on the table for this week:
- story dynamics
- project profile
- animatic sound rough cut
- start working on some props
- story dynamics
- project profile
- animatic sound rough cut
- start working on some props
PROJECT PROFILE
Logline: After experiencing a traumatic dental injury, Marina fights tooth and nail to show off her newfound identity and sense of self.
Premise:
Marina, a energetic and fun-loving little girl slips and falls on the playground, knocking out her front four teeth. She’s quickly carted off to the hospital, where her mother and sister wait to reveal her hideous fate. Her mom gives her a hand mirror and is shocked to realize that Marina LOVES her new look! She promptly rips off her hospital gown, a disco ball drops from the ceiling, and a mashup medley of Donna Summer’s music fills her ears. When hordes of medical professionals swarm her attempting to fix her teeth, she evades them through a series of costume changes and dance numbers.
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Medias: Live Action Puppets
Format 16:9 HD Widescreen, 24FPS
Character Profile: Marina Santos
Marina is a kind and optimistic puppet who tries to approach every situation with a great attitude. She is friendly and outgoing, and enjoys spending time with her friends and family, disco music, and the latest fashion.
Inciting Incident: Marina slips and falls on the playground, knocking out her front four teeth. Surprisingly, she loves her new look!
Motivations:
Marina is originally motivated out of desire to keep her teeth situation the way they are (post-accident), she just wants to escape from the dentists. As she begins to find her footing, her motivation changes to defending herself and showing off her newfound identity for the world to see!
Goals:
Marina’s goals follow along with her motivations, her goal is escape in the beginning and then as she gains confidence and explores her new identity, her goal is to fight off the dentists for good + inspire others to do the same.
Internal Conflicts/External Conflicts: The only internal conflict that happens is before Pam and Sonia reveal what her injuries are. After that, she is filled with confidence and spends her time fighting against the external conflicts – those around her trying to hold her back.
Change: Throughout the course of the narrative Marina does change – the very beginning we see her at her most timid, and she grows and evolves into a confident well-rounded puppet.
Strengths/Weaknesses
Strengths: Extremely Optimistic Weaknesses: Teeth
Beats (Written)
Beat 1: Marina slips and falls on the playground, landing on her front four teeth.
Beat 2: She wakes up in the hospital, and learns of her injuries.
Beat 3: Surprisingly, she loves her new look! She rips off her hospital gown, and the entire scene changes.
Beat 4: Marina takes the spotlight, dancing around the scene.
Beat 5: The dentists chase her into the hospital's hallway + into the following door.
Beat 6: The dentists and doctors go in and out of the doors, each time exiting in a different themed outfit. She eventually escapes them.
Beat 7: More dentists appear at the end of the hallway, walking towards Marina, and forcing her to run once more.
Beat 8: She exits an ethereal tunnel into a massive mouth, free of dentists.
Beat 9: Large gloved hands reach in to restrain her, she dodges and evades them.
Beat 10: She finds a sledgehammer in the mouth, swinging at the hands and making contact with one of them.
Beat 11*: She swings again, hitting the top teeth of the mouth + shattering them - exploding pink confetti everywhere.*
Beat 12: She hits the other two teeth, making the mouth match her own, and confetti fills the scene.
Beat 13: Overjoyed, she finishes singing and dancing the finale of the song.
Beat 14: The song ends, the teeth snap shut + a single cough of confetti explodes out of the gap left in the teeth.
Synopsis
Marina slips and falls on the playground, landing on her teeth. She wakes up in the hospital, and her family tells her about her horrible injuries. Surprisingly, she loves her new look! She rips off her hospital gown, the entire outfit + scene changes, and she begins to dance around the room. Dentists swarm the room, and to evade them she runs out into the hallway of the hospital. The dentists follow her through a series of 4 doors – every time they return into the hallway the dentists and Marina are sporting a different themed outfit. After she evades them for now, she dances more and more, loving her new life. More dentists appear at the end of the hallway, storm down to her, and she escapes unfazed through an ethereal tunnel in the ceiling. She emerges into a massive mouth, and she begins dancing around more and more. Giant gloved hands reach in to detain her, but her dance moves are too quick for them. She finds a sledgehammer within the mouth + she swings at the hands, hitting one of them and knocking it out of the scene. She swings again and misses the hand – shattering the teeth in the top of the set and causing an explosion of pink confetti to fill the scene. Finally free of the dentists, Marina finishes dancing the finale of the song + takes a bow, being showered in roses by the loving audience. She jumps back down the throat of the mouth and the massive teeth slam shut, a cough of confetti exploding out of the gap left in the teeth.
Outline
EXT. PLAYGROUND, DAY.
MARINA slips and falls hard, landing on her teeth. She immediately blacks out, as her vision fades she sees four teeth floating around her head, shattering into a puff of pink confetti.
INT: HOSPITAL ROOM, DAY.
Marina awakens in a light pink hospital room missing her front four teeth, unsure about her injuries or how she got there. The camera moves out, revealing her mom and sister sitting at the end of her hospital bed, sniffling. The room from Marina’s view is filled with bouquets of flowers, while x-rays behind her display how dire her situation truly is. Neither PAM nor SONIA want to be the bearer of bad news. Reluctantly, Pam gives Marina a hand mirror, and looks away in fear of Marina’s reaction.
MARINA
OH…
MY….
PAM
I know.
MARINA
I LOOK…????
PAM
I know.
MARINA
BEAUTIFUL!!!!
A dance mashup of several Donna Summer songs begins playing. Marina rips off her hospital gown, and the entire scene changes. The flowers are now covered in diamond encrusted teeth, sparkling in the light. She hops down from her hospital bed, and dances around to the music – stopping to smell the flowers. Her outfit now consists of pink sunglasses, a summery wrap dress, a tiara, and a fluffy yellow feather boa draped over her shoulders. Hot pink lighting fills the room while velvet curtains roll in and a disco ball drops from the ceiling. The hospital bed is quickly pulled out of frame behind her. The camera pulls back, revealing the entire room, wonky objects from Marina’s life parade around the background. Moments later, to the beat, Marina runs to take center stage in front of the camera. DANCE SECTION !! Marina spends a minute dancing around the scene, having a great time.
Eventually, DENTISTS begin to swarm the room, waving various dental equipment in Marina’s face trying to fix her teeth. She evades them, runs to the door and out into the hallway. The camera follows her, panning off the set to the left and into the hallway, revealing the raw edges of the set in the process.
INT. HALLWAY: DAY. Marina is now in a long, slightly wonky hallway, with six doors on each side. The dentists begin to follow her, and she runs into the first door on the left. As Marina goes deeper into the hallway, the camera dollies in.
She exits the next door carrying several shopping bags, the dentists following her also carrying stacks of things. They both immediately drop everything, annoyed/confused at to why they were holding her bags at the first place. She places down her bags, twirls around to show off her outfit, and runs off into the next door. [MINI DANCE]
Through the door you hear the flashes of cameras, and the door swings open with massive flashes of light. She exits the room, followed by dentists dressed as paparazzi with massive cameras. They take a few flash photos of Marina, but when Marina starts to dance their motions match hers. They do another section of choreography, framing Marina in the center of the frame with their cameras. [MINI DANCE]
Marina runs into the next door, leaving the next one being carried by extravagantly dressed alien puppets. She kicks her legs with joy to the beat, enjoying the support of her found family. Eventually, the next door swings open and her carriers bring her inside. The following door blasts open, and a massive confetti explosion launches her back into the hallway, knocking Marina to the ground. Falling confetti fills the scene for a couple seconds, then Marina joyously jumps back up and begins to dance. [MINI DANCE] She runs off into the last door.
She leaves the last door now dressed in a large diamond encrusted wedding gown. Her necklace has four teeth on it, sparkling in the light. The dentists do not follow her through the door this time, but the two puppets who were carrying her earlier emerge from behind Marina. The three of them dance around a bit. [MINI DANCE] A spotlight lands on her as the camera pulls up close on her face and she sings her solo, the two puppets dropping out of the frame. The solo breaks and Marina returns to twirling and spinning around, thriving. [MEDIUM DANCE SECTION]
A quick cut to the end of the hallway reveals two large shoulders marching after her, blocking off the doors and limiting Marina’s escape. She is unfazed by this, still dancing around and enjoying her own world. When they are close, she finishes off her verse and a rope ladder drops from the ceiling. She grabs hold, and is pulled upwards away from the dentists as they swipe at her.
INT. TUNNEL: DAY.
Marina is quickly pulled upwards, through a ethereal tunnel. The tunnel seems to be glowing from the outside, the colored lights coming from outside are diffused through layers of fabric, the tube warbles and distorts as she flies through it. As she’s traveling upwards, a variety of fruit puppets fall down opposite to her, singing the repeating chorus. After flying through the tunnel, she is launched out of a giant set of dentures.
INT. MOUTH: DAY
Immediately upon entering the mouth, Marina’s costume changes once again – now sporting a massive pillowy cheetah print gown + various tooth themed accessories. She begins to dance around the mouth, overflowing with confidence in her new tooth-fit.
A spider of sparkly dentist gloves appear behind her, framing her in the center of the mouth. They reach up towards her, grabbing onto the gown and ripping it off from behind. The gown splits in half down the middle, and reveals to an outfit that she can dance better in. The finale song kicks off, and she begins to dance around the mouth. [BIG DANCE SECTION]
Eventually, the dentists are fed up and giant gloved hands reach in to detain her. She swats them away, after evading a couple hands she finds a sledgehammer within the mouth. She swings, hitting one of the hands and knocking it out of the scene. She swings again and misses the hand - hitting two of the top teeth on the set, shattering them. When they break, pink and red glitter/confetti erupt from the teeth. The confetti breaking scares off the dentists for a moment. [MINI DANCE]
She continues dodging hands, and swings back a few more times – this time intentionally knocking out the last of the front four top teeth and hitting the dentist’s hands out of the frame. Thinking the dentists have given up, she prepares for the grand finale. [FINALE DANCE] She is fully embodying the song, having a blast, pink and warm white spotlights center on her + the reflections from the disco ball return. She finishes the song off strong.
She’s showered in roses, and accepts her applause, takes a bow, and jumps back down the throat. The teeth snap shut, and a cough of confetti is launched out of the hole left in the dentures.
END.
The Heart of It All
The important moment that I want to resonate with audiences is majorly the turning point where she embraces the change that she is fronted with. This moment is visualized through Marina ripping off her hospital gown and the world transforming via her lens.
POWER DYNAMICS
Act One
After Marina falls and knocks out her front four teeth, she is whisked off to the hospital. When she wakes up, her family reluctantly reveals her injuries + surprisingly she loves her new look! She rips off her hospital gown, and the set elements of the background transform away to make room for her dance floor. After dancing around a little bit, a group of dentists swarm into the room trying to grab Marina, and chase her out into the hospital hallway.
Goals and Motivation
Marina knows that if she stays there they will return to fix her teeth. Her goal is to stay the way she is – she likes her new look and is motivated by the sparks of newfound confidence.
Pam and Sonia need to tell Marina about her injuries, but are scared about how they’ll react.
Status
In this scene, Marina is at the lowest status in the film. While she does put a confident spin on things, she hasn’t yet found her footing as a person post-injury.
Visual representation of this: Marina is the smallest in comparison to the full body dentists in this scene.
Obstacles/Sub Obstacles
The Dentists are Marina’s main obstacles in this scene, they want to come in and fix her teeth.
A sub-obstacle is her family, they agree with the mindset of the dentists + are hesitant to show Marina her injuries.
Efforts
Through her eccentric dances, Marina is able to evade the Dentists and escape into the hallway.
Act Two
Her and the dentists arrive in a long hallway of doors. In one long dolly shot, Marina runs in and out of doors down this hallway, each time the dentists and Marina’s outfit change to a different themed outfit. Fed up with her games, two dentists barge down the hallway and go to grab onto Marina, she escapes them once again, grabbing a rope and being quickly pulled up an ethereal tunnel.
Goals and Motivation
Throughout this scene, Marina is primarily motivated by the pursuit of the dentists. As her confidence builds, however, the chase becomes more playful and motivated by a sense of exploration rather than purely escape.
Status
This scene shows the build of Marina’s status. Through exploring and experiencing new things, Marina is able to discover her senses of strength and power before reaching the end of the hallway.
Obstacles/Sub Obstacles
The dentists appear as constant obstacles throughout the scene, always chasing her.
The contents of the doors represent sub-obstacles Marina is pushing through.
Act Three
Marina emerges in a massive mouth! She begins to dance around and live her truth. The dentists reach into her mouth with massive hands trying to grab her, she continues dancing around them. This is her turf - she’s confident. She finds a sledgehammer within the mouth, and swings at the hands. She hits the dentist and scares them off for a moment, her next swing misses the hand and hits the front teeth of the set + confetti explodes out of the teeth when they break. Now the set matches her teeth + she confidently sings the end of the song. After the song ends and she takes her bow, the giant teeth close around her; a cough of confetti escapes from the gap as the credits roll - her speciality cannot be contained, she won in the end.
Goals and Motivation
Marina is now self-motivated by the desire to share her strength. Her goals still are to defend herself, as the rest of the film, but she now is even more passionate and motivated because she has what she was missing and isn’t willing to give it back.
Status
Marina now has the highest status that she’s had the entire film. She has discovered who she is as a person and is ready/capable to defend her identity.
Obstacles/Sub Obstacles
Giant dentists’ hands reach into the set to try and detain her, and she has to fight against them.
Efforts
This is the first time Marina is actually fighting back against the dentists, rather than just effortlessly avoiding them. She takes a sledgehammer and swings at them, scaring them away.
PROP DEVELOPMENT
I painted it on the back of a piece of acetate to be able to have some sort of transparency. I’m not sold on it, but I like the concept and that I could shine lights through the gaps in the paint.