Animated Narratives: Semester 1: Project 2
To read the full script for Tiered City, visit:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11sHa083eUgZQk4sRmIeLn-CdQq_almdC0IBZ5eVbmtU/edit?usp=sharing
The brief for this project was to create a PoC for a narrative work including a script, character briefs, references and explanations. My idea was inspired by a fellow student's proposal "What if our thoughts appeared above our heads?"
This idea evolved into several different iterations, the most successful one being: in a world where everyone's thoughts are visible unless they can pay to hide them, a woman's thoughts about her own childhood are taken and adapted into a film without her permission. This reflects both on 2020s attitudes toward data theft and identity ownership and on Film's history diverse personal stories being absorbed and warped into broad, acceptable public narratives. My first 3 script iterations focused on this idea.
I received a lot of feedback from other students on this and the digestibility of the universe was often the subject of conversation. How does one tackle data theft in this universe? How does intellectual property exist in a world that's always been like this? If I were to imagine a universe completely developed around a world where thoughts have always been visible, would the visual language of that world be recognizable to an audience? Would it require egregious explanation? Would it be distracting? There was a lump in my story that needed ironing out, and I needed to experiment to figure out what it was.
I was afraid that, if I took out people being able to see each other's thoughts, I would lose that kernel of interest that sparked the story to begin with, and justified keeping it in and milling around it. But eventually, it needed ironing out. I wrote in a machine that can read thoughts instead something which ended up making the story so simple, I didn't have to even include expository dialogue. It was a rough choice to make, and it made my story that much more typical, but it was definitely for the best. From that point, draft 4 felt completely untethered and I had the freedom to create and explore my simpler world in ways I loved.
Below are significant pages from my proof of concept booklet:
