New Idea

After deciding I didn't want to do the animation about my hometown of Holywell and St Winifred, I began to think of possible new ideas. I still want the animation to mean something to me, and I also would like it to have an impact to the audience. Then I had a sudden idea, to make it about a part of my life. To be specific: growing up with split parents. I have a few memories that could make a short film, if i changed the details slightly. I want the animation to have a sad theme throughout, but to have a happy ending. So this is the rought story line i came up with:

Little girl whose parents always fight in front of her.
Split parents argue over who gets the little girl.
Mum gets mad when Dad brings the little girl home late.
Dad gets mad because Mum gets more time with her. 

Little girl breaks her arm when out with Dad. Mum blames him and makes him leave. 

Mum takes girl away on the day she's supposed to be with Dad.

Christmas - girl is trying to have fun but parents are arguing over who gets to spend the day with her. She gets so fed up and runs off. Parents finally notice how their arguing affects her. They agree to be civil and to not argue as much, and never in front of the little girl. 

They spend Christmas together. 

I did a sketch to portray the main feeling of the animation:

Image: Sketch by Cassie Austin

I am really pleased with this idea. It is exactly the type of animation I want to create.

One piece of research I did was relevant to this idea. There is an advert for the NSPCC called 'Real Children Don't Bounce Back', which is based around sequences of a father beating his child. It is filmed in live action, except for the hand drawn child who is very exaggerated, similar in looks to what you would see in a typical children's cartoon. The child also uses cartoonish elements, such as birds flying around a a bumped head and cartoonish sounds when hit. The advert tries to contrast a serious element with a fun element so when the final reveal of the advert is shown (that the cartoon child is a real child) its affect is heightened and the audience feels ignorant of the fact that they didn't originally see the cartoon child as a real person.

Image: NSPCC Advert 'Real Children Don't Bounce Back'








The advert deals with similar themes of family and the affects parents have on children that I want to achieve, although the advert deals with the physical affects more than the mental ones. Also the theme is similar in terms that it tries to affect the audience on an emotional level by using tragic real life situations. This is a reaction I wish to achieve with my film although mine won't be so much shocking and serious, but sad and still relatable.