Synopsis:-
Maya, 8yr old thin girl stays with her father in a small village in east India called Purnia (West Bengal -Bihar border). She dreams to be a well educated working women not like the other women folk of the village , but her father cannot afford to send her to school as he is already in debt and his farm is outdated to earn enough to meet ends.
One fine day, Maya goes with her father to the city of Patna and Mr Jha’s house which was referred to him by a friend who said that they were ready to keep Maya with them and give her the education required , in return they wanted her to help them out with their household work. The family had agreed upon the fact that they would be paying Maya a salary and a part of it would be kept by the family to look after her and the rest would be sent to her father. Her father agreed upon this as this was the only way he could get Maya out of this miserable life and generate some income.
Her father happily left her in Patna with Mr Jha’s family and returned to Purnia. She was allotted a room on the terrace which was part of their store room. As the days passed Maya was asked to do all the household work. She was told by her father that Mr Jha would educate her and when she was done with her school she would have to help Mrs Jha with the household work the rest of the day. Maya was treated badly by Mr Jha’s family and in the course of time the treatment got worse. Day and night they complained of her work and physically tortured her. The only time Maya got for herself in the evening when Mrs Jha would take the children for a walk in the park. During this break she stared outside the window into a school compound where she saw children of her age playing. This sight disheartened her but as she always dreamed of her life like that but at the end of the day this was the only sight which still kept her will for a better life alive. As the days passed by her treatment worsened and the household work seemed never ending. Maya lost all hope and was ready to accept this as her fate.
One year passed and now it was the month of July. Monsoons had arrived and in Bihar and one evening it rained heavily due to which Mrs Jha’s routine evening walk was disrupted and she decided to stay home. This meant that she would be home and Maya would have to work. She asked Maya to heat milk for her son .Maya left cleaning the house went ahead with the assigned task. Although it was raining but she could still hear children playing in the school compound. She tried not getting distracted but finally gave up and went to the window to watch them play . She got so engrossed in watching the kids play that she forgot about the milk . Suddenly she heard a loud scream and she saw Mrs Jha standing in front of her furious. Then she noticed that the milk had boiled and it spilt all over the stove. Mrs Jha started cursing her and dragged her to the stove and asked her who would pay for this loss and took the vessel full of boiling milk and threw it right at Maya. Maya screamed in pain and the screen fades off. She opens the door and escapes from her misery.
After few days, she is seen sitting surrounded by other children, studying and playing with them.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
First Review
In writing the story (by herself) she needs to consider story-plot,
characterisation, establishment of character, the narrative itself.
It has been suggested that by July 15:
1. She writes the entire story in Hindi.
2. Establish the central character/characters.
3. Work out plot - the sequence of events that drive the story.
4. Work with the idea of rising action - climax - denouement.
As an example, the panel took her weak story and tried to show her how to
move forward with it.
Establishing plot:
1. The child is sold off
2. She suffers as a servant.
3. Now introduce a critical incident - what can it be?
4. Which leads to her running away
Does she run away only in imagination? Is she rescued? Does she really
manage to escape and run away? Where to?
To get to a good plot, she also has to go deeper into the subject of child
enslavement/labor, etc. Only in this way can the film become emotive and
touch others and waken them to the plight of such children.
There is a second route for coming up with her story which was suggested:
Collect 10-15 stories from the newspapers/magazines about children who
have been enslaved/brought into labor and their treatment by bad masters.
You can construct your own story and plot using elements from these
newspaper stories.
Or you can take one of these "real-life" stories and see how it can be
taken into animation form.
By Saturday night (July 10), research and email the panel scanned copies
of your chosen newspaper stories. Try to discuss on email or in person a
story that she has been gripped by most and how it can be treated or
developed with her own touch.
By July 15, she must come up with her final story - ONE STORY.
The process of taught diploma can be taken up from that point onwards.
characterisation, establishment of character, the narrative itself.
It has been suggested that by July 15:
1. She writes the entire story in Hindi.
2. Establish the central character/characters.
3. Work out plot - the sequence of events that drive the story.
4. Work with the idea of rising action - climax - denouement.
As an example, the panel took her weak story and tried to show her how to
move forward with it.
Establishing plot:
1. The child is sold off
2. She suffers as a servant.
3. Now introduce a critical incident - what can it be?
4. Which leads to her running away
Does she run away only in imagination? Is she rescued? Does she really
manage to escape and run away? Where to?
To get to a good plot, she also has to go deeper into the subject of child
enslavement/labor, etc. Only in this way can the film become emotive and
touch others and waken them to the plight of such children.
There is a second route for coming up with her story which was suggested:
Collect 10-15 stories from the newspapers/magazines about children who
have been enslaved/brought into labor and their treatment by bad masters.
You can construct your own story and plot using elements from these
newspaper stories.
Or you can take one of these "real-life" stories and see how it can be
taken into animation form.
By Saturday night (July 10), research and email the panel scanned copies
of your chosen newspaper stories. Try to discuss on email or in person a
story that she has been gripped by most and how it can be treated or
developed with her own touch.
By July 15, she must come up with her final story - ONE STORY.
The process of taught diploma can be taken up from that point onwards.
Project Proposal
Design Brief:-
It is said the most innocent phase in human life is the childhood. It is that stage of life when the human foundations are laid for a successful adult life. It is the phase when we are carefree, playing, fun loving......
But there are children who don’t get same kind of childhood as other children get. There are children who hate their childhood as they are scarred and tormented. There are individual and industry, who employee young innocent children. They put them to work under gruelling circumstances. They make them work for long hours; make them work in dangerous factory units; make them carry load even heavier than their body weight.
Today one of the greatest maladies spread across the world is that of child labour. This problem is not only afflicting under developed or developing nations but also developed countries.
The leading reason for this is poverty. The children either supplement their parents’ income or are the only wage earners in the family. Unfortunately, their poverty stricken way of life makes them so ruthless that they sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers.
India accounts for the second highest number where child labour in the world is concerned. Parents send their children to work so that they don’t starve and die. Child labour for such children is the only survival for them.
The question here is why parents send their children to work or sell them for money instead of sending them to school for better education.
As an artist or designer has a wide range of option for this can be worked on. I like to work on this subject, so that I can send across a message to those people who let their children or sell their children to get some income through this short animation film.
Story:-
Maya, 8yr old thin girl, the only daughter of her family lives in a small village with her father. Her father is not happy with her, when she used to play with her friends and study with them. He sells her daughter to man, named Shankar, who buys children to remove poverty for the villagers who cannot afford to look after themselves. He gets huge money for selling her daughter and he is happy for this. Maya’s father doesn’t care about it. He just smiles after looking a bag full of money.
The man takes Maya with himself and keeps her for two three days with himself and feeds her nice foods. Maya was happy as she used to get good foods to eat, but she used to be sad also at some point of time when she used to think about her dad.
She didn’t know much why she was taken away so far from home. The man said her that her father had sent her so that she could get better education. But after few days she was send to some one’s house to work there as a maid and look after their house.
She has to sweep and clean the house twice a day. She has to even wash clothes. She used to either get money sometimes to feed herself and sometimes not. If it used to be late for her to finish her work, she was allowed to stay at home, but used to get nothing to eat. She was allowed to sleep in kitchen. Sometimes she used to carry heavy weights form her own body weight. She used to get bitten up almost every day for not working properly. It was hard for her to work there. Whatever money she used to earn used to be taken by Shankar. She could hardly spend some money on herself.
She could not even sleep properly as she had many scars in her body. She almost spends a year working there but she didn’t say a few words. She used to always sit near the window during the evening time and see some children playing outside the house. After seeing other kids playing near the house even she used to dream about it and going to school. But her dream became dream only.
One day finishing all her work she was going back home during evening time. But instead of going back home she ran away and ended up taking a shed in a small school.
Research Questions:-
To what mental and physical trauma do children go through while working at very small age?
What different look and feel can I get in this film?
As a designer, how will I be able to design the film and convey the message to the audience?
Approach:-
To come up with strong storyboard to communicate effectively.
My iterations and discussions with other people.
The look and feel of the film in different light and mood sets.
Composting the film by putting it all together.
Animation skills in software while working on this project.
To watch films and take help of people to get better ideas.
Material/Resources:-
Paper
Storyboarding
Scanner
Software (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Maya, Adobe After Effects)
People (Faculty, Friends) for guidance and feedback.
Learning outcomes:-
Explorations on animation (in software for timing, expressions)
To communicate effectively through this film within short period of time.
Explore medium to work for effects and animation.
Understanding ways of communicating through visual language.
It is said the most innocent phase in human life is the childhood. It is that stage of life when the human foundations are laid for a successful adult life. It is the phase when we are carefree, playing, fun loving......
But there are children who don’t get same kind of childhood as other children get. There are children who hate their childhood as they are scarred and tormented. There are individual and industry, who employee young innocent children. They put them to work under gruelling circumstances. They make them work for long hours; make them work in dangerous factory units; make them carry load even heavier than their body weight.
Today one of the greatest maladies spread across the world is that of child labour. This problem is not only afflicting under developed or developing nations but also developed countries.
The leading reason for this is poverty. The children either supplement their parents’ income or are the only wage earners in the family. Unfortunately, their poverty stricken way of life makes them so ruthless that they sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers.
India accounts for the second highest number where child labour in the world is concerned. Parents send their children to work so that they don’t starve and die. Child labour for such children is the only survival for them.
The question here is why parents send their children to work or sell them for money instead of sending them to school for better education.
As an artist or designer has a wide range of option for this can be worked on. I like to work on this subject, so that I can send across a message to those people who let their children or sell their children to get some income through this short animation film.
Story:-
Maya, 8yr old thin girl, the only daughter of her family lives in a small village with her father. Her father is not happy with her, when she used to play with her friends and study with them. He sells her daughter to man, named Shankar, who buys children to remove poverty for the villagers who cannot afford to look after themselves. He gets huge money for selling her daughter and he is happy for this. Maya’s father doesn’t care about it. He just smiles after looking a bag full of money.
The man takes Maya with himself and keeps her for two three days with himself and feeds her nice foods. Maya was happy as she used to get good foods to eat, but she used to be sad also at some point of time when she used to think about her dad.
She didn’t know much why she was taken away so far from home. The man said her that her father had sent her so that she could get better education. But after few days she was send to some one’s house to work there as a maid and look after their house.
She has to sweep and clean the house twice a day. She has to even wash clothes. She used to either get money sometimes to feed herself and sometimes not. If it used to be late for her to finish her work, she was allowed to stay at home, but used to get nothing to eat. She was allowed to sleep in kitchen. Sometimes she used to carry heavy weights form her own body weight. She used to get bitten up almost every day for not working properly. It was hard for her to work there. Whatever money she used to earn used to be taken by Shankar. She could hardly spend some money on herself.
She could not even sleep properly as she had many scars in her body. She almost spends a year working there but she didn’t say a few words. She used to always sit near the window during the evening time and see some children playing outside the house. After seeing other kids playing near the house even she used to dream about it and going to school. But her dream became dream only.
One day finishing all her work she was going back home during evening time. But instead of going back home she ran away and ended up taking a shed in a small school.
Research Questions:-
To what mental and physical trauma do children go through while working at very small age?
What different look and feel can I get in this film?
As a designer, how will I be able to design the film and convey the message to the audience?
Approach:-
To come up with strong storyboard to communicate effectively.
My iterations and discussions with other people.
The look and feel of the film in different light and mood sets.
Composting the film by putting it all together.
Animation skills in software while working on this project.
To watch films and take help of people to get better ideas.
Material/Resources:-
Paper
Storyboarding
Scanner
Software (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Maya, Adobe After Effects)
People (Faculty, Friends) for guidance and feedback.
Learning outcomes:-
Explorations on animation (in software for timing, expressions)
To communicate effectively through this film within short period of time.
Explore medium to work for effects and animation.
Understanding ways of communicating through visual language.
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