Narrative Ideas

After combining our initial research, we begun to dive into creative writing, thinking of basic ideas to create an effective story suitable for a minute animation. We decided that for our animation to be captivating, it would have to be kept simple, possibly having either a character driven story with two polar opposites, include a moral to boost the story, or have a comedic twist on a factual scenario. We went away and upon our next meeting me circulated our ideas and came up with a variety of idea based on various parts of our research. Our base ideas were as follows;

• The Death and Rebirth of a Viking Warrior - A characters journey after death as he ascends to Valhalla after being chosen by Odin.

• The story of the Valkyries and their duty to take people to Valhalla - A representation of their own voyages from earth to Valhalla, transporting the chosen deceased.

• A narrative which follows the story of a legendary weapon - A short animation documenting its experiences and how it had changed hands over time.

• How to defend against Vikings – The progression of defenses against Vikings during their raids in the west; told in the perspective of an Englishman before the signing of as treaty.

• Perseverance is key to success - A Viking blacksmith attempts to create the 'perfect' weapon for a Viking warrior. The warrior breaks many weapons before perfecting his method.

• The Light Elves & the Dark Elves - A character driven narrative which presents a conflict before being resolved by having both parties meet on a moral ground.

• Creation of the Cosmos - The telling of how the world was believed to have come to be in Norse Mythology, personifying certain aspects.

• A hero story - Using historic or mythological characters to tell a story.

From these collaborated ideas, the idea which became the most appealing as we discussed creative possibilities and limitations was the “How to Defend against Vikings” concept. With further discussion we all had a similar visualization of the art direction and style we wanted to push this project towards, and realized that using both 2D and 3D elements was appealing to all of us.

The next stage in the development process will be to ‘pitch’ our idea to ensure that the narrative keystones are there to support the production of this short, as well extending our research visually and conceptually.