Current Story Synopsis

This is a current write up of my film idea, in preparation for the first class presentation on Monday.

A young girl journeys into a mythological world in an attempt to rescue her friend who has been taken by the cwn annwn.

A young girl argues badly with her mother and returns to her room in tears. She is greeted by a strange blue orb that plays with her and cheers her up. However, they are interrupted by a large white dog who jumps into her room and snatches up the orb before taking off. The young girl chases after the dog, determined to catch him and get back her friend. As she runs, she gradually leaves the modern world behind for a world still dominated by mythological beliefs, each turn brining something more strange and mysterious. Finally they reach the gates of the underworld, where the dog passes through with the soul, but the little girl discovers she cannot pass through. It is here that the soul returns to a human form, that of a young boy, and waves goodbye to her. It is now that the little girl realises what she has been chasing after, and though it upsets her to do so, returns the wave goodbye, and suddenly finds herself back home in her room. Debating whether or not it was all a dream, the girl hears a knock on her door, and her little sister comes in. The young girl proceeds to tell her little sister of her adventure and the story ends.

I am going to see what the class think of my idea when I present this Monday!

Back to University: First Group meeting

Last week we arrived back at university, and a few days ago we went to our first lecture. We have been sorted into groups based on a questionnaire that we had to fill in, and I have been placed in Caroline’s group. When we gathered, we were given a task to draw an image that would help us explain our film., Unfortunately, I have misplaced my sketchbook, so I cannot find the image I drew, but I managed to explain my idea, and I got some feedback for it! I was told that my idea has lots of potential, but I need to do a lot to refine it.

I then had a discussion with a friend about the ending. I am still very confused over what I could do for the ending, and she suggested that perhaps the little girl needed something that she could return to, maybe a younger sibling that could help replace the loss of the orb. I am going to work with this idea to see if it has any potential!

What is the Purpose?

I need to think about the purpose of my film. I know that this is something I will probably be asked, and I need to be able to tell people more than, 'I want to make a pretty film.'

After much deliberation, I think that I want to make a film that displays the difference between the present day and the past in which the mythology was a major part of peoples lives. I want to try and show how much this mythology used to effect people, but in today’s world, barely anyone knows about it.

My Revised Idea

After giving my film a lot of thought, I think I have decided on my film story.

The film starts with a scene of a house. It is snowing outside, and in the window you can see the silhouettes of a woman and child arguing. The child walks out of view and we cut to her stomping into her bedroom and slamming the door. She is upset and begins to cry. It is then that a blue orb comes through the open window and she begins to play with it. Shortly after, a dog jumps into the room, and snatches the orb from her. She watches from her window as the dog runs away, and immediately sets out to follow them. She chases them over hills and valleys, slowly entering a world that is not her own, a mythological world. Eventually they come to a pair of gates, and the dog passes through easily, but the girl cannot go through, no matter how hard she tries.

This is all I have so far! I haven't been able to decide on an ending yet, but I’m working on it!

The Game

One of the things I did while I was working at summer camp, was read a book called, 'The Game' to the kids I looked after, to get them to sleep. The book was written by Diana Wynne Jones, one of the main inspirations for my idea. This book proved to be no different, and gave me lots of new ideas. In my film I have the idea of her following the dog, and slowly entering the mythological world. In the book, the protagonists play a game in which they enter a place called the mythosphere, a place where fairytale and mythological characters are alive and act out their stories in continuous loops. The protagonists can interfere with the stories slightly, but the outcome eventually turns out the same way as the story is meant to. I think that I would like something like this for my own mythological world.

Ideas from America

While I was in America, I did a lot of thinking about how my story could play out. After working with children for so long, I had more of an idea of how they could react, and had an image in my mind of a little girl at her house, instead of outside in the cold. The orb would come to her there and play with her for a while before the dog arrived and took it away.

After my job at summer camp was over, I stayed with my cousin for a week in New York, and while explaining my idea to her, she gave me a lot of useful input. She thought it would be a good idea to have the story in the present time, and perhaps have the girl travelling back through time as she ran. At the time, I was still unsure of the direction my film was taking, but my cousins advice really helped and I decided that I wanted to set my film in the present time, as opposed to the time period where this mythology was still believed as religion. Bringing the film into the present time changes the film completely. If I kept the film in the original time line, the girl would know what the dogs were, and may be more cautious about following the dog. On the other hand, if the girl was in present day time, there isn't as much of a chance for her to know what the dogs are, and the mythology behind them, especially because welsh mythology isn't as well known as some others. This means that there won't be as much hesitation to follow the dog. She doesn't know what they stand for.

Return From America

I returned from america a few weeks ago,and unfortunately I wasn't able to get as much done as I had wanted to, due to a lack of time. In addition to this, the work that I did complete- a few nice concept pieces, is missing. The sketchbook I took to america didn't come back with me, and no one I could contact had seen it. I do have quite a few reference videos of kids though, so it wasn't a complete loss. I have also revised my idea, which I shall talk about in the next post.