The Story of Anna
Posted by Shu Low on Saturday, October 3, 2009 Under: cofa
“... the world went all red through the bit a glass...” - five-year old Anna
And that's how my story evolves ...
My story is inspired by the true story of Anna in the book Mister God, This is Anna -- a tiny gem which I serendipitously picked up at a bookshop.
"the diffrense from a person and an angel is easy. Most of an angel is in the inside and most of a person is on the outside."[1] These are the words of Anna. I was instantly captivated.
A tiny gem I serendipitously picked up from the bookshop.
I base my central character's profile on Anna – a precocious and inquisitive five-year old little girl who ran away from an abusive home.
The theme of my story is based on Anna's unique theory of why "Mister God was quite empty". A flower is yellow because it absorbs all colors except yellow:
“... Yellow is the bit it don't want!... Mister God wanted everything, so he didn't reflect anything back! Now if Mister God didn't reflect anything back, we couldn't possibly see him, could we?” [3]
“It seemed that each and every individual was issued at birth with bits of glass labeled, GOOD, BAD, NASTY, etc, etc. People got into the habit of slipping these bits of glass over their inward eye and seeing things according to the color and label of the glass. This we did, I was given to understand, in order to justify our inner convictions.”[4]
Often we look at people and label them, consciously or subconsciously, by our own prejudices. (Mister God accepts everyone, so that's why we can't see him according to Anna!) So my story is about going beyond our own prejudices to see people as they truly are – from the inside. It is about overcoming our own insecurities, loving ourselves, and accepting others for who they are.
I like Anna's use of color as a metaphor to represent prejudices. Something that is so real, often subtle, but not visible – interpreted with a visual metaphor.
What if every time we label someone “GOOD, BAD, NASTY, PRETTY, UGLY, SMART, DUMB, USELESS, ....”, it puts big ugly colored patches on them? Labeling people – i.e. prejudices – are ugly! Think of actual physical labels that Nazis put on Jews! (As what Stephen Sewell was saying when I first spoke with him about labels and prejudices in consulting him on my story concept).
My story...
Tagline:
... going beyond our own prejudices to see people as they truly are – from the inside.
Synopsis:
Anna, a five-year old girl, enters into a surreal dreamlike world. A spell is cast on her (and her beloved talking pillow, Jaws) when she looks through a colored paper, putting big, ugly colored patches all over her. She must muster her courage and her intelligence, with the help of Jaws, to find the secret to breaking the Spell.
I added the character Jaws – a talking pillow, which is not in Mister God, This is Anna. :-)
Well, I guess in real life, the secret to breaking the Spell -- is the TRUTH.
The truth will set one free. Just like in my story, Anna, only by putting the last piece of paper, "Violet" will turn the colors into clear white light, where the truth can be seen clearly. It takes courage indeed to reveal the truth, without prejudices. And it takes courage for people around to acknowledge and act justly upon the truth. And stand up for the truth. Without prejudices. That is, as what Anna said, "... throw away our pieces of colored glass and see clearly."[5]
Genre
Fantasy, children 3D animated story for 12-year old kids!
I remember as a twelve-year old kid, I used to like to play with colors – mixing watercolors, and looking through colored cellophane papers and a glass prism to look at the rainbow colors and spinning colored disc (and amazed at it turning white). Rainbow is always so beautiful and fascinating to me. So my story has all these elements. Indeed in Mister God, This is Anna, it also talks about prism, Newton's colored spinning disc and mixing spectrum of light back to white. In my story I use colored paper (instead of glass as in the book). Why? Because I thought it would be disastrous if glass falling from the sky hits on Anna (and Jaws). Ha, ha!
Style
High contrast, cheerful, saturated, naturalistic color, spring morning, some parts misty, surreal, magical. 3D mixed with 2D and compositing with visual effects for falling papers, spinning disc, magic sparks, rainbow.
I targeted to 3-4 minutes. Now, our movie is actually 4:36 minutes. Not too far off from what I planned for! :-)
References
And that's how my story evolves ...
My story is inspired by the true story of Anna in the book Mister God, This is Anna -- a tiny gem which I serendipitously picked up at a bookshop.
"the diffrense from a person and an angel is easy. Most of an angel is in the inside and most of a person is on the outside."[1] These are the words of Anna. I was instantly captivated.
A tiny gem I serendipitously picked up from the bookshop.
I base my central character's profile on Anna – a precocious and inquisitive five-year old little girl who ran away from an abusive home.
“Her total openness and honesty amazed all who knew her. She seemed to understand with uncanny certainty the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love. You see, Anna had a very special friendship with Mister God.” [2]
The theme of my story is based on Anna's unique theory of why "Mister God was quite empty". A flower is yellow because it absorbs all colors except yellow:
“... Yellow is the bit it don't want!... Mister God wanted everything, so he didn't reflect anything back! Now if Mister God didn't reflect anything back, we couldn't possibly see him, could we?” [3]
“It seemed that each and every individual was issued at birth with bits of glass labeled, GOOD, BAD, NASTY, etc, etc. People got into the habit of slipping these bits of glass over their inward eye and seeing things according to the color and label of the glass. This we did, I was given to understand, in order to justify our inner convictions.”[4]
Often we look at people and label them, consciously or subconsciously, by our own prejudices. (Mister God accepts everyone, so that's why we can't see him according to Anna!) So my story is about going beyond our own prejudices to see people as they truly are – from the inside. It is about overcoming our own insecurities, loving ourselves, and accepting others for who they are.
I like Anna's use of color as a metaphor to represent prejudices. Something that is so real, often subtle, but not visible – interpreted with a visual metaphor.
What if every time we label someone “GOOD, BAD, NASTY, PRETTY, UGLY, SMART, DUMB, USELESS, ....”, it puts big ugly colored patches on them? Labeling people – i.e. prejudices – are ugly! Think of actual physical labels that Nazis put on Jews! (As what Stephen Sewell was saying when I first spoke with him about labels and prejudices in consulting him on my story concept).
My story...
Tagline:
... going beyond our own prejudices to see people as they truly are – from the inside.
Synopsis:
Anna, a five-year old girl, enters into a surreal dreamlike world. A spell is cast on her (and her beloved talking pillow, Jaws) when she looks through a colored paper, putting big, ugly colored patches all over her. She must muster her courage and her intelligence, with the help of Jaws, to find the secret to breaking the Spell.
I added the character Jaws – a talking pillow, which is not in Mister God, This is Anna. :-)
Well, I guess in real life, the secret to breaking the Spell -- is the TRUTH.
The truth will set one free. Just like in my story, Anna, only by putting the last piece of paper, "Violet" will turn the colors into clear white light, where the truth can be seen clearly. It takes courage indeed to reveal the truth, without prejudices. And it takes courage for people around to acknowledge and act justly upon the truth. And stand up for the truth. Without prejudices. That is, as what Anna said, "... throw away our pieces of colored glass and see clearly."[5]
Genre
Fantasy, children 3D animated story for 12-year old kids!
I remember as a twelve-year old kid, I used to like to play with colors – mixing watercolors, and looking through colored cellophane papers and a glass prism to look at the rainbow colors and spinning colored disc (and amazed at it turning white). Rainbow is always so beautiful and fascinating to me. So my story has all these elements. Indeed in Mister God, This is Anna, it also talks about prism, Newton's colored spinning disc and mixing spectrum of light back to white. In my story I use colored paper (instead of glass as in the book). Why? Because I thought it would be disastrous if glass falling from the sky hits on Anna (and Jaws). Ha, ha!
Style
High contrast, cheerful, saturated, naturalistic color, spring morning, some parts misty, surreal, magical. 3D mixed with 2D and compositing with visual effects for falling papers, spinning disc, magic sparks, rainbow.
I targeted to 3-4 minutes. Now, our movie is actually 4:36 minutes. Not too far off from what I planned for! :-)
References
- Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books, 1974, pp. 1
- Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books, 1974, back cover
- Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books, 1974, pp. 69
- Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books, 1974, pp. 69
- Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books, 1974, pp. 70
In : cofa
Tags: story prejudices
