Pitch Bible
One Drive Access to all of my files: Pitch Bible Contents
16/03/24
For this assignment I would like my four episodes to be in mixed media animation. I want to combine my camera work of nature with 2D animation. When trying to find examples of this in mass media they were slim. But the movie that kept popping up on the list was “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. So I analysed the film and I was impressed by the craftsmanship of the work, especially for it being the 1980’s. Some key takeaways were the camera work, how the animated and real actors picked up items from the different universes, and the use of shadows for the cartoons. Here is some concept art I drew up yesterday which gives insight into how close the camera angles will be since this character is an insect. I know that I want to film this in the woods at my home in Pennsylvania. The only part I’m struggling with is what the story will consist of. Which I know is the whole purpose of this project but as you can probably guess I want to take one of these episodes into my final project.
Working Title: In Make-Believe Woods
Current Characters:
Main Characters all young Benny the Bear ,Simon the Squirrel, and Henry the Hedgehog
14/05/24
As you can see after careful deliberation I landed on a story of friendship between Simon, Henry, and Benny. With this assignment being a pitch bible I spent a long time on the designs of each character. After presenting my progress Sarah gave the suggestion to give the characters fur to make them fit better with the environment and the animal they are supposed to be. I did not know how to do such a thing in Adobe Illustrator so I looked up tutorials on adding fur.
The reason for the change of eyes from super wide to just a black and white dot was to give the characters a softer look. My main inspiration for this change was the salt and pepper shaker from Blue’s Clues. Their eyes are more welcoming than my original design which after staring at my previous eyes for a long period It felt like the characters were staring into my soul.
Out of the three characters the one I struggled with the most was definitely the hedgehog. The other two looked like they were in the same universe while that definitely wasn't the case for Henry. But after looking at multiple references I landed a similar look that clearly shows that the character is a hedgehog.
After showing the progress to Sarah of adding hair onto the characters she further suggested testing out other colours so that the characters wouldn’t just be various shades of brown. So I created colour grades for each of the characters.
Upon choosing each colour that suited the character best I went on to make turnarounds. I felt like this was an important step especially since I would be drawing the characters in different poses throughout the pitch bible. I didn’t include the turnarounds in my pitch bible because after looking at other examples I realised they were not usually shown or even done at this stage.
https://screencraft.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AdventureTimeSeriesBible.pdf
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Por0Yn
Also I wasn’t super pleased with the end result but I knew that it was a good exercise to get my brain thinking in different perspectives. So I included it here in my blog to show my process.
Inspiration for how the characters would pose came from illustrations in Winnie the Pooh.
When it came to thinking of what the episodes should consist of I just started writing. I knew there was a basic outline that I was following.They would be playing, a problem would arise and by the end it would have been solved. But when adding the whole summary into my first draft of my Pitch Bible I was told it was too wordy. The reason for keeping the biographies the same length as they were in the draft is so that the reader can get a sense of who these characters are.
So for my final I only included a sentence or two description of the episodes. If you wish to see my whole summary for all four episodes they can be found below.
Episode 1: The Ferocious Bear
Henry and Simon are pretending to be knights today. They are having a sword fight by the creek when Henry gets a feeling that they are being watched. Simon states that Henry is just trying to throw him off because he’s about to win the fight. But Henry’s eyes become huge and he runs off while screaming hysterically. Simon takes it as a forfeit on Henry’s part and begins to celebrate by dancing. As soon as he does a spin he sees what all the commotion was about, Simon was now within arm lengths of a huge and ferocious bear. A blood curdling scream comes from Simon as he follows Henry’s pawprints. The bear looks confused because he didn’t get to even say what he wanted to. So the bear follows the others trying to catch up so he can introduce himself. Henry and Simon are now running for their lives now seeing that the bear is following them. The boys find a tree with an opening and quickly decide to hide in there. The bear starts talking out loud realising that he may have scared the two potentially new friends he wanted to make. He explains that his name is Benny. He's new in town and saw how much fun they were having and wanted to join in. Then he goes on to explain that he is harmless since he and his family are vegetarians. Listening to all of this within the tree Henry states that Benny sounds like he is being truthful. Simon pulls Henry right back in as he starts to step out saying that is just what a predator wants you to think.Simon states that this “Benny” guy is the dragon that needs to be slayed so they prepared their swords. Henry and Simon ran out from the tree and began their attack. Benny at first is excited to see they are no longer hiding from him. But becomes very sad when they are now trying to hurt him with their swords. Benny, who is very much against violence starts crying realising they do not want to be friends with him at all. Simon and Henry stop as they see the beast is now crying profusely. They console him as they realise he was telling the truth and they all begin to play together.
Episode 2: Encountering Ely the Eagle
Simon and Henry are now playing ninjas with their new pal Benny. The three all want to be ninjas but the game cannot start without a villain to attack. Benny suggests what about the mean looking eagle over in the tree. Both Simon and Henry look distressed after such a suggestion was made. No one ever bothers the elderly eagle Ely, he is known to be mean towards children and if you push him too far it's rumoured he’ll eat you. Benny looked shocked and then suggested that Ely doesn’t have to know that he is villian in their game. After thinking about it for a minute all three of the boy’s giggled and began creating an epic ninja story. They all found a way up to where the old eagle was sleeping and began their attack. Benny started karate chopping Ely and immediately the eagle fell onto the ground. Ely began crying out in pain about his back and the boys ran down to try to help him. When Ely started to ask questions the boys got really quiet he then realised they had pushed him out of the tree. He was angry but did not have the strength to deal with the troublemakers. All he wanted to do was go back to his nest. So the boys gave him a hand; it's the least they could do. When they made it to the top Ely told them to go and never to bother him again. But before he could finish Henry started karate chopping Ely’s back. Both Simon and Benny told him to stop not wanting a similar accident to happen. But Ely exclaimed that it felt good on his back and to keep doing it. Simon joined in as well and Benny made his chops much gentler before. The little ninjas kept chopping away not only attacking their villain but also helping Ely.
Episode 3: Henry’s time to shine
Today is Henry’s birthday. The boys are celebrating by throwing him a party! While at the party Simon comes up with an idea for a game of school. Both Benny and Henry agree that it would be a great thing to play. After they show their enthusiasm Simon goes on to say he’ll play the teacher. Henry’s face went from a smile to a look of contempt. Henry said that it was his birthday and he wanted to be the teacher. Simon didn’t care what Henry wanted to be even if it was his birthday Simon was always the lead and that wasn’t going to change today. After the cruel words left Simon’s mouth both Benny and Henry left in disgust. Henry said he’ll play with his only true friend Benny. Simon said “fine! I don’t need you guys anyway.” But Simon found out very quickly that to play a game such as school, multiple people were required. He reflected on what he had said and realised that he did not have to be the lead every single time they played make believe. Also best friends should never speak to each other as meanly as he did to Henry. Simon ran to the boys and begged profusely for Henry’s apology. Henry said that he would only accept Simon’s apology if he agreed not to hog all the lead roles anymore when playing. Simon agreed to this deal, because he knew that keeping his friendship with a lifelong friend was more important than being the lead all the time. Also he learned a new phrase that would remind him of this day when he was ever being selfish again, “Sharing is caring.”
Episode 4: Deciding on a ending
It was another sunny day in Make Believe Woods and the boys were playing astronauts. They had just spent the day having an intense journey to a foreign planet but to which one was up for debate. Simon had declared that they had landed on the moon and planted their stick representing a flag in the ground. Declaring that they were the first ones to land on the moon! Upon hearing this news Benny told Simon that no, that statement was not correct, someone else had already done that. Simon, now annoyed, asked Benny which planet he wanted to land on then to which Benny replied “Venus.” Henry quickly shot down that suggestion saying that the conditions of Venus’s atmosphere were too harsh for exploration by anything needing oxygen. Both Benny and Simon, now equally annoyed, asked Henry where he wanted to go then. In confidence Henry stated “Mars” with blank stares from both of his friends he went on to further explain his reasoning. He told them how no one who needed oxygen has successfully landed on the planet yet. But with the advances in technology being able to go to Mars was going to soon be a very cool reality. Benny and Simon marvelled about being the first ones on that foreign planet. They all agreed upon landing on Mars and promising that they will definitely go there one day when they are older.
Final Product
