character design
Final major project
Moonlight Mile: a graphic novel
The brief
Create an animated film with sound, or an equivalent sequential graphic novel project, based on a self-chosen theme or story. You are responsible for the entire production, including idea and research, project development, content, execution and finalisation. Research and develop a project that highlights a developed concept that is though provoking and challenges you technically and creatively.
My response
A sci-fi whodunit set on a commuter spacecraft, like the space age equivalent of a train or a bus. Inspired by flying on a commuter airline that flies constantly between Shanghai and Tokyo when I travelled to Japan a few years ago; flying always seems rare and exciting to me. And by the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which is set on a New York subway train and includes an interesting and diverse cast of passengers as background characters. Based on the theme of “virtue and values”; I like the clashing of social, cultural and personal values in mystery stories, and with a sci-fi setting I could get really creative with the sort of values that might clash. This work is still in development.
Outline
LOGLINE: An intergalactic investigator must identify a shape-shifting biological killing machine among a group of strangers stranded on a commuter spacecraft.
Princess Polystar, a galactic hero, boards a quantum transit shuttle along five strangers; the highly-strung scientist Dr Outis, the hunter from a primitive planet Ongrim, the self-interested trader Yashahn, the quiet Brookes and the affable Graybaum. When the shuttle’s conductor dies, Polystar reveals that a “genophage”, a shapeshifting biological weapon, is disguised as one of the passengers, and launches an investigation to find it. After Graybaum’s death, an increasingly desperate Polystar accuses Yashahn and executes him. When the genophage reveals itself and expresses regret for its crimes, Dr Outis intervenes to protect it. When Polystar attacks Dr Outis, the genophage protects him, besting Polystar and escaping with Outis in tow.
Final comic
Trailer
Production book
Final character design
Concept art
