Premise; Concept Drawings and Solidified Story - 'Pitch Black'

From Bogman to Pitch-Black; Idea Development

Despite having an interesting environment and atmosphere concept for my premise project, for some time I’ve been stuck on how to push forward and develop these into a short. Although I never intended to worry about an in-depth narrative, it still felt as though I was missing a key focal idea that would give the world and characters a reason to exist, and be explored through.

Initially, I assumed that it would be enough to just follow the focal character on a short adventure to find something. This could have worked, but I was struggling to think of a way it could be compressed into the format of a few minutes and include enough character and world building. I worried that if the world and character were not interesting enough to carry the short on their own, the short would fall flat and be boring, especially because I’ve been trying to tread the line between bleak and bland with the world design.

I later came up with the idea of framing the short as a journey, but from the perspective of a vehicle. I imagined that the main character could hitch a ride on a strange airboat-bus contraption that would simply take them from one stop to another. This could give me the opportunity to still explore the environment in the background, whilst having a more personal interaction inside the vehicle which would give the short more focus. I thought perhaps I could include a couple of other passengers on the bus that the main character could interact with. I also enjoyed the idea of contrasting the harshness and bleakness of the outside environment with the cosiness of the bus.

However, I still felt like I hadn’t really hit upon the golden idea that would give my short the focus I was looking for. Despite the potentially cool environment and vehicle designs, the heart of the short would likely be in the interactions between the passengers, which is a type of short I had initially sought out to avoid, since I wanted the main focus to be on the environment and atmosphere.

Since I was designing a harsh and bleak environment, I still liked the idea of contrasting it with a sense of security and cosiness, so I decided to follow that train of thought a little further. I started thinking about the environment again, and perhaps having an additional sense of threat that could give a short more tension, and a reason for the main character to seek shelter. There was always the idea of monsters of ghouls lurking in the swamp, but I felt that would be too blunt to compliment the subtly ominous atmosphere I was going for.

I had the idea that the environment itself could be a part of the threat, and that’s when I started thinking about the dark, and how I could use it in a unique way to generate tension and a sense of impending threat. This is how I hit upon my favourite hook/idea so far. I don't have a final name, but for now I’m temporarily dubbing it ‘Pitch Black’;

Pitch Black; Concept

A race of mythical light-creatures inhabit a world in which absolute darkness causes things to cease to exist. In other words, things only exist when they are lit up/interacting with light. In this strange reality, pitch-black is not just an optical phenomenon, but also a physical one. A never ending, all encompassing black void exists everywhere, and whenever partial shadow falls on a surface or object, the void starts to show though. If an area becomes pitch black, it becomes physically permeable. 

This sounds like a complicated premise, but it’s actually pretty simple when put shown visually. Imagine a black empty void as practically the same as being in a pitch black room. If you were to turn on a dim lamp, you’d be able to see some of the room. But in this other world, the things you could now see would have come into being as a reaction to the lamp, and in the surrounding darkness, nothing would exist.

The void has no floor, so if you were to see a shadow on the ground, and step onto it, you’d fall straight through the ground, and keep falling forever. This is the crux of why the darkness in this world is such a serious and omnipresent threat; the light, or what you can see, is your connection to the physical world; if you loose sight of the world, you’ll loose your connection to it, and fall into the abyss.

Along with being generally ominous, my forest/wood is a great setting for this premise, because it gives plenty of opportunity to play with shadows. In the day-time, the sun floods the forest/world with light, and pitch-black becomes rare, so it’s largely safe. 

But as the sun sets, the shadows become deeper, and begin to creep over the landscape. The shadows of hills and trees become tears in reality which create networks of bottomless ravines in the land leading into the void. If you’re travelling at this time of day, you’d better have a light source with you, and a reliable one at that. As the sun sets behind the horizon, the void spills out and envelops everything; at this point you’d better have found a light-source to last you the night; a battery lantern or even a flaming torch won’t do for long.

The inhabitants of this world are not made from the same matter; I found that if the characters followed the same rules as their environment I’d run into logical problems such as whether or not everyone is technically standing on their own shadow, or that they couldn’t ever fall into the void, because they’d just cease to exist first, and so on. This is why the characters will probably be simple looking glowing line-work without a shadow, to make clear that they are not made of the same matter. In my initial tests, I think this style works well for the characters, provided I can replicate it in 3D.

As for the story, I think this idea is a good pick because it’s a simple and interesting enough concept that I can probably explore a very simple narrative and the gimmick will be interesting enough for at least a few minutes, since there’s quite a lot you can do with it.

Pitch Black; Story

The story will follow a lost light-creature who is late home, and racing against the setting sun. The creatures live in cities and towns that are filled to the brim with lights 24/7, and never fall into pitch-black, so they’re safe zones. Our creature can see the bright city in the distance, especially as the landscape begins to become more and more translucent as the light-level drops. Our character is carefully but hurriedly walking and shielding a faltering candle lantern, which is their only lifeline to walk safely over the treacherous terrain, lighting up the shadows as they go.

But suddenly, they stop dead in their tracks. A deep valley has opened up as a huge crevice dividing the terrain in two. It will take at least a few minutes to cross to the other side of the valley, but looking at the dying candle, the creature knows that it could fail at any moment. If the lantern goes out, the creature’s lifeline will be severed. The creature makes a split decision, and puts the dying lantern down on the grass before darting back into the thicket and jumping between patches of light frantically. There is not a lot of time; they have to act fast.

Sticks; the dry kind that have been lying on the forest floor for some time. There are usually lots around, but the shadows are making the selection limited. The creature jumps around furiously searching for and collecting sticks from the forest floor. With a small bundle of sticks, the creature turns to the lantern which appears floating atop the small patch of land it is still illuminating, now surrounded by shadow. But just then, with a gust of wind, the lantern goes out, and the creature watches in horror as the ground beneath it fades, and it appears to tumble down into the abyss.

As shadows encroach on the last patch of light, the creature appears floating on a solitary grass island with nothing but buzzing emptiness all around. With the only flame gone, the creature has one last hope; it sets the bundle of sticks down, and begins to use one of them to attempt to friction-start a fire. As the last of the sunlight dips behind the horizon, and the creature is all but enveloped in black, suddenly a small glow of embers lights a tiny patch of ground barely a meter around the creatures feet. 

The creature kneels down and blows on the embers for dear life. With some effort, one end of the bundle catches, and a warm glow bathes the nearby surroundings with light. Saved!

The creature sits by the fire to let it grow for a moment, and breaths a sigh of relief. Then, carefully picking up the bundle from the bottom and holding it like a torch, the creature continues onward into the valley, with plenty of light to pave the way, and not far to go till home.

Logistics 

I don’t really know if this story will fit within a reasonable time-frame for the short; it’s worth mentioning that I think this will not be a very modelling heavy project, so I may be able to spend more time on a slightly longer animation. 

Otherwise, there’s numerous ways I can shorten the story, such as cutting out the kerfuffle with the lantern falling, and having the creature light the bundle in the lantern with the candle. I don’t think the short would suffer too much, since it’s really the cool world and premise that counts. Although my initial designs are in their primitive stages, I've got the concept and story mostly fleshed out in my head, and I think I’m at a point where I can start story-boarding, and perhaps looking to get an animatic sorted.

The images below are attempts at demonstrating some of what I’ve described; although I did struggle a lot since wrapping my head around how to draw the void-shadows was an added challenge to my already difficult drawing experience. But hopefully they help to get the point across.

Concept Art

Surviving by the campfire

A low sun elongates the shadows of trees.

Torchlight. The design of the void is not quite yet solidified; for now I'm using static and some particles (it can't just be pitch black, or you wont be able to tell the difference between it and a shadow)

City of lights in the day

City of lights at night (floating in the void).

Bit of a placeholder design to show the concept of the city, would like to do something more rustic/organic such as a wooden tree-house/swamp house city. The closest style and vibe I can match to that of what I want to create is that of Studio Ghibli's  'Spirited Away'.