Hi B-girl!
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about the project a lot right? And I just decided to let my mind loose and think of some crazy stuff regardless of what my normal mind might say.
So here goes. The old man has a talking fish. Why? No reason he just does, the talking fish is his conscience. The old man sees an infomercial late at night given by the devil. The devil wants to buy his soul. The old man hesitates, goes to pick up the phone, sort of doubting he’s seeing what he’s seeing on tv. the fish looks at him: “You really shouldn’t be doing that…” – it says. He calls.
“Hello?”
“Thanks for calling Once Lived. Press “1″ if you’d like to inflict pain upon another. Press “2″ if being alive is punishment enough. Press “3″ if you’d like to make a return and press “4″ if your inquiry is related to a soul transaction. Press “5″ if you’d like to hear this men…
“peep”
“Thanks for calling Once Lived, this is Lilith, how may I help you?”
“Oh yeah… uhmm… I just saw this ad on TV… something about selling a soul?”
“basic or deluxe package?”
“deluxe.”
“hold please.”
“Ok… Mr. Whatshisname, we can get started right away!”
“How did you know my nam–”
“That’ll be $19.95.”
“What?”
“$19.95″
“But I’m SELLING my soul.”
“Handling charges.”
“…”
“Well?”
“Visa?”
“Certainly.”
And… I’m kind of lost after that? Care to add some?
Fogmann
July 24, 2005
Oh yeah! That sounds great so far. Well, ok, here’s how I was imagining it, and yes, it totally fits in. So this old guy Whatshisname is annoyed with today’s consumer society, and he sees on TV this ad about a device called Duende that translates metaphores and other figures of speech into plain English, basically destroying all that was worth in poetry so that average people with no insight can still understand what the poet meant to say. And that thing really upsets him. So maybe right after that, he sees the commercial from Once Lived and in that state of mind he decides to call.
Anyhow, he sells his soul. But aside for having to pay for handling charges, he wishes to know what he gets in return and what are the benefits of this deal with the devil. I had couple of ideas what selling a soul to the devil could mean in today’s society and first thing that came to mind was that he starts working for one of the big evil corporations and gets rich, but then I looked in the other directions: maybe he starts using drugs? That idea seemed interesting to me, because it gives a lot of possibilities to animate scenes in which he hallucinates. For example, I was thinking of using special effects in a bit different way then they are usually used, for instance, to turn houses into cloth objects, so the whole city just rolls down like a courtain, and to use instanced objects on particles, like flying toasters or whatever would be relevant to our guy’s experience. And, in a way, this approach is related to Faust’s visit to witches in Goethe’s version. So he gets both spiritual and carnal satisfaction from this. But, really, now that we got started, the main thing left to figure out is what would be the benefits of this deal with the devil, and how will it end. Got any ideas on that? In Marlowe’s version, Faust is damned and goes to hell, while Goethe is being more generous toward this character, and allows him to get away with what he did, since he’s now the Enlightenment era hero. So, in today’s world, will he be able to get away with it, and does it matter for our story?
Fogmann
July 24, 2005
So, in Goethe’s version the Devil first appears as a dog. And, our guy has a talking fish, which is his conscience. Maybe he doesn’t have a bad side to tell him what to do – only after he sells his soul does he get the other side that changes his life significanly, because it tells him things that his fish would never say. What the other side could be? An object, an animal, or simply a person? Talking toaster :)
haruru
July 24, 2005
Oh wow! So, i was watching those videos for visual storytelling right? And you said that thing about the Duende right? It’s brilliant! What if, the old man is a failed writer? He spent years and years to get something anything published but no one gets him, and this device is just another mockery to his endevours. And that’s why everything talks to him, because he has an imagination everything talks to him.
But then when he sells his soul, and even though he becomes rich and everyone loves him, he cannot see or feel anything! Everything is dead to him, and he become desperate! So he tries to relive that feeling through drugs or a potion but all he sees now are nonsensical nightmares! Everything that is ugly and horrifying comes to life.
But something must save him. His fish? His one true companion? Is he able to break the deal with the devil? Hmmm… much to consider.
Fogmann
July 24, 2005
After his fish talks to him and brings him to his senses, he calls again the Once Lived and presses 3 – for returns. And they work it out somehow. He gets back to where he was, but now he has much more experience and his writing finally starts to flow and suddenly he finds himself satisfied cause he found his “self”. How does that sound?