First Treatment

Just finished the first treatment for 'Bob Hope'. I wasn't exactly sure how detailed it's supposed to be, so I just tried to give enough to get a good idea of the action and the mood.

Bob Hope

1^st Draft

It’s an unremarkable sunny day in Varicose, Nevada. A two-story farmhouse sits in the middle of an empty dirt field. James, a two-toed sloth, opens the front door and collects the mail out of the mailbox. He thumbs through the mail as he walks upstairs, where his coworkers Rhonda, a bumblebee, and Darby, a squirrel, are hopping around on pieces of paper scattered around the floor. They ask James if he wants to play a game of ‘Bob Hope’.

RHONDA

The only rule is that you can’t touch the floor. If you do, you’re Bob Hope.

JAMES

How come I don’t want to be Bob Hope?

RHONDA

You just don’t.

James joins them, and the three hop about the room together.

After a bit, the three take a break and sit on top of the couch in the middle of the room. Darby asks James to spread some of the mail around so that they have more things to step on. James starts flinging envelopes all over the room. One of these envelopes hits a nearby fan, turning it on. This causes all of the papers to blow away. The television and some of the other usually heavy furniture blow away as well, leaving Rhonda, Darby, and James stranded on the couch. Just then, Malcolm, a reindeer, appears in the doorway, saying that the chicken has been acting weird lately, and that he’s going out to feed it. He then tells the three that they should get back to work, and heads downstairs. Rhonda, Darby, and James don’t move from the couch.

Night falls, and none of the three have moved. Each is tired and hungry, but refuses to fall asleep. Darby begins to hallucinate. Rhonda and James’ faces begin to morph as they talk to him, and the backgrounds start to become warped and surreal. In order to save everyone, Darby slowly flies up into the air and out the window. He lands on the ground in front of the house, which is now some sort of hybrid part-house, part-Bob Hope monstrosity.

DARBY

Come at me, bro!

The house screams at him. Darby screams back.

Cut back to reality, Darby is sitting on the couch in the same position, completely still, with a tendril of drool hanging out of his mouth.

RHONDA

(To James) Well, Darby may be out, but I’m not going to fall asleep just so you can push me off the couch.

JAMES

Same here.

The two stare each other down.

CUT TO: The next morning. All three are asleep in awkward positions on the couch. The house begins to shake. Outside, the chicken, which about two stories tall, is knocking against the house. The three slowly wake up.

RHONDA

What is that?

The chicken peers inside the house at the three of them, then pecks at the window, shattering the glass.

ALL THREE

Aah!

DARBY

Big bird!

The chicken hops up on top of the roof. The house begins to collapse under its weight.

JAMES

We have to get out of here!

RHONDA

How? I don’t want to be Bob Hope.

They look around the room and spot a broom and a hat rack. Each grabs one (I’m not exactly sure how, yet) and uses it to ‘row’ the couch out of the room. The couch turns a corner, slides down the stairs, and hits the frame of the front door, launching Rhonda, James, and Darby outside, where Malcolm is standing, watching the chicken. The three stand up and watch as the house cracks in half, revealing a baby chick.

DARBY

Aw, look! The chicken hatched a baby!

RHONDA

What?

ENDE

Still has a few bits to work out. I need to figure out a bit more to put in between first nightfall and the hallucination, among other things. Nonetheless, I think it's off to a decent start.

Premises Ahoy!

I was told to come up with three premises for a film, so here they are!


#1) Bob Hope:

Rhonda, a bumblebee, and Darby, a squirrel, convince their coworker James, a sloth, to play 'Bob Hope' with them, which is one of those games where you can't touch the floor. If you touch the floor, you're Bob Hope, and you lose. Why? Just because.

Since there isn't much furniture in the room, Darby has scattered pieces of paper all over the floor for them to step on. Eventually, someone ends up turning a fan on, and all the papers blow away, leaving the three stranded on a couch in the middle of the room. Meanwhile, Malcolm, a reindeer and fellow coworker, informs the three that they should get back to work, and that he's going outside to feed the chicken, who has been acting sort of weird lately. (Malcolm will basically act as a foil, who can provide outside information when necessary) But none of them will leave the couch, because no one wants to be Bob Hope.

Night falls, and the three begin to try to convince each other to be Bob Hope, by pushing each other, playing irritating adult contemporary music, and making James think he has to use the bathroom. Darby becomes delusional and his mind fabricates some sort of absurd fantasy (which I will develop in greater detail later. It'll be good.)

CUT TO: The next morning! Rhonda, Darby, and James awake to the sound of something knocking against their house. It's the chicken, which we now see is just as big as the house. As the building crumbles around them, the three try to figure out a way to get out of the house without touching the floor. They end up rowing the couch out of the room with a broom and another oar-like household object, down the stairs, and out the door, where they run in to Malcolm. Outside, they see the chicken sitting on the house, which then breaks in half, and out pops a baby chick. It's adorable and everybody's happy.

Malcolm, James, Darby, Rhonda

I like this because the characters are fairly simple, and they spend most of their time sitting on a couch, which will allow me more time for story and dialogue, which is what I enjoy the most. Additionally, the story is pretty easy to modify, so I can make it as short or as long as necessary. Also, I like it the best.

#2) Adrian Grenier Told Me my Fly was Down:

I was working at my local movie theater over the summer, and one day Adrian Grenier was there, and he told me that my fly was down, because it was. If you're not sure who Adrian Grenier is, he's one of the guys on 'Entourage', the one with the eyes and the hair. We were showing the premiere of his new documentary, and there were lots of (probably) important people there. Mr. Grenier politely asked me if I could fix the volume levels in the theater, and then informed me that my fly was open. (FOR THE RECORD: I broke the zipper earlier in the shift when it got caught on a cupboard handle. It was not because I'm a slob.) And then he was gone. I never saw him again.

So, I'd do a film where I'm telling this story to an audience, and with each subsequent retelling would become more and more exaggerated. The first time would be the normal one, then in the second he'd be a bit meaner, then in the third one he'd run up behind me and pull my pants down, and everybody in the theater would laugh at me. For the final retelling, we'd end up getting in some sort of out-of-nowhere, ridiculous fight, and he'd have an eyepatch, and I'd have a hook for a hand, or something, and it would be glorious.

I think it would be a fun story about people's tendency to exaggerate, but I would have to animate a lot of characters. Also, I don't think I have the rights to Adrian Grenier's image.

#3) Crab Detective:

[NAME TO BE DETERMINED] is a dresser crab that works as a detective in a busy, underwater city that's sort of like Gotham, but not really. (Dresser crabs are a species that camouflage themselves by covering themselves with odds and ends they find lying around, it's pretty neat, YouTube it.) Widely known as a master of disguise, [NAME TO BE DETERMINED] is hired by Allen and Greg, a shrimp and a fish, respectively, to investigate a krill laundering ring. To do this, [NAME TO BE DETERMINED] will have to infiltrate the mayor's masquerade ball, covered in a bunch of trash he found lying around.

Obviously, I haven't thought of most of the major details, but I do know two things:

- [NAME TO BE DETERMINED]'s disguises are actually not very good, but the only character that notices is Greg. In order to convince Greg and Allen that he is indeed a master of disguise, [NAME TO BE DETERMINED] takes a piece of paper off of his desk and puts it on his head. Allen is immediately impressed, but Greg notes that the disguise is stupid. They hire him anyway.

- At the masquerade ball, [NAME TO BE DETERMINED] will get into a fistfight with a pregnant male seahorse, just because I want someone to say, "Hey! That pile of garbage is punching that pregnant man!"

That's all I've got for that one.

Tell me what you think!

Chapter 1: The Shogun's Revenge

And...now.

Hello! My name is Careen Ingle, and I make cartoons.

Over the next year, I will be making my thesis film, so that I may become a real adult. I will be chronicling the endeavor, from original concept to finished product, right here! Just for you!

About me:

I'm currently a junior studying animation at the University of Southern California. I'm proficient in traditional hand-drawn animation, Adobe After Effects, and stop motion, and I'm in the process of learning Maya.

I'm originally from Los Gatos, California. I once convinced a group of teenagers in DC that I lived in a house made of old surfboards, which is a lie.

Contrary to popular belief, I did not misspell my own name.

Me.

That's all I've got for you right now, but if you'd like to watch a film, may I recommend Map?