Rough draft of story

Story!! – working title: “BOYS DON’T CRY” 

Specifically decided on using the words ‘boys’ instead of ‘men’ because it’s about going back to the root cause, where even as children, these societal pressures have already been placed upon them.  

Rough timeline of the film:  

1. Starts off with a sniffling child being scolded after injuring himself playing in the playground. He is being told to “suck it up” and that “boys don’t cry”.  

2. Alternatively, it can be him coming home from school, looking at a piece of artwork that got an F, his father scolding him and telling him to “suck it up” and that “boys don’t cry” 

3. Blink cut 

4. Cuts to the older him being in a room where his name is called, he’s sitting on a chair outside an office 

5. He enters the office and its clear he isn’t called in for a light-hearted/happy conversation 

6. Then cuts to the front of the establishment where he holds a box full of his artwork and supplies as he walks through the door (implying he was fired)  

7. He yells in front of the establishment  

8. Cuts to the zoom in situation where he is in multiple different situations where people usually cry (getting kicked out, his daughter’s wedding day, his mother on her deathbed, his 60^th birthday, etc) so it looks like one continuous scene 

9. We should see people around him crying and trying to nudge him to do the same 

10. He should grow older as the scenes pass (quiet carriage inspo) 

11. The last scene ends with the implication of him attempting suicide (maybe like looking at some rope on the table and then to a hook on the ceiling or something), he’s home alone, dressed poorly and on the sofa  

12. He looks older than before  

13. Close up of him taking a deep breath and sighing 

14. He shakes his head and stands up, as if he somehow got some determination  

15. He starts walking, then running down the street  

16. Colours bursting out of him (mixed media moment) 

17. Ends with the close up of his eyes where a tear falls  

The idea is to have certain things he interacts with to be animated as well, just so it’s easier to manipulate, but the backgrounds and other people would be filmed/real footage. Then the mixed media would be a bit of both.  Although this may be very time consuming.

On animating, I decided to do so to visually represent how isolated the protagonist is emotionally to the world around him. He literally does not fit in into that reality. The theme of this short film also aligns with many (Pixar) animated short films, so this would be familiar to the target audience.