Year 1: Script to Screen 2017 ideas and conceptualising

Initial sketches for 'Demon Hikers'

 In this post I will be thinking about and discussing ideas for this new project 'Script to Screen'. In this project we are to create three separate soundscapes based on a core idea justified by keywords, selected randomly from a box. My keywords are as follows;

Character: Mountaineer

Environment: Hell

Object: Cement Mixer

Bringing these initial keywords together in formation may seem out of line, but I had a few ideas from the outset that I wanted to write down here. As they are keywords, the meaning is not set in stone, which means I can make the cement mixer a supporting character if I liked. I also found that the mountaineer and Hell had a very good mix in my mind, since the concept of Hell is very dramatic by nature, and also is up for interpretation (I'm thinking Dante's inferno), so it could be re-imagined as as a cave bordered by cliffs, or anti mountain sort of scene where everything is just upside down. 

good example of a cement mixer as a supporting character

The main issues I have are mainly with the cement mixer, because of its mundane nature, it doesn't really fit into the rest of the world I've imagined, its just too plain. It would be a better benefit if it accompanied the character around somehow, but for now I cannot think of a way. While I was sorting the keywords in my head, I thought of the cement mixer as the mountaineers uncooperative, lazy tea drinking builder friend (sibling?), whom he brought up the mountain just to get him out of the house. As an object, the character should be slightly stubborn in nature, it just suits. During the course of their venture they come across a screaming pothole, and the mountaineer goes in to investigate only to find a literal hell. The cement mixers job is now to fill the hole with cement to prevent Hell breaking loose. I was thinking of giving the whole scenario the name 'Hellhole'.

Before this, I was thinking of taking a more cutesy cartoony approach, where a female demon hiker has to overcome her fears to climb up the highest mountain in order to thwart an evil cement mixer that is bent on filling in Hell. I really want to make a story with a female protagonist since I always seem to have a lot of male characters, it would be a fresh change of pace for me. I quite like this idea since it has more space to experiment in the Hell location, looking into such things as the domestic landscape or how they could survive inside a volcano, things which wouldn't be the first thought to mind when it comes to locations such as pandemonium or the seven circles of Hell. It has a lot of potential to be interesting, but I have to avoid having sickly sweet and cute characters because it could be awful as well. It could be called 'Last Flame' or something legendary to do with the fires of Hell.

For now we can see where this goes, and I'll ask my group about it later.