Project Outline:

1.) Working Title: "Speakeasy Spaniels"

Inspiration: The Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, Speakeasies, Flappers, Alcohol, Silent Film, Black-and-white Animation, Dogs.

Concept: Design and create a silent, black-and-white, cartoon.

2.) One-sentence description: Comedic cartoon set in a 1920's speakeasy with dogs.

3.) One-paragraph description: I am going to be animating a silent black-and-white cartoon in the style of 1920's animation. The story follows a little dog who finds himself in an alleyway speakeasy for dogs which operates adjacent to a human speakeasy. The short film, which I storyboarded and turned into an animatic last term, is meant to be slap-stick style comedy which centers around the humorous misfortunes of the drunk little dog.

4.) One-page description: I am going to be animating a silent black-and-white cartoon in Adobe Flash based off of the animated storyboard (animatic) I created last term in Miles Inada's Concept art and Preproduction class. I will be aiming for the aesthetic style of 1920's cartoons, with the exaggerated squash and stretch, noodle arms, and large feet and eyes.

The story follows a little dog who finds himself in an alleyway speakeasy for dogs which operates adjacent to a human speakeasy. The short film is meant to be slap-stick style comedy which centers around the humorous misfortunes of the drunk little dog.

ACT 1: In the opening scene we establish the speakeasy's position by showing the human man entering the human speakeasy before panning down to the little dog entering the dog speakeasy. Inside the little dog encounters a large bulldog bouncer checking guests at the door. The little dog is allowed entry and makes his way to the bar for a beer.

ACT 2: After a short conversation with the bull terrier bar tender the little dog chugs down his beer. The sudden rush of alcohol is to much for the little dog and he falls to the floor. After shakily picking himself up the little dog attempts to flirt with a poodle who is seated at a table by the bar. Seeing her annoyance with the little dog, the bull dog bouncer comes to her defense, telling the little dog to leave the "nice lady" alone. Feeling pressured the little dog retreats the the far side of the room where he finds a door labeled "employees only". The little dog ignores the sign and enters anyway.

ACT 3: To the little dogs amazement he has found himself in the human half of the speakeasy. While the little dog is taking in the sights a woman trips over him causing a chain reaction resulting in a pile of guests on the floor. The little dog runs in the oposite direction hoping to avoid blame, but slips and slides across the floor and right into the punch bowl. The short film ends with the little dog sitting covered in punch and the bowl resting on his back, he is surrounded by the ruins of what was once a nicely presented table with glasses. The screen closes in until all we can see in the little dogs's face, who turns to the camera and winks, breaking the 4th wall, as was common for cartoons in the early 20th century.

The plan is to commission a music student(s) to create a soundtrack for my short film. Ideally I would like to have maybe a 4-5 piece band to create a score which will follow the actions and emphasize things with sound. However I would also be okay with a purely piano soundtrack as long as the musical is very talented and can create a interesting and complicated score with only the one instrument. I will soon by putting up posters around campus asking for experienced musicians, I will work out a price with the musician once I pick one, but I do plan to pay them fairly and give the full credit for the music in the credits.

5.) Description of the product of study: By the end of this term I hope to have the short film fully animated and matched with a soundtrack so that it will be presentable for a show at the end of the year.

6.) Visual/written research: Here is a link to the visual reseach I did for this project last term: [link]

7.) Treatment visuals:

8.) Written description of technical and research issues: I am going to be using Adobe Flash to animate the short film, which I have a lot of experience with. The most challenging technical issue of the project will be finding a musician or band to create a soundtrack for the short film and still have time to match it up with the animation before the end of term.

9.) Timeline:

April 12th- Project Outline

April 26th- Act 1- fully animated & Musical arrangements must be made

May 10th- Act 1&2- fully animated

May 24th- Act 1,2&3- fully animated

May 31st- Match music to animation

June 7th- Opening & closing credits

June 14th- Film and Capstone paper complete