Current thought process:
Inucurry is our main inspiration – > their roots are in russian and czech animation and the moving picture book look/aesthetic -> they’re a good example of the Superflat style of animation and art – > which in turn links to and is a byproduct of kawaii culture (both me and lucy grew up admiring this) -> lolita is a fashion subculture which we both admired growing up too (And I actively partake in this as well). Due to the origins of this subculture being an act of rebellion against japan’s ‘if any nails stick out they get hammered down’ mentality, it directly links to the universal experience that girls have growing up that is the expectations to look a certain way etc and how society hates teenage girls no matter what we do. -> Clown Lolita is a subgenre of lolita that links back to how we want to create an animation that empowers and inspires people who watch it.
This helped us narrow down our target audience to now be: People (more specifically young women in their 20s) that would attend animation film festivals to be inspired. The goal for the film would also be to highlight stuff like how confidence and anxiety is an ongoing problem that every person faces and needs to overcome, how fashion can empower a person due to self expression and how it can be an act of rebellion too.
Clown as a motif and how trinket as a character desires to make people laugh and be happy.
Focusing more now on art direction and the history and aesthetic of clowns rather than story? But obviously still having likeable characters
Fantasy setting, can lean away from realism and into more exploring style
Thinking about it more, I think that the story could be about burnout and the importance of not sacrificing yourself entirely for the sake of another person instead of confidence loss. And also about like, picking your problems i suppose (like, the whole ‘you’ll always have problems no matter what so why don’t you pick which ones u want instead of being forced into a box u dont want’)
Could also have the underlying theme of ‘running away to join the circus’ and the positives and negatives of it, having a parallel to real life like, chasing your dreams is good but there’s always consequences too
The entire story can be from trinket’s pov, but throughout u can also see meryl’s reactions and stuff to things. So you can pick up on what her side of things is like if you pay attention to it.
Trinket can start off as a girl who dreams of becoming a clown to make others happy but she can’t because of societal expectations of being a successful/normal girl (where the clothes symbolism can start, hyper feminine/ exaggerated clown lolita clothes for those who have found their own happiness and dont care anymore about following those expectations. At the same time we could also show that even tho this is the case not everyone accepts it (those that think that the aesthetic is unapproachable due to how exaggerated it is) and that’s okay)
Meryl begins as the punchinello of the story, coming every night to meet with trinket and dance etc, until she can’t anymore. (then they effectively switch places, and trinket finds out that the life that meryl lived was good but also had many hardships since she was also responsible for repairing the clothes and appearances of the other circus members (these other members can be implied to be/or actually are toys or puppets, but it’s whatever bc the story won’t be grounded in reality anyway so it can be up to people’s interpretation. The thing that matters is, Meryl was with caretaker and now she’s no longer there)
When Trinket first takes Meryl’s place, everything is fine at first but as the days go on and the other members need the repairs she can’t keep up because she isn’t used to it and starts to struggle.
Meryl is unwell but probably still watching at this point, seeing that yes they still need her, but while she is recovering the importance of not over exerting yourself
Keep this ending: I think it would be nice for the animation/story to end on an abrupt note, like just before Meryl starts performing again, the animation just ends so we never find out if she did a good or bad job. Because it doesn’t matter, what matters is that she made the choice to help her friend despite her own fears.
27.02.23
Made a script today with all the relevant events
^ Same as above but with roles reversed, with Trinket as the seasoned performer (Punchinello) who helps Meryl (Beppo) who dreams of performing
Vintage and fantasy setting
Facial markings could connote feeling
Kinda visual storybook animation style as well as the Inu Curry influence
Could be held up like puppets, has weird illustrated background elements, as well as regular 2D anim for character moments obvi
Overlay textures still
Like in the PDF, starts in Meryl’s bedroom, she is dressed as a regular girl but the Mise-en-scene shows her interest in the Circus (ticket, stuff in room etc)
She then either imagines going to the Circus or she actually goes, not sure yet. She sees Trinket performing
Maybe it shows the real Circus but then zooms out to Meryl’s tiny version
I’ll try to explain why we originally had roles reversed but we changed them lmao
28.02.23
Trinket suffers from burnout as she performs during the day then at night when she should be resting
Meryl longs for something she cannot have
Together they heal woohoo