So today I managed to get the storyline sorted out a bit more, taking influence from the research I did yesterday, but also including some of the ideas I had before this. The following is kind of all of this put together in an order which works with the timeline and developments. Having now written it all out in a slightly more detailed way I realise it is quite long and there are quite a lot of different ideas and characters to put into it. So, a fair amount of editing may have to be done. For now though I'll probably keep it as it is and see how a quick storyboard goes. I drew out the thumbnails today to get an idea of different angles and views I could use for each shot or scene, however tomorrow I would like to use these and put them into TV paint as,m after seeing tutorials on this program today, it looks really good and helpful for storyboarding. I will then use this basic storyboard to make a more finalised coloured one and also create the animatic from this.
when the storyboard is properly drawn up it will be clearer how long the piece will last, how much needs to be edited, and probably some unnecessary scenes will crop up.
Tomorrow will therefore be more storyboarding, and focusing more on the design of the piece, character designs. landscape designs and thinking about the style and how I can achieve it.


The basic storyline

The scene opens with a young boy planting a seedling. It is set at around the 1780s. The boy sits down and looks out at the view which we see. The camera moves to the plant and watches it as it grows upwards, following it up and continuing past it up towards the sky and at the sun which whites out the screen. The camera then slowly starts to focus on branches which are moving in the light of the sun. When the camera's back completely in focus, the screen is filled with branches with the sun behind, and the camera pans back down what is now a huge tree trunk right to the ground, where an old man sits on one of the lower rooted branches with a pillow, walking stick, umbrella and newspaper. This is set in around 1850. The old man slowly gets up and makes his way down the hill to the valley below.

A stag slowly walks it way towards the tree grazing. It stops at a fungi, sniffs it and steps over it to continue grazing. Reaching the tree the stag gets his antler stuck in part of the tree, so he then tries to jump and shake to free himself. Hearing a sawing noise he panics a little and frantically wiggles his way out of the tree bark. He then pricks his ears up before running off into the distance.

Past the tree, others can been seen falling to the ground as men are cutting them down and transporting them towards the village. In fast speed we focus on the landscape as it is built up, the nearby lake drained toward the village as more buildings, houses and factories are built below. More roads can be seen, telegraph lines etc.

In normal speed, two men are standing up on the hill close to the tree holding clipboards and looking out at the land below them, making plans to build a railway. It gets dusky and a squirrel hops up to the base of the tree, scratches away at it, and then hops inside and curls up.

Turning back to the landscape, fast forward, more changes can be seen happening, more surrounding trees go, the railway appears running through the city, more roads appear, more architecture pops up.

In normal speed a family walk up the hill towards the tree, a mother and her two children. They sit down for a picnic, the children running around. The girl stops hearing a sound and looks up at the tree to see a woodpecker high up tapping away at the tree. He stops and looks back down at her, she giggles, and he carries on. Focus on the little boy running around, mother in the background setting out the food and plates. The boy is pretending to fly a toy plane. The camera focuses in on this as a real bomber flies right over the top of them swooping down over the city dropping bombs. The mother gathers the children and runs away. The city is in ruins below smoke bellowing up, buildings and communication lines ruined.

Time fast forwards as the city below is sorted out and rebuilt in a much more modern style, even bigger with housing and buildings spreading closer to the tree and edge of the forest.
With an autumn feel a dog and owner walk past, the dog pees up the tree. Men in high-vis jackets walk up to the tree making plans, looking out at the view and discussing stuff, they mark the tree and leave. Early morning, a group of hippies climb the hill with ropes and boards to save the trees being destroyed. They surround the tree and sit in branches. The men in high-vis return with more men and machines, but after a stand off with the hippies they turn away.

Fast forward with more building in town, many more cars and the smog starts to rise. Lots of flats and taller buildings have been created making a proper city.
In normal speed a group of youths start a fire, drink and watch the fireworks going off over the city.
Time speeds forward slightly to a really wintry scene, snow all over the ground and the tree completely bare, at night time, father Christmas in the distance?!
Time moves forward again, houses are built closer and closer to the tree and forest edge, with roads, bridges etc.

A couple walk up the hill to the tree. They stop and look out at the view. The man is a solider saying goodbye to his wife. As he walks away the woman sits on the hill and watches the sun go down.
Time fast forwards, more developments in the landscape occur. In normal time a young boy walks past the tree, stopping and looking at at it in awe. He undoes his bag and starts to draw on the tree. He is chased off by a warden who looks at the image and leaves it, walks away.

Time forwards again and the buildings are created right up the to the tree and are built all around it so the tree is surrounded completely by an bar overlooking the view.

The woman seen previously walks up the hill with a small baby looking around expectantly. The soldier appears from behind the tree. The couple run to each other.
the camera focuses in on what is drawn on the tree and pans up towards the branches above.