I really like the beginning of the story treatment as it currently stands. I’m having trouble getting the rest of the story settled in its later bits but the opening is pretty much bang on what I want it to be: funny, relatable, establishes character, builds the universe, sets up the premise of the story neatly.
Rather than committing to making an entire possibly twenty minute plus movie in one deathmarchy hit, I’m going to make just the first couple of scenes to start with to get myself personally familiar with the whole experience of the production process. The sequence I have in mind works neatly by itself as a short – aside from the inevitable “to be continued” at the end – and thinking of the whole story as a series of episodes feels like the right mindset too. Each episode ends in a question; the next episode answers the question (probably) but then asks its own question. Or possibly questions. Keep that curiosity going.
If it’s just me doing everything, I’ll be on a strict ration of dialogue, locations, characters, etc. This first bit, for instance, has three characters and two sets. Two of those characters are fully mobile; one is fine sitting in a chair. No need to build any legs for her let alone rig them. There’s a few props. I’ll have a better idea of what I need once I storyboard the scene.
Before boarding, however, I’m going to do a ton of concept art so I at least know what my main character looks like (aside from that he looks like one of these). I’ve been stuck at the TD stage with characters before without knowing things like how their faces change when they talk, smile, etc, so I want to have a good idea of that kind of thing before I start pushing verts.
There’s a cooler new theme that’s developed over the last few writing sessions that I’m pretty pleased with and it takes the story into an interesting metaphysical space where it wasn’t so much before. I want to have an overall story plan before I start production on the first episode, though I guess if I did decide to make it all up as I went along I’d be in the same company as Don Hertzfeldt’s It’s Such A Beautiful Day and possibly also Twin Peaks if memory serves.
