Buckle Up Creampuffs: Unit 33 Assignment 2

INITIAL IDEA -CLAYMATION
Evil killer peas. -start off nice like the gremlins so nice and cute, they sneak out of a cupboard and set off to kill other pieces of food around the room.
Claymation peas with a live action set.
Narrative.

Treatment

Plot:
My idea is going to be based inside a kitchen, the main objects being a group of peas. The peas will come out of a packet of peas to explore the room, they will then become monsters trying to destroy other pieces of food.

The start of the animation begins as we will see the cupboard door opening slightly, the camera will then zoom in as we see a tin/packet of peas. We see something trying to get out, suddenly we see a group of peas jumping out of the tin/packet. The peas will jump onto the kitchen side and begin their travels. The peas will move almost like soldiers charging happily. The music will be light and happy to begin with but it will subtly change into one that sounds like danger or evil doing. All the peas will stop their faces turning from happy and nice to gradually angry and smirking. The camera will then move to focus on another piece of food walking around singing cheerfully -something such as: a piece of sweetcorn, bananas or a carrot. The peas move slowly in the shadows and they then attack the other food, eating it. We would then hear footsteps and the peas scramble back into the cupboard, we see a person looking around, then when their back is turned the cupboard open slightly and we see one evil pea looking out, the camera zooms slowly to look at the peas and the cupboard then slams shut.

Target Audience and Genre:

My target audience will be teenagers and adults. The age will range from about 13 upwards. My animation will mainly be shown on youtube so using this I gathered more information about youtubers and the most popular stop-motion animations on youtube. I found that some of the most watched stop-motion videos on youtube are by PES. They make stopmotion animations using objects and real life action, I also found out that the common age of a youtube user is from 18-29 which is perfect my target audience of older teenagers and adults. Teenagers respond to humour better than anything else The PES videos use bright colours and the content is a bit surreal and funny which is what appeals to the teenage audience the most. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM

I took inspiration from Lee Hardcastle's Claycat's, that it was claymation which is generally aimed at children but he took a different spin on it and made the theme and the narrative darker and he made it comedic. I plan to make my animation look sweet and innocent something that you would think about a younger audience, then it will slowly change into a darker more sadistic narrative which will have a shocking impact on my audience and it will hopefully make them laugh and keep them interested. For this my genre will be a surreal comedy. I will vary my camera shots from static to tracking, so that my audience can follow all of the action on screen and they will be able to feel more involved in the narrative and imagine that they are there. I would say that it would appeal to a more male based audience as it a cartoon which studies show is something a male target audience would enjoy more.

Design:

The colours I will use will be a mixture of natural colours and a few more brightly coloured aspects. This will engage a young audience but it will also have some realistic elements to the animation. The sounds I will use will link to what is happening on screen for example when they are exploring there will be an adventure soundtrack. The actions to make it seem more realistic will be to have the peas rolling around as this is what peas would usually do however I may also have them shuffling which would make the animation funnier. For my animation I will follow some of the principles of animation such as anticipation and secondary action. I will follow some of the principles of arcs by allowing the characters to move in curves or arcs but I may also break the principles by making the peas shuffle and jump.

Something similar:

Something similar to my animation idea is an animation called A Juicy Escape which is where an orange comes to life and escapes from a kitchen. I will be using the same idea of using a kitchen allowing the scene to focus on an object and the genre is also a bit surreal and comedic. Like in A Juicy Escape we will see the animated peas rolling around with varying facial expressions, it will be lighthearted to begin with and then the narrative will become darker making it break the generic conventions of an animation.

Storyboard