My Dreams

I usually have weird dreams, like there very bizarre and strange. There usually about fighting, or I'm running away from something that's chasing me. There tend to be a lot of monsters or aliens in my dreams too. 

I had this dream a few days ago where, I was an alien but I still had human features. My body was just enhanced to the proportions of alien anatomy. It was a weird feeling, my hands were long and skinny to but I had 4 fingers and a thumb. My nails were long and thin too, its like my whole body was elongated. 

I've also had this dream where I'm drifting away, like there's no gravity. I remember going to the shop and buying something, then as I walked out of the shop gravity didn't affect me, every one around was fine it was just me. I started just floating away, and then I felt danger, so I looked at the direction it was coming from. I saw a girl with red hair and she had a bob cut, she was running towards me and looked really angry. I had no idea who she was, but I new I had to get away from her. I couldn't control the direction I was going in  because I was just floating away, I tried to see if a swimming motion would work, it helped a little. She couldn't reach me because, I was in the air and she was on the ground. Then she started jumping over walls and climbing buildings, to get closer to me, but then I stopped floating and I slowly started falling, like really slowly. So I leaned towards a building, and once I got close enough I used it as a boost to get higher in the air by pushing off it. But the girl chasing me looked around my age, and she was very athletic. I have no idea why she was chasing me though, but all I know is she had a killer intent and I had to get away from her.

I remember another dream I had, where I was being chased by a, lizard/dinosaur alien type creature around the train station. It was killing everyone around, and it suddenly stopped and looked at me, I ran away so I could hide, or escape. I found a hiding place, it wasn't good but I didn't know what to do. I hid behind a wall, and I was watching what was going on, because I wanted to know what they were doing. There were only two, one was green, and the other was grey but had purple armor on, I didn't even know what they were. The creatures kinda looked like that evil Lizard man on spider-man, but with a human face and torso it had fangs and dinosaur legs (T-Rex) and a tail. As they were leaving thinking they killed everyone, I thought I was saved, I was so scared I didn't know what to do. The grey/purple one was walking behind the green one. The green one walked away, but as the grey/purple one was walking away it suddenly, just stopped and looked back towards my direction, like it sensed me there. It didn't know exactly where so it started walking slowly closer to where I was, I freaked out because, it was like I was in a horror movie. I didn't want the creature to find me but it kept coming closer, I panicked and just ran, because it was too close to where I was. As I ran I suddenly ended up in a rocky field area, and the creature wasn't there. I looked back and instead I saw a lots of aliens, like the stereotypical type of alien. I was being chased, or should I say hunted by a giant army of aliens all running towards me. But this time I knew I had powers, I could defend myself, I had plant powers and I was some how magically summoning vines from the ground and using them to attack the aliens. It was like an alien war, but they were all after me, there was no one else around. I found myself facing an alien army on my own, but I had strange plant powers, I could make them grow out the ground, I was using them like whips and I was hurting/ killing the aliens. After a while I was still fighting the aliens and fleeing away from them at the same time but then I woke up. So my dreams tend to be really weird, and strange. Most of my dreams have some type of creature in it, some times I'm fighting them, and other times I'm high fiveing them like where best friends.

Final Idea

I keep changing my mind on what my final idea is, I was going to go with the idea about when the universe was going to be in danger, but then the hero is going to have to astro travel so he has the ability to move from planet to planet really quickly, and travel from one end of the universe to the other in an instant. But I realized I wouldn't have enough time, to be able to animate all of it and get all the character designs, and background designs done in time. Because the story is very complected, and there's a lot that needs to be done for it. So I decided to go with one of my more simple ideas, where there really isn't a story

I  am going to go with the story where my character goes to sleep and in his dream, everything he dreamed, and fantasized of as kid would come true in his dream and he does what he wished he could do or be, For example they start to fly, then they become a super hero, travel to space,turn into a dragon, they live there dreams....

But in my actual animation, I want to base it on the dreams I have. In my dreams I am usually getting chased by a creature, or by a person. Or some times in my dreams I am fighting monsters, and I'm in strange places, like I would be fighting and once I've defeated every one there, I instantly change the location and I would keep fighting. I remember in one of my dreams I was fighting these fish creatures, and I was flying but the creatures would come from every angle, like above and below me and from all sides and some times I'm just on my own or with 3 or 4 other people, but they would be far away, they would be fighting to, but for some reason I know where on the same side, like where a team or something. I don't know why but I'm always fighting different creatures and they all have different sizes to like, some are humongous like really really big, and there attacking me, and I'm as big as an ant. Its really weird but there was a creature that was eating the earth but some how it wasn't affecting the ocean, the sea was still there but the earth was being eaten by two of these creatures, I remember almost being swallowed but some how I got a hold of its tooth and I picked it up and threw it on the other creature and then I don't know what happened after that. But my dreams are weird usually, so I am going to use a few of my dreams as a reference, for my animation. 

In my animation I am going to start it with, my character walking towards his bed and going to sleep. Then everything will go white, and the dream will begin but before it does he will be floating in a background of white and he will slowly start to fall and land in a beach. When the dream begins its gonna start with a beach and then my characters gonna walk through it, and a shadows gonna appear, and my characters gonna, run from it and end up in a maze, where he will get lost and stuck, then my character is gonna try and escape by going into the sky, he will achieve this by growing wings, he will fly towards space, and once he gets there he will stop running and the shadow will reveal it self to be some type of monster. He will end up facing his fear by fighting the creature in the end but he will get stabbed by the creature, which will cause him to wake up.

I'm not really sure how to end the animation because in my dreams, I usually just wake up in a middle of a fight, or when I defeat the creature. But to make it different I might just have my character severely injured, and that's what causes him to wake up but in a shock.

Research

Dream Catcher

This is a movie about four friends that find a boy getting bullied because of his disabilities, so they help him and become his friend. He then gives them each a different telepathic power, which they use will need later on in life. When there older the four friends decide to go on a camping trip, but they end up finding the place infected with parasitic aliens from space.



The Wizard of Oz

The movie is about a girl named Dorothy, who hits her head and is taken away by a tornado and lands in a magical land, and she tries to get back home. On her way she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin-man, and a Lion. They all have some thing missing or something they would like, the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin-man wants a heart, and the Lion wants courage. So all three of them join Dorothy on her journey to find the person who can grant them there wish. But in the end she finds her way home and it turns out she passed out and was dreaming the whole thing, but she believes it wasn't a dream.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror movie, about people being hunted by a serial killer. But he kills them in their dreams. Once they fall a sleep they see him, and once he kills them in there dreams they die in real life. I thought I should add this to my research, because I haven't mentioned a horror film. They try and stay awake but they cant help but to fall asleep eventually and then he kills them.

 

Courage the Cowardly Dog 
Courage the cowardly dog is a cartoon about a dog who is courageous and cowardly at the same time. He saves his owners all the time from danger, but is always frightened as he is trying to save them. But says as he is saving them or after "The things I do for love", he doesn't say it all the time but he says it every few episodes. The reason I am writing about this cartoon is because of the style used. I didn't realize before until now that the background is sometimes real, or parts of it are. I used to watch this show as a kid and I really liked it. But I never realized until I watched it recently that there are parts of the animation that include real life photos or images in the background.

 

I found it difficult to find these images, because there aren't any good images of the show on Google, I can't find any that are good quality these are the best I could find. You can see in the images of the cartoon that, there are real photos used in the animation, like the sky or the texture of the ground.

You can see it more clearly in this image, the sky is real and so is the ground. But everything else is animated. I added this to my research because I found this quite interesting, I might even use this style in my animation.

Joseph The King of Dreams 

It was actually a coincidence that I came across this film. My brother just put the film on and I watched it with him not knowing what the film was called or what it was about. He just said its a Dream Works film. It was about a miracle child, who was given a gift from god. He had very vivid dreams and later was able to decipher the meaning of dreams. 

 


Tsubasa Chronicle 

I watched this anime about two months ago I think, and I really liked it. It was about a boy who has to save his childhood friend who is a princess. He is a archeologist and is carrying on his adopted fathers work, he is researching and exploring the ruins found in the kingdom of Clow. One day as he is trying to figure out what the symbols mean on the ruins, meanwhile the princess hears a sound and is put under a trance. She ends up appearing at the ruins, and activates something. The symbols start to light up and she grows wings but strange looking wings, with these tattoos on them. She fly's up and starts to go through this wall but the boy keeps shouting her name, so he jumps up and grabs her to snap her out of it. Once he did that her wings shattered and faded away. She stays uncontentious and starts to get cold, he finds out from the priest of the land that the wings that shattered are actually her memory's, and they have been scattered through out the dimensions. So he sends him and the princess to the dimensional witch who is the only one who can help. Once he gets there, there are two others seeking her help too, so she asks them for something in exchange that is equal price for there wish. The boy has to give up the memory's he has with the princess, so he will be the only one who remembers and she will remember nothing. The other two gave up there most precious belongings to her. So she gave them a creature called Mokona Modoki, the creature will give them the ability to travel to each dimension, but they will have to find the feathers on there own. I am writing about this because, I like the idea of how they traveled from dimension to dimension. I was going to use this as a reference for my other story idea about the boy who has to save the universe. But because I changed my idea I wasn't going to write about it. But I really like the music used in the Anime, so I was thinking I could use the music for my animation because it sounds kinda dreamy,magical, and kinda divine. I was thinking about using the song called Siren Song by the artist Yuki Kajiura. I found a short clip on youtube that shows you how Mokona takes them to another dimension. Its sorta eats them and disappears, then they all appear in the next dimension. But its in Japanese and when I watched it, it was in English but I can't seem to find one in English. I put the link below

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zw2gj2hzhg

The link below is a video of a person running, and the camera angle is front view. I am gonna need this as a reference for my animation, when my character is going to be running away from an orb of shadow, which is gonna be chasing him.

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_or01tU3v8&hd=1

I used this as a reference, to help me draw feet in my animation, because I found it quite difficult to draw the feet correctly for my animation.

Proposal

I don’t have a title yet but the theme is going to be, Dreamscape because I quite like the idea and it lets me work openly and I am not restricted by what I should do. In the end I want to make an animation using lots of different media, to show off the skills I have developed while on this course. 

My ideas for this story come from my own dreams that I have, I am recording the dreams I have by keeping a dream diary and writing down every day what dreams I have. I have thought of four different ideas I came up with, but I couldn’t choose what story I wanted to go forward with. When I presented my ideas to the class, nearly everyone liked the same story. I ended up choosing the idea that was liked the most. I was also influenced by surrealism art because the painting style reminds me of bizarre dreams I would have sometimes.  

The story I went with is about a hero from earth who has to save the universe, but he isn’t able to travel from planet to planet very easily, so he Astrotravels where he leaves his physical body to travel around in his Dreambody. This makes it easier for him to travel to other galaxies. But for this story, I want the villain to have a good back story that shows how he turned evil, because he was once good. 

For this story I am going to use a lot of different media, I am going to add this when my character travels to different planets or even galaxies. When my character is in another galaxy, the media I am going to use will be different. For example the animation could start off digitally, then when my character travels to another galaxy the media could change, and the animation could be Claymation, in another galaxy the media could be sock puppets, stop motion, silhouettes or other media. I am going to research into the different media I am going to use or wanted to use. I am going to start to make my animation hopefully by the end of April, because I know this animation is going to take a while to make. But I am hoping to create a finished animation, where I have used different media and it has sound.

Dreamscape Story Ideas

Ideas 

- Different Media 
I am thinking of using different media for my animation. I want my character to be wondering around, but then they end up crossing in to a picture or something and the media I am using changes. So if my animation starts digitally, my character could cross into a claymation world, and then the media could keep changing, next could be a silhouette world, sock puppets, a paper character entering the real world, comes out of the screen.

• The story could be about my character who faints, but sees a strange figure before he/she faints. But it turns out they summoned them to save the dream world from disaster, because the sacred "Item" was stolen and if it isn't returned the dream world will end. So the he/she goes on hunt to find the villain. But it becomes a chase so my character ends up chasing the villain into different worlds.
• Or it could just be a dream where your wondering around

- Nightmare
This story is about a person who doesn't want to sleep because, when they fall asleep they always end up having a nightmare, so there trying to escape from their dreams. But the story could start with everything being normal, but then everything starts to go wrong, and turn scary/psychotic. I am probably gonna use digital animation for this one.
  
- Dreams
When my character goes to sleep his/her dreams come true and they do what they wish they could, For example they start to fly, then they become a super hero, travel to space,turn into a dragon, they live there dreams....

- Adventure 
The universe is in danger from the evil villain (Nito??? maybe Chester) who seeks to destroy the universe, he was once part of the council who kept the universe in balance, but he is now planning to destroy the universe he once, used to protect.

• He plans to save the universe because he has idly stood by watching the council corrupt the universe, and start wars for there own gain. He has also witnessed the evil in all the races in the universe, and wants to destroy them all to keep the universe safe from all the beings in the universe.
• Or he caught some of the council members, messing with the balance of the universe. So they put the blame on him and he was locked up for crimes he didn't commit. When he escapes he goes after the council, and the council accuse him of trying to destroy the universe, and summon a hero who must defeat him.

The Hero of this story is a person from earth, the council call onto a human because they think they can manipulate them into doing what they want, because they see them as lower class beings. But this person is a little different from the rest, but they don't know this because this person figures out how to Astro travel. (Astral Projection) 
Astral Projection, also called Astral Travel is when the consciousness/soul rises, and is described as an out of body experience, where the spiritual traveler leaves the physical body and travels in there astralbody/dreambody into higher realms. This occurs in dreams, and in forms of meditation.

Binitesh Baruri The Visitor

In class we were told that we had a visitor, called Binitesh Baruri who was was going to talk to us. He's a director and is from India, he came to take to us about hero's journey or also called monomyth. Hero's journey is what all directors and story writers use to create a story. It's like a skeleton to most story's. Binitesh gave us examples of movies, that used monomyth, he used Harry Potter, Batman, Spiderman, Star trek and a few other movies.

He told us how each story used hero's journey, and that there are 12 main stages to create a successful story. 

1. The Ordinary World  The story usually begins with the character, having a difficult life or they want there life to mean something. For example in Harry Potter and The Philosopher Stone, Harry is living a lonely sad life, he makes a wish because he wants a better life. Or in some movies the the main character wants to help people, and become the hero for example Kick Ass.
 
2. The Call to Adventure
The hero gets a call to action, for harry potter it was the letter that invited him to Hogwarts or Hagrid because he brought the letter. In Spiderman it was when they got a tour around the lab, and then peter got bit by the spider.

3. Refusal 
This is the stage where the main character hears the call to adventure but hesitates, or refuses the role of hero because they are scared to leave the comfort of their every day lives. For example in The Hobbit Bilbo refuses to join the dwarves and become there burglar, because he is a hobbit and is afraid of leaving his stable life, to go on an adventure.

4. Mentor, Helper
The hero needs a some type of help, and it is usually given advice or they get help from a person who becomes there mentor, they get training, equipment, or advice. In some story's they are helped by there sidekicks or by someone else who later becomes there ally. For example in The Lord of The Rings Frodo is helped by Sam, on his adventure to destroy the ring. Also he was helped by Gandalf who is his friend and mentor.  
 
5. Crossing the Threshold 
Crossing the threshold is the end of act one, when the main character is ready, or isn't ready but finally agrees to leave his ordinary life, to start his adventure or enter a new world. For example in kick ass when he decides to become a hero, he crosses the threshold when he starts to stop crime on his own by facing the criminals.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies
This is when the hero, goes through tests and figures out who his enemies are and who his allies are. For example in Full Metal Alchemist Brother Hood, Edward is working for the government but realizes, there is a conspiracy deep within the government so as he goes through his journey he realizes who he can trust and who his real enemy's are.  

7. Approach
The hero and his allies prepare for the major challenge. For example in The Hobbit when Bilbo and the Dwarfs get ready to fight the Orcs.

8. Ordeal  
About half way through the story the hero, confronts death or faces there greatest fears. After they have completed this task they become stronger, "Reborn", like a transformation of some kind.

9. Reward
The hero takes some kind of treasure, but was achieved by facing and surviving death. There could be a celebration, but sometimes is also caution because the treasure could be taken again. The treasure achieved could be many different things. It could be experience, weapon or an object, or it could even be love.

10. Road Back  
This is when the hero is driven to complete the adventure, but has to chose to either stay in the unique world, or to go back to there ordinary world. 

11. Atonement 
This is when the goal of the quest has been achieved, and all the previous tasks have prepared and purifed the hero. For example in The Hobbit, Thorin tells Bilbo that he actually considered him a good friend. He apologizes for being stubborn, and treating his friends wrongly just before he dies.


12. Return
The return is when the Hero returns home, or carries on with his journey but has some type of treasure, that has the power to change the world like the way the hero was transformed.

I found it pretty interesting when we were told about this. Because this is like guideline, that helps you create a successful story. After we were told about this we watched a movie called City of God.

- City of God

In class we watched a film called City of God, we watched this with Binitesh because he was showing us how directors make the audience like or dislike a character. If a character is strong he is feared and not really liked, but if a character is kind they are bullied and you pity them but there not your favorite character. If a character has both these quality's and is kind and strong they then end up becoming the audiences favorite character. I thought the film was ok, I didn't really like it that much it just wasn't my type of movie.