More Storyline Development

After thinking a lot about the characters specifically, Ollie and I realised that we really needed to sit together and decide a FINAL storyline, because at this point is was all a bit wishy washy!

We decided that our story would centre around the robot, who is stranded on a raft which is sinking and during his desperate panics to throw everything overboard, he is greeted by a mermaid. Since she is obviously curious abut what is the problem, he gestures to the island in the distance. This mermaid gestures for him to get in the water and swim (which would then lead to at least two, very simple small 2D animated thought bubbles highlighting the robot's fears of water and fish. )

He then gestures to the mermaid to leave, leading to her becoming aggravated. Caught up in her frustration she tips the raft up. The story would then cut to underwater, where we see the robot panicking and thrashing around but then suddenly realises he isn't sinking and that he isn't falling to bits. The mermaid would then scoop him up and swim him to the shore. 

Change in Direction

After speaking to Sara, a new tutor who works a lot in the area of Stop Motion and Character Design, together the three of us decided on some alterations to make to the story, because speaking to her made us realised that we were being a bit too over ambitious for the time limit we have been given! 

What we discussed:

• Adding more comedy to the story
• Condensing it down
• The possibility of the sinking process being a lot like the Titanic
• Having it end at an earlier stage in the story
• The mermaid tipping the raft up by simply flicking it
• Ironically having it end badly for the mermaid and not the robot. 

This exchanging of ideas was really helpful, because it allowed Ollie and I to understand how the story could be improved, especially when thinking back to the Sara's presentation on creating Short Stories. 

Our final story idea: 

The Robot appears to be stuck on the raft which is clearly sinking and tipping up. The Mermaid appears from distance and observes the situation. She gets close and gestures for him to get in. As the raft is tipping and the Robot is on the edge she urges him to jump in. His inability to do so frustrates the mermaid, leading to her simply just flicking the raft which leads to the whole thing tipping up. It cuts to an underwater perspective, of the robot panicking and wavinghis arms about but he then realises that he is fine. However, the camera pans out and we see that the robots entry into the water has caused the mermaid to get electrified, so we see her there getting continuously shocked (in a very comical way of course) which could then lead to the robot looking very guilty and awkward. 

So the ending is completely different to what we originally planned, however we think this will work better because it could potentially be very funny, and it is ironic. The mermaid character is going to be portrayed as quite mysterious and sassy, so it will be very interesting for the tables to turn so quickly.