J E A H Y U N R E E C ET H E S I S 1 / / F A L L 2 0 1 2 / / J U N S A S S A

Spring Tide

On a warm and bright spring day, a boy with his trusty pail embarks on an adventure to the beach with his family. Unfortunately they seem far more preoccupied with their own selves to pay much at-

C O N C E P T S T A T E M E N TSpring Tide is an anima-tion that interweaves the innocent story of a young boy’s curiosity while vis-iting the beach and the more serious themes of neglect, love, and loss.

tention to one another, let alone the boy. So with curi-osity and determination, he sets off to make his own fun, eventually finding himself a new friend in a small jellyfish.

S P R I N G T I D E / / J E A H Y U N R E E C E

My goal is that Spring Tide will be a story that can ap-peal and connect people of different ages; A story which can draw in the interest of children for its simple and hopeful narrative but also engage adults with its more thought provoking themes of family and the nature of relationships. These themes are revealed in subtle ways so as not to overpower the overall bright and illustrative quality of the animation, but to allow people to slowly re-

alise that at times beauty can mask darker issues; howev-er, even when all seems lost, hope can be found and there can be the bright promise of tomorrow. For the young boy, his disjointed and seem-ingly uncaring family can finally come together and begin the process of under-standing one another. In that sense, Spring Tide ultimately becomes what itself tries to promote: giving people the opportunity to connect to one another.

I M P E R A T I V E

S P R I N G T I D E / / J E A H Y U N R E E C E

2D Animation. Illustrated by hand in Adobe Photo-shop and animated in Adobe After Effects.

The visual style I chose for Spring Tide encompasses simplicity, colour, and light. The simple colour blocking technique of illustration al-lows the visuals to remain simple, therefore allowing it to be aesthetically pleasing but not overpower the narra-tive or symbolism of the story. To highlight the movement of the narrative and the chang-es taking place within the characters, I chose to mark this visually by changing the colour scheme of the anima-tion in coordination with the rising and setting of the sun.

I began my creative process by first deciding on charac-ter designs, which ultimately helped me visualise the world these characters would live in. Then taking the style of colour blocking, I began il-lustrating different scenes, utilising different variations of control with line detail and textures. Ultimately I settled on a more fluid and freeform drawing technique, allowing imperfect lines and shapes to add character to the scenes.

V I S U A L T R E A T M E N T

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R E S E A R C H

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S P R I N G T I D E / / J E A H Y U N R E E C E

S P R I N G T I D E / / J E A H Y U N R E E C E / / R E S E A R C H

P A S C A L C A M P I O Nwww.pascalcampion.com

K I M S M I T Hwww.tuckedaway.com

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P A S C A L C A M P I O Nwww.pascalcampion.com

K I M S M I T Hwww.tuckedaway.com

EARLY MORNING. SUN IS RISING. CRAMPED TOWN-HOUSES. NEIGHBOURHOOD IS BEGINNING TO AWAKE.

BOY, a child around six/seven years of age, stands in front of a hallway closet, straining on his toes to reach a toy pail on one of the higher shelves. MOTHER heads down hall-way, carrying items for the beach: towels, bag, etc. BOY continues to stretch. FATHER comes down hallway with a beach umbrella, while also talking on his mobile. SISTER, teenager about seventeen, follows while texting. BOY continues to try and reach the toy pail. BROTHER, teen-ager around fourteen, with headphones on and a game console in hand walks down hallway. He stops, glanc-es over at BOY and closet. BROTHER then bumps BOY aside and reaches up to grab a hat sitting on one of the shelves. Pulling away, he knocks down the toy pail. It falls and tumbles on the ground. BROTHER continues down hallway. BOY stares down hallway, then turns and picks up the pail. BOY follows rest of family down hallway.

FATHER sits in driver seat of car, still talking on his mobile. He is scrolling through phone’s screen.

Phone screen reveals charts and graphs. Work related.

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MOTHER stands in front of open car trunk. She tries to make all the various beach items fit. BROTHER comes by and tosses his bag into the trunk, not caring that he’s made more work for her.

BOY sits eagerly in the back seat with toy pail. He hums to himself and looking out the window.

SISTER is leaning against the stoop of the townhouse, still texting. CAR HONKS TWICE. SISTER looks upaand rolls her eyes, annoyed, but then gets up and walks forward.

Car is moving down highway. Other cars pass by.

MOTHER is sleeping under her giant beach hat. Her giant sunglasses are slipping down her nose.

FATHER drives wordlessly.

SISTER still texting. BROTHER continues to play game. SOUND OF PHONE CLICKING. MUTED SOUND OF GAME BROTHER IS PLAYING THAT IS ESCAPING FROM HIS HEADPHONES. BOY stares at his siblings.

BOY turns to look out window. He props elbow on toy pail

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and leans his cheek into his hand.

BOY watches cars pass by. One van comes up and matches their speed. He is able to see another family in the other car.

The other car has a family going to the beach as well, as evident by beach gear and adult-sized and kid-sized surf boards strapped to top of car. The mother turns around and gives her children sandwiches to snack on.

BOY turns to look at sleeping form of MOTHER.

BOY strains against seatbelt. Reaches out to tug on MOTHER’s sleeve.

MOTHER stirs in sleep but doesn’t respond. BOY deject-edly sits back and leans against his pail again and stares out the window once more.

The other car pulls ahead and disappears from view.

BOY’s eyes grow heavy and he falls asleep.

FADE OUT.

SOUND OF DOORS SLAMMING AND OBJECTS MOV-ING. WAVES CRASHING ON BEACH. SEAGULLS.

FADE IN.

BOY slowly opens eyes and then abruptly sits up.

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The car is empty except for him.

BOY scrambles out of car. Family members each retrieve their own things from the trunk and leave.

FATHER sets up beach umbrella. MOTHER lays down tow-els. FATHER sits down in shade and opens up his laptop. MOTHER lies down and begins reading magazine. They are on opposite sides of the umbrella pole. SISTER lies in sun putting on sunblock. BROTHER sits down under um-brella, back to his parents and facing off-camera, playing his game. BOY stands off to the side watching them, still clutching his toy pail.

Pan across beach shows several different people making sandcastles, i.e. siblings working together, parents and children, grandparents, etc. But BOY is working alone.

BOY lifts pail slowly to reveal mound of sand. Sand crum-bles from the top, leaving behind a sad excuse for a sand-castle. CHILD’S LAUGHTER IS HEARD. BOY looks up.

There is a father swinging around child in the water. LAUGHTER.

BOY turns and looks over at FATHER, who is on his laptop.

FATHER types. BOY walks forward. FATHER’S PHONE RINGS. BOY taps FATHER on shoulder. FATHER answers his phone and waves the BOY away. BOY stands and waits for a moment then leaves.

Sun is beaming in the sky. Pan down to beach. BOY is

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standing alone with his pail. A sibling pair, older sister and younger brother, walk by in front of him. Little brother bites into hotdog and gets ketchup on his face. Sister stops and wipes it from his cheek and the two hold hands and continue on.

SISTER is lying on her stomach, sunbathing. BOY comes by and casts a shadow over her. SISTER pushes down sunglasses and looks up.

BOY points towards food carts.

SISTER reaches into her bag, hands him money, and then readjusts her sunglasses and goes back to sunbathing.

BOY sits on the edge of the pier, his pail sitting next to him, as he eats a hot dog alone.

BOY walks along edge of beach. Sun is slightly lower.

BOY walks away from the busy area of the beach.

BOY comes up to rock formations next to beach. He climbs on top of them.

There are tide pools in the rocks.

BOY sets down pail and bends down onto his knees.

A colourful array of sea creatures lives within one of the tide pools. BOY dunks head in and stares at them. He reaches out and touches one of the creatures clinging to the rock wall and it flutters open.

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BOY walks amongst the other tide pools, dunking his head in and out of them. He stops at one in particular though. Sun keeps lowering in the sky.

Inside the tide pool is a JELLYFISH swimming around.

BOY bends down, reaches into the water. He doesn’t touch the JELLYFISH but his fingers wiggle and the JEL-LYFISH dances around him.

BOY runs over to retrieve pail then comes back and scoops the JELLYFISH up.

BOY slowly makes his way back to beach as he tries not to spill any water from the pail. Sun continues to set.

People are packing up and leaving the beach.

FATHER packs away laptop. MOTHER rolls towels. She glances over.

(MOTHER’s POV) SISTER removes sunglasses to reveal tan lines. BROTHER pulls off headphones, his face is sun burnt. Empty space of sand. Glancing around, there are more empty spaces of sand. BOY is nowhere to be found.

MOTHER drops towels on ground and looks worried. She turns to look at her children and gestures to the empty space next to her. SISTER and BROTHER shrug.

Family begins searching for BOY.

FATHER looks into dark and empty bathrooms.

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SISTER asks a stranger, making motions to describe height of BOY. Stranger shakes his head and walks away.

Family walks along beach, calling his name.

BROTHER waves and points.

BOY comes into view, still walking with the pail.

Family comes running over. MOTHER bends down and grasps BOY by the shoulders. She reaches up and wipes BOY’s hair from face.

Sun has nearly set. JELLYFISH glows, illuminating BOY.

Family gathers around him.

Family peers into pail. FATHER looks up.

FATHER gestures to beach.

Night. Beach begins to illuminate with other jellyfish.

BOY looks sad and shakes his head, holding the pail clos-er to his body. FATHER bends down and places a hand on the BOY’s hands. BOY’s shoulder slump and he nods, handing the pail to him.

FATHER takes BOY’s hand and they walk into the water. MOTHER, SISTER, and BROTHER follow.

FATHER and BOY release JELLYFISH together.JELLYFISH dances between the family’s legs then swims

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away to join other JELLYFISH.

Family stands in water together, watching as the group of jellyfish swim away.

FADE OUT.

CREDITS

FADE IN.

SISTER helps MOTHER pack things in the trunk of car.

FATHER gives BOY piggyback back to car. BROTHER walks alongside, holding BOY’s pail.

FATHER and MOTHER talk, smiling & laughing as he drives.

BOY, SISTER, and BROTHER all sleep in the back, leaning against one another.

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A key point that helped de-velop the narrative of Spring Tide from its initial stage to the final draft was the critique to further highlight the uncar-ing and disinterested attitude of the main family so as to heighten the importance of them all coming togeth-er harmoniously in the end. This was done by revealing the differences seen by the boy between his own family and the friendly interactions of other families.

1 Subsequent critiques from external critics (Paul Impe-rio, Suspect; Tibo Charrop-pin, Flickrlab; Magnus Atom, Omega Darling) had them expressing different opinions on the lengthiness of the piece. Some were worried that the opening sequence of the family getting to the beach was too long and would perhaps become un-interesting or boring, while others enjoyed the initial set-up of the family.

Unfortunately this is an as-pect of the piece I don’t believe I can assess in its current stage, but instead something I can think about and adjust once I reach the animating portion and see how the pacing goes.

2F E E D B A C K

S P R I N G T I D E / / J E A H Y U N R E E C E

9 DEC » Illustrate Opening16 DEC » Illus. Scenes 1-323 DEC » Illus. Scenes 4-630 DEC » Illus. Scenes 7-15

6 JAN » Illus. Scenes 16-2113 JAN » Illus. Scenes 22-2720 JAN » Illus. Scenes 28-3527 JAN » Illus. Scenes 36-44

3 FEB » Illus. Scenes 45-4910 FEB » Illus. Scenes 50-5317 FEB » Illus. Scenes 54-5824 FEB » Illus. Scenes 59-63

3 MAR » Illus. Scenes 64-6910 MAR » Animate17 MAR » Animate24 MAR » Animate31 MAR » Animate

7 APR » Animate, edits14 APR » Animate, edits

P R O D U C T I O N S C H E D U L E

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