Animated Narratives Week 11- Light

This week we looked at Light, and the importance of building lighting into the story during the conceptual stage. I was particularly interested in developing a premise that built in light as a part of the character itself, and came up with the following premise: A firefly tries to burn brighter than the lightbulb he sees through someone's window

I evolved this into a story, which I have outlined in the following bullet points. I then depicted this in the form of a storyboard.

• An outdoor firefly falls in love with a beautiful indoor firefly that he sees through the window
• He keeps trying to burn brighter and tries out different light tricks to impress her and get her attention
• He then holds up a board that says “if you like me too, burn brighter.”
• At that moment suddenly the indoor firefly’s light dims and the outdoor firefly is sad
• The camera then reveals that the indoor firefly isn’t actually a firefly, turns out it was a lightbulb all along

I got the inspiration for this work from Walt Disney Pictures’ Princess and the Frog (2009). In the movie, there is a firefly character named Ray who keeps talking about his love “Evangeline”, who he thinks is another firefly, but it is actually a star in the sky.

Through this week’s activity I was able to reflect on how light can influence a character, and shape an entire story. In my story I use light to obscure and reveal narrative information, as well as to portray the character’s personality and actions.