Wednesday 23 February 2011

Superhero short film storyboards

Here's some storyboards from my portfolio, for an animated short I pitched in university. It's about a miserable, misanthropic guy who has an unusual "comicbooky" sounding name, and believes this name guarantees he'll develop superpowers at some point. So he just stays inside all day, waiting for that to happen, whilst simultaneously wasting his life and hating everyone else for enjoying theirs.

Here's the opening sequence, wherein the character's father is informed he has a son, and on impulse gives him an unusual sounding name...  


Here we see our "hero", lounging around his house and complaining about his lack of powers, all the while  spying on his much happier neighbours...


He retreats to his "Fortres of Solitood" in the basement, to brood and try on his impressive collection of handmade costumes (just in case)... 


Meanwhile, across town a group of environmentalists are protesting a haulage company that transports toxic waste through the city. The protesters scarring off his drivers has forced the boss to hire blind, deaf, non-union people to get the job done. When one of them mistakenly believes he's being told to drive off, he screeches out of the lot and across town... 


Our hero sees the news report on TV and races to the window to see the runaway truck bearing down on an old lady. He runs to her side but, instead of trying to save her, simply stands there, believing that this classic origin story is how he will finally get his powers... 


Suddenly a real superhero screams down from the sky and saves both the old lady and our hero. He doesn't take losing his one chance to fulfill his dream well...


Our hero is confident that this time he's definitely developed powers. His Doctor informs him there was a slightly different outcome... 


I was never happy with the closing gag in this story (the original having been scrapped as I was informed it had already been done in a TV series) but I still like drawings here, which is why it's still in my portfolio. One day I intend rewrite this and maybe add in the aborted end to the second act (wherein the character goes outside to a local strip mall, in full costume, and annoys everybody by pretending to be a superhero, all to the tune of Love American Style).

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