Concept

Synopsis-

A girl gets on the train to evacuate the city, She discovers the local forest and her imagination runs wild, showing a stark contrast between the reality of war and the fantasy of her imagination.

 

Animatic Plan-

Opening shot of a girl running through a destroyed city, her hair waves behind her and the shadows of planes pass, shot of a suitcase being grabbed through the bustle of a station, hands reaching for each other through the window.

Slow scene of a girl looking away from the window (previously peering through excitedly and now sad) she looks down at her book, on the front is a cottage.

She lifts the book up and transitions into the house she stays in as she walks over with her luggage.

Fades to dark opens on her running out the door, cuts to her in the woods, she comes across a crossroads, she picks the more overgrown one, shot of leaves rustling and things watch her

Shes sees a wooden arch and steps through as she does wind rushes past her and she watches leaves turn into magical lights, close up as she holds a fairy on her hand and cuts to her following it to a river

She sees fairies fly overhead and it cuts to the shadow of planes on her face again

The colour gets colder and she looks concerned. She tries to find her way out and the leaves scratch her, she tumbles out of the woods to see a sad messenger at the door and a telegram, they look at her and it cuts to black.

Primary References

I wanted to do a story about an enchanted stone golem that a small girl discovered in the woods that came to life after thousands of years of being asleep but I wasn’t set on it, Golems typically originate from Jewish folklore but I heard of them through researching Egyptian mythology and when researching more thoroughly into it I decided it wouldn’t really fit the idea that I had for it to be set in the brittish countryside.

I then came to the dilemma of what was more important, the story or the setting and because I wanted to make it more personal and use references from the woods near my house I would change it to focus on a girl discovering the countryside and the mythical creatures she encounters are in her imagination instead.

Here’s some photos I took of the woods by my house. I adore the colours and would really love to explore that more in the final film.

Concept art Based off the Ideas I had

I ended up doing lots of character designs trying to decide which route I wanted to go down with the project ( Superhero, space, wizard, magician, modern day fantasy etc)

I decided I wanted to do something colourful but that I needed to dig deeper and find something more personal to ground my ideas. I realised I needed to go less character focused and look more into the environments themselves.

ART OF ‘MAGGIE’ BOOK

https://www.yumpu.com/en/embed/view/uZ8bB2Sz5kMprIRQ