Shredder & Character 'Levels'

http://youtu.be/DnVhQrNTQgY 

Interview with the voice actor of the original cartoon Shredder from TMNT. No spoilers as to who it is! He gets into character depth and interaction - even for short episodes they had 'levels' to even the simplest of characters to give them life. Thought it was interesting.

Pitch -city story + some vis aid + color keys

story idea that takes place in a city

3 Characters, 1 environment

Story begins with a sound of a child crying as the camera sort of travels inside the city--a city that kind of resembles the reference image 1 except dimmer, less exciting lighting.  Then we find the crying child.  An older boy comes to comfort the child, and does some cool magical effects with vibrant bright colors--lighted kites would be cool, with lanterns and the city lights up like the hong kong city lights in the ref pictures below. He could be drawing the kites and they fly up and light up other things as they collide, etc.  Anyways the boy then magically disappears, maybe he flies up with one of the kites, leaving the child alone.  She starts to get discouraged as if she'll start crying again, but then she hears a different cry and finds another child even younger than her.  She comforts him by getting the magic to come out all over again, except for this time she does it herself.
     

  

color key:

(I mostly thought of this idea because I wanted to incorporate hong kong and the city's beautiful scenery as an inspiration somehow,,,yeah,,, >_< )

 reference images from the internet:

1)2)


3) 

Pitch - Labyrinth + some visual aid + color keys

Labyrinth story idea:

2 Characters, 2-3? environments (labyrinth -could be one, or different parts of the labyrinth could be separated into 2? or same model with just tweaking of lighting to make it look like different part of the labyrinth; and the final destination -could just be matte painted) 

The story begins with the protagonist running frantically through a harsh environment.  The shot zooms out to reveal that she is within a labyrinth.  She has been running like this for a while now and is very worn out when she notices a rather calm and lighter color and dashes toward it.  Then she finds herself in a dead end of the maze that does not have any threat.  She does not want to go back into the chaotic parts of the maze, so she stays in this "dead-end-room". She then takes the first rest she had in a really long time.

She has been in this dead end room thing a while now.  She knows it's a dead end but can't bring herself to leave it.  She decides to just remain there hope to die, when an old man with a map of the labyrinth finds her there.  He invites her to join him in escaping the maze but she still fears to go back into those horrible parts of the maze, not to mention she's not sure if she trusts the man.  She studies the map for a moment and knows this would be her only chance of ever escaping the maze.  So she decides to go with him.

The maze is still very unfriendly and is troublesome.  But the old man helps her a lot and they make great progress.  The old man ends up sacrificing himself during the journey which really affects the protagonist. But the influence the old man's character had in her keeps her going and she finally comes out of the maze to find the most wonderful amazing place waiting for her.

The color key throughout the short:

Pitch - Scott & the Demon

A 13 yr. old Scottish prince is being escorted by a muscle-bound warrior through a foggy swamp at sundown. The prince can't see anything - he has to trust the experience of his protector. Suddenly, a gigantic shape emerges from the fog. It is a humongous swamp demon. It turns and begins to chase the prince, the Scot warrior draws his sword and they begin to fight, while trying to retreat. The swamp gets thicker and thicker, until soon enough the battle has led to a giant log extending over a waterfall. Eventually, the demon's rage breaks the log, launching all three into the river and over the falls. All seems lost for a moment, until the warrior emerges, dragging the prince with him. The sun breaks through the fog as they stand and appreciate the moment on a rock at the base of the waterfall.

Pitch - Planet Fall

2-3 Char., Crowd Sim, 2 environment.

We open on a shiny, super futuristic city at dawn. Everything is perfect as a tiny genius kid is fixing a new machine. Suddenly, the sky dims - he realizes there is gigantic moon inbound, headed to destroy the entire city. He hurriedly activates his machine, and a bright blue anti-grav beam blasts at the incoming moon - but it is only slowing the inevitable. The young genius realizes he can't save the city on his own, and has to work together with the other citizens to build enough anti-grav beams to push the planet away. Although grudging to help the genius kid, eventually the city learns how to work together to build the machines and are able to push the moon away at the last second. 

Pitch -Space Explorer + Color Keys

Space Explorer pitch idea:

3 Characters, 1-4 environments.

We open on a space explorer in his dark, eerily lit ship with his small robot companion. A hologram suddenly bursts from his controls, indicating the location of an abandoned space station nearby with a treasure inside. The explorer cautiously lands on the station, and begins to search for the item. Although he passes through lots of beautiful environments as he crawls through the ducts and passageways, something is definitely wrong - the station is abandoned. He enters the final chamber and finds the treasure - a glowing blue rock - only to find that a dark alien monster has actually laid the whole situation as a trap. The monster and the explorer have a short, deep conversation - ending with "I'll be right behind you. You can't escape." Or something to that effect. The explorer runs, and the monster is destroying the entire station behind him, sliding through the ducts, right on his tail - the explorer barely manages to board his ship and take off, with the monster looking on from a distance. The monster then retreats back into the station to hunt the explorer another day. The explorer admires the glowing rock - a rare treasure- then places it inside a bag filled with hundreds of similar stones, and his ship blasts off into the distance.