Since my 2 posts on two different ideas, i have decided to go with Phil's idea and i have been refining the idea to make it work. So far i feel i have an strong idea for Act 1, an okay Act 2 which needs some refining to be sronger and a weak ending, mainly due to the fact that i'm not too sure how to bring the restaurant in at the end... so here's a breakdown of each act...
ACT 1: In Act 1 there is a short montage of shots establishing a bit about the Butterfly hunter, who collects insects in general. We start off in a room in his house full of his collection. A variety of close-ups and medium shots will show his collection (which will include distorted shots through jars, newspaper articles, framed insects etc), but also portray the sinister characteristics of the hunter. In this short montage i will keep the room dark, with strong use of lighting coming from the doorway and window to create shadows on the wall. In Act 1, i don't want to reveal my character, but to make the audience presume things about him. I will use the shadows on the wall to show him poking a needle into a bug, which when produced as a shadow will make him look bigger and much more dramatic. A lot of the focus in the background will be blurred when focusing on specific objects and i will show live insects, almost in fear of the character as he enters. When the character leaves the room, he will slam the door behind him which will lead onto Act 2 using a match-on-action along with a elipses because the next time will skip any dead time and jump straight to Act 2...
I like the idea of a montage because it allows for a lot of different shot types and camera angles to create some beatiful shots, and i think it makes the audience work harder in finding out who the character is. I feel it will be more effective because they will see how nasty and sadistic he truely is. I hope the montage will be similar to the title sequence in Se7en, except i will only have 15-20 seconds for mine...
ACT 2: In Act 2 we jump straight to the character going outside, after shutting his front door, which will be a match-on-action. In this scene we will see that the character is acualy a small old man, who uses a pogo-stick... this will be a contridctive view of the man compared to the montage which will show him as being quite big and powerful. In this scene we will witness a mass destruction in his woods (as he lives in a cabin), where the hunter carelessley hunts bugs and mercilessly catches them. The fear that these insects have of him will once again show his power and how evil he truely is. I feel this scene would work very well if it was presented quite theatrically, similar to a music like Sweeney Todd. I could go for a more 'looney' style like my original idea, but i don't think it would suit the sinister style of animation that i am going for...
At the moment i still think this act needs refining, i'm not as confident in desiging this scene as the one in Act 1 at the moment. I still don't think the idea is fully finished for this act and i'm still waiting for it to click...
ACT 3: In Act 3 i will have a twist, which will show the bugs/insects getting their revenge on the hunter. Unexpectedly, the bugs will capture the hunter. As of yet, i'm not sure whether the hunter will be back in his home and we see the bugs with needles in their hands in the shadow, similar to the shot in scene 1; or whether the bugs will catch him with a giant net in the woods. After this, however, we will cut to a restaurant full of bugs, we wil focus on the menu board which will have meals crossed out and replaced with"Chef's Special". We will then cut to a shot of the pogo-stick in the background and in a shadow on the wall we will see the insects starting to pull the cover off a tray, gathered around a table... This will then cut to black...
I feel this is the weakest act at the moment because like the second act, it just hasn't clicked yet. I feel the idea's there it's just not coming together at the moment. I feel the connection between, the chef's Special, the cut to the pogo-stick and the top being taken off the tray is enough to hint what is for supper without having to specifically show the audience...
At the moment this is definitely possible to do in the limit of a minute. I feel there is a great opportunity for some beautiful shots and i'm starting to like this less arbitrary idea. There's still some refining and work to do on the acts, but i'm sure Phil will have some helpful comments tomorrow...
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