First Pitch

This monday I pitched my film to my tutors.

While  I know that the story needs some work, generally I got some very positive feedback.

I produced this sequence of key images for the pitch and (although it's not finished) my tutors thought it had a very nice graphic style. It was thought that, while the style is simple, I had managed to convey a good sense of place and there was a nice variety and contrast between feelings of being enclosed and feelings of distance and openness.

What I need to address and develop is how the narrative works. I had proposed a set up in which we're introduced to a deer-man creature in the woods and then an old man abandoning the town. We see them each inhabiting the same area while the old man (now rejuvenated) sets up a solitary life in the hills and the deer-man roams lonely in the woods. We eventually get to a moment of transition and revelation as we find that the deer-man and old man are in fact the same person and that we have been witnessing two separate timelines of one life, the old man having transformed through his continued isolation into a wilder being.

A few ideas for where the film could go were discussed...

• To give the film some sort of resolution I pitched that the deer-man would encounter a boy who had also made the trip into the hills. The boy would then take his hat off and reveal that he had a small pair of antlers just beginning to grow and the deer-man would not be alone anymore. This was generally agreed to be unnecessary and felt a bit like an after-thought. So the wee boy is probably out.
• Alan suggested that the characters of the old man and the deer-man could actually be separate characters after all and the film would follow each as they experience their own versions of isolation. They could form a subtle 'relationship' through nothing but their proximity with one another and perhaps a chance glimpse of one another. If this were the case, and I was watching the film, I think that I would question where the deer-man has come from, what is he? 
• The themes of regeneration and rebirth could be quite strong and there is quite a pleasing metaphor to be found in the shedding of a deer's antlers being not a sign of death but of a new chapter in life.
• Jared thought that there was potential for mirroring a zimmer frame to create a set of antlers! I'm not too sure if this was a joke or not.       

There was probably more discussed but I can't remember everything! Should've taken notes. Anyway, plenty to think about.