The theme that stood out to me the most was 'man/woman VS nature', especially as my idea already had elements of nature. This led to me to thinking about how humans could be involved in this idea, which in turn led to thinking about humans involvement with water. I started initially thinking about swimming and surfing as well as other water sports, but it didn't seem to make sense to me. From the water sports idea it developed into boating, and then developed again into fishing. The idea of a fishing boat seemed to work as often these are made into children's toys and links to the bear playing in the water.
From this basic idea I extended it to make the fisherman and fishing boat have a more substantial part in the film, and the boat having issues staying afloat due to a storm and choppy waves, created by the bear.
I am unsure of which order to have the key events, as the narrative works both ways:
1. Fisherman in boat floating calmly whilst fishing - suddenly there is a change in weather as he goes further into the ocean, sees the fisherman battling for survival - cuts to large feet splashing in the water and boat still swaying - cuts to large bear splashing like a child in puddles
2. Large bear splashing in puddles with what seems to be a toy boat - closer shot of feet splashing and the boat - cuts to inside the boat with a fisherman struggling against the tide - the weather calms down/ the bear has stopped splashing and the fisherman is able to continue with his work
I feel either way has an element of surprise and potential humour, however I would like to contain a deeper meaning behind the work, and how over fishing is effecting nature and other animals fight for survival. By making the bear childlike it makes the audience want to help protect it, as well as adding extra 'cute factor'. I don't want to cast the fisherman as a villain in this however, but more someone who simply doesn't understand that he is doing wrong by using large nets and specifically fishing for certain species. I feel this part of the narrative needs to be developed further, but as my development and research progresses I am sure this will click into place.
After I had a solid idea it was time to start tweaking the small details. I found that my narrative was lacking in a greater meaning, and the Panda didn't quite fit into the context. After hours of deliberation, I decided that a grizzly bear would be better suited, not just aesthetically, but that it actually eats fish and has a closer link to the sea and fishing.
I then had the problem whether to keep it as a bear splashing in puddles, or if the bear was sat playing with the water in the bath which would make sense for there to be a boat more. I decided that the puddle seemed more fun and made the child bear more playful rather than destructive.
Going into finer details again, now I had decided that the bear would be splashing in the puddle still, I needed to choose if the bear was going to be clothed. In my initial sketch it would be wearing wellington boots and coat, which links to small human children when they play in puddles. I was worried that the coat needs a strong vivid colour, but using a red coat could possibly look too much like Paddington Bear. This started me questioning if the bear actually needed to wear a coat at all, but I found it strange if the bear was just wearing wellington boots. A yellow rain coat was the next choice in colour, but again I was worried that this would match the fisherman too much. I however think that using a yellow coat represents that the bear is also a fisherman too, but on a different scale, and that it would actually bring a smoother flow to the narrative as it is more linked visually.
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