OUAN603 - Rationale

Creating an original IP through the use of several or more platforms i.e (graphic novel and animated film short combination, and any other media). I want to produce a final film that I can work on but also want to produce some more paper based narrative work to accompany the story world and the narratives that I develop. The reason for this is I like the idea of producing something original but also branching out into several mediums as well as the chance to create a final film. It also means that there is opportunity to collaborate with other individuals on the separate pieces of media either within the course or externally.

The genre I want to base my project on is magical realism. The project I'm working on in COP3 is based around a dark survival story in a post-apocalyptic world and in contrast to that I would like to create a story with more charm, innocence and magical elements but still with a serious tone. At this point I would like the story to be told from the point of view of a child. I would like the art style to be vivid and peaceful, with influence from the style of Makoto Shinkai and Ghibli and I'm including Garden of Words, My Neighbour Totoro, Bakuman, Losing Sleep and Alice in Wonderland as contextual references early on. The premise of the story in undecided at the moment but it will likely involve a young character or several characters and depict the adventures or time they spend together at school. This idea is intended to mimic the types of stories that revolve around friendship and adventure such as Stand By Me, The Goonies, Super 8, Bridge to Terabithia and Stranger Things. The imagination of the characters and and their collective imagination will play a large part in the story, and it will have some magical aspects to it, for example - finding a hidden place that has magical properties. This type of idea combined with the visuals I'm hoping to achieve should make for an interesting take of magical realism and give me the chance to explore different mediums with this type of story. At the moment animation seems to be the most obvious platform both for storytelling and to get experience creating a larger scale project. I would also like to utilise the advantages of the comic book format in order to explore visuals and story further through print and illustration. I also think that magical realism could make use of some platforms that I haven't yet used such as a game, different types of illustration such a pixel art [http://i.imgur.com/MP9yFVn.gif] and other web media.

For the project, then, I would like to create a short final film to introduce the audience into the story world. This could be done in any place and that's an advantage for me as there are a range of potentially interesting and creative ways to tie the different media together. But aside from this I would like to create short graphic novel extension of the story, a written story to get more of the main story line out as oppose to doing it through visual media alone. Along side this there will be a transmedia bible documenting the story world and the way it functions with characters and aesthetic etc. Finally, there will be an art book to demonstrate a complete look at the fictional story world through the use of visuals.

• Garden of words - http://nopybot.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/gardenofwords03.jpg
• Losing Sleep - http://www.lookhappydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/PAGE_07_v04.jpg
• Bridge to Terabithia - http://www.moviemail.com/img/still/21422/50958_Bridge-Terabithia-5.jpg
• Super 8 - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nMi2ZQST6wA/maxresdefault.jpg
• Stranger Things - http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2016/08/Stranger-Things-1-1200x605.jpg?width=960
• My Neighbour Totoro - http://a141.idata.over-blog.com/4/92/80/11/archives/2006/11/18660075.jpg