Burning All The Past Away

To escape his deep mental block, a stop-motion character goes on a mind-bending psychedelic journey.

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Length4 mins. 15 sec.

GenreAnimation

Video

Pitch video

Synopsis

Using ‘old-school’ stop-motion techniques, miniatures and a poetry-driven script, our web series follows a humanoid’s pursuit to revive its creativity. Stuck in a void, our character longs to regain the creativity it once knew. Eventually it journeys out, traveling great distances, searching far away from the gloomy void that once encompassed it. Unfortunately, its terrifying past (better known as “The Judge”) returns to stalk him and sour his journey. Symbols and opportunities present themselves, revealing a path. The humanoid realizes the driving force behind its creativity comes from within, but not without sacrifice. This visually stunning psychedelic series explores a variety of topics. Episodes are based on original poetry and a narrator will guide the audience through the journey.

The team

We are enthusiastic peeps on a mission to build and bring this magical stop-motion series to life ... one frame at a time.

Douglas Cook

Production Design

Surrounded by broken white rock and dirt, the exterior cave has an Aztec inspired façade. A small rocky path leads up to the cave’s mouth-like opening. As our main character makes his way towards it, we see monuments scattered throughout the area. The eerie eyes within the broken stone monuments follow our character’s every move. Shadows stir unnaturally and the entire scene has an abnormal feeling.

Light from the entrance illuminates the interior and acts as the main source of light. A small river of viscous, black liquid runs from entrance of the cave and into its pools in the middle. Rodent bats gather on the ceiling of the cave, dispersing towards the camera at the end of the scene. Our character makes his way past the mysterious black river and stops when he reaches the pool. As he glances into the gooey liquid, a large head appears from underneath and startles him. Falling into a trance, our character becomes consumed by the river, disappearing into the blackness.

A chase sequence through a field of white crosses takes place in the middle of the series. This scene represents the loss and turmoil our main character has experienced in his life. Re-using the base of the “Dead Tree in Prairies,” tweaking the tundra, and the addition of skinny, tall white crosses will make this scene a visual delight.

Once our character enters the black goo pond within the cave sequence, he finds himself in a void - surrounded by darkness and dragon-bats (dragon-bats are stop-motion). Half of this scene conveys the feeling of falling through a bottomless pit. The other half of the scene feels as through he is floating in the black goo. This represents the feeling of being lost in a void; not having your footing or your bearings. The character and the dragon-bats will be captured against a deep black background separately composted together in post-production

Our story begins and ends on a small hill in the middle of the prairies. Here sits a large, dead tree. The tree will be constructed out of a bendable material allowing for shaping, giving it a wind swept look. Our antagonist “The Judge” is revealed and initiates the conflict.

During this chase sequence, our character runs desperately for his life through a dark, burnt, desolate forest. Using a large styro-foam cylinder mounted onto two easels, it will rotate creating the illusion of movement. Small singed trees will be inserted into the styro-foam cylinder along with a rocky path leading the way to the next scene.

Our character finds himself on the large black goo pond. Surrounded only by rubble, the pond appears to be in the middle of nowhere. Just when our protagonist feels like he has escaped, a large hand with long fingernails appears from inside the black pond and grabs him; it shakes and tosses him around. The set will be designed so a person can fit underneath, using his/her hand as he live-action component of this scene.