Story of I- The Script

The Story of I
version03
Oct 2008
Update: 12 Nov 08
Script: Syarah

CAPS- impt camera suggestions
Green- PROP/BACKGROUND CONCEPT to be done
Red- REFERENCE
Bold- Characters, special actions and anything impt

Scene 1 (Title and and introduction)
Down to Earth

IDEA Alt/extra intro: white balloon silhouette on black. Title appears in balloon, fade and float. Then immediate jump to Scene 2

Ref: ringling ani about girl in an accident, and a clown, balloon. Note spotlight on characters (apply to cube).

A MONOCHROMATIC RUBIK CUBE falls and crash lands in the darkness, spinning as it does so. The top of the cube spins and clicks into place.
We see now the cube has a red center on one of its faces.

A corner face flickers and shivers with TV STATIC. (ref- tv static and sound) Move closer to see something showing on the cube face…


Scene 2
When You Wake in a Dream

Ref: mirrormask world! Heavy textures intense colors. Definite Mood.
Also refer to Late of the Pier- Heart Beat video for camera moves and balloons)

Heavy mist and fog hangs, whispers of shadows traveling here and there like.

A path in the sky like a urban precipice. RED walks on it without aim.

Suddenly a figure/shadow movement across screen from just behind Red. She starts and turns, and falls upwards before the CAMERA swings 180° to show that she has been walking against gravity from the start.

Scene 3
The Grey Attack

CAMERA shows whole scene. It is an endless Esher/Echochrome environment REF: MC ESCHER, ECHOCHROME game. Please note floor has to be WIDER not narrow for many grey to walk)

There are GREY walking everywhere, an endless troop crawling the spaces without purpose. They just look ahead and mind their own business, no contact with any other Grey (REF: people on crowded trains avoiding contact)


Red is visibly frightened and stunned.
She walks into a Grey who explodes with a bang into a grey balloon. (sounds like a balloon pop) NOTE: slow mo then speed up?

Cut to various Greys close-ups of expression. They do not like Red because she is not the Same.

(note the Grey have no animatible expression, they stare out of button eyes and complexion of grey sickly, plastic/clayey skin. Here the silhouettes of grey have to be very graphic, maybe even extreme contrast of light and dark (see persepolis, mike mignola, fear of the dark style) maybe even graphic flash? Ink pen? Like how, in oktapodi, the fear of being octopi sashimi was done in flash style

ALSO IT’S IMPORTANT THAT THIS PART IS EXTREMELY SCARY OR UNSETTLING. GREYS ARE SCARY AND UNFRIENDLY. NOT CUDDLY. MUST SHOW THAT THEY ARE CREEPY AND DANGEROUS. REF NEIL GAIMEN’S CORALINE. Aim for animation to unsettle the audience and hopefully make them think.)

The Grey jump and attack like savages, throwing themselves at Red, and doing so bursting into a storm of Grey balloons that soar into the air. They jump from any angle, beams etc.

They form a mountain. Red struggles to get away, to the top….stepping, kicking. Suddenly a Red Balloon swims past horizontally. Red sees, and grabs, and she flies to safety, looking back and the greys who are still throwing themselves in the chaos.

Float to safety into the fog

Scene 4
The Tee Vee Graveyard

Location: TEEVEE GRAVEYARD

A hint of tall cube like structures piled haplessly and dangerously onto one another, plugs and wires hang from the infinite sky.
You cannot see the ground, nor where the graveyard ends.
Thick fog obscures.

Red floats through the mist and lands on ledge. She lets go of balloon.

The fog starts to clear and we see the whole TEEVEE GRAVEYARD.
From Red’s view.

The teevee at eye level flickers on. Static.

A BLACK AND WHITE OLD VIDEO plays (ref Michel Gondry’s work, shorts like bachelorette, Gore Verbinski’s THE RING tape sequence)

Grey with a balloon walking on a Rubik, which turns.
Static.
Greys on a conveyor belt.
Static.
Closeup of leg.
Static.
Closeup of waist.
Static.
Head shot, the greys moving by. Staring ahead.
Suddenly a desaturated Red GOES BY. CAMERA fixes on desat Red. She has button eyes. Desat Red realizes and covers eyes in shock.

Zoom out of teevee, the Real Red has hands over eyes as well. She steps back, slips and falls off the edge.

CAMERA TURN. The whole scene turns CLOCKWISE. As Red falls, flailing, the whole tee vee graveyard shifts and falls. (REF: imagine cubes in a bucket upright.. then you tip the bucket and all the cubes fall out.)


Scene 5
BLEACHING SEA

CUT to Red falling into bleaching sea, falling like a stone… grey cubes falling with splash (the teevees have been simplified in the water.)

As she falls further, she bleeds red and becomes grey. (bleached by water to Grey)
The rest of the cubes just sink.

(Design note: to keep the black border format. The cubes are ligh grey. Mood is cold and sad.)

Red falls out of screen.

Scene 6
The Padded Room

Ref: coughing, Gore Verbinski’s versh of the ring where Rachel coughs up hair)

Red falls into a room made up of white square tiles, resembling a padded room, rubik cube.
Wet coughing and sputtering. Heaving.
Eventually what looks like string is coughed up. Red pulls and tugs and out pops out the Red Balloon.

The floor and walls collapse like an unfolding box and fades away and Red and the balloon are afloat again in the mist.

Red’s expression of amazement.

Scene 7
Infinitus

Red floats awhile then lands on a ground. It is very foggy.

Lets go of balloon. Watch as it soars off into the sky.

Red starts to walk and all is peaceful for awhile, till Grey cubes rain down from the sky and smash into floor.

The cubes morph into Greys and they start walking.

Zoom out to show the echochrome location once again. (maybe red’s expression.)

(DESIGN NOTE: cube falls nly from where Red perceives gravity. When zooming out show there are other greys already walking on other planes.)


END

Simple Credits ROLL
Text on a black background.
Some people are dizzy when watching that flipping thing with name.

101108-is there anyway to cut/ simplify story shorter. Cut scene 8. Cut the falling off the echochrome part? SIMPLIFY THE ECHOCHROME BG. Cut the cube-morph to grey part, grey just enter scene, or can be seen when zooming out.

121108- REMOVE FACE OFF BALLOON? THOSE NOT SEEM TO SUIT THE STYLE AT ALL? BALLOON HAS TO BE MACARBRE! SEE HOW? SKIP THE SMASHING INTRO, GO STRAIGHT INTO SCENE 2

Scene 8
Looped hole

ONLY IF THERE’S TIME can finish off with the complete ending that runs after credits.

Pair of hands with red long sleeves can be seen trying to solve a monochromatic cube with one red square. Gives up in frustration and throws the cube.

Cut to Cube, spins and falls (exactly the same as the intro except) and the spotlight goes out to black.

Perhaps if this part is done, it could be in a different style, rotoscoped or flash. (cause get bored of 3d? haha.)