definitely a start! I need to put together an ending. I think the most difficult thing is creating an ending that is effective, especially in the short time that the film is allotted. However, I have a very clear image of the dog jumping into the grave, and the chase across the countryside.

First Concept Designs

I did these doodles as a stress reliever during my project deadline. I think that this is how I want the film to look. I want the dogs to be pretty long limbed and gangly. I'm still not sure about the design for the girl, but I have plenty of time to look into designs.

Diana Wynne Jones

As mentioned in the previous post, Diana Wynne Jones is a big inspiration to me, and I love to read her books. I've been reading them ever since I was a young child, starting with Howls moving Castle and moving onto the Chrestomanci series. I only recently read Dogsbody, and that has become a big inspiration for my final film.

The synopsis of the book is as follows:

A powerful being fights for his life within the body of a humble, earthbound puppy.

Sirius, immortal Lord of the Dog Star and infamous for his quick temper, cannot believe it when he is falsely accused of murder and banished to Earth. There he is reborn into the body of a puppy and learns that he has the life-span of that creature to recover the missing murder weapon. If he fails, he will die.

He is adopted by Kathleen, who has no idea that her beloved Leo’ is anything more than an abandoned stray. She is a loving owner, but an unwanted guest in a family who mostly resent her presence.

Sirius soon learns that he has enemies amongst the humans as well as amongst the unearthly beings who sentenced him. How on earth can he clear his name without his special powers?

The Initial Idea

Last year I was approached by Jason about doing a short animated film for the NASTA awards, which has recently opened up a best animation award. At the time we decided that we wanted to go for it, and ideas were tossed back and forth to find something feasible in the time we had. Unfortunately, the film never went ahead. We underestimated how much time we would need for the course itself, and were never able to get past the first enthusiastic ideas. However, one of the ideas I had given stuck with me. When I originally put forth the idea, I had recently read a book by Diana Wynne Jones, called Dogsbody.

Dogsbody is about the personification of the dog star Sirius, who is framed for a crime and sent to earth in exile for punishment. He is placed into the body of a newborn puppy, and almost drowned with his siblings by the owner, who was angry at the mother for breeding with an unknown dog. Sirius survives and is picked out of the river by a young girl, and the story goes on. It is later discovered that the unknown father of dog-Sirius was one of the cwn annwn, and Sirius chases after the pack after seeing them. At the end of the story, not only Sirius chases after the pack, but the young girl who saved him and her cousins. They manage to chase the pack to the end of their hunt, and their owner, the god of the underworld, grants them a single wish each for doing so.

Since then, the idea of chasing after the dogs in my film has been a major idea of mine. I need to do a lot more research into the legends of the cwn annwn first, and I can't make it similar to the book, because that would become plagiarism. But I know that I want to do my film about the cwn annwn, and include a big chase scene.

Now that I have the basics, I need to begin refining the idea into an actual story.