Conceptualization - Part 1

Good day!

I am writing to present two ideas of mine for two short animation movies. First I will write a short pitch for each idea, then the story plot, backed up with images to better explain the visual style of the story.

Movie 1 - Queues

Pitch

A busy day in the tax office. A regular guy goes to there to deliver some forms, but the queues are endless, and he has to wait a long time. While waiting, a succession of events happen, that make him regret being such a nice and respectful guy towards other people, since everyone just gets in front of him.

Plot

Charles, a regular guy, is waiting in the tax office queue. As usual, all of the open cashiers have an endless line. Suddenly, another lane opens, he looks to his back and everyone that was after him just moves really quickly to the open lane. He takes a deep breath and decides to stay on the same lane. A few seconds later, a new lane opens, he hesitates for a second, but then decides he goes for it, but everyone in front of him got there first, so he goes back to his place.

A minute or so later, he is the next in line to be attended, but the cashier just places a sign that the lane is closed. Starting to get angry he sees a new lane opening, and another lane almost empty, he goes for the new lane, but all of the people behind him get there before him, he stands between the two mentioned lanes, tries to go for the almost empty one, while looking back, and bumps into someone that gestures for him to go back to the queue.

Starting to get pissed of, he notices there is only two lanes open. He decides to be more aggressive, changing lanes every time he notices that one queue is shorter than the other. This goes on and on, until there is only him and two other persons, on in each lane. One of them leaves, and he rushes to the open lane, just to see that the person there left for lunch. He looks at the other lane, runs like crazy, and as soon as he gets there, the employee also goes for lunch.

Disappointed, Charles gets angry and walks towards the exit swearing and waving hands while looking back at the closed lanes, gets close to the door, and SLAM, hits the door hard, and falls flat on the floor.

The end.

Style

In this story it would be important to characterize the main character and leave the other people present in the room emotionless, only reacting to the queues variations. The whole movie has a typical cartoonish style, so that it can somehow add to the humor and funny parts of the story.

To emphasize the message of the movie, only the main character would have a defined face. He would wear light brown, or light blue suit, to make him stand out from all of the other people. The closest example of how I want him to look like, even personality wise, would be along the lines of the main character, Franky, in the movie "The Goon", by David Fincher:

All the other people would just be assets to better tell the story, being them faceless, wearing grey or close to black colors, not as basic as on the image bellow:

The scenario would involve a room, with close to no furniture apart from the counters, the people behind the counters would have faces, but with very dull expressions that never change. 

 Movie 2 -One plus One makes One

Pitch

A mathematician has decided to find a mathematical explanation for love. One night, after being closed in his office for weeks, his wife approaches him, begging him to come and spend time with her. He grunts at her, and goes for a last try in his equation on that day. With no success, he goes away. His pencil and rubber come to life and start writing on his book, to give his problem a solution that he had never thought of.

Plot

Hans, a mathematician, has spent the best part of the last four weeks desperately trying to find a equation that would explain love and what makes it bring two people together. 

One late night, his wife enters the room and tells him that he has not been spending any time with her, and that she misses him. Upset, Hans tells her to leave him alone, and delves again into his problem, only to conclude that he gets again the same solution he has been getting for the past weeks, for the equation he is trying to solve: 1+1=1. He does not understand why.

Frustrated he gives up, raises himself from the chair and leaves the room, leaving the desk light on. A few seconds later, his pencil and rubber, become alive. They stand in front of his book, looking at the equation. Looking at each other with a compromising expression, they decide to put an end to Hans problem, and solve it for him.

The rubber jumps onto the book, and starts erasing the best part of the equation. With a swift bump, the pencil pushes the rubber away and starts writing like there was no tomorrow. At this point the audience does not see what is being done in the book. Alternating between writing and erasing, the pencil and the rubber draw and draw until its morning. 

With a satisfied look in their "faces", they finish they work and congratulate each other with a affirmative nod and return to their lifeless states. Hans returns to his desk, to continue pursuing a solution for his problem, only to find something very surprising and unexpected: there is no equation any more in his book. There is only a sketch of his wife´s face, but rather being done with lines, it is done with the final result he was having all the time: 1+1=1. 

Hans understands then, that love, cannot be translated into numbers, and the solution that he was looking for, has always been right there, without him even noticing it. He closes his book and steps out of his office, feeling happy and with a sense of realization to meet his wife. 

The pencil and the rubber, standing besides each other, exchange a compromising eye blink and lay there with a smile.

Style

The environment for this movie would be only one: the office at Hans house. It would have a wood desk, a picture of his wife, pens, books, papers, etc on top of the desk. The ambiance is heavy and dark. Only the light on top of the desk and the light from the moon coming inside from the window would light the scenario. 

Character wise, Hans would be close to a real person, but distorted in a way. In my mind I can see him slightly distorted as in Chris Landreth movie, Ryan. Well not so altered but representing a broken body, controlled by obsession. 

The pencil and the rubber would be something along these lines:

This is it. I hope you enjoyed reading and I will be back soon!