Going back through some old blog posts on this site and my old DeviantART account, I came across each of the variations of the well-known and immensely popular “100 Themes Challenge”. It is as the title says, you are given 100 different words / phrases to use for starting points in order to create a piece of artwork. This is a really massive helper towards building up a portfolio, so I have always had it in mind and on the back-burner til whenever I have needed it.
Thinking about the basic idea behind my Final Major Project (F.M.P.) – the story of a canine silent film star – having these buzzwords on hand give me great ideas for animated shorts to use within the animation. I may even get to the point with the project where I just create a small series of animated shorts in the silent film style, so that I have the chance to incorporate a lot more of these words into the finished products.
Because each word and its definition is so open to interpretation with this project, I can definitely have some real fun in how I choose to portray it to my potential audience. The most simple notions such as “love”, “stripes”, “foreign” and even “do not disturb” have a wealth of possibilities for narrative inspiration. I am going to choose a handful of words from each, and list them below (perhaps with more in a proceeding blog post) together with any ideas I draw from them. This will not only help to encourage narrative ideas, but also it will help phenomenally with the aesthetic choices which I will bear in mind, along with concept sketches and particular research elements too, when the time and need arises. Through this, I will narrow down each of my lists of ideas to a select few, which I may believe to have the most potential, and focus my main body of work on those.
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- INTRODUCTION –
A “Merrie Melodies” style opening, somewhat along the same lines as the MGM Lion, with the Jack Russel characters face popping up in the centre of the screen.
- LOVE –
The Jack Russel sees a female dog in the garden next door and becomes besotted with her. He tries everything he can to woo her – bringing her flowers, doing back-flips, wearing a little dickie bow-tie, giving her his favorite toys and a big tasty bone. One day she isn’t in the garden and he sulks all day. The next day he sulks in the garden again, and hears a familiar noise. He walks over to the fence and the female dog licks his nose through a hole in one of the panels.
- LIGHT –
The dog and its female owner are walking home one evening and see a suspicious flickering light. The little dog sneakily runs off to investigate, and comes across a German spy, who is signalling to the planes flying overhead. The little dog runs up and bites him on the bottom whilst the woman calls a policeman over.
- SEEKING SOLACE –
The female owner of the dog is sad because her husband has gone off to war, and she will not see him again for a long time. The dog does everything he can to console her, patting her on the back, bringing her photos and sweets, doing tricks and generally keeping happy so that she stays happy in the meanwhile.
- DRIVE –
The dog and the owner go for a drive along in their motorbike and sidecar.
- MISFORTUNE –
The dog is a companion of a homeless wanderer, who has no money for food. They travel along together, begging and searching for charity, but they find none. The dog, who disapproves especially of the rich peoples rudeness, mocks them, walking along behind them on its hind legs doing impressions of them. People see this and start throwing money in the homeless persons hat.
- SMILE –
A baby is having its photo taken and will not stop crying. The little dog sees this and jumps up, being silly, in a bid to make the child laugh.
- GREY –
The dog makes friends with an old man who is sat in the park feeding the ducks.
- VACATION –
The Jack Russel and its owner / owners take a trip to the seaside on a typical summer holiday sort of affair. It will include scenes of the owners sharing an ice cream with the dog, the dog coming out of the sea after a swim, each character sunbathing, and the dog burying / digging someone up in a comical fashion.
- CAT –
The owners get a kitten and the dog does not appreciate it. He does not like the cat at all. But, the kitten loves him very much. It is a love hate relationship. One day the kitten is outside playing and another dog starts to bark at it. The little dog runs to the rescue, boxing the much larger dog in the face.
- NO TIME –
The owner is incredibly busy running around the house trying to clean it, running off to work, doing all sorts of other odd job and chores, and has no time to play with the dog. The dog sulks for ages, not listening to the owner when he does finally have time to play. The owner gives him a brand new bone and a big fuss and all is well in the end.
- TROUBLE LURKING –
A woman is sat in a cafe / diner, having a pleasant enough meal. The homeless little dog watches her with her meal, wishing he could have a little bite to eat. A lecherous man comes along and starts to harass her. The little dog, ever the hero, runs along inside and starting barking at the man, nipping at his legs. The man tries to kick him away and resume his activities, but the dog runs up inside his coat and starts nipping him. Other people can see the dogs tail hanging out of the bottom of the coat as though it were the mans own (in homage to “A Dogs Life” by Chaplin). The dog hops up on a table and when the man tries to have a go at it, the dog boxes him in the eye, knocking him flat. The name of this sketch would be something witty like “Punch & Judy”.
- FOREIGN –
The dog is at a dog show, trying to look his best in a little dickie bow-tie. Another couple of dogs come and sit at either side of him during the judging. They are foreign breeds which he has never seen before. One is a shih-tzu and the other is a Russian borzoi. He looks utterly confused t the two of them , then at the camera.
- UNDER THE RAIN –
It is pouring it down with rain and the little dog tries everything it can to get under his owners umbrella, getting him completely soaking wet in the process.
- FLOWERS –
A man is nervous about asking a woman out on a date, and doesn’t have a clue about how to ask her. The dog sees this, and decides to run off from his owner. On the way, the dog snatches up any flowers along the path, which includes going in peoples gardens. Eventually the dog reaches the woman who is just leaving her house. She pats the dog on the head, taking the flowers from his mouth. She looks at the dog, who points at the man running after him, signalling that it was his idea. She gives the man a peck on the cheek, and the reel ends.
- STARS –
The little Jack Russel runs through a Hollywood movie studio, inadvertently running onto the sets of different famous silent films of the 1920’s, bumping into the famous stars of the time on the way. At the end, he runs into Chaplin’s dressing room, knocking into a table and getting one of the fake mustaches stuck to the end of his nose, and a hat falls on his head. Chaplin himself walks in, and finds him utterly delightful. At the end of the animation, the dog and Charlie Chaplin waddle off in the style of the Little Tramp.
- HOLD MY HAND –
The increasingly frustrated owner of the dog, a man, tries to teach the Jack Russel some new tricks to impress his lady friend. The dog is completely uncooperative and looks back at him with confusion, until the woman comes along, and it behaves perfectly when she asks it to perform tricks for her.
- PRECIOUS TREASURE –
The Jack Russel spends all day digging and digging and digging, coming across buried treasure and trinkets and ignoring them, until he finds a comically over-sized dinosaur bone.
- ABANDONED –
A small sequence showing the origins of the little Jack Russel, and how he was abandoned as a puppy by his previous owners.
- DREAMS –
The little dog dreaming about having a nice home with a nice owner who will look after him and who he will love in return.
- TEAMWORK –
A man is in a tag-team wrestling match when his partner gets knocked down. The little dog, who is watching, jumps in the ring, gets up on his hind legs, and starts doing boxing actions with his hand.
- STANDING STILL-
The dog sees one of those living statue performers in a town square and tries to mock him by doing the exact same things, inadvertently taking all of his customers away. When the man gets angry and tries to boot him, the dog bits him on the bottom and ruins his act, making everyone watching laugh.
- STRIPES –
The owner and the dog go to the zoo and the Jack Russel is baffled by a tiger, and starts barking at it and playing with it through the glass.
- SPORT –
The little dog becomes a member of the local football team when his owner hurts his leg.
- DEEP IN THOUGHT –
The owner is sat with a pipe in his mouth, looking inquisitive and ponderous. The dog tries to get his attention, doing even more bizarre things to gain his attention every time the camera cuts back and forth between them.
- FAIRY TALE –
The dog is playing in the garden one day and stumbles across some fairies who start to play with it.
- MULTITASKING –
The dog and the lady owner are cleaning the house together in a whimsical manner. The dog is sat on a towel as the owner washes the windows, dusts the shelf and moves the towel around with her foot, cleaning the floor, using the dog as a weight. The dog has a dustpan brush in its mouth, sweeping as everything goes along. At the end, the pair are all tuckered out, asleep in a living room chair together.
- PLAYING THE MELODY –
The little dog sitting next to his owner on the piano, hitting keys when he is trying to play. They end up playing a little ditty together which proves hugely entertaining all around.
- HERO –
A little child is playing with the dog, after reading a superhero themed comic book. The child ties a blanket around the dogs neck and pretends that it is a superhero, and they have a jolly good playtime.
- MIRROR –
The dog is walking through the house one day when it comes across a full length mirror and mistakes his reflection for another dog, proceeding to challenge it and act like the alpha.
- DRINK –
The dog and its owner go to the pub for some form of celebration (undecided as of yet). Whilst the owner is sat merrily drinking away with his buddies, the dog, sat on the floor next to the table, spots a pint glass near by. He approaches it and starts to drink from it. Next thing you now, the dog is on its back with its leg twitching, as thought it were merrily drunk.
- PEN AND PAPER –
The little dog is at an event signing autographs with a paw-print and a scribble with a pen in his mouth on a piece of paper or a photograph.
- FOOD –
The man is preparing dinner for a woman and is trying his best to keep the dog off the table and away from the food. He gets very frustrated when he has to keep doing it, but the dog is suddenly gone and nowhere to be seen. His date arrives and they are seated at the table. He lifts the lid from the platter with the chicken in it to find the dog laid on its back with a fat, satisfied belly.
- ADVERTISEMENT –
A dog food advert featuring our little canine hero, in typical cheesy 1940’s fashion.
- SAFETY FIRST –
The dog and its owner get all geared up to go on a motorcycle ride, complete with a sidecar for the dog to sit in. Sequence consists of them putting on each piece of gear before they saddle up and go for a ride.
AbbieSTABBY 