Monday, September 27, 2010

Outline

Act I (setup)
The setting is introduced (restaurant).
In the kitchen, the hot sausage is introduced as he is plopped onto the grill.
The french bread is introduced as she is taken out of her sleeve, placed on the kitchen counter, and sliced in half.
These two pieces of food come to life and see each other and tension builds as they lust to be together.
Act II (confrontation)
The hot sausage tries to woo this french bread but has trouble to, for he has competition on the grill, other pieces of meat. Plus, he is being handled by the cook. He is seasoned and flipped all the while he is trying to impress the french bread and win her affection. Before he gets to be with his object of lust, the french bread is "undressed" of her lettuce and tomato, b/c the customer wanted his po'boy not dressed but only with mayo. So she is also slathered with mayo and this piece of sausage wants this bread more than ever!
He is almost replaced with hot sausage links but, the order is corrected even though the patty takes the situation into his own hands. He is then finally scooped up with the spatula and placed onto the french bread.
Act III (resolution)
So, the french bread and the hot sausage are finally united together. They are in complete bliss. They are then wrapped up in paper and brought out to the dining room, where a a very large and heavy customer awaits his meal. They together as a sandwich are unwrapped and then rapidly consumed by the glutton. Right as they meet their tragic ending, the one who consumes them meets his own ending. He collapses of a heart attack. All the characters die from self-destructive pleasure.

Character Breakdowns

French Bread
1. She thinks like a piece of bread. She does not know what her destiny is. She is anxious and will take the first thing she sees.
2. She wants the hot sausage. Really, she'd take any piece of meat but the hot sausage patty is the most appealing to her.
She wants the best, the quickest, most gratifying thing. She thinks she wants love, but that is not what she seeks.
3. She believes in her destiny to be united with a piece of meet and become a po'boy. She believes Mr. Hot Sausage is the one and only for her. She is blinded to everything else in her surroundings.
4. The truth is, she's only a piece of bread. She lacks self-control and will power. She is powerless.
5. She needs nothing in reality. She just wants and she gets what she wants.
6. She undertakes the preparation of becoming a sandwich. She is cut longways, slathered in mayo and joined together with a hot sausage patty. As a sandwich she is wrapped up and then served and eaten.
7. She thinks she does what she does because that is just what has to be done. What she does is expected of her.
8. She has a flaw of committing to the first thing she sees, but then again she is powerless of her destiny.

Hot Sausage
1.
He thinks that he is the hottest piece of meat on the grill and the french bread totally thinks he is.
2. He wants to be the winner, the one who gets to be with the french bread. She is the one and only and the most beautiful thing he has ever seen and he lusts for her. He thinks he wants happiness and love but that is not what he seeks.
3. He believes that he is the one piece of meat to win this piece of bread over. He believes that being with her will be the end all be all complete ultimate bliss and destiny in his life.
4. In truth, he is just a piece of meat that doesn't think wisely. He makes decisions based of off his emotions. He does not think things through.
5. As a piece of meet, he needs nothing. He just wants. He thinks he needs to be with the french bread, and indeed that is his destiny and what he will get.
6. He undertakes the hot surface of the grill, lustful thoughts, and uncontrolled actions. He is joined with his object of infatuation and then with her, he is consumed.
7. He does not know why he makes the choices he makes. He makes impulsive decisions. He knows in the back of his mind that he is meant to be with a piece of bread. He has no idea of a different path or any thought of a different life. He is trapped.
8. He too, is flawed, a slave to his emotions.

Customer
1. This rather large man thinks that he is hungry. He too, thinks and acts of off his emotions.
2. He wants food. He wants to eat. He wants to satisfy his hunger. He is a slave to his hunger.
3. He believes that food is the only thing that can fulfill many of his needs. He believes that eating can be a solution to anything. He loves to eat. He finds great satisfying pleasure in eating.
4. The truth is, he is a slave to his hunger. He relies and temporary delights to fulfill his needs and amend his feelings. Eating is the only thing he thinks can help himself, yet it only makes things worse.
5. He needs to seek help where help is not temporary. He needs God, prayer, trust, and faith. He needs to keep his desires in check, because food will not solve his problems.
6. He undertakes what could be the final meal of his life. He inhales his po'boy so fast that he suffers a heart attack as soon as the sandwich is consumed. He undergoes self-destruction because of immediate gratification.
7. He thinks he does what he does because he believes that he has no other way out. He believes that nothing else on earth can make him happy and ease his anxiety as food can.
8. This man is human, and flawed because he does not exercise self-control or the will power to change his life. He does not open his heart to change and does not attempt to amend his life. He is trapped in a vicious cycle of destructive pleasure, a pleasure that will destroy him in the end.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Genre

My concept of destructive pleasure is quite serious but this short movie will have a more comedic genre. There will be comedy established through the sexual references made by the lusting between the hot sausage and the french bread. The sudden heart attack of the consumer is a bit of a dark humor, but humorous because of its sudden happening. So, the humor is very dark, like in "Burn After Reading."

Story

Plot and Symbolism

The story starts outside of the restaurant to establish setting and then cuts to the kitchen where the characters are introduced. The french bread is first introduced as it is pulled out of its bag and it is placed on the counter to be cut and sliced open. The hot sausage is introduced as it is plopped onto the flat grill and he spots his lover from afar. As the sausage patty cooks and sizzles, he tries to impress this slice of bread over everything else cooking on the grill. He captures her affection as they gaze at each other from across the kitchen. The french bread begins to get dressed with lettuce and tomato until the cook is corrected that the po'boy is not dressed but with only mayo. So before the sausage's lusting eyes, the french bread is seductively undressed and slathered with mayo. The patty is scooped up by a spatula and then placed onto the french bread. They and their lustful bliss are then wrapped up in paper and served to a customer where they are then consumed tragically and rapidly, which causes the consumer to suffer a heart attack and fall over.
The symbolism lies in the whole consumption of the po'boy. Lust and gluttony is destructive pleasure.

An Idea I Believe in...

My theme is pleasure. The title of my story will probably be "Destructive Pleasure."
The story follows the preparation and the serving of a hot sausage po'boy in the kitchen of a restaurant. There will be a "steamy" affair between the hot sausage patty and the french bread. They lust over each other as they are prepared to come together as a sandwich. Once they finally are united, they are served to a hungry customer and then pleasurably devoured.
This story makes the point of how an relationship based purely on lust and actions made by emotions and immediate gratification can cause self-destruction.
I have the idea to deepen this idea and theme by having the consumer of the po'boy to collapse of a heart attack as he eats the sandwich which will strengthen the idea that gluttony is another destructive pleasure.
Self-destruction caused by pleasure seems like the best way to describe my concept.
I have this story set in New Orleans because this is the area where I am from and the sins of lust and gluttony are two issues I had struggled with over a certain period of time in my life.
As serious as this concept is, the story will be quite comical especially between the lusting going on between the french bread and the hot sausage.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Midterm Concept: New Focus

Since the beginning of the semester there has been many topics going through my head such as love, culture, character, family, life, renewal. In the last project, I got lost in a non conceptual, personal "lala" land. I'm getting the hell out of "lala" land. So I started to focus on my ideas and play with them as I play with words in order to write a poem and hopefully I will find my concept. You can't write a poem for explaining and making points and being up front. A poem is not a research paper but an art. It's all about using words to express an experience and emotions with a concept supporting it. My project shouldn't be up front personal scrapbook but a conceptual piece of art with an idea to support it. I want to treat this project the same way I treat a poem. I need to go to conceptual land! Back to the drawing board!

Screw renewal, I'm going to focus on character. I love the character. I love character animation. I am fascinated by the evoking of like, the greatest illusion, the art of creating feelings, ideas, thoughts, and emotions through a character as a musician creates music with instruments, a poet creates an experience with words, an actress creates an emotional character with her body. My characters are the instruments I play to express a certain experience in my art. I want them to be living and breathing. I want them to think, act, and react with their environment and with other characters.

I am going back to an idea that I have had at the beginning of the semester. I have come up with a love story between two characters. These two characters are inanimate objects in real life, but my idea is that the preparation of a hot sausage po'boy is a love story between the hot sausage patty and the french bread. The french bread and the hot sausage will fall in love with each other and they become happily united but only to be consumed together as a po'boy sandwich.

This 2D narrative will be constructed in AE with the use of photoshop to create an illustrated environment and possibly the use of Toonboom to bring my characters to life with some hand drawn animation. There is no dialogue in this piece as well.
This is an emotional piece so these food characters will have a face, eyeballs for sure.
This piece will not only reflect my focus on character, but on the love of my culture and my love of food. I guess overall, there is a focus on pleasure, the pleasures of being in love and eating.

So, maybe my whole focus isn't about food, love, culture, or character. Maybe it is about immediate gratification, pleasure.
Pleasure is a shared emotion, a common experience, my focus and concept to support this narrative.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Proposal

The topic I plan to focus on for the class is renewal. This year I was blessed with a fresh start in life and I want to express my appreciation for the things I have because those are the reasons I have changed for the better. While deciding upon a topic of focus for the class, I kept thinking about my culture, love, family, friends, and the talents I have. If I had continued living the sinful life style I had been living, I would just have been throwing all those wonderful blessings away. I am now focused, my priorities are getting straight, and I'm striving to make good decisions. So, as I explore the topic of renewal, I will be exploring the things that I am most thankful for in life.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Research Sources

http://www.jstor.org/pss/27680265?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3Drenewal%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don

http://www.jstor.org/pss/286689?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Doff

http://www.jstor.org/pss/27660213?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26la%3D%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Doff%26gw%3Djtx%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26sbq%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26si%3D26%26jtxsi%3D26

http://www.jstor.org/pss/27679745?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26la%3D%26wc%3Don%26acc%3Doff%26gw%3Djtx%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26sbq%3Dfaith%2Brenewal%26si%3D26%26jtxsi%3D26

Psalm 51

Proverbs 3:5-6

contrasting visuals





Visuals





40 Opposties

hate
uncultured
starvation
homeless
loneliness
enemies
satan
secular
sin
impatient
cruel
lust
free living
no morals
bad decisions
irresponsible
sloth
reason
playing dumb
unfinished
distracted
weak
influenced
heartless
weakness
snake belly
lost
make stagnant
kill
lifeless
soulless
quick
still
not affected
emotionless
expressionless
making a point
unthoughtful
death
darkness

40 similarly related words/ideas

love
culture
food
home
family
friends
God
church
virtues
patience
kindness
chastity
values
morals
decisions
responsibility
work ethic
trust
run smart
finish strong
focus
endurance
will power
heart
strength
eagles wings
faith
animate
evoke life
character
tiny soul
anticipation
action
reaction
emotion
expression
experience
thought
life
light

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

project 2

I love working in after effects and I am so glad that I got a bunch of work done on the project Thursday. I like to be ahead of the game rather waiting till the last minute.
I'm glad that I got to become familiar with after effects somewhat during my internship over the summer, so I felt a little more comfortable doing a project in something I've never used before.
I'm actually looking forward to the next project because I'm really enjoying this program. There are so many things that I want to try and so much I want to learn.
Looking at my project this morning, I notice that there are some things that I need to fix.

There are issues in my RAM preview that are not happening in my actual project file....

Well, after working on the file and rendering again, the problem was resolved. :)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Project 1

Whoo hooo!!!
Good morning!
Anybody sleep? lol
Well, I'm anxious to see what everyone has to bring to the table after many of us pulling off an all-nighter.
Wish I didn't have to be up all night but I gotta do what I gotta do to get the work done.
It the most time just looking up the images I needed. If I ever get the chance to take some pics that I can use while I'm back home, I surely will take that advantage.
Sometimes limitations help in a weird way. They can take you in a different direction I may not have gone concerning the work for my project.
I really want to expand my collection of assets.
Especially some more environment photos.
ahhhh. this is exciting. I like what I have so far.
I wasn't planning to have a human character in my work. I had created a foreground and a background in my environment but I felt like the middle ground needed to be occupied. So, I create a character from a man in one of my source images. So, I add him to my scene and realized that if I made a few changes to his appearance, then he'd look like my cousin. I made those changes and now I have a cartoon version of my cousin. I like the b&w sketchy aesthetic mixed in with my environment composed of photo images.
Now, the paper doll po'boy design is a piece I did a long while back. I need to reorganize that photoshop document though because I need to group each part as its own layer. I should have that done already but I don't really need it quite yet.
I'm super bucked up about this project!! I feel that I'm prepared. That's my goal is to always be prepared.