The Other Side - Story Development

I have been listening to Pink Floyd for most of my life, so naturally, when I heard the words ‘The Other Side’ mentioned in our module briefing, I immediately thought of the song ‘Brain Damage’ on Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Mood’ Album. I became very excited and began brain storming for our new project.

On the left, I created a Spider Diagram listing anything I that comes to mind from the words ‘the other side’ other than Pink Floyd. I came up with a few options, four of which held some substance for me and decided to move forward exploring the first idea. On the right, I wrote out the lyrics to the song Brain Damage which is about insanity and mental illness. I listened to the song for a while, over and over again. While I listened, I drew up character designs that I thought fit the music. The blank faced little creatures were meant to represent insanity with their out of control antennas, blank faces as well as innocent aesthetic.

I resumed with some concept drawings, mainly inspired from specific lyrics that stood out to me from the song.

The following day, I began to research Psychiatric Hospitals and spent an incredibly sorrowful evening watching documentaries about the horrific abuse mental patients have experienced at the hands of emotionally detached health care ‘professionals’. The mental health system is still lacking in many important aspects today but have come a long way from how they used to be in the early 1700s.

After speaking to Mat, we came to the conclusion that the type of story and context I was building was becoming too complex. My idea was to narrow in on a Psychiatric facility showing ‘loony’ characters. Some look eccentric but physically well. Once fed their daily medication, they become subdued and certain facial features disappear as well as their antenna becoming short and straight. When the medication wears off, their facial features grow back and their antenna extends into an eccentric swirl once more. The ‘hopeless cases’ of the bunch receive something equivalent to a Lobotomy which would have been represented by a menacing suction plunger. This ‘Lobotomy’ procedure would drain all colour from the patients. Their faces will completely disappear as well as their antenna ill burn off leaving them as nothing but a blank and lost vessel. This is an idea that requires more than 3 minutes of animation, and I regrettably do not have enough time to realise the project. So I took it into a different direction.

The story I am choosing to pursue is one of a large but innocent and naive patient at a psych ward who has something of a friendship developed with the nurse. The nurse is kind, however she needs to do her job and give the patient his medication which subdues him and makes him unhappy.