Time: 2020/09
Team member: Jingyuan Li (Lea), Zhiyue Huang (Amber), Daniel A Otero sendas
Original Version of Lcarus & Daedalus
“In mythological ancient Greece, Icarus flew above Crete on wings made from wax and feathers, defying the laws of man and nature. To witnesses on the ground, he looked like a god, and he felt like one too. But, in his society, the line that separated god from man was absolute, and the punishment for mortals who attempted to cross it was severe. Amy Adkins explains the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. “
Reference: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_adkins_the_myth_of_icarus_and_daedalus
Through the death of the Icarus and the remorse of the Daedalus, the story warns people shouldn't challenge the boundary between man and God, and at the same time demonstrates the lethality of arrogance.
In our version, we want to reduce the criticality in the story, adding different perspectives about the characters. In the meantime, the background of rewriting story has metaphorical connection with the 2020 epidemic event.
Presentation
Ingredients of story
1. Must have a beginning, middle, end.
-Beginning: Mother puts her daughter to sleep. The daughter asks for a story. The story begins with a toxic gas pandemic taking over the world and people being forced into quarantine.
-Middle: Father and son want to explore the outside. Father builds protective equipment and they go outside. Son removes protective equipment to touch a flower.
-End: Son dies due to toxic gas. Father is never seen again. Storytime is over. However, the environment the mother and daughter stay is same as the safe room the father and son used to live.
2. Must follow plot structure: exposition, rising action, climax, resolution
-Exposition
The world is taken over by a toxic gas pandemic. People have to stay in the safe house.
-Rising action
Father and son decide to break quarantine to go outside. They build protective gear to go out.
-Climax
Son spots a flower and removes the protective equipment and gas penetrates his system.
-Resolution
Son dies. Father is grieving and never seen again.
3.Must be driven by 2 Aristotelian elements of choice.
-CHARACTER
-THOUGHT
Does absolute freedom exist? Especially under this global epidemic situation. We respect everyone’s right to chase freedom, but it has to be based on the fact that it doesn't hurt others and ourselves.
4. Must have a bombastic climax followed by a moment of slo mo or great stillness.
Bombastic climax: son removing his protective gear and dying
Great Stillness: Father mourning and burying his son. Planting the flower on his grave.
5. Emphasize the reversal
The story’s reversal shows up in the end. Our version of Icarus' story is relayed by the mother telling fairy tales to her daughter. In the beginning, it may just be a fake story made up by somebody. However, in the end, the animation shows the environment of the family, which reflects that they also stay in the poison gas world. The story is not a fairy tale, it may be the history events of this world.
6. Must use the idea of "montage"
The montage is to present how the father and son get into this situation step by step. It’s a journey full of choices, to have freedom or keep in a safe place, which has some metaphorical relationship with the 2020 life. From the very beginning, the “save house” protected them from the poison gas, and they are very happy to be quarantined. As time passed, they gradually forgot the meaning of keeping inside the house and wanted to go outside. This choice finally killed the boy’s life.
7. Must have a revelation of object that accrues meaning
Flower: represents life, death, and relative choices. To the boy, it represents the hope that life can still prevail after the gas takes over the world. However in the end, what gave him hope ends up killing him.
8. Be creative about your telling of this story