character analysis full

Character analysis form
Project :Ed
Name: Ed
Sex : Male (alien)
Age: 35 (middle aged)
Religion: N/A
Height: 6ft 5"
Weight: 70kg
Physical Description: skinny, weak looking, grey pale skin
Appearance/hygiene : slumpped, pale unhealthy looking
Intelligence : hi intellegence but lazy and doesn’t show it
Diet: varied
Cultural background : alien warrior race
History : was in the war against humans but lost, is now a shodow of his former self
Income: low
Occupation :none, gets given money from the government
Education :poor human education but smart for his kind
Sexual orientation :alien
Family :all dead

Animation principles

Squash and stretch - very few objects stop dead and remain in their exact form, they distor (squash and stretch). the best example of this if a bouncing ball, as it hits the ground it compresses and expands again when bounching back up. this can be applied in my animation by showing eds muscles changing form as his body will be exposed, when he is strugling to open a door or pick something up it will be visible in his arms that his muscles are trying. Also during flash backs this technique may be used to exagerate the actions of the soldiers.

Ease Out - this technique is subtle and people just watchin wont really notice it if its their but will notice when its not. the easiest example of this is if a girl was runing and stopt it would take time for her skirt to stop, first it would sway forward past her then come back to rest.

Anticipation - this would be when you show a character anicipating an event, such as being hit by a ball, the character would raise their hands to protect their face. this could be use din my animation during war scenes or battles if a character was going to be hit they would protect themselves and brace for the impact.

possible extras for the story

the story still seems a bit short and flat so i am planning to expand on some back story, explaining what exactly has happened. this wont be done simply, it will be shown as a seriese of flashbacks of war, how Ed's world origionaly was befor the invasion, these will be shown out of order. The idea of starting at the end allows for fast spin off stories to be done, some going into depth about the war, Ed's family and and any other questions that arise about the story can be answered.

Poster

In Ed's house there will be a poster, it is deliberately misleading making it seem like it is advertising that aliens have come to earth when in fact it is earthlings that have went to the alien planet. its playing on the assumptions that people always make when they see things that they are used to and assume they know exactly what it means.

The story so far

The camera opens on a high angle shot of Ed.

He is sitting on the edge of a bed, the mattress is bare and we can see the walls are damp with the paper falling off. Sunlight struggles through a dirty window causing the front of Ed to be concealed in shadow.

The camera cuts to a full body shot of ED, he

slowly lifts his arm and rubs the scalp of his bald head. Behind Ed a picture can be seen, it is handing by one corner but we can make out that there is a photo of two beings resembling Ed in it. through the window a shuttle subtly flies by in the distance.

Ed fumble around on the Floor and pics up a Clock. A shoulder shot shows the time, it is the afternoon. the house is silent and the tick, tock of the clock stands out.

The camera pans down and settles under Eds bed. Ed drops the clock on the floor, it lands with a thud and the ticking noise stops suddenly. Ed stands up and walks towards the fridge, after several seconds of trying Ed manages to open the fridge door.

A CU shot from inside the fridge shows Ed handling everything in the fridge, eventually he lifts out a large carton that appears to be milk, it is almost empty.

Ed removes the carton and closes the door, the light stays on and we hear footsteps the the opening and closing of an old door, the light then flickers off.

A high angle wide shot shows Ed leaving his house, the house looks old and dilapidated with what appears to be a burnt out car sitting in the garden, he places the now empty carton on the overflowing bin and walks along the pavement and out of shot.

The carton falls off the in, a gust of wind rustles the tree and the carton rolls onto the ground and is then blown up into the air, the camera pans and follows the carton then pans back down to reveal Ed walking into a shop.

As Ed enters the shop the camera cuts to a medium shot from behind the counter, a security monitor can be seen bellow the counter, the shop assistant presses a button and the image changes to Ed, as Ed walks out of frame the Assistant pushes the Button again and the monitor view changes to another angle showing Ed in the shop

the rest in short as its not been fully fleshed out yet.

Ed leaves the shop drinking the liquid as he goes, he walks down a few blocks and straight into the camera causing the screen to be black for a moment, it then reveals that ed is standing in front of a large statue, the camera pans out to show that it is a memorial graveyard resembling those for fallen soldiers . The camera cuts back to Ed and follows him as he looks up into the sky, an eclipse is taking place. as it passes the is visible that it is not the moon causing the sun to be obscured but it is earth.

Ed front back and side

I have chosen the final design for Ed to be the classic looking alien because this will make it easier for the audience to understand the character he is. He should be viewed as being similar to a human but not quite the same, like the design got changed half way through the building process. As you can see from the image above Ed is very skinny without much muscle on him bit one thing i will portray in the animation is that he may not have always been like this, that he was once young, strong, a fine example of his species. 

Alternate designs for Ed

Fat Ed

This design may have a different effect, he may be seen as some what of a sloth and far from ever being rated as the superior life when compared to the average human being.

Fierce Ed

I feel that this design is just to fierce looking, generating sorrow toward a character that looked like this would be extremely difficult. 

Style of animation

At first I was thinking that 3D would be the best format for producing Forgotten but I now feel that 2D would be better. It would not be the typical style thought with the final look still being very rough and "scribble" looking keeping the feel of the animation very dark and intense.

plot twist

i feel the plot just now is far to thin and most people wont see the loneliness of Ed that I am trying to portray so i am adding a twist, through out the story their will be small things that don't quite make sense such as strange looking plants, the sky will constantly have a red tinge to it and unusual flying creatures. In one of the shots a shuttle will be seen in the background outside the window, it will not have any attention drawn to it but be their simple to reward those paying attention and help suggest what the twist may be.

at the end Ed will approach a large statue that will look alien in nature. then the camera will pan out showing a mass graveyard, resembling the wartime ones seeing for soldiers of WW2. An event will then happen to reveal that it is not earth that the story has taken place and that Ed is on his own planet that we have invaded and made our own.

Lip sync

Ed doesn't have any teeth and no visible tongue so for the lip sync only mouth shapes will be used with no teeth or tongue showing at any time. this is how aliens are normally imagined and it will also save time when it comes to producing the final work.

Rules

Ed will follow the basic physical rules of a weak human. He will not have any special powers or mind abilities. He will struggle with anything that requires physical strength as he has little muscle on his body.

Ed will not walk they way a human does. His upper body will stay level and his legs will remain bent most of the time, his arms swaying lifelessly by the side of his body and his back arched. It will resemble the walk image to be done by a Neanderthal.

sketching has begun, the working title just now is "Forgotten" (its a shame A4 paper doesn't have a spell checker) and i have the initial look of the alien who has been named Ed, this name was chosen because of its short, plain sound. emphasizing the irony of such a being coming to earth and becoming forgotten about. I have decided that he will live in a one room house, to be honest it will be more of a shack. the location of the shack will be beside a large airport now, it occurred to me how crazy it would be for this to be allowed with all the extreme security at airports nowadays.

Red Balloon

My take on the film "The Red Ballon" would be a much darker mor sinister version. The ballon would have been a darker colour to give the idea that is not all good, the boy would start acting out, talking to the ballong and doing what the ballon says. with the scene where the boy is locked in the cuboard he would have thrown a fit and started screaming because he is now left without his ballon. it would get to the stage where the boy is now dangerous and authoroties have to step in.
for a twist at the end it would be revealed that the ballon not only didnt talk to the boy but it never existed in the first place and the boy is now in a mental ward drawing the red balloon over and over again.

a good story for the kids i think

my idea for the animatic is called "Forgotten", its about an alien (usual grey skinny stereotyped one) my reason for this is that its an image we all associate with easily. the alien will be shown in his house, he's obviously alone and the house is damp run down and messy looking, basically an all round dump. he'll be shown performing tasks such as making breakfast but instead of cracking the eggs he'll just throw the whole thing in, shell and all. as the story progresses we'll notice that the alien is not all their, he'll talk to himself, self harm, rub the walls etc..... 

i hope to create a strong sense of sorrow towards the character. the twist in the story will be at the end when it is revealed that the shack is on the top of a skyscraper in the middle of a busy city.

the whole idea behind the story is how crazy it would be if an alien did come to earth but how long would it be before we grew tiresome and what would happen to the alien once it was forgotten about (not thinking about the ET going home route. he's on earth and staying here) would he become a bum and simply rot away on this planet.