Lightning In A Bottle!

I have it, the spark of true inspiration! And surprisingly enough it came from somewhere I'd never considered, the foreword from the Ed Hook's 'Acting For Animators', written by Brad Bird. In it Brad talks about the importance of good acting in character animation, saying how the best animators fully invest themselves in the moment just as much as the best live action actors do. The difference is that animators have to stay in the moment got weeks, often even months on end to express an emotions that takes their characters only seconds to convey onscreen, as opposed to the fleeting moments of live action counterparts. He concludes that "The art of character animation, then, is to try to catch lightning in a bottle one volt at a time."

I absolutely love this quote. Truly I can't think of a better way to put the sheer effort and investment on the part of character animators into words, it's the perfect analogy. As soon as I read it I knew for certain this what what I wanted to base my animation on: I'm a character animator, I want to catch lightning in a bottle too! Since my doing so will be in a metaphorical sense, why not make my character do it literally? It's the perfect epic childhood adventure, with just enough fantasy mixed with human interest to suspend disbelief and add the possibility for danger. After all, what inquisitive, darring child wouldn't jump at the chance to own their very own bolt of lightning? Lightning is a rarity, a source of power and mystery that's fleeting but leaves a lasting impression. Children often have a sense of inexplicable confidence and audacity, feeling like they could do almost anything they put their minds to. After all, no one's proved them wrong yet! Until they grow up and experience the limitations of life, the possibilities seem endless. I really want to capture that in my film, if I can.





As for ways my character could go about catching her lightning, the most obvious method that springs to mind is Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment; flying a kite in a lightning storm with a key tied to the end to conduct the electricity down the kite string. While extremely dangerous, this is the sort of simple method that would make sense to a child with his or her limited knowledge of physics, and it's the type of thing that's taught to children around primary school age, so it won't be implausible for my character to consider and use this method herself. A kite and key are common item that are easy for kids to obtain without parental permission or interference, so this option will make a lot more sense than trying to climb to the top of a tall building or find a lightning rod.

Initial Ideas

I will confess, thinking up the perfect story for this project is proving very difficult... Naturally I've been considering numerous possibilities since summer last year, but unfortunately none have stuck as of yet. The tricky part is the time limitation I have looming over me: it's surprisingly easy to fantasize a spiraling tale of epic proportions, but there is no way in this world and timeframe I could ever get everything done on time. I need to be realistic and plan everything down to the last detail, otherwise I know I simply won't finish. My extreme underestimation of how long it would take me to accomplish animating a single scene in my Specialist Study 1 project proved that much. This is my final degree show, I don't want something lack-luster and unfinished to advertise myself to the industry, or to anyone else for that matter.

Another thing I realised while wracking my brains for a suitable idea is that, more than anything, I want my work to touch someone emotionally. I want my characters to connect with people; I want the audience to empathise and relate and understand what my character's going through, to go on a journey with them and to come out of the room after watching my film feeling that life is a litte bit better than before they went in. Rather than focusing on something humorous and slightly sadistic like I have with my past projects, I 'd really like to create something genuinely heartfelt. I know that must sound incredibly cheesy (perhaps I've been watching too much Pixar lately) and perhaps even a little overambitious; I'm not saying I can write, animate, or produce anything nearly good enough to change people perspective on life. But the more I think about it, the more I believe this honestly is my dream. I truly want to reach people with my work, and I'm intend to pour my heart and soul into this project in an attempt to do just that. How successful I'll be remains to be seen, but it's all part of the learning experience and as long as try my best I'm sure I can only improve.

For now let me unload some of the initial ideas floating around in my head and sources that inspired them. I know for certain I don't intend to have a specific target audience; I don't want my work to be aimed at only a tiny niche of people. I'd much rather create a film that everyone can enjoy, something that both children and adults can relate to. With that in mind I'm thinking I want my story to be about a child having some sort of mini adventure or experiencing something wonderful and new, that way children can relate to it because they're still kids, they know what it's like for everyday to be a new adventure. And hopefully adults should be able to relate as well since they'll remember their own escapades as kids and it'll evoke a warm, nostalgic feeling. One of the key sources that got the cogs whirring about this in my mind was the Legend of Zelda games, where an item you can find in almost every game is an empty bottle.






Now in the real world a bottle is a completely worthless, commonplace item that you can acquire almost anywhere. But for some reason in the Zelda universe bottles are incredibly rare, priceless articles which are limited in number, making acquiring one a joyous experience. Why exactly? Because empty bottles are there to be filled! And there are almost endless posibilites of what you can fill them with: water, potion, bugs, fish, gas, mushrooms, fireflies, fairies, even people! (Strange but true.) Suddenly you have the means to capture and keep living things with you, things that where unobtainable before. Being able to trap and study something alive is an endless source of fascination for children, I remember it well from the days I used to catch insects in my dome pencil sharpener as a small kid because my parents wouldn't let me have a pet.

It's something you tend to forget as you get older, yet these games reminded me of it and I think this simple idea has the potential to grow into something much more story-worthy. The Zelda games are all about childhood adventure, greater callings, and magic. While I don't want my story to be complete fantasy, I'd really like there to be an element of magic in there somehow, even if it's only in the imagination of the child. My character could be trying to catch a shooting star (another dream of mine as a kid), or a fairy in the forest. One idea I've considered is to have my character set traps to try to catch a fairy at night, then succeed only to find out as the sun rised that it's actually a butterfly. I think this might be a little too mundane though, and possible fairly predicable... I don't want anything that's too obviously the child's imagination, I'd like to keep the audience guessing and make them invest in the possibility that everything my character is experiencing is real, that way if I choose to put her in any peril, they'll actually fear for her safety rather than just assuming she'll be fine because it's all a daydream.