Bullet Points

Just writing down some potential modifications in this post as an archive (since I'm so forgetful)

- Change factory floor to classroom sized setting to save on rendering/animation.

- Develop bully character who stands out from the other small robots and perpetrates most of the ill will towards the older robot. Have this bully character be the one rescued in the last act to strengthen impact of old robot's sacrifice. Hopefully this isn't too cliche.

- Reworking the mechanic by which the disaster occurs. The way it occurs now seems overlong and too complicated and maybe just a little unconvincing. In the end the way the disaster occurs isn't necessarily important (I think?) and shouldn't take more screen time than necessary.

- Is demonstrating the factory's history or indeed giving it history at all necessary? Are the visual cues that distinguish the old robot from his co-workers and his environment enough for the sake of a short film that a 'why' doesn't need to be explained, or does the message become muddled and confusing (and not as strong) without knowing the history?

Spitting Story Ideas

I got a lot of great feedback from people in class during our latest pitch session, and I've incorporated that feedback along with my ideas to create a rough narrative outline of my prospective grad film. It should be noted that this most likely isn't how events will be depicted in the film but is more of a general outline of the major ideas which will be present in the film's narrative.

First, an outline of the narratives background;

Unit 57 (his name for the sake of writing this, I don't plan on having expressed character names in the film) is clumsy, brutish and slow compared to his current co-workers, but it wasn't always that way. 57 is the last of his kind employed at the local manufacturing plant, a factory that produces cube components. Initially the factory produced large scale components and thus hired robot workers with the attributes to assemble these large, heavy pieces. As technology advanced, however, the cubes became smaller and more delicate, requiring a gentle precision that most of the workers simply did not possess. As the months progressed more workers were fired for their inability to meet the quota and more of a new kind of robot were brought on to replace them. These new robots, with their smaller hands and lighter limbs, could manufacture cubes at a much greater rate and without accidentally destroying components in their haste.

This next part is more just spitting out the general events which will lead to the climax and end of the film. Prior to this scene I plan to have more of a focus on Unit 57 and his interactions, or lack thereof, with his co-workers and his struggles with his work.

Unit 57 enters the blindingly white factory floor, angling his body in an awkward manner in order to get his broad frame through the small door. He trudges over to his position on the line, taking care to avoid the other workers, who come up barely past his knee, as they rush by him and to their own stations. 57 knows, that like every day at the factory, he will be staying well past the time that his co-workers leave, working into the night in order to complete his designated quota.

After several hours 57 has finally completed his first shipment's worth of cubes. As 57 closes the first cardboard box stacked with cubes he looks to his right to see his co-worker has six similar boxes prepared and is already working away diligently on his seventh. Standing from his station to retrieve another cardboard box, 57 turns and immediately crashes into a trolley carrying completed shipments, sending the boxes and their precious innards spraying across the factory floor. The small robot working beside 57 is snapped out of his concentration by the disturbance, frightened so badly by the cacophony of noise that he has unwittingly leaked oil onto the pristine factory floor. Embarrassed and flustered, the small robot quickly wipes up the spillage with a rag and, not wanting the others to know about his accident, pries up a floor panel beside him and tosses the rag into the depths. Glancing over, the small robot sees that the entire factory floor is staring at 57 as he feebly attempts to pick up the fallen pieces while being loudly berated by the worker whose trolley he knocked over. The small robot returns to his work, ignoring the events surrounding him and concentrating on going home.

The oiled rag previously tossed beneath the factory floor lands atop a bundle of exposed wires, quickly igniting into a small fire. Fed by the plastic encasing the wires, the fire travels beneath the floor, silently wandering the length and breadth of the entire factory. Eventually the fire reaches the chemical disposal room, where it comes in contact with an explosive material. The result is a massive explosion that levels the surrounding rooms and weakens the structure of the building.

From the factory floor a great boom is heard in the distance but there is no obvious threat. Curious, workers look up from their tasks and exchange glances. Suddenly the normal glaring lights of the factory floor are extinguished and replaced with a red light and blaring sirens. Workers get up from their stations and begin gathering, attempting to puzzle out their current situation. All at once, chaos breaks loose as gouts of flame erupt from the floor. The workers panic and rush for the door only to find it sealed shut by emergency protocol. Watching as the small robots bang their hands uselessly on the metal door, 57 steps forward and pries the doors apart with great effort.

Now spilling out of the door and rushing towards the exit, 57 is distracted by a cry he hears coming down a hall. He runs down the hall searching for the sound and comes upon a small robot partially buried in rubble and unable to get up. Digging out the robot and carrying him in one giant hand, 57 runs back towards the exit as the building is collapsing around him. Realizing that his heavy, slow legs cannot outpace the rapidly deteriorating structure, 57 uses all of his might to slide the robot in his hand down the hallway floor and out of the exit. Now outside with the others, the small robot skids to a stop as the exit behind him collapses. The workers now see that a majority of the factory has been destroyed, and that all of the floor employees reached safety, save for one.

... Boy, did this just get a lot more expensive to produce.

Considering the Aesthetic

 I feel that there are two possible aesthetics for my film. There's the ultra-clean, antiseptic look with smooth, shiny surfaces and one dimensional colour palette as exemplified by the image above. The other option I am considering is a more natural color scheme, creating the factory building out of earth tones and then off-setting that with more colorful machines and colorful robot workers. It would be lit with natural light from the outside or warmer indoor lights as opposed to the stark, bright white lights of the McLaren factory seen above. The image below comes close to what I imagine, though the factory in the film will not be abandoned.

Whichever environment I choose, its main purpose will be to reinforce the narrative's ideas of contrast. In this I believe I have two main options. Option one is to demonstrate in the film the transition of the factory from its original, more colorful and natural state to its aseptic state. In this version it is the old robot that is the visible outsider, as his design and aesthetic will match the original factory's visuals more than the modern factory. The downsides to this option are that it will take time and narrative exposition in order to communicate the idea of the transition from old to high-tech. The other, larger issue is that it necessitates the creation of two or more sets, with additional props on top of that probably needed to fully realize the idea visually.

The comparatively more simple idea would be to keep the lower-tech looking factory and instead insert the modern robot workers into that set, making them the visual outsiders. I feel like this is the stronger option, as it gets the same idea across in the narrative in a method that is far less costly to produce. It also reinforces the idea that the new workers are the intruders into the old robot's space, and that the original workers, perhaps unjustly, were driven away from their jobs in the name of efficiency. If nothing else I feel that the modern, white and shiny factory has been done to death in science-fiction media and is overall aesthetically boring.

Finding the Event

Determining what kind of event is going to lead to the climax of the story will be fairly difficult, but I feel I need to determine what the climax is in order to lay a story around it. In the story the old robot's primary trait, his gift and his curse, is his strength and physical size. This means that by the end of the film he will have found a way to channel his abilities and characteristics in a manner that gives him a purpose within his workplace and earns the respect and/or admiration of his co-workers.

A very dramatic way to go about conveying this would be for a disaster of some sort to happen. Perhaps a large machine falls on one of the new robots, or the roof of the factory collapses and traps workers inside. In both these scenarios the smaller, less powerful robots would be near helpless and would require the help of the old robot to save them.

Another way to go about it would be for the old robot to discover a new function that makes use of his size and strength. I'm not entirely sure what that could be, and I think that this would be less dramatic, require more explanation and perhaps not translate as well into animation, especially an animation without dialogue. It is still a scenario worth considering, though.

Initial Idea

My initial idea for my grad film is the story of an old factory working robot who is being pushed out of his job by younger, more skilled robots. In this factory the robot workers put together objects, such as boxes, on a production line.

Initially this factory manufactured large boxes and with his large, strong hands the older robot was very adept at his job. But advances in technology allowed the boxes to become smaller and smaller, to the point where the original workers, hired for their sheer strength, were unable to handle the goods without damaging them. Most of the old workers, humongous, chunky robots who are now considered outdated, have been replaced with much more lithe and agile ones. These new workers are robots who possess the precision and dexterity to adeptly manufacture the new tiny boxes.

One original worker persists, however. He is the only 'outdated' robot remaining, a clumsy colossus compared to his graceful co-workers. He tries his best to be good at his job, even though the boxes are now a fraction of the size of his massive hands. More often than not he drops or crushes the precious boxes, earning scornful and mocking reactions from the other workers on the line. The old robot staggers on despite this, determined to be of use and fulfill his function as a factory robot.