Premise Wiki Week 7
What if the island had feelings?
ANIMATED SHORT FILM TREATMENT
TITLE
The Lonely Island
THE LOGLINE
A lonely island wants to find the one for him.
THE OVERVIEW
‘The Lonely Island’ is a short animated film that aims to present a story about relationships. The audience will be able to watch the protagonist, the Lonely Island, and his/her journey to find his one true companion.
The Lonely Island is actually a metaphor for every human being living in this modern world. We are lonely and we want to connect to people, thinking it is our ultimate goal. Some people run into an abusive relationship and think they deserve it. They are hurt and never be able to grow their confidence back again. This is a story for them.
THE EXPLANATION
The audience will find themselves looking at the story of a Lonely Island who grows throughout his journey. He sets out a journey with a lonely heart, trying to find his one true companion. He meets different islands and has interesting encounters with them. Then, he meets the good looking island that feels like his one true companion. Although the Lonely Island is abused by that island in the middle of the story and is horribly hurt, he doesn’t giving up on the possibility of finding his one true companion. Even though he might be hurt again, he is still willing to believe. The audience will be able to see the choices and the progress he makes throughout the animation story.
SUMMARY (THE STORY)
There is an island that loves singing. He sings all the time. He is so lonely. One day, he starts moving away. He wants to find the one for him.
He meets different islands. He meets an island who is already in love with another. He walks away. He meets an island that is built with stone and looks incredibly hard. They try to be together but only crash and induce their volcano bursting. He runs away. Then he meets an island looks exactly like him, beautiful with rays of sunshine and rainbows and lots of flower.
He decides to stay with him. However, every time he tries to sing, the other island stops him with a cough. At first, he sings proudly. Then he sings softly. At the end he is only humming. His partner is persuading him to use his time to blossom more flowers than singing. When he couldn’t his partner is angry, bursts his volcano and leaves. He is lonely again.
He travels on his own slowly. He endures super sunny days, rainstorm days, and snowy days. The flower that is forced blossomed died out. Nevertheless, the holes are still there to remind him of what happened.
He is sailing super slowly today.
Out of a sudden, he hears some voice singing. It’s soft and beautiful. He slowly sails towards that direction. He gets faster. And he eventually slows down again. He is hesitant that he will get hurt one more time.
The other island sees him. It smiles at him and gets closer to him. However, it doesn’t try to force connect with him. At the end, the hurt island decides to try again.
He slowly reaches out.
And, he hums again.
FOLIO DOCUMENTATION
This work examines the idea of relationships and being courageous. By using the medium of 3D animation, I am able to animate the journey of an island, which is something impossible to do by live-action recording. Another option will be creating a stop motion animation. Both types of animation will be able to carry out the story. However, creating it using 3D animation allows me to control the weather simulation easier. Also, the whole idea is going to be done by one person, which is something easier to be adjusted if needed in 3D software.
This idea of the work is similar to the short animated music video ‘Lava’ created by Disney Music, which talks about two lavas wanting to meet each other in an ocean. There are also a few short animated films exploring the theme of relationships, such as ‘In a Heartbeat’ and ‘A Love Story’.
By reading ‘Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting’ written by Syd Field, I decided to put myself in the Lonely Island’s shoe to think about the reaction of potentially meeting new companion. Before doing this exercise, I was creating a ‘quick getting in touch without any struggles and happy forever’ ending. After revising down the backstory of the Island though, I think he would be afraid of the possibility of getting hurt again. Therefore, I changed the ending so that the island is hesitant but still willing to take a leap of faith. It produces a more open ending for the audience to imagine.
