I decided to stick with one of my contributions to the premise exercise, which was ‘a tiny insect devours things many times its size’, which I worked on with my group during the group premise exercise, and then refined further with the concept workshop.
My initial idea based on this premise was a short animation that depicted a butterfly fluttering around a serene meadow, flying lazily from flower to flower. This butterfly would then be spotted and targeted by a larger bird, who would swoop down to catch it. At the last second, to subvert viewer expectations of the typical, natural scenario, the butterfly would split open to expose a gigantic, toothy maw that would swallow the bird whole, as it would be too late to change course. When the mouth closed the scene would be reset, with no sign of the bird except for a few scattered feathers.
Through my discussion with my group, and further feedback during the concept workshop, I developed a few other ideas to extend on this premise. The main question I was asked was would there be an obstacle to the butterfly ; something that it couldn’t consume, or something that did truly pose a danger to it; or was it the apex predator of this world.
I decided I wanted to depict a series of vignettes, starting with my initial idea, showing the carnivorous butterfly coming into contact with a few other creatures. The second vignette would show the butterfly landing on the head of an unsuspecting deer, who doesn’t see the butterfly as a threat, and is then helpless to escape. A third vignette would show the butterfly being caught in a bug net by a human. The butterfly would eat its way out of the net and devour its captor. Finally, I wanted to show the butterfly coming across another insect, this one able to generate a vortex that would sucks the first butterfly in, the piece ending on a sort of ‘there's always a bigger fish’ kind of note.
I believe this idea would embrace the unique capabilities of animation because of the focus on transformation. The ability of animation to exaggerate scale, and the capacity for characters to transform from realistic to monstrous looking and back again is an integral part of the premise and humour of the piece.
An inspiration would be the animated web series ‘Happy Tree Friends’ (example, CW extreme gore) produced by Mondo Media, which depicts a pastel, whimsical world full of quirky characters based on woodland animals. This show stylistically resembles a children's cartoon, but subverts this image by every episode killing off its characters in grotesque and hilariously graphic ways, revelling in the gore and bloodshed that it depicts in loving detail. This twist on viewer expectation is something that I was focusing on while developing the concept for this week
Plot Synopsis / Shot List
Vignette 1
1 - the piece opens on a wide view on a serene meadow, with a butterfly fluttering between flowers in the mid-ground of the shot
2 - the shot would tilt upwards, above the treeline, to show a bird on horizon
3 - the birds POV - shot of the meadow from above, with the butterfly in the centre of the frame
4 - zoom in on the butterfly from the birds POV (overlay with a rifle target / sight ?)
5 - shot of the bird as it begins to descend
6 - shot of the butterfly, idling on a flower
7 - shot of the bird descending, picking up speed
8 - shot of the butterfly, still idling on a flower
9 - shot of the bird, stretching out its talons
10 - shot of the butterfly. It splits open along the ‘body’, revealing an impossibly large mouth lined with razor sharp teeth, almost like an angler fish, with dozens of layers like a shark
11 - Wide shot of the meadow - shows the bird collide with the butterfly, being caught easily in its jaws, which slam shut
12 - the butterfly lands on a flower, and spits out a single mangled feather, which spins lazily to the ground. Fade out.
Vignette 2
1- Same shot as vignette 1, the butterfly idling in the meadow
2 - there's some rustling in the forest, and then a deer emerges from between the trees
3 - the deer trots to the centre of the meadow, and begins to graze on the flowers and grass
4 - the butterfly takes off from the flower its sitting on, and flutters closer to the deer.
5 - the deer lifts its head, eyeing the butterfly.
6 - the butterfly lands gently on the deer’s nose. The deer stands still for a second, and then lowers its head to continue eating, un-threatened
7 - the butterfly splits open, revealing its terrible mouth. The deer doesn’t have a chance to react before the butterfly clamps down on its head, severing it at the neck.
8- the deer’s body slumps to the ground, the butterfly lands on its back, and the screen fades out as it begins to feed.
Vignette 3
1 - same opening shot, of the butterfly in the meadow
2 - close up of the butterfly on a flower. Suddenly a net descends, and the butterfly is caught
3 - shot a human holding a bug net, with the butterfly caught securely
4 - the butterfly is placed in a cage, with the human turning their back
5 - the butterfly opens its mouth, and is able to tear through the bars of the cage.
6 - Alerted to the sounds of the cage being broken, the human turns back to the cage.
7 - POV shot from the human as the mouth descends.
Vignette 4
1 The butterfly is fluttering through the woods, trying to return to its meadow
2. The butterfly arrives at the meadow, but there is now another insect present. A beetle is sitting on one of the flowers.
3. The butterfly opens its mouth, and shrieks a challenge.
4.The beetle flicks open its wings covers, and a mini portal opens up, and begins sucking things in like a vortex.
5. The butterfly closes its mouth and tries to fly away, but is caught in the winds of the vortex
6. The butterfly is sucked into the vortex, which disappears as the beetle closes its wing covers, and the winds stop. The screen fades out.
