"The Amazing Thin Man"

Script by Ina Fischlin.

The purpose of this project was to practise pre-production work: involving writing up a synopsis, working on a treatment and then coming up with storyboards and finally an animatic. Having never done anything quite like it before, I was intrigued enough to give an enthusiastic stab at it. However, it proved to be a little tiresome, as unfortunately, I did not find the script thoroughly engaging. Also, I'm not skilled enough just yet to do anything about that to make it so.

Synopsis:

We are introduced to an ordinary, non-descript office worker whose only distinctive trait is how impossibly thin he is. The narrator tells us of his normal life, as he leaves his suburban house to go to work and then return home again, never wavering from routine.

One day, his dull, boring life changes when he gets stuck in an elevator. In this instance he finds a use for his only distinctive trait thus manages to get out and find help for those trapped in the lift. Realising his potential, he becomes the neighbourhood hero; rescuing cats from trees stopping thieves and saving an infant from a burning building.

Unfortunately, whilst walking beneath a window sill a cat knocks a flower pot off. It falls onto Archibald’s head and the impact compresses his body together and he becomes short and round.

The synopsis part of pre-production I found to be akin to a stroll in the park, however, when it came to the treatment (sad to say, but I haven't attempted one properly since) felt more like trying to stumble out of someone else's house in the middle of the night, with the lights not working because the building is on fire. A bit of a hit-and-miss attempt, to say the least. And thoroughly unfamiliar.

Treatment:

I plan to create this as a flash production.

 The protagonist is introduced to the audience in a mock-stage environment by the narrator as “Archibald Crane”.  The background consisting of his house and street proceeds to drop in like scenery in a theatre which he then walks into and he disappears into his house.  The sky then changes from grey to pale yellow to signify the change from introductory narration to demonstrating the protagonist’s average, routine day.

Archibald emerges from his house then exits screen left and walks to the summit of a small hill and continues walking on the spot while the scenery rolls back clockwise until the narrator stops speaking, then the background stops moving and he exits to the left. The camera watches from over his shoulder as he approaches the bus stop, and then switches to observe from across the road as he peers over a short, round man’s blobby self to read the newspaper. The bus arrives, obscuring our view and the camera pulls back so that we see it arrive from the left, then drive off again.

The camera cuts to the office, where we see Archibald sitting at his desk, looking rather bored and idle. There is a clock which we hear ticking in the background, which is larger when we see him taking his coffee break, and lager again in the canteen. With a *ping* we shift to see Archibald walking up the path to disappear into his house again.

After a moment of black screen and silence, the end of the day, we see Archibald standing in a lift alongside a fancily dressed woman, a grandfather and his granddaughter. Suddenly the boring elevator music stops, and the lights go out. All that is visible are the whites of startled eyes. A pair of eyes disappears as the woman begins to scream shrilly. The dull red of the emergency lights come on, and we see the woman, screaming for all she’s worth, the little girl hiding her face in her grandfather’s coat while he puts a protective arm around her. Archibald squeezes round the back of them in an attempt to ring the emergency alarm bell. But no matter how persistently he pushes the button, nothing happens. Attempting to force open the doors also proves to be futile. With a thoughtful pose, he ponders what to do, resulting in an idea. One second there, the next gone, he disappears through the crack in the elevator doors. The woman stops screaming, the grandchild stops hiding, and they all stare at the empty space that used to be Archibald Crane, baffled. By the time they’ve noticed, Archibald has already found help and leads the mechanics down the hall, saluting them as they plod past him, continuing toward the lift. Archibald smiles, for the first time since the narrator told him that no one remembers his name, chuffed to bits that he has found the meaning of his existence and uncovered his hidden potential. Striking a superman-ish pose, he is proclaimed the amazingly thin man. Feeling empowered, he dares to correct the narrator so that he is known as the amazing thin man; deciding himself to be amazing rather than inhumanly thin.

For his next feat, we see a granny pleading with a cat to come down from a tree, but never fear, Archibald is emerging from a bedroom window. He flops forward toward the tree making a human rope ladder to the stranded cat. A fireman follows, climbing out the window and shuffling along toward the cat that no normal ladder could reach.

Continuing on his adventures as the local hero, he trips up a cat-burglar threatening to steal women’s underwear and sweaters. He stands proudly over his defeated foe, as a security man waddles over and shines his torch on the would-be-felon.

A burning building. A baby crying. A crowd of curious and anxious onlookers. Who will save the day? Archibald boldly steps out of the crowd, striding toward the fan the firemen brought. He stands before it and they turn it on. Like a feather, he spins upward, landing on the windowsill and disappears into the building. A moment passes, and then he returns, the baby in his arms. He jumps from the window ledge, his body stretching out to its thinnest as he parachutes back down to the ground. Huzzah!

With a bounce in his step, he walks down the street with a spring in his step. Recognised as the local hero, we see a singular old man acknowledge him with a wave. He passes beneath a window ledge, where a cat stretches and knocks over a flower pot. It falls off just as Archibald walks by, and the screen goes black. We hear the crash of the impact. The camera resumes where Archibald once was, then drops down, and we see a round unremarkable man, looking up at us mournfully. He is no longer the amazingly thin man anymore, but just Archibald Crane.

Storyboards:

(For some bizarre and unknown reason the animatic would not upload. It may take a while but I'll add it in later after I figure out why.)

As far as storyboarding and animatic went, I quite enjoyed them. When presented it was noted that there needed to be a bit more emphasis on Archibald getting out of the lift, but as you can see, I have yet to add that bit in. ;)