BDM125, 5 March, Storyboarding Assignment

More inspiration from reading "Save the Cat!" by Blake Snyder.

Regarding genre conventions:  " Your job is to learn why it works and how these story cogs fit together.  When it seems like you're stealing - don't. When it feels like it's a cliche- give it a twist... True originality can't begin until you know what you're breaking away from."

So instead of a girl meeting a guy who heroically comes to her rescue, what about this:

Working Title:  Monkey Saves the DayPaint!

Logline:  
A lonely monkey artist in an unappreciated painting must rise to the occasion when his best friend, a spunky graffiti girl, is threatened with erasure by a snobby museum patron.  

Treatment:
A small park square separates an old brick building covered in graffiti and a gleaming art museum filled with million dollar paintings.  A wealthy patron who gives the museum money thinks the graffiti makes the museum look bad and call in a painter to spruce the place up.  A free-spirited Graffiti Girl has developed an unlikely friendship with the paintings she can see in the museum.  As she starts getting painted over, like water raising around her legs, she calls out for help.  Help me!  Help me!  The handsome hero in the biggest painting sees the girl!  He's got to do something!  But... people are here to take his picture, admire his pants, really important stuff.  Someone else sees what's happening and decides to act.  It's the painter monkey in the little painting just off to the side who is so often overlooked!  Painter monkey leaps into action.  He leaps from painting to painting, changing his appearance as he goes through Picasso, Warhol, Neiman, Matisse paintings, etc.  He reaches the end of the paintings but can't quite make it to the door... until he sees a patron in a colourful t-shirt with a cartoon on it go by.  He leaps "onto" the shirt and goes through the door.  From there, he jumps into the ad on a delivery van to the horse mascot on a local bank's window racing around the square to get to the Graffiti Girl.  He's so close.  By now, the Graffiti Girl is up to her neck in white paint.  There is no more paint for the monkey to jump onto, no way to reach the Graffiti girl.  If only painter monkey hadn't left his paints behind in the museum!  A little girl is sitting at a cafe table colouring in her book.  She looks up and offers the monkey a fistful of crayons.  Painter monkey grabs them with all four paws  and his tail and busily colours himself across the road like a kid's drawing to where the eye of the Graffiti Girl is being covered over with paint.  He's too late!  Dejected, he slumps against a fire hydrant.  But!   Somebody has painted up the fire hydrant to look like a bouquet of flowers or something.  He remembers seeing the fire hydrant being used earlier by the fire department to put out a small fire in the nearby park.  He grabs the plug and sets off the spray of water, blowing away the painter and washing off the paint that hasn't dried.  Graffiti Girl is saved!  The painter gives up in disgust.  But is this the end?  Is she safe?  The next day, the painter returns to find the Graffiti Girl has a big fancy frame painted around her which has lots of brass plaques from the museum on it and a crowd of admirers taking photos: 

Character bio:

Name:  Artist Monkey.  Jacque du Popo?
Birthdate:  1739
Age:  He appears to be youngish.
eye colour:  black
weight: 10 pounds
type of body: primate, prehensile tail
distinguishing marks:  black and white striped tail
Predominant feature: is wearing a red 18th century coat and tricorn hat
Favourite colour:  yellow
favourite food:  overripe maruba fruit
Drinks:  enjoys the occasional sip of wine from a glass he's had hidden behind the painting stand.
Jacque spends rainy days at the museum trying to look interested in the same painting he's been working on for 300 years.  Rainy days are the busiest days at the museum.
Hometown:  Madagascar
First memory:  His artist's bleary expression as he put the final touches on his little hat.
Education:  He knows everything about art history and is a trained classicist in keeping with many of his contemporary paintings.
Finances:  He's worth quite a bit of money, but has never seen a penny of it.
He considers the other paintings created by his artist to be his family but hasn't seen most of them (a wealthy merchant, a prize pig or a tavern wench) for many years.  He has a cordial relationship with the other paintings in his gallery but gets very little attention compared to the heroic portrait right next to him.
Occupation:  an artist, he paints the same painting day after day but never seems to finish it.
Dream job:  something outside.
Greatest fear:  being boxed up and rotated back into the vaults, or moved to an even less popular hallway.  Being sold off to a private collector's mountain chalet would mean he wouldn't be looked at for months and months at a time.
Jacque is most at ease when he gets to discuss art with the newer paintings.  He is most ill at ease when he spies someone with a drink or flash camera in their hand.
Embarrassing failure:  has never gotten to use his tail like other primates and has never tasted a banana.
If granted one wish, would like to have a new coat and hat.
Greatest source of strength:  Can see that Graffiti girl is a valid form of expression and it doesn't matter how much money she is or isn't worth.
greatest source of weakness:  Has allowed Hero painting to dominate the hallway for far too long.
One word to describe self: overlooked
Jacque thinks that he might get more attention from the art patrons if he was also posed with a horse, like Hero painting is.
Introverted and pessimistic.
Extremely skilled at painting and colour mixing.  Extremely unskilled at new technologies like stairs and glass windows.
Darkest secret:  is not a monkey at all, but a LEMUR!! His plaque has been misnamed for years.
In a crisis, he looks to see what Hero painting is doing.  He faces his problems by assuming that somebody else will take care of them because he's a "little and insignificant" novelty painting.
Has slowly but surely been introduced to all the new painting styles over the years and is pleased to meet Graffiti girl, a new kind of painting.
Perceived by strangers as cute and whimsical, but not historically important.
He is interested in the new graffiti art but is shocked at how exposed it is to the elements.  He lives in climate controlled comfort.
Most prized possession:  a pure white linen handkerchief that was a love token from the tavern wench to his artist.
Plays the mandolin.
Secretly admires King Kong and other primates captured by the moving images he sees on display from time to time.
Most influenced by Hero painting because everyone else seems to be.

Story worksheet:
1. What is your genre? As definted by Blake Snyder, The Fool Triumphant and Dude with a Problem.
2.  Who is your protagonist?  Jacques the Artist Monkey in the painting
3. What is their goal?  Does he achiege his goal by the end of the story?  Jacques' goal is save Graffiti Girl from being painted over and he succeeds by the end of the story.
4.  Why must he achieve this goal?  GG is his friend and her art, expression, has as much value as his does.
5.  Who is the antagonist?  The snobby museum patron who insists that GG be painted over.
6.  What is the antagonist's goal?  Does he/she achieve their goal by the end of the story?  Her goal is to beautify the park square by erasing anything that she doesn't consider art.  She does not achieve her goal.
7.  What course of action will the antagonist pursue to achieve her goals?  She will put pressure on the museum curator, will hire a painter to cover up GG, and will have the police chase the graffiti artists away.
8.  Why must the antagonist achieve this goal?  Beauty, Value, Aesthetics are all narrowly defined for her.  Can she buy it?  Will her friends admire it?  Is it respectable and desirable?  Will it fit over her couch and compliment the rugs in her guest house?
9.  What does the protagonist want?  Jacques wants art to be free to be.  And he wants his friend GG to "live" to inspire others.
10.  What does the protagonist need to learn?  What is his conflict?  How does it conflict with what the antagonist wants?  Jacques needs to learn that being small doesn't mean insignificant and that being comfortable isn't as important as friendship.  He is conflicted because he is used to bigger and more valuable paintings getting the attention and getting things done.  He's been the side kick for a long time.  The antagonist wants him to fill space, continue to gain value, and leave the thinking to the big people.
11.  What is the protagonist going to do in order to meet that need?  Jacques is going to stop waiting for others to act, is going to leave the safety and security of his canvas and is going to save GG with his brains and his talent for art.