Exploring other ideas

Previously I have focused on the water concept; It was based from the many dreams I've had. Water often appears as a dangerous threat, and would flood or possess a feeling of unease (to what could be lurking within.) I have already made several ideas on this already - however I needed to explore other ideas before committing to this particular concept. Therefore I decided on creating quick six frame storyboards (Exposition, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action and resolution), so that I could first put down some ideas I was thinking and just to let my mind wonder - a bit like free association. I made several pages of these all holding different concepts completely different from the previous set. After doing this idea generating I selected three of my favourite stories which I then expanded onto a page of my sketchbook each - I continued to develop and change this idea until I felt it had reached a point where the story worked the best (ultimately leading to my final idea.) These pages are surrounding the page know - and you can see the amount of ideas I tried to develop.

Author's own

Idea 1: 
The first idea that I developed further was a story based in a fantasy world. A girl is walking on water as is a couple of people around. As we see her walking she becomes rather nervous. When someone on the other side of the water falls through into the water she because overly nervous - and she tries to walk faster to escape the situation. We then see her look down at her hand where we see a scale that is going up and down depending on how anxious she becomes. She pulls down her sleeve to hide this truth. However before not to long the water softens below her feet and she falls through. This idea was another one that slightly involved water - the idea of the unknown and the threat of water I really liked and so I made this story which was based over the fear of being taking under. Although this is a physical danger within the story it actually is the process of anxiety within the subconscious mind. The story is meant to tackle the idea of the progression of anxiety - i wanted to used close up and speedy shots to ads tension which would make the audience nervous about the potential threat of falling under - which in the story is the 'death' - but actually means being consumed by anxiety.

Idea 2
The second idea was selected from several stories that I made from previous personal experiences of my own worrying. Personally I do worry - and some of the stories that I looked at showed how I often escalate from the 'what if' scenario so much that I need to find out (a bit like OCD.) This story starts with the lead female walking home quite late home (which she normally doesn't do.) From a distant alleyway we hear loud and intimidating sounds and shadows. We then get to listen to the possible and irrational fears that this girl creates to what could be lurking in the alleyway. When she finally walks past the alleyway a cat jumps out of the alleyway, which explains to her where the sounds came from. This idea also was influenced by 'The fantastic fear of everything' and the voice over narrative which is used as a comic device. I imagined this story to be quite light hearted and less serious to others that I have looked at. The narrative would also be used to express her thoughts and so I wouldn't need to voice syncing. Although I liked this idea - I unfortunately felt it lacked the many concept of Anxiety and the Subconscious. 

Idea 3
The last idea that I selected was a story about a girl that is sitting in her room alone. She starts to think about her anxiety and the 'what if' scenarios, suddenly hundreds of round objects fall from nowhere to the ground like rain. She is scared but decides to touch the object - but as she does this the balls release several 'deadly' tentacles that begin to wrap themselves around her and tangle her until she is completely covered in these tentacles. This story is very simple but I feel its also quite powerful and visually could look very beautiful. Also I like the idea of designing the rounded objects or even small creatures that look innocent from the outside. Without realizing I've created a piece that reminds me of the creative sculpture that we made for the 'fear of anxiety. Perhaps the object could open in this way? This concept was meant to explore the metaphor of anxiety slowly tangling its way around your thoughts before silently attacking you without you realising. The balls that fall like rain are meant to represent the odd thoughts we get when thinking about worries. When she decides to touch one of the balls (thoughts) her anxiety is awaken as she discovers she doesn't like these thoughts but before its too late as they have planted them self physically all around her in the form of tentacle like arms. Overall this was one of my favourite ideas and I developed this idea over ten times with different beginning and ideas similar to this (below are some of the alternative ideas that I made).

Author's own