Animated Narratives - week12 - content and related work

1. Story plot:

• Some kids are playing next to the main factory
•  kids accidentally discover the production lines, knowing some eggs are the food sources.
•  kids are planning the rescue (they treat the eggs as their siblings)
•  kids are sneaking into the factory
•  some securities see them, and they run to escape (climax) (clips of a shot of chasing)
•  they hide inside the empty eggshells
•  The security finds those and put them under a lamp to check if anything is inside. He sees the shadow of the kids but he believes that they are just being laid and accidentally falling from the conveyor belt.
• He put them back on the conveyor belt which is heading to the food factory.
• The kids have then been processed into food.
• last shot: revealing the truth (actually there are foetuses inside every single egg that are sent to process as food)

2. The concept behind the work:

My design is based on the conflicts between values of moral and survival. Human kinds often do excessive damage to the environment for a better living standard. Then people start to think about getting a balance between preserving and retrieving resources from the environment.

When we were kids, we were told to take care of and be nice to animals. However, we know the fact that we have to scarify some animals or even human beings to survive when we grow up. The reality is crucial and somehow is contradict the values we have learnt before. Something that we have taken for granted could be harmful to others. Then I wonder what would happen when morality versus survival.

To exaggerating the difference between the two values, I tried to design a world that children are being controlled and manipulated by adults. It is always digestible to choose battle between different generations as a metaphor for conflicts between different values. Children or teenagers are often be seen as the symbol of faith and pure whereas adults are the symbol of the crucial reality.

Tensions can be increased in a situation where adults and children are having the extremes of beliefs in the matter of life.

Problems and conflicts always occur when the children start to learn about the world that they are living in and to do the things that they have been prohibited. And I would like to use this conflict of two parties as an introduction of moral, survival and environmental issues.

Below are some of the related works where similar settings and stories can be found in these amazing works.

3. Related work:

• The Giver

Directed by Phillip Noyce. 2014. “The Giver” (movie)

“Sameness” is being introduced in the movie. Everyone in the community is being controlled and guided by restricted rules. People are living in a world where intimacy and emotions are prohibited. The settings are modern. All buildings and trees are the same. These designs can create a sense of emotionlessness and coldness in the world. The settings are good for reference as the world in “The Giver” is also controlled by a small portion of people, the committee of elders who have decided to take away feelings from the citizens. People are having no clue that some part of them are being taken away by those with more power.

• Promised Neverland

Kaiu Shirai. 2016. Promised Neverland (manga, animation)

the story setting of the promised neverland is also about using children as food to feed monsters. In the world of neverland, two parties, the humans and the monsters have agreed to stop fighting and killing as long as human feeds monster on children regularly. Children are raised on farms and one of them will be sent out once a month. They are told that they are orphans and those who can leave the orphanage will have a better life out there. Of course, the truth has been revealed by few children who then escape and fight back.

• The boss baby 

DreamWorks Animation. 2017.The boss baby (animation)

The most interesting part of “The boss baby” is at the very beginning where the scene shows how babes are made and transported on conveyor belts. They will be sent to homes or office due to their different capabilities. It is interesting to see the camera moving and following the whole production of the boss baby. The working principles can be well introduced and present through the camera movements. More depths of the characters and story can be shown through every detail on the camera.

 

(Photo retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/thegiverananalysis/content/plot  )

(Photo retrieved from: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-giver-plot-timeline)

(Photo retrieved from: https://www.polygon.com/2021/2/23/22288634/promised-neverland-season-2-episodes-anime-manga-changes)

(Photo retrieved from: https://www.cbr.com/promised-neverland-season-2-premiere/ )