first week back in school

WHEE! I PASSED! for a while there i thought i might not actually have enough marks to get on... needless to say i was chewing on my nails the whole of the 3 weeks holiday >.>

Anyways... I've thought of 2 stories for my Major Project. I will update my developments on my work in this website.



Tentative Title - Vicious Cycle
Method - hand drawn animation ( going to try a little paint on glass for the background)

Sandra was born a pretty little girl. With wings so white and bright they lit up the room when she was around. But Sandra's mum didn't think she was. She hated Sandra for who she was and what she represented. She would beat Sandra and pinch her. She used her hands as an ashtray. Hung her out on the clothes line when she left the house for work, only to bring her in when it was dark. That is, if she remembered to. For every pinch and ever slap, a few of Sandra's feathers would fall out.
When Sandra was 8. Her mum brought home a strange man. Sandra was happy. Her mother stopped beating her so often. The man was nice to her. Always giving her sweets and toys. Hugging her. Touching her. Then his touching started to feel weird. Strange. Sandra wasn't so comfortable around him anymore and her feathers started falling out again. One day, it all went a bit too far. He did something to Sandra that should never be done to a little girl. That was the day he ripped out her wings.
The day Sandra lost her wings was the day that she lost her innocence. The world would never be the same again. Sandra was different. Things started to spirall out of control. Againt and again, she was sexually abused. Finally at the age of 16, she couldn't take it anymore and she ran away. Sandra was pregnant at the age of 16.
After she gave birth to the baby, Sandra had no idea what to do. The only way she could provide for herself was to selll her body. She started living the hard life. Everyday, she'd paint her face and put on a different set of wings. Fake wings. Wings of every colour. Except white. It was a vain effort to replace what could not be returned.
Sandra's daughter was beautiful girl. Free and Innocent with tiny little white wings. Day by day, month by month, the child grew prettier and it's wings brighter. Sandra looked on with scorn and envy.
Sandra was returning home one day from a tiring night of work when she saw the child sitting in the kitchen playing with her doll. Her back was turned to her, revealing a pair of beautiful white wings. They glowed in the afternoon sun, shimmering lightly as the breeze blew through the room. The wings were so white, so pure, so innocent. So painful to look at. Sandra's eyes glazed over and she reaches her hand out to the kitchen counter for support. Her fingers grazed the smooth handle of a kitchen knife. She picked up the kitchen knife and looked at the distorted reflection of the white wings on the surface of the cold steel. A thought came to her. She wanted the wings. She needed the wings. She had her own forcefully taken from her. Why couldn't she take these too? She steps up to the child and raises the knife. Sandra hessitates a little as the child turns to smile at her. A tear escapes from her eye as the knife comes down with determined force.

Comments : I remember telling dad about wanting to do a public message piece about this topic over the phone a couple of weeks ago. I quite like the idea when i first came up with this. It was from one of my class discussions with Marion deCruz about the treatment of female certain female children up in the northern states of Malaysia itself. I remember how everyone was quite shocked that this was happening in our own country itself. I pitched this idea to the class yesterday (tuesday) and the reaction I had after i told my story was exactly what i wanted. A serious silence with quite a few shocked faces o.o-b Everyone else pitched a more funny or cute idea so I think i kinda of killed the happy mood in class. It was kind of a good thing I went last in telling it. But i got alot of good feedback for it. Now I'm looking into symbolism so that I can communicate the message of this piece without it being too graphical. My hope is that it will be screened as a public message back home.





Tentative Title - To the Moon!
Method - hand drawn with mixed media and possibly collage

A cat and a rabbit were best of friends. One day, the cat said to the rabbit, "Let's go to the moon!" They jumped on trampolenes, made cardboard wings and even tried tying balloons to themselves. But alas, nothing worked no matter how hard they tried. An Angel passing by, took pity on them and asked what was wrong. The cat and the rabbit told the angel about wanting to go to the moon but not knowing how. The angel felt pity and agreed to help them. Soon they were on their way, building a rocket ship from an old cupboard, some spoons and a bucket.
After the rocket was complete the cat and the rabbit danced around it happily. They stepped into the rocket and prepared for lift off. Nothing happened. They turned to the angel in dismay. "What did we do wrong?" they asked. The angel shook her head sadly and replied, "Cats and Rabbits are not meant to fly. Only bird and angels and pretty butterflies" The cat and the rabbit looked at each other sadly. Their dreams dashed. The cat looked back at the angel with tears in his eyes when suddenly a brilliant idea struck him. He whispered something in the rabbit's ear, causing the rabbit to nod with glee. The two of them skipped off happily, leaving the angel baffled over their sudden change in mood. Feeling a little worried she goes after them only to find that they have disappeared. Her face was marred with worry as she tried to figure out where they have gone. Advancing behind her, was a shadow of a cat, a rabbit and a butcher knife.
A little later, the cat and the rabbit attached the angel wings to the rocket and took off to the moon. The angel lay crying on the ground. Two bleeding stumps protruding from her back. The cat and the rabbit crashed landed on the moon. Legend has it that you can see the shape of the rabbit on the moon where he fell. There is no shape of a cat because cats naturally land on their feet.

Comments : Came up with this story last night where I remembered something I saw a long time ago. I was laughing the whole time I was writting it becuase it was such a silly story. I didn't get to present this to any lecturers yet, but I have told it to a few friends and they tought that a) I had a pension for tripped out stories and b) i seem to love chopping off angel wings XD This is one of the strange adventures that can come from my daydreaming ^^;; I like the idea of building a rocket ship out of an old cupboard, some spoons and a bucket XD The cupboard is the body. The spoons are the controls and various shiny bits . The bucket is for the propeller bit at the bottom of it.



These 2 ideas i have are very different. One is a serious topic and one is a silly story. I like both of them and the interesting touch of blackness i sort of leaked into them. I guess I can't escape from it. I had another couple of other ideas but i threw them out as they weren't pleasing enough to me. I also wanted to redo "The Mask" but i felt bad about digging up that old story without the original team around to do it.

I'm already working on concept sketches for the first story. I'm kinda leaning more towards that one. If the pitch goes alright. Story A is going to be my Major project and Story B is what i'm going to use to keep me from going insane of having to work on such a serious topic for such a long time. Hmm... that reminds me... I better email the 2 ideas to Kate...