Diploma Proposal
for a 3D Animation Film
Payal Keswani
19th June 2010
Log Line
“I want to bring out the strong maternal side of a young married woman who is unable to have a biological child of her own and thus chooses adoption as a means to fill that emptiness”.
Creative Brief
Dolls have always been a favorite toy amongst children. Infact, I personally cannot disassociate dolls with children. In my mind they go together, at least till the time the children have reached their teens. Dolls represent their innocence and pretty much the whole of their childhood.
A house full of toys is a happy image in my mind, at the same time, a house without dolls and other toys feels like a house void of children. This visual metaphor inspired me to make my diploma film around the theme of adoption.
In this film, I want to delve into the mind of a woman who cannot give birth to a child. How important is it for the woman to have a biological child? Is it a primal instinct? Is the need pronounced by one’s emotional insecurity or a need to conform to social mores? Today adoption as such is not that popularly accepted especially within India. If we talk about the lower middle class strata, the situation is far worse. It’s mostly the women who are blamed for not being able to carry on the family name.
The protagonist in my story comes from a middle class Indian background. I want to understand the emptiness she feels and thus bring out her maternal feelings as strongly as possible. Her profession is to stitch small adorable dolls, which she sells in the open market. The reason for choosing this as her profession is because this adds a layer of irony to the film. Also at a point in my film I want to use dolls as a metaphor for an adopted child. The story will also cover the rejection from her husband of a marriage which could not yield an offspring.
I got the opportunity to understand the character better through a distant cousin of mine, who adopted her brother’s second baby. Her journey through this phase of her life, made me realize how painful the wait can be and with each phone call she received sharing the news of others’ pregnancies, she found herself lonelier, trying to hold back the sadness and tears in order to congratulate them on their new found happiness. The constant question of “Why me?” persisted in her mind.
Through my film I do not want to preach the social message of adoption; but I do want to open up a possibility to the above problem in the minds of my audience and explore all its facets.
Synopsis
The film is based out of India and the story is narrated by the protagonist herself, named Gauri, who speaks her thoughts aloud for the audience. The protagonist is around 29 years old, who has been abandoned by her husband because she could not have a baby. She lives in a small house and owns a small shop of dolls, which she stitches herself at home. She mainly spends her days making dolls or staring outside the window in the evening when little children come out to play. She feels happy when she hears their voices in the evening, giggling and laughing out loud. A day comes when she stitches a very pretty doll and doesn’t want to sell it. That night when she sleeps, the doll comes alive and calls Gauri her mother. Gauri finally feels as if her prayers have been heard and loves the doll daughter a lot till she realizes it was all a dream. Next day while selling her usual dolls she comes across a little girl who looks like the doll she didn’t want to sell. In the end, the last shot shows how her family album has finally moved forward with pictures from her grandmother’s generation to the pictures of her and the same little girl, whom she has finally adopted.
Why/ Research Questions
Personally, I have always seen animation as a “clutter breaker”. Even before joining Srishti, I had wished to use this medium to convey something, something I strongly believe in, which needs to be said or stated to others. During my 4th year of actual film making, I have made fictional films but have never experimented with a social concept.
Adoption is a theme which has been used by many, but here I want to make a difference using the same theme but a different medium and a different story without sounding preachy. More than the theme what I mainly want to achieve through my film, is to strongly bring about the emotions, the thoughts and feelings of a woman, who constantly blames herself for not being able to give birth to a child. How does she feel when she sees others so happy with their children? When relatives call her to share their “good news,” all she can do is to congratulate them. What goes on in her mind when her family blames her for something she cannot help?
After talking to my own cousin who adopted her brother’s second child several questions popped in my head. Wasn’t accepting the fact that she will never have a biological child very tough? For her adoption within the family was fine, but what if she had to adopt a baby through an adoption agency- would she have wondered about the background of the baby?
The various books which I read covering stories on adoption, abortion, miscarriage and so on, often left me wondering about the strength of maternal feelings and how strong, powerful as well as destructive they can be. I really want to understand these thoughts and feelings and bring it out loud to my audience through my film.
Learning Outcomes
As a story writer, I wish to understand and convey the feelings of a woman without a biological child and the reasons such families feel apprehensive about choosing adoption as a second option.
As an animator, it’s a challenge for me to bring about emotions in the film and an even bigger challenge to visually represent those emotions not only through the characters facial expressions but also through her actions and slow pace movements, through close up camera shots and the background score. Thus I want to get a better understanding of various aspects of film making, like scripting, camera shots, music and styles of the characters while keeping in mind the kind of slow, emotional yet strong output I wish to deliver from my film.
Treatment/ Approach
The film will be made in 3D within a duration of 3 mins maximum. I wish to create semi realistic, Indian characters for the film, so that the story and the essence of the film is not over shadowed by the complex characters. I personally feel that a lot can be conveyed better with simple characters, which in turn also enhances the look and feel of the film. Also since I want to say something through this film I do not want to make the audience feel heavy after watching the film.
The film will mostly contain scenes from the evening and the night time. Thus the lighting will not be too bright throughout the film. Probably some shots towards the end will have a bright lit up background in order to signify a new start.
Since this film needs to highlight the emotions of the protagonist very strongly, I would like to use a lot of close up shots of not only the facial expressions but also various objects such as, photo albums and the dolls etc, in order to bring about a better impact. Few pans in the beginning and the end will certainly be required in order to establish the space properly. Also certain scenes will have fast cuts to show the sudden outburst of happiness in the protagonist.
The sounds in the film will include the laughing and giggling sounds of children, birds chirping during the evening, probably a few traffic sounds as well. I would like the background score to be a soothing, slow piano number. This will change to cherry music during the shots where the protagonist is happy.
References and resources
Films-
The Blind Side- Directed by John Lee Hancock
Masoom- Directed by Shekhar Kapur
Short animated films- To study the styles of an emotional film
La maison en petite cubes- by Kunio Katō
The Piano- by Aidan Gibbons
Solo- Directed by Ricardo Moyano, Maria Calatayud, Ysabel Castro
Replay-by Anthony Voisin
Street Musician- by Sooyun Jang
Insight- by Salvador Simo
Sonata- by Ryan Mcdougal
Books/Inspiration-
Daddy-Long-Legs- Jean Webster
The Thousand Faces of the Night- by Gita Hariharan
The New Indian Fiction- Edited by Kushwant singh
Articles-
Adoption Stories on the internet
Adoption poems written by the parents
People-
My aunt (mother’s sister) who could not conceive a second child, but never considered adoption as an option.
My aunt’s (father’s sister’s) daughter-in-law who adopted her brother’s child as she was medically unfit to conceive.
The end
for a 3D Animation Film
Payal Keswani
19th June 2010
Log Line
“I want to bring out the strong maternal side of a young married woman who is unable to have a biological child of her own and thus chooses adoption as a means to fill that emptiness”.
Creative Brief
Dolls have always been a favorite toy amongst children. Infact, I personally cannot disassociate dolls with children. In my mind they go together, at least till the time the children have reached their teens. Dolls represent their innocence and pretty much the whole of their childhood.
A house full of toys is a happy image in my mind, at the same time, a house without dolls and other toys feels like a house void of children. This visual metaphor inspired me to make my diploma film around the theme of adoption.
In this film, I want to delve into the mind of a woman who cannot give birth to a child. How important is it for the woman to have a biological child? Is it a primal instinct? Is the need pronounced by one’s emotional insecurity or a need to conform to social mores? Today adoption as such is not that popularly accepted especially within India. If we talk about the lower middle class strata, the situation is far worse. It’s mostly the women who are blamed for not being able to carry on the family name.
The protagonist in my story comes from a middle class Indian background. I want to understand the emptiness she feels and thus bring out her maternal feelings as strongly as possible. Her profession is to stitch small adorable dolls, which she sells in the open market. The reason for choosing this as her profession is because this adds a layer of irony to the film. Also at a point in my film I want to use dolls as a metaphor for an adopted child. The story will also cover the rejection from her husband of a marriage which could not yield an offspring.
I got the opportunity to understand the character better through a distant cousin of mine, who adopted her brother’s second baby. Her journey through this phase of her life, made me realize how painful the wait can be and with each phone call she received sharing the news of others’ pregnancies, she found herself lonelier, trying to hold back the sadness and tears in order to congratulate them on their new found happiness. The constant question of “Why me?” persisted in her mind.
Through my film I do not want to preach the social message of adoption; but I do want to open up a possibility to the above problem in the minds of my audience and explore all its facets.
Synopsis
The film is based out of India and the story is narrated by the protagonist herself, named Gauri, who speaks her thoughts aloud for the audience. The protagonist is around 29 years old, who has been abandoned by her husband because she could not have a baby. She lives in a small house and owns a small shop of dolls, which she stitches herself at home. She mainly spends her days making dolls or staring outside the window in the evening when little children come out to play. She feels happy when she hears their voices in the evening, giggling and laughing out loud. A day comes when she stitches a very pretty doll and doesn’t want to sell it. That night when she sleeps, the doll comes alive and calls Gauri her mother. Gauri finally feels as if her prayers have been heard and loves the doll daughter a lot till she realizes it was all a dream. Next day while selling her usual dolls she comes across a little girl who looks like the doll she didn’t want to sell. In the end, the last shot shows how her family album has finally moved forward with pictures from her grandmother’s generation to the pictures of her and the same little girl, whom she has finally adopted.
Why/ Research Questions
Personally, I have always seen animation as a “clutter breaker”. Even before joining Srishti, I had wished to use this medium to convey something, something I strongly believe in, which needs to be said or stated to others. During my 4th year of actual film making, I have made fictional films but have never experimented with a social concept.
Adoption is a theme which has been used by many, but here I want to make a difference using the same theme but a different medium and a different story without sounding preachy. More than the theme what I mainly want to achieve through my film, is to strongly bring about the emotions, the thoughts and feelings of a woman, who constantly blames herself for not being able to give birth to a child. How does she feel when she sees others so happy with their children? When relatives call her to share their “good news,” all she can do is to congratulate them. What goes on in her mind when her family blames her for something she cannot help?
After talking to my own cousin who adopted her brother’s second child several questions popped in my head. Wasn’t accepting the fact that she will never have a biological child very tough? For her adoption within the family was fine, but what if she had to adopt a baby through an adoption agency- would she have wondered about the background of the baby?
The various books which I read covering stories on adoption, abortion, miscarriage and so on, often left me wondering about the strength of maternal feelings and how strong, powerful as well as destructive they can be. I really want to understand these thoughts and feelings and bring it out loud to my audience through my film.
Learning Outcomes
As a story writer, I wish to understand and convey the feelings of a woman without a biological child and the reasons such families feel apprehensive about choosing adoption as a second option.
As an animator, it’s a challenge for me to bring about emotions in the film and an even bigger challenge to visually represent those emotions not only through the characters facial expressions but also through her actions and slow pace movements, through close up camera shots and the background score. Thus I want to get a better understanding of various aspects of film making, like scripting, camera shots, music and styles of the characters while keeping in mind the kind of slow, emotional yet strong output I wish to deliver from my film.
Treatment/ Approach
The film will be made in 3D within a duration of 3 mins maximum. I wish to create semi realistic, Indian characters for the film, so that the story and the essence of the film is not over shadowed by the complex characters. I personally feel that a lot can be conveyed better with simple characters, which in turn also enhances the look and feel of the film. Also since I want to say something through this film I do not want to make the audience feel heavy after watching the film.
The film will mostly contain scenes from the evening and the night time. Thus the lighting will not be too bright throughout the film. Probably some shots towards the end will have a bright lit up background in order to signify a new start.
Since this film needs to highlight the emotions of the protagonist very strongly, I would like to use a lot of close up shots of not only the facial expressions but also various objects such as, photo albums and the dolls etc, in order to bring about a better impact. Few pans in the beginning and the end will certainly be required in order to establish the space properly. Also certain scenes will have fast cuts to show the sudden outburst of happiness in the protagonist.
The sounds in the film will include the laughing and giggling sounds of children, birds chirping during the evening, probably a few traffic sounds as well. I would like the background score to be a soothing, slow piano number. This will change to cherry music during the shots where the protagonist is happy.
References and resources
Films-
The Blind Side- Directed by John Lee Hancock
Masoom- Directed by Shekhar Kapur
Short animated films- To study the styles of an emotional film
La maison en petite cubes- by Kunio Katō
The Piano- by Aidan Gibbons
Solo- Directed by Ricardo Moyano, Maria Calatayud, Ysabel Castro
Replay-by Anthony Voisin
Street Musician- by Sooyun Jang
Insight- by Salvador Simo
Sonata- by Ryan Mcdougal
Books/Inspiration-
Daddy-Long-Legs- Jean Webster
The Thousand Faces of the Night- by Gita Hariharan
The New Indian Fiction- Edited by Kushwant singh
Articles-
Adoption Stories on the internet
Adoption poems written by the parents
People-
My aunt (mother’s sister) who could not conceive a second child, but never considered adoption as an option.
My aunt’s (father’s sister’s) daughter-in-law who adopted her brother’s child as she was medically unfit to conceive.
The end
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