I am a student of animation at Ballyfermot, Dublin and I have recently finished a collaborative short film with three other friends. Starting September I will be commencing my fifth and final year of college and will be working on an individual effort for a short animated film. During the summer I aim to develop a script and plotline for such a film under the working title 'Mochi Mochi!'
The premise involves Japanese rabbits living on the moon, who spend most of their time making mochi rice cakes through the traditional method of a pedestal and mortar. During the story, a trainee rabbit named Shiro is trying to prove his competence to his sensei Katsumoto at making mochi rice cakes through such a technique. However, while trying to use a kine (a type of hammer that’s used to pound the rice) he makes a number of Loony Toon’s style screw ups that result in Shiro losing his cool and randomly hitting things with the kine and making a mess of things. Eventually, his sensei Katsumoto brings another two pros into the workshop and they show Shiro how it’s done in a professional manner. And just before packaging the mochi the box, Katsumoto feels sorry for Shiro who is sulking in the corner and allows him to at least package the mochi himself. However, Shiro manages to make a balls up of that as well.
I started writing a draft of the script but there’s a slight problem I see with the plot. It actually sounds a little bit similar to the Pixar short ‘Lifted’, which was about a trainee alien who is being evaluated by a professional on abducting a farmer, which is very physical and was virtually a parody on driving tests. I’ve been told by several people online that I should go ahead and do it anyway since nothing is totally original under the sun. However, I’m still writing the first draft (should be done tonight) and the thought of Lifted is still nagging at me in the back of my head. So I want to ask here to see if I should take their advice and complete the first draft anyway, then see where a couple of rewrites go? Or should I go with the other option of going back to square one with the concept and make a totally different story? Any thoughts, opinions and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
The premise involves Japanese rabbits living on the moon, who spend most of their time making mochi rice cakes through the traditional method of a pedestal and mortar. During the story, a trainee rabbit named Shiro is trying to prove his competence to his sensei Katsumoto at making mochi rice cakes through such a technique. However, while trying to use a kine (a type of hammer that’s used to pound the rice) he makes a number of Loony Toon’s style screw ups that result in Shiro losing his cool and randomly hitting things with the kine and making a mess of things. Eventually, his sensei Katsumoto brings another two pros into the workshop and they show Shiro how it’s done in a professional manner. And just before packaging the mochi the box, Katsumoto feels sorry for Shiro who is sulking in the corner and allows him to at least package the mochi himself. However, Shiro manages to make a balls up of that as well.
I started writing a draft of the script but there’s a slight problem I see with the plot. It actually sounds a little bit similar to the Pixar short ‘Lifted’, which was about a trainee alien who is being evaluated by a professional on abducting a farmer, which is very physical and was virtually a parody on driving tests. I’ve been told by several people online that I should go ahead and do it anyway since nothing is totally original under the sun. However, I’m still writing the first draft (should be done tonight) and the thought of Lifted is still nagging at me in the back of my head. So I want to ask here to see if I should take their advice and complete the first draft anyway, then see where a couple of rewrites go? Or should I go with the other option of going back to square one with the concept and make a totally different story? Any thoughts, opinions and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
