[Narrative] 09: Bullet Point Ideas - The Chef...

Group 5: "In the kitchen" + "Every cloud has a silver lining"

Chef, Gordon Ramsay [source]

In order to avoid writing over-complex ideas, I have decided to limit them down to three bullet points.

• Chef puts food in oven, falls asleep (/ reads book / leaves room).
• Food burns, chaos ensues, chef tries to remedy the chaos (running for oven gloves etc.).
• Curious, chef tastes burnt food, enjoys it, founds own restaurant.

Other ideas:

After a discussion with Alan, it is clear these ideas are weaker than the one above.

• Chef is washing up.
• Goes to walk away, slips over on suds.
• Sees money hidden under nearby oven, takes it.

• Chef is flipping pancake.
• Flips pancake too high, drops on face while mouth open.
• Bites into pancake, loves the taste.

• Chef flipping pancake.
• Flips pancake too high, it falls in pan of sauce.
• Takes it out of pan, hesitantly takes a bite, loves the new taste.

[Narrative] 08: New Ideas - The Chef who Seared his Beard

Cartoon chef [source]

After a discussion with our tutor Alan, I have been informed that it is still a bit too complex for a 1 minute animation. I will use this and my previous animation as jumping off points for more economic, less complex ideas which also encompass "The kitchen" and "Every cloud has a silver lining." Below is the original idea...


The story begins in a restaurant kitchen in which the lead chef, a lonely, rather plump man with a long scraggly beard --of whom is some years past middle age-- is left to work alone, due to short staff. The hustle and bustle of this popular restaurant can be heard from beyond the kitchen doors.

Sweating as he does so, he attempts to juggle the incessant orders of food from the customers. He is surrounded by the various sounds of the kitchen, including violent bubbling as pots heat on the gas stoves, and the scream of a steaming kettle. Distracted, he bends down to open the stove, on top of which gas burners heat a foaming saucepan, brimming with food. 

Without his knowledge, his long beard has become entangled in the stove's burners, at least not until he gets the whiff of his own burning hair. He has at this point removed a tray of cooked fish from within the stove. Feeling the heat of the fast approaching fire upon his face, he reflexively throws the tray up into the air and rushes over to the sink; dunking his face beneath the water like a child frantically bobbing for apples. At this point the chef has lost all his facial hair.

Hearing the racket his manager enters the kitchen from the restaurant's main interior, seeing the mess they become lost for words and grow furious with the chef, pulling him out of the kitchen, in front of all the diners. 

As he exits the kitchen, the diners go silent, with the only sounds made being the synced dropping of steel cutlery onto china plates. Just before the manager can scald the chef, you hear feminine wolf whistles echo throughout the restaurant, aimed at the chef himself; whistles which originate not only from women but also from some of the men.

The chef's "new look" has taken many of the diners fancy. With a sudden burst of confidence, the chef faces the diners and unconsciously smooths back his hair and does a hesitant wave.

The animation can either end at this point, or fade into a photograph showing the now beardless, older chef standing outside own restaurant with a younger woman kissing him on the cheek. Another option for this end photo would be a picture of the older chef, wearing a suit standing outside a church holding hands with his elegant younger wife - suggesting they have just been married.


NOTE: The restaurant diners do not have to be 3D modeled, they can be entirely 2D. They don't even have to be seen, and can simply be suggested by a well crafted soundscape as well as a tactical use of camera angles. 

The final photograph would not require any 3D and can be created entirely within Photoshop, saving any need of modelling, texturing etc. for this shot. 

No characters necessarily have to talk during the animation, with the closest thing to it being the whoops and wolf whistles of the excited customers, as well as the shocked shout of the chef. Emotion can be shown by facial expressions and sounds such as grunts, groans and gasps.

[Narrative] 07: New Ideas - The Chef

Having been advised on our original ideas we have recently gone back to the drawing board with better connecting our story to "In the Kitchen" and the phrase "Every cloud has a silver lining", so far this is my first new idea, of which I have summed up below...

Cartoon chef [Source]

A chef in a (possibly posh) restaurant accidentally burns some of the food he makes, but in a rush decides to send it out to the customers anyway. Unexpectedly he later finds out that the customers love this new, exclusive, burnt taste and want more. The final result is that the chef and the restaurant become famous for this new delicacy.

This animation would be fun and comedic, for example imagine your stereotypical jolly fat chef as the main character. A few things to remember is that while burnt food does not necessarily appeal to everyone, there are those that it does to, a good example being that part of the point of BBQ food is that it has been charred by hot coals. Also things that the general public often consider weird or disgusting have been considered a delicacy by others, often in wealthier circles or even simply as part of a different culture. For example there is an expensive coffee called Kopi Luwak in which the coffee beans have been passed through a type of cat-like animal, called a Civet - this can go for £50 per cup!

The cloud would be that the chef burnt the food, but the silver lining would be that by a strike of luck the customers like this new so called "delicacy" and want more, leading to him becoming famous.

[Narrative] 06: Caveboy and the Discovery of Fire - Influence Map 01

NOTE: At the time of posting this does not represent Screw Loose Productions' final idea, of which is currently undecided.

[Narrative] 04: Caveboy and the Discovery of Fire - More Detailed Idea

Group 5: In the kitchen + Every cloud has a silver lining

"Every cloud has a silver lining" Every bad situation has some good aspect to it. (phrases.org, 2014)

Act I

The story takes place long ago, in the Stone Age, before the discovery of fire. Tonight the air rings with the crashes of lightning and the inevitable rumble of thunder. Sheltered inside a cave lit only by the glowing abdomens of many fireflies, lays a young boy, crying while rocking back and forth in fear of nature’s fury.

Lightning storm [Source]

This boy is all alone, with no family to comfort him, for he is an orphan; a fact indicated by primitive paintings on the damp cave walls. His only company is a small doll made of sticks and animal fur, with a stuffing of leaves, which he clutches tightly in his arms.

Cartoon cave boy [Source]

Soon - as if hearing the boy’s fearful whimpers - a majestic firefly, much larger than its companions, approaches the boy and nudges him to open his tightly closed eyes. This firefly holds a majesty outmatching any insect, its body a royal blue and an abdomen glowing a glistening golden.

Firefly [Source]

Act II

Shocked at the sudden contact by another creature, the boy instantly tries to hit out to protect himself, suspecting it may be a wild animal come to eat him. Luckily this seemingly intelligent firefly manages to move out of range of the shot, allowing the boy to properly look at its large size and almost magical appearance. The firefly’s beauty inspires awe in the young boy.

The firefly proceeds to move towards the cave entrance, in a manner suggesting it is expecting the boy to follow, of which he does.  Hesitantly standing at the threshold between the cave and the outside world, the boy looks out across the African savannah and spots a dead log in front of him, not two metres away. Suddenly this log is struck by lightning, setting it on fire. At which point the camera focuses on one of the boy's wide eyes, within which the reflection of the fiery log can be seen.

Savannah [Source] 

Act III 

10 years later…

We next see him as a young man inside his now somewhat ‘kitted out’ cave, lit not by fireflies but by torches of fire. He stands in a Stone Age style kitchen, reminiscent of The Flintstones, cooking meat on a spit above a log fire. On the walls are basic colourful cave paintings remembering the blue and golden firefly, which suggest that by reincarnation it had a connection to the spirits of his parents watching over him.

The Flintstones' Wilma in the kitchen. [Source]

Possible kitchen furnishings include:
Rock countertops; a table of stone in the shape of Stonehenge, with animal skin stretched over to act as the table top - or a table made of animal bones; basic utensils made entirely of flint (no steel/iron); animal skin sacks to hold any raw meat or vegetation; some form of primitive animal skin drinking flask; stone cups and plates.

What does this have to do with “Every cloud has a silver lining”?
The bad situation here is the storms and the boy's fear of them but the good aspect is it produced fire, and allowed him to discover fire resulting in him becoming more advanced.

[Narrative] 03: In the kitchen + Every cloud has a silver lining; Another Idea

"Every cloud has a silver lining" Every bad situation has some good aspect to it. (phrases.org, 2014)

3. The Veggie Vampire
A lonely old lady vampire with a love of cooking / baking who's chosen to live the simple life, trying to live like a human --at least, as much as a vampire can, of course-- she doesn't eat meat and in order to make up for her need for blood she's grown a little addiction to popping red iron tablets* to replace her lack of blood drinking. She has long since lost her will to leave her home and fly around in her bat form. 

Drawing of a smiling old lady

One sunny morning, after applying her Factor-∞ (Factor-infinity) suncream in her basement bedroom, she can be found baking cute bat cookies in the kitchen. Just as she is pulling the finished cookies out of the oven - while wearing her novelty oven gloves - a young crow** hits the kitchen window directly in front of the oven, making her throw the tray of cookies in the air, in surprise - some of which remain stuck to the ceiling.

Concerned for the poor bird's health, to keep herself cool beneath the sun's unrelenting glare she turns on the powerful garden sprinklers and heads outside to retrieve the bird, all the while being sprayed with sprinkler water.

She then lovingly nurses the poor bird back to health as if it is the first bit of company she's had in 100 years, all the while feeding it bat cookies which the crow seems to love.

When the day comes to set the crow free, the crow does not leave and just sits on the threshold of the open kitchen window, moving its head as if urging her to come with it. 

A young crow

After hesitation, she convinces herself to do it and proceeds to transform into a bat and appearing to have the time of her life, flies above the clouds with the crow - if time allows the vampire could meet the young crow's family in the sky, however this is not an important part of the story.


What does this have to do with "Every cloud has a silver lining"?
The cloud here is the damage to the young crow and the seeming waste of the cookies, as well as the mess the flying cookies make. The silver lining however comes in the form of the crow's love of those very cookies, which appear to help it get better, and the old vampire being inspired to leave her home and fly again.


*Human blood holds a large amount of iron, which binds to a protein called transferrin. The normal transferrin / blood iron level is between 20 > 50% [source], so both the iron tablets real life crimson colour as well as blood's iron content support the idea that a vampire could use them as a blood substitute.

**Crows are a very intelligent black feathered species of bird, with which negative superstitions have been long since attached - namely they are considered evil or have a connection to death. The fictional vampire is also considered evil, wears black and is associated with death; so the crow makes the perfect bird species to take part in this story.

[Narrative] 02 - Screw Loose Productions: Name+Logo Development - My Ideas

When we (Group 5) first began coming up with ideas for our group name, we each put forward multiple ideas and voted on our favourite. My suggestions were Story Forge Studios, Visionary Films and AniGem - eventually we decided on one of Adam's ideas, Screw Loose Productions.

We produced multiple drawings as ideas for what this logo could look like, of which my additions can be seen below...

Screw Loose Productions - logo thumbnails

Thumbnail 7 received the most positive feedback and is my preferred example.

Possible Logo Pre-Vis
Things to note when viewing this video:
In order to save time, at this point the screw seen in this pre-vis lacks a thread as well as the head indentation. The font seen in the footage is a placeholder only, nor are the colours seen representative of those that may be seen if this were developed. As the screw falls it is supposed to remain in the centre of the frame.



Based on thumbnail #7, this logo would be shown at the beginning of our films, much like that of Bad Robot and Pixar's jumping lamp. While this received positive feedback from one of our team members, Adam, this does not necessarily represent our final design choice, of which one is yet to be made. Adam has also suggested instead running this in reverse, an idea I quite like.

There has been further logo progress by other team members, which will be uploaded on the appropriate blogs...

[Narrative] 01: In the kitchen + Every cloud has a silver lining; Initial Ideas

My Group Group 5 - Adam Stone, Danny Rollings, Sukhi Ghai

"Every cloud has a silver lining" Every bad situation has some good aspect to it. (phrases.org, 2014)

1. Steam (/Cloud) Baby

Cute clouds

Steam from kettle takes the form of a cute “baby-cloud” which excitedly zooms around the kitchen, squeezing through utensils like a floating racecar. There is a kitchen window, dramatically this window is opened by a shadowy figure and the cloud begins being sucked towards the outside – like into the vacuum of space.

The baby cloud fears for its life, thinking if it goes outside it’ll vanish into nothingness. Just as the cloud is about to be sucked out of the window, golden (or white/silver) rays of light shoot out from between the clouds in the sky as the “parent” clouds beckon the baby cloud up to them – picture alien abduction / jesus ascending to heaven in a beam of light.

So the cloud is a literal cloud, the silver lining is the gold light, the events also relate to the meaning of the phrase ‘in every cloud is a silver lining’

“Every bad situation (being sucked out the window – apparently to its doom) has some good aspect to it (meets its cloud family)”

2. Caveboy and the Discovery of Fire

A cartoon cave boy

The kitchen aspect comes later in the story, remember what Alan said about a laboratory doesn’t have to be an actual laboratory but can even be a planet that science experiments are done on for example.

It’s a stormy night in the Stone Age, before the discovery of fire. Thunder claps and lighting strikes off camera. 

The animation starts in a cave lit by fireflies, in which a young --simply modelled-- cave boy lays scared and crying in the furthest corner, rocking back and forth; this boy is all alone – an orphan. 

He clutches tightly in his arms a simple doll (voodoo doll-like) made of sticks and animal fur, held together by grass and stuffed with leaves. 

Along comes a beautiful big firefly, which draws him outside, a dead log is right in front of the cave entrance which is struck by lighting, setting it on fire. Cut to the boy’s wide eyes, in them you can see the reflection of the burning log.

10 years later 

you see him in his now ‘kitted out cave’, lit with fire torches, happily cooking meat on a spit above a log fire in a Stone Age style kitchen (think Flintstones) with maybe counters and a table made of animal bones in the centre, and possibly like stone pots and simple flint utensils on the side to emphasise the kitchen element.

The bad situation here is the storms and the boy's fear of them but the good aspect is it produced fire, and allowed him to discover fire resulting in him becoming more advanced.