Week 2 - Character Concepts

Character Descriptions

Protagonist - Happy Gary



Happy Gary is the protagonist of the scene. He's a dedicated university student who still enjoys letting loose on the weekends and will probably need a new liver by the time he hits 21. He acts as though everyone is his best friend and doesn't like to pass up an opportunity to help someone out for some praise to feed his big ego.

Antagonsist - Surly Bob



Surly Bob is the antagonist of the scene. He's a loud, obnoxious, angry man who practically lives at the pub. He's very sleazy when it comes to women and when he comes across one at the pub he clings to her and refuses to let her leave. He can't stand other people, especially when he's been drinking and won't stand for anything they have to say to him, even if it's a friendly 'hello'. His surly behaviour has also caused his involvement in a few bar fights in his time, but he only ever takes a swing when the other man's back is turned.

Damsel In Distress - Sheila



Sheila is the scene's damsel in distress, although, unlike the typical damsel in distress, she isn't begging for help and is quite happy to fend for herself. She's very sarcastic and stuck up and constantly has men at the local pub hassling her for her number, though they never succeed. Even though she constantly refuses many of the men's advances, they never leave her alone and so she has a constant frustration and rage pent up inside her.

Influences

I derived influence for these characters from some of the characters from cartoons such as 'Ren and Stimpy' and 'Family Guy'. Many of the characters within these television shows consisted of loud, over the top characters that make use of facial expressions and eccentric movements and gestures to effectively juxtapose emotions and different actions within a comical context. These characters also consist of various stereotypes and ridiculous personalities, such as beligerant drunks, angry antisocialites and loud, stupid, happy-go-lucky characters.

Week 1 - Animated Sequence Concept

Concept

My concept for the animated sequence derives influence from slapstick humour from animated television shows i grew up watching such as 'The Simpsons' and 'Ren And Stimpy' as well as animated films I've seen more recently such as 'Dead Leaves'. This concept involves two intoxicated men fighting over the only woman at the pub. The antagonist is hassling the woman at one of the tables and the protagonist has steppedin to get him away from her. The protagonist then challenges the antagonist to a drinking competition in which whoever manages to not pass out gets the girl. After a few shots of hard liqour, the antagonist convinces the protagonist to turn around and then hits him over the head with a bar stool. With the protagonist on the floor, the antagonist begins laughing uncontrollably as the protagonist regains consciousness. He then takes one final shot, mid laughter, and then proceeds to suddenly pass out and come crashing down to the floor.
Within this sequence I will be including the over the top and exagerated emotions, body movements, gestures and actions trademarked by those cartoons I grew up watching. With the drunken pub setting and slapstick, comic theme, i hope to make an enjoyable, humourous animated sequence.

Director Inspiration

One of my many inspirations includes Hiroyuki Imaishi's work as the director of the animated film, 'Dead Leaves'. The film incorporates many elements of action and comedy, utilizing the endless possibilities of two dimensional animation with eccentric character movements and actions, and strange, elaborate character designs. The character designs included characters having strange body parts such as one of the main characters having a television for a head. Characters' bodies do a lot of unnatural stretching and warping throughout as well as expelling ludicrous amounts of blood and gore. These techniques made use of exaggeration to visually communicate character emotions to the audience and add more of a sense of comedy to various situations of the film. Imaishi incorporated comic strip styles into the film with the use of text in action scenes with words such as 'BLAM' and 'THUD' giving further exclamation to the injuries sustained by the characters during different scenes. Imaishi also made use of extreme and obscure camera angles to display the discomfort of the film's characters, which worked very well as another technique of visual communication to the film's viewers. He also made use of bright and intense colours to further develop the film's comic style and distill a further amount of absurdity into the story. All in all, 'Dead Leaves' was a very well constructed animated film. Hiroyuki Imaishi's use of various comic book styles and over the top actions made it an incredibly enjoyable viewing experience.