Just quickly popping in to suggest possibly using a lunar space elevator or space elevator. Then we don't necessarily have to have "professional astronauts" as characters but it could simply be civilians travelling to an orbital space station (or the moon). The event can be quite like a cable car accident. ;b

I like some of those dialog ideas, Slaka. we should really go for those philosophical bits, and have less whining reminiscence about Earth and life.

Cibo, the scenario isn't technically feasible:

cibo

:Glitch: Selphina reaches towards her crewmate in space suit, as she is pulled towards a giant hole in spacecraft.
Their fingers touch but she can not hold on.
:Glitch: Their fingers (in space gloves) touch.
She is pulled towards the black sky
:Glitch: pulled through the hole in ship

Sucked toward giant hole = explosive decompression. Here are the issues:
1. Crew don't wear pressurized suits while inside pressurized spacecraft cabins. There wouldn't be enough time to scramble into spacesuits in the event of rapid decompression.
2. If you don't get sucked out in the initial (explosive) exodus of air and other loose matter, you will not be sucked out anymore but will simple remain floating in zero-G in the cabin.
3. After decompression, you would survive about a ninety seconds, you wouldn't explode, you would remain conscious for only about ten seconds. [reference]

No matter how I look at it, a massive hull breach, while really dramatic, cannot be a feasible scenario. At best you can only have some leak causing minor depressurization and forcing the astronauts to don spacesuits.

I give an alternative scenario - there is some technical problem with the spacecraft, essentially crippling it (thruster fault or such - see space shuttle's RMS thruster system). Selphina & a crewmate go EVA to try and repair & rectify the problem. While repairs are ongoing, an unforeseen impact with space debris or a micrometeorite occurs. Her crewmate was safely tethered to the craft, but Selphina isn't so lucky.

... *reads speechlessly ..*

Okay, you guys are way ahead of me in thinking of scripts, stories and in physics, so I'll leave all that up to you to scramble something good together, but I'm sorta getting a bit wary of our technical skills, no offense to anyone, but the scenes you describe sound rather complex and difficult ..

I thought at the start we were going to picture her as just a person in normal daily clothing inside the spacecraft/EVA, so outdoor sceneries and terrain designs can be kept at minimum - which now it sounds like she'll be spending more time outdoors than indoors ..

I'm just thinking that if she's going to be seen mostly in her spacesuit, we need to come up with a good spacesuit design that still allows the audience to clearly see her expressions and body language through the suit.

Anyways just some of my thoughts, I'll just carry on with my stuff for now and see how the story unfolds as time goes by ..

supermonchi

I'm just thinking that if she's going to be seen mostly in her spacesuit, we need to come up with a good spacesuit design that still allows the audience to clearly see her expressions and body language through the suit.

Erm... yeah. Hmm. You should look around at some PlanetES scans for reference for that. Also, we can cheat a little by spacesuit fades to transparent, revealing character against space backdrop.

I was thinking that we could do one of those scenes where you know the character is in a space suit floating in space. BUT we see the character in clothing while the character is in deep thought about something perhaps etc. We could also think about unique angles like the reflection of her face against the glass of the helmet(from her perspective) or a far away scene (scale diffrences) that would show how lost in space she really is. I was thinking that we could do one of those scenes where you know the character is in a space suit floating in space. BUT we see the character in clothing while the character is in deep thought about something perhaps etc. We could also think about unique angles like the reflection of her face against the glass of the helmet(from her perspective) or a far away scene (scale diffrences) that would show how lost in space she really is. Just food for ideas

~Slaka

super -
See breakdown of work below; also, please remember, we aren't going to have a lot of straight animated scenes - See 'She and Her Cat'
Also for general references: Apollo 13 (live-action movie), Mission to Mars (live-action movie), Memories (Magnetic Rose section, by Otomo), Red Planet (live-action movie)

We are still debating and getting a few related ideas out while getting input from everyone.
I like the stranded space capsule idea (as you describe); and have a few good scenes worked up for it; I'll post later.


hamster -

The lunar/space elevator is an interesting idea.. Would change the story quite a bit.

-I was under the impression that astronauts wear pressurized suits during launch, in the event that decompression could happen.

The alternate scenario, while very believable, seems like it would take more (work/time) to make the viewer understand what happened. The sooner we get to the 'floating in space' the sooner we can get on with the philosophy section.

------------------------


Perhaps I should clarify a few points of my script:

What I've written out is mostly for our benefit.
The viewer is going to have to assume most of what really happened, with sound playing an important role.
"The power of assumption can be very effective if used correctly."

The 'incident' occurs shortly after launch, but before a suitable orbit is achieved.
Alarms sound a pressure leak; crew scrambles to get into suits (if not in them already).
(10-15 seconds pass from alarm start to explosive decompression)
Selphina is nearest the wall that gives way; she is the only one sucked out.
The decompression occurs in less than one second; note the ':glitch:' cut.
The 'reaching out, their fingers touch' may or may not be a literal event, but a permutation of her dream into her memory.

------------------------

Here is a breakdown of the work involved with some clarifications added:
('2D assisted' is moving objects around with software, not hand-drawn frames)
('3D assisted' is either straight 3D render, or vectored render over a painted BG)

Opening Credits.
Fade to white.
(First few cuts are in surrealistic slow motion)
A dreamy intro; slow/soft synths/piano - (nothing cheesey, just ambience)

Selphina is in a cherry tree park( 1, 2, 3, 4), having a picnic with her boyfriend.
(not much for motion besides petals falling, just a view (or 2) of the two sitting in the park, perhaps Selphina's laugh is heard)

Sakura petals falling and swirling about in slow motion.
(This would be 3D assisted or 2D assisted animation, not hand-drawn)

She is looking on, smiling at her boyfriend, when something in the sky catches her eye
-Menacing tone slowly enters, slow motion-> head turns up as eyes look to the sky, smile fades-
(This would consist of about 3 hand drawn frames, morphed together using same technique from the final scene in Avalon, by Oshii)

Cut to sky view, (back of Selphina's head in foreground, she is sitting, this perspective)
A dark black spot in the sky.. (additional cut of Selphina looking up, towards camera?)
(still shots with clouds moving and a few petals flying by)
----Everything before this is in slow motion----

Suddenly, the sky opens in a deafening rage as everything is pulled skyward, and all that can be seen, from horizon to horizon, is the blackness of space.
(BG Transition or Hand animation (6-10 frames) for the opening sky, mostly 2D assisted animation for objects, a few hand-drawn frames)

*Selphina reaches towards her boyfriend as she is pulled from the ground
:Glitch: Selphina reaches towards her crewmate in space suit, as she is pulled towards a giant hole in spacecraft.
(a bit more complicated, Selphina (hand-drawn animation) lurching forward from sitting position as she is lifted upward
Glitch scene is repeat but with spacesuit and ship setting)

Their fingers touch but she can not hold on.
:Glitch: Their fingers (in space gloves) touch.
( Close-up of hands slowly hand-drawn animated and pulled apart.
Glitch is repeat with space gloves and ship setting)

She is pulled towards the black sky
:Glitch: pulled through the hole in ship
(a continuation of * cut, same BGs; hand-drawn animation. Sound reaches most intense before abrupt cut to black)
Cut to black, the sounds echo away. (10 seconds of echo and slow deep brooding ambience / space rumble)

#Cut to object at a distance, in space (distant, distorted radio chatter echoes?)
(still shot, space rumble continues)

:Glitch: Mission just entering space, prior to accident - echo to silence
(cockpit (view of crew), lighted buttons blinking, reflection of Earth scrolling on windshield, simple animations.
Perhaps commander stating altitude or "moving to geosynchronous orbit". Abrupt cut with sound echoing away)

#Cut closer to floating object. (still shot, space rumble)

:Glitch: Losing pressure!, loud boom, creaks - echo to silence
(Control panel view? Alarm sounds, lights flashing; all simple animations. Camera shaking. "Pressure destablizing, (suit up now)!", creaks)

#Cut closer to object, now recognizable as a human figure in suit (eva?)
(Selphina floating, she is passed out. Perhaps this viewpoint. A scrolling shot? This # series of cuts reversely shows how isolated she is in space.)

:Glitch: Hull breach, Explosion, screams - echo to silence
(Rumble, alarms, view of animated alarm light on bulkhead? Camera shaking. Loud explosion, "Selphina!" echoes away)

Cut to close-up of her face (floating silently)(View like this or this), eyes start to open slowly (hand animated)
She stares out with a look of sadness. (slight changes in facial expression, same viewpoint. Tears build up?)

Cut to view of ship in far distance (several miles away), smoke, debris.. (mostly still shot, slight smoke or debris animation)

Cut back to Selphina close-up. She blinks the tears away, turns her head, and looks at the Earth below her.
Cut to View of Earth
(Hand-drawn animation of facial expressions and head turning. Reflection of Earth on helmet glass, 3D assisted turn?
Cut to perspective shot such as this with Selphina in foreground)
---> the story will continue from here..

------------------------
Total time, a little over 2 minutes; could extend to about 3 if desired.

(I removed the umbilical cord scene to simplify things a bit)
Hopefully this clears up my idea a bit. The viewer will get most of the information from the audio.
From here, she may start to wonder if the crew is still alive, what will happen to her, "I wonder if death feels any different in 0 gravity...", etc, etc. Minus the 'whining' reminiscence about Earth :)

In any case, the whole philosophical aspect seems a good way to go. Just need some good writing to tie it in.
I like the idea of the spacesuit fading away to show her in normal clothes, with a space BG.

Gomen kudasai.. such a large post..

Ah that's a lot clearer now, phew what a dramatic opening!

The photo references are great, helps a lot with the visualisation process.
Ok I'll do more sketches based on this.

The orbit scenes scare me a little whether my painting skills can make it or not, but I'll give it a shot ..

cibo, are you going to do a storyboard?
I'm interested to give it a shot, but I have no experience so I prolly need to read up on how to do the proper 'conventions' to get the story flowing ..

Lol, monchi we could draw sketches of what he has already laid out for us with the post above. Then later once everything has been corrected a bit we could piece together the storyboaard. Because so far in my animations the storyboards are as crucial as the final product.

Cibo, Great job on showing us your vision of how you want things. One thing I would like to avoid is cheesy cliche things like the Constant Glitches, or "EMERGENCY EVACUATE!" type of thing. I like how you have it so far, but when we actually go in and create it I dont want it to be a scene that nobody pays much attention to because its been done alot before. What I am trying to say is I like the idea, just make sure we do a good job with keeping the audience focused (Making them assume things etc.) which would require the scenes that we DO show to be able to make sense in the end.

WIll this be an clip that people will need to watch over and over agian until they undertand it?

ALSO, Do we really need to use EARTH? Or can it be some other galaxy or some other part in the universe. Personally earth bores me lol Ive seen it many times before and I think that creating new space scenes that most havent seen would really catch the audiences eye. Like (1)
(2)
(3)
Now I know that how we have the film set up we wont be on any other martian planets (like VODS) but The flashbacks and etc. could be of her home planet still excpet not make it earth. Perhaps a twisted similar version of earth. Like (4).
(5)
(6) EARTH


~Slaka

The orbit shots may end up being 3D assisted: render 3D planet/starfield and then add additional painting to it.

The glitches probably wouldn't be as prevalent as in some movies; not used throughout, and we can modify it to however we feel it should play out.

The air leak is more like a 'suit up or die' kind of emergency :)
I don't think it would seem too similar to space movie 'must evacuate' scenes.

It would be nice to end up with a reaction such as:
'Wow, that was cool. I want to watch it again, so I can understand it completely.'

-Not difficult to understand, but fun to decipher.

Feel free to change the Earth setting.. It's a bit boring, agreed.

slaka- Some of your images don't work..

super-
I may do some storyboarding, but anyone else is free to work on them as well.
Here are a couple links to storyboard info-
A basic overview of the whole process
An easy to understand comic explaining storyboard fundamentals
Supermonchi's storyboard layout 1 - Format can vary, but this works well (+ specify duration, camera movement, etc.)


I'll have more soon, or just google 'storyboard' for more.

Okay cool, I have a question to bring up...THE END. Options
a) End with selphina's death (Death)
b) End with a philosophical bit then show selphina fade into space (death)
c) Philosophical bit, show selphina fade into space, then a ship in the distance. (survival)

~Slaka

Thanks for bringing that up. We do need to start working on the story as a whole, instead of focusing on the intro.

Slaka-
a) maybe too specific
b) leave it completely open?
c) sounds good; we could make it even more vague.

Perhaps she is fading off into space and then distant radio signals (distorted at first) fade in right before the end credits role; giving the viewer a hint of hope.
-Something like, '...####...##...can you...##...Selphina...##...this is Rescue 1...Selphina..can you hear...'

What shall we discuss during the philosophical bit?

I'm all for fading to black with no resolution!

I'm also rather beat after a coupla hectic days and an exam this morning... will try to post more later.

CIBO

Perhaps she is fading off into space and then distant radio signals (distorted at first) fade in right before the end credits role; giving the viewer a hint of hope.
-Something like, '...####...##...can you...##...Selphina...##...this is Rescue 1...Selphina..can you hear...'

Now that I think about it using the audio would probly be a better choice.
As for the philosophical bit, that all depends on how we write the story really :). I was hoping for something very important that kind of ties the story together in a way. Of course it would take alot of time and effort and brain power to do. But dont have anything particular in mind ...yet.
(example: The title of Speed of 5cm per second sounds kind of odd. BUT! at the very end of the movie it ties with the story very well and pretty much defines the main story.)

~Slaka

Any new development on the story?

I think one of you guys sent me a PM about the project but for some strange reason the sender doesn't show up, so I don't know who it was...
screencap: http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nosendup5.gif
Um, yeah, so who was it? >_<

Not Me! Since you are a writer maybe the other writer sent it? ANYWAY I agree with Monchi, any story development ? or any progression as a matter of fact. I suppose we could draw out a detailed professional (even though this is an ameture animation XD) storyboard off of what we already have...Or just take monchi's approach by randomly posting things haha. Also is everyone okay with just contacting on AP? Or should we exchange emails, Instant messangers ETC.

~Slaka