The idea I propose for my project is a museum dedicated to circuses, and one of the displays it has an old yellowing newspaper clipping and rusting grappling hook with it. The story within the newspaper clipping describes a horrific accident at a popular troupe's performance, and all that's left of them is this report, name completely tarnished because of the accident. What that is, well I'm not entirely sure just yet. Maybe the star performer, a trapeze artist had introduced a grappling hook into his routine and it went completely wrong? Maybe his screw up cause fatalities in the audience?
I'm currently putting together some storyboard ideas for this and a couple of pose studies as I'd find them quite beneficial for this project, regardless of what idea I end up going with in the end. I've also been throwing influence maps together too as I've been looking at designs quite a lot this past week and those will be posted up shortly.
Going somewhere nice with this idea :)
ReplyDeleteOkay so a past disaster involving a grappling hook which tarnished a troupe's name...
Maybe the ambitious team leader convinces their jumping partner to shoot a grappling hook at a bar near the top of say a circus tent mid-freefall, the grappling hook is supposed to wrap around the bar and allow the assistant to swing "like Spider-Man" towards the team leader, she lets go of the grappling hook and he is supposed to catch her. But this of course does not go to planned!
Maybe the bar breaks mid-swing, maybe the grappling hook fails to wrap around the bar , maybe the team leader juuust fails to reach the jumper, or even he catches her but badly and their hands slip away - in all the result being the death or serious injury of the jumper, something that's enough to tarnish the troupe's name beyond repair.
HI Gemma,
ReplyDeleteI think character vs character is going to drive this: a famous duo who became competitive with one another - or two separate acts trying to out do another in terms of the daring of their act. The thing about 'ambition' narratives is that they're often tragedies - cautionary tales against hubris. Maybe we meet an old man visiting the circus museum who is particularly preoccupied with the grappling hook exhibit, and as the narrative unfolds we learn that the old man (as a young man) was culpable in the death of his partner or 'rival' - and maybe too that he sabotaged the act that lead to the rival's death; it could be a story of 'guilt and regret' etc.