Week 3

Aims
I want to have decided upon a final story. I’m starting to think we’re wasting time now. We don’t have long. This week we address the areas that have problems and do something about them. We only change the problem areas. We only change non problem areas if we HAVE to.
I’d like to decide upon a style and time period we’re setting this in.
We’ve been doing ok this week. At the beginning we had no concrete story now we have two to choose from.

Version 1

Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers. Once he's lifted them out he notices a picture frame at the bottom of the draw. He is immediately saddened by the picture, that of his grand-daughter and himself. He cleans it a little brushing the dust and fluff off of it. He then puts it away again reluctantly.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that always somehow manages to fly out of his reach.
Scene Four Reunited at Last
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. she sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. A shadow falls across her and we see the stamp collector just about ready to snatch his stamp back. The little girl turns to see who is behind her and there is a moment as both of the characters freeze. A look of amazement can be seen in the collector's eyes and he glances about him for the first time. As he does this the little girl stares down at the photo album she was looking at and there is the same photo the collector had back at his house titled Grandpa and Me however her's maybe titled Grandpa and Mummy indicating that many years have passed since the collector has seen his family. He stares at his granddaughter in amazement not quite knowing what to do, his thoughts of the stamp are pushed completely to one side as something far more dear to him has suddenly appeared in his life again.
Not so sure about this bit so any suggestions would be great, they need to do something with the stamp but the more important thing to him now is his family and finding them again.
She turns and holds out the stamp to her grandfather who takes it and smiles at the stamp in his hand. She takes his stamp collection and they stick the stamp into it. She then takes his hand and they walk down to the beach where the rest of the family wait.

Version 2

Scene One Search for the Elusive Stamp
The stamp collector is sitting at his desk looking at his stamp collection. He keeps staring wistfully at a space where the final stamp should be but alas, he has not yet acquired it. He has never been able to get his hands on it. Around him are magazines with pictures of this elusive stamp he looks at these longingly too as if studying them.
As the post is dropped through the mail box a subscription stamp magazines is also dropped through the door. As the collector picks it up a flyer falls from the magazine advertising a new shop that specialises in rare and unusual stamps. Beneath the type is a picture of the stamp. The collector quickly grabs his hat and his piggy bank still with his nose in the flyer he hurries out of the house not noticing his neighbour waving at him across the street.
Scene Two Return of the Collector
The collector returns with a smallish parcel that he handles very carefully as if it were easily broken. He quickly sits down and starts to unwrap his parcel in which is the stamp. As he places it on the table he opens his draw to get out the adhesive and tweezers.
He takes the stamp in the tweezers and is about to place it into the collection when a gust of wind blows it out the open window and down the street being carried along by the wind of the cars whizzing by.
He hurries from the house clutching his stamp collection close. As he stares the stamp is getting further away. He looks around in panic and sees a bike and rides off after the stamp.
Scene Three The Fantastical Journey
Here follows a fantastical and magical journey across the world as the stamp is blown about e.g. through the Windmills in Holland and past the Eiffel tower then through the fish shaped wind socks of Japan. All the while the Stamp collector is trying desperately to catch the stamp that somehow always manages to fly out of his reach. As the scenery flies by he slowly starts to take notice of the world around him and all of it's fantastical colours. However, each time he does this he snaps back to following the stamp a few seconds later. You can see him start to take note of his surroundings though.
Scene Four End of the Journey
We are now in Hawaii as we can see from the environment around us. The stamp flutters into view and falls, finally settling beside a young girl who is looking intently at a book. She sees the stamp and picks it up curiously taking a look at it. Her face brightens as she looks at the stamp and quickly picks up a pritt stick that is lying beside her and slams the stamp into her book. The stamp collector is horrified and storms over snatching away her book wiht the stamp in it. The little girl is shocked for a moment as he is about to tear out his stamp but suddenly the collector realises what he's looking at, the little girl also has a stamp collection and this is it. He looks at as she stares at him with big, worried eyes, she is on the verge of tears. The stamp collector looks back at the stamp then shame faced hands her the book back with the stamp still inside. The little girl looks up at him gratefully smiling but the collector has sat down to look sadly at his incomplete collection. The girl looks at him sadly then hurries away. She hurries back a second later and places something into the collector's hand. As he looks down to see what it is he smiles. The girl has made a little drawn copy of the stamp herself for the collector to stick into his book. She hands him the glue stick and he sticks it into the book.
Scene Five Home Sweet Home
Finally we return to the collector's home that is now full of bright trinkets from his journey around the world and his time in Hawaii, outside we see him in the garden enjoying the sun (a stark contrast to the opening scene) and as he catches sight of his neighbour across the road he smiles and waves. The neighbour looks surprised then also smiles and waves.
The camera is placed in such a way in this scene that the final thing we see is the stamp collection open on the page with the little girl's stamp stuck in at the end.


We’ve printed out the two versions and have been asking people what they think of them. We finally got to talk to Jared and discussed the two versions. Jared preferred the one that was most like our original idea. The biggest change was at the end the little girl draws the collector a version of the stamp which he keeps.
Feeling happier Andrew, Jared and I began talking about setting and different ways to show the journey taking place.
Jared pointed out that animating a man riding a bike would be very difficult and maybe, if it’s going to feature a lot we should perhaps consider using a moped instead.
All depends on how brave I feel.
Here are our journey thoughts as this is integral to the film
Seeing only a passport office and passport being stamped. Each office, depending on where it is in the world should have different trinkets decorating it.
A map with a dotted line showing where the man and the stamp are going.
Show the collector whiz past landmarks.
Have pop-up backgrounds and paint them being very clever with planes.
We then showed Dan and he also liked the drawing idea better. We briefly mentioned it would be fun to go past Ash’s film characters in Paris and Dan seemed really keen on the idea. Ash thought it would be cool too so we’re going to try and fit that in.
We now need to decide where the collector will visit in his journey.
Goals Achieved?
Yes! This week the story is finally complete. Now onto thumbnails. I’m looking forward to doing something different! I can now start to think more clearly about style next week as we’ll be talking about transport and locations.
I’m happy how this week turned out, it’s taken longer than expected to get here but at least we have.
I’ve started work on my concept for Asa’s film and I’m enjoying it. Asa’s pretty pleased with my drawings too so I’m looking forward to doing more work for her. It’s a lot of fun but I must remember to do my work too.