Applied Animation: Animatic

I have now basically planned out the key shots for my ChildLine animation in an animatic I developed. I wanted my animation to have a narrative. I don’t really like the adverts you see on TV, especially in the daytime that last at least a few minutes and seem to me to seem a bit like they’re guilt tripping the viewer into donating money. They always seem so depressing to me that don’t really give people a lot of hope. I believe there’s a bit of stigma attached to doing this charity brief because I think people have a fixed idea that charity shorts are depressing and can only be depressing.

What intrigued me about making an animation for ChildLine is the possibility that an animation for ChildLine does not have to be depressing and instead fill people with hope that they can give people hope. 

But I feel like the tone needs to be right and if the tone doesn’t work, nothing will. So I went for the, not humourus, but also not depressing route of creating something serious, but that also is not too heavy and is relatively simple to understand. That is what I want to accomplish with this animation.

The narrative I have so far is basically a girl is socialising with her friend, but then this grey bubble emerges from her stomach. 

This grey bubble is my representation of depression and I feel like it would emerge from the stomach, almost like when you have that feeling of butterflies in your stomach. Then she struggles against the bubble, but it consumes her. 

She is then in this grey bubble that means everything she sees is a dull grey, she also can’t hear too clearly and the world sounds like it’s muffled and underwater. Although in her friend's vision she appears perfectly normal.

The grey bubble becomes heavy; forcing her slowly to the ground (this represents the idea that depression makes living normal everyday life near impossible). 

Eventually the bubble drags the girl completely to the floor and now the bubble has expanded, the whole world is a dark grey world. 

But, a light appears and a friendly hand reaches out (representing ChildLine reaching out to a young person in need), the girl accepts it and suddenly the grey disappears. 

The girl rises to her feet (symbolising ChildLine getting her back on her feet).

At the moment I am happy with my animatic but I do feel I need to alter a few things. I feel that overall I like the idea of a grey bubble representing the animation but I feel some aspects of the animation are a tad cliqued. For example the end of my animation where a hand reaches out I do not feel is the most original idea. 

But although I feel certain ideas may not be that original, how I represent them might be more original. For example I would really like the whole animation to be one long take with no cuts. 

I know this is not really as impressive as something like Birdman that is an entire movie in one take, but I feel it would really add to my animation and massively improve its flow.