film opening script;

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussycat
Went to sea,
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey,
And plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.

film opening treatment & style;

The film opens with a white screen and the title The Owl and the Pussycat files letter by letter onto the screen. There are the sounds of the clicking as the magnetic letters hit the board, the letter y hit the board sideways and then squeaks while turning the right way. Waves roll in as the voiceover of the narrator reads "The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear" This now cuts into a scene of the sea, with a pea-green boat on it, an owl and a pussycat are in the boat as well as some honey, money and a guitar that are visible. The waves move, accompanied by the sounds of waves swishing and crashing as the voiceover of the narrator reads the first verse of The Owl and the Pussycat (here).

The waves get louder as it cuts into a time-lapse montage, accompanied by music - Hedonistic Me by Born Ruffians.Clips are of the owl playing guitar with music coming from the guitar, the cat then has a fishing rod, line goes out into the water, they wait for a few moments, then it the line comes back in with a fish, then with a whole pile of fish. Then they hear a chatter behind them, they turn around and it's a dolphin.One dives up, then another, then a third. they watch them dive. Then the two of them look up to the sky, they watch in the exact same position as the sky changes above them, sunset in colours of orange, yellow and pink, until the moon and stars come in and it is night time. The last frame we see is one of the silhouette of them in the dark on the water in their boat.

I want to do this sort of in the style of a children's picture book. Stop motion helps with this a lot as the lack of smooth flow is like the short break when turning a page.

film opening concept & research;

 

The Owl and the Pussycat

My film is going to be based loosely on the poem The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. 

My target audience is younger children, or big kids if you feel like :D I am planning to use stop motion and a handmade collage (using edited "stock images") to tell the story. 

I am beginning with the very first stanza narrated by my mum in the classic and original style of the poem and then moving on to a montage set to an assortment of songs. This montage will contain all the fictional adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat.

I have access to most of the equipment to make this happen, photoshop and other photo manipulation programs, a sony cybershot camera (with burst function), a narrator, a large collection of music and a flexible tripod. I need to learn how to use film editing software to complete this.I don't think this will have a high impact on the audience as not much attention is required to understand it. :)

I did my research by looking up the words to the poem and then by reading different picture book interpretations of the poem.

I searched sound effect websites for good ocean sounds and I then spent a lot of time on google images looking for pictures that I can edit into what I needed. I decided to use an origami boat in the end, because it was hard to find a boat that was mostly a straight colour.  I borrowed mum's magnetic letters from school.