Production Blog- Story Outline/ Statement of Intent

• For this project I very much wanted the story to be informed by the visuals as I feel visual storytelling and art direction is my strong suit and I will be undertaking this project largely by myself; hence why I let concept art and character designs inform the plot. 

• The basic outline of the plot is fairly simple; a French Sausage Vendor attempts to serenade a blind woman with a romantic meal, the meal goes south and Monsieur Sausages ends up having to dispose of the woman’s poisoned guide dog in a sausage, which he then serves to the blind woman.

• The structure of the plot, starting off fairly straight-faced and romantic before escalating to pure ultra violence and vulgarity, with this sudden shift in town being the punchline of the piece, was inspired largely by shocking early-2000s internet web animation, notably ‘Chucks New Tux’ by Harry Partridge, which follows largely the same plot structure. 

• I opted for my animation to be board-driven rather than script driven, as much of the action unfolds in a largely non-verbal way. For me personally this is also an easier way of working as I am a very visually oriented creative. I did however create a plot outline and break down the action to bullet points in order to inform the visuals of my storyboards. 

• My statement of intent served as a way to formalise my pre-production up until this point; setting in stone most of the fundamental design choices and creative decisions. 

Statement of Intent in Full- Read Below

Extended Practice- Working Title: Monsieur Sausage

Est Run Time: 2 mins approx

Medium: 2D Digital Animation

Genre: Dark Comedy

Setting: 1950s-60s in a small town in the French Alps.

Aesthetic: Classic Disney/Sylvain Chomet style.

An animated take on Truffaut/Godard, employing much of the same techniques used in the era in
regards to shot composition, while leaving out some of the more fly-on-the-wall editing trademarks
in order to maintain a strong sense of composition and layout, as well as to allow the character
animation room to breathe. (Pans from Establishing shots, frames-within-frames, 4th-wall breaks,
movement where there would normally be an edit and vice versa; yes. Multiple edits within the same
shot and shaky cam; no.)

Character animation is nuanced and detailed, with focus on physical performance and body language;
harkening back to classic Disney. Lots of overlapping action and weight being thrown around,
complimented by characters constructed with primitive shapes with a strong sense of silhouette
and solid contouring.

Synopsis:

A humble, middle aged Sausage vendor falls in love with a young blind woman after she stops by his
Sausage stall one day. Enlisting the help of a young beggar boy whom he has taken under his wing
out of pity, in an attempt to serenade the young ingenue, Monsieur Sausage prepares a romantic
meal in order to woo his would-be sweetheart.

The meal does not go as planned however, leaving Monsieur Sausage and his young protege
to dispose of a dog’s corpse before his dearly beloved notices something is amok.
After feeding the young lady’s deceased guide dog to her in the form of a massive sausage,
Monsieur Sausage bids farewell to his muse and his young protege who has now been tasked
with remaining the stand-in for the blind woman’s now deceased and at least partially digested pet.

Characters:

• Monsieur Sausage: On the surface, a bumbling, altruistic, fatherly, middle-aged Sausage vendor who is generally well liked by the townsfolk, ultimately guided by an intense and burning desire to plant his ‘sausage’ in ‘a lady’s bun.’
• Ingenue/Love Interest: Naive young ingenue in her mid 20s. Free spirited and just going about her life in spite of her blindness when she first crosses paths with Monsieur Sausage. Has a close relation with her guide dog whom she has had since she was a teenager.
• Guide/Sausage Dog:
• Young Beggar Boy: A street beggar whom Monsieur Sausage takes pity on and is training to be his protege. Generally, shy and hesitant; does what Monsieur Sausage tells him as he owes him so much.

Statement of Intent

In deciding what I wanted to do for my extended practice I reflected on my previous two years of
projects, weighing my strengths against my weaknesses to come up with an idea for a project which
would push me technically while reflecting my strengths creatively. Having been to Manchester
Animation Festival for the past two years in a row, as well as Annecy Festival earlier this summer,
I’ve been envisioning my Extended Practice project in the context of the Student Film Showcases
they put on, showcasing a playlist of graduation films from all over the world, which I find to be
some of the most enjoyable and memorable of the festival, for their experimentation and often
pronounced artistic voice. For my Extended I intend to emulate that feeling; to create a grad film
to submit to MAF or Annecy which hypothetically could be showcased in that context.

I feel that working on a narrative-based short film, around 2-3 minutes long, is the best course of action
for showcasing what I believe to be my technical strengths; character design, art direction and layout.
While admittedly not the most technical animator on the course, I do like to think I have an eye
for aesthetic, which is why I want to produce a short animation with a strong visual aesthetic
and sense of narrative which showcases these strengths. In regards to the narrative itself,
I want to try and showcase as much diversity in my character animation as possible while
focusing on delivering a high quality product; quality over quantity, so narratively I am going
to try restrict the number of locations (sets) in my animation to around 2 or 3, allowing me to
explore in greater depth aspects of the mise-en-scene such as lighting and composition.

Throughout my time on the course so far, I have enjoyed working in a narrative context the
most and feel my work is completed to a higher standard when I have a collaborative partner
to fall back on and bounce ideas off. While I do like having control over the pre-production aspects,
I do find I complete work to a higher standard with another set of hands helping me out,
particularly in regard to character animation. While not a formal collaboration,
I have agreed to help out a friend who ‘specialises’ in technically-minded character animation
for his project in exchange for assistance on mine. I feel that this sort of partnership complements
both our strengths as practitioners while also giving us both the breathing room required to
flourish creatively.