Friday, December 7, 2007

NEW STORY BEATS [as per our mtg with Natalie today]

For the few of you who didn't make it to Story class today, we met with Natalie to get some input from her on our story "problems"... and it seems we all came up with a new story that really works!

Here are the newest story beats.... we will meet on Monday to go over this more and refine it.

**Note there is now no "God" character, but we are focusing now more on the other celestial animals as the main gods [and the ox]
*Also with tail, Natalie suggested it be more of an extra arm than an extra personality, that way when his power is diminished, the tail fades to just be a regular tail

1 - Establish a hunter-gatherer village/society who sacrifice food/fruit to the gods
2 - The food they sacrifice TO the gods, the gods EAT
3 - When the fruit is gone from the earth, there is no more food for the gods [let alone the people]
4 - There is one last piece of fruit on earth - they sacrifice it to the gods [same idea with priest sacrificing, and people being like NOOOO...!!]
5 - Ox sees this sacrificed fruit and takes it and eats it himself [doesn't think of consequences, just that he is hungry, he is always "taking" food to eat which angers other animals]
6 - The animals/gods see him take this last fruit and are angry [ox does not fit in with them, they don't accept him]
7 - The animals cast ox to earth to gather more food for them
8 - When ox appears on earth, it is random; he walks past some villagers and nods hello, one guy sort of waves, and is like, "Wait, wha–" [this is all pantomime, no need for dialog - but still want a narrator!]
9 - Ox is still eating last fruit he took that they sacrificed, he finishes it and spits the seeds/core on the ground and bury it [like a dog would bury]
10 - Because he is magical, this instantly sprouts a huge tree of that fruit, ox is oblivious
11 - He turns to see new fruit that appeared and picks some and eats it, spits out seeds, buries it, does the same thing [still oblivious]
12 - He gathers a mountain of food to bring back to the animals/gods
13 - Humans have now gathered to see what/who he is [the same guy who waved at him earlier has now brought a few of his friends to see, and they bring more people, etc]
14 - People are apprehensive of ox, but see mountain of food beside ox, want some
15 - At first, Ox keeps humans from food, motioning that the food is for the gods, don't touch!
16 - Humans point to their rumbling stomach, and ox feels pity so gives one piece, then another, then, oh alright, another.... until all the food for the gods is gone except for one last piece
17 - Ox decides oh well, and eats that last piece, spits out seed and it grows... people see what he can do [plow and seed] but ox still oblivious to it [Ox has been dragging a bag behind him and that's where he spits the seed - in the earth that has been plowed]
18 - People try to show him and he doesn't get it, finally they turn his head - SEE look what you did! He finally sees it. There are more humans to be fed....
19 - The ox has to make a choice - the food can go to the gods or to the humans
20 - He chooses to help the humans, every time he magically sprouts food, his glow slowly diminishes; his magic is slowly being lost until he is normal ox.... as the ox can do less with less power, the humans help him more and more [they seed, he plows]
21 - Humans show gratitude, celestial animals yell at him. He plows for the humans who have to help him more and more as he loses his power - he sees that he can fit in and he helps them and they appreciate and help him back; he is accepted there.
22 - The humans give him food and shelter and no longer need to sacrifice to the gods to get food - this gives the celestial animals their comeuppance because they never get food anymore. Ox is away from them and happy on earth.

THE END!

1 comment:

brockorama said...

whats interesting about this version is that it has that bit of transition of the ox from celestial being to normal ox. In that transition, he has a nice interation with the humans. He slowly loses his glow over time, and thats where the teamwork of the humans helping him by planting the seeds while he works the plow to dig the earth, etc. The humans giving the ox affection as he gives them food. They need each other now. I like that a lot