Narrative - Man Vs Machine - refining some initial ideas

I've done some more thinking about the ideas my group could use for the story workshop tomorrow. Its to my understanding that we should receive our genre then, helping us refine the story a little further.

I uploaded an initial ideas post a few days ago but I feel like I should annotate a little further on some of the things I might have touched on.

Man Vs Machine

'His knees steadied, his heart beat fiercely and he began to run again'

Wall-E (2008)

Wall-e is a great example of the direction I wish for our group project to go for. Its about the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. It also represents independence for a machine from going from being a 'worker bee' to becoming a self sufficient machine.

 

For a period of time Wall-E wasn't independent and was in a way shunned by humanity and we feel sad for the machine because the films done from his point of view. Seeing how lonely he can be in his little shack and how the journey is from him being a designation of cleaner obsolete robots, to becoming a respected individual when he saves humanity. A large jump from cleaning streets, something he was designed for.

 

Artificial Intelligence



I want our group to incorporate some form of artificial intelligence, its the safest way to give the machine form and personality. Plus it might help the audience understand that the machine is developing.

 

-Perhaps the machine was made to assist humanity in some everyday activity, along the way the machine is abused and misused? And toward the end of the animation we have the machine realize it can do something for itself and begin independence.

 

Ideas for story workshop

• A Tool like Microsoft Word 'Clippy', designed to assist computer users. It begins off being a tool that helps the user but after pestering to help the user consistently the user throws the tool to the side of the screen, into the recycle bin, basically shunning it. It ends with the user no longer using the computer and the tool begins to make work instead of assisting.
• A 'Car Arm' machine that is capable of helping design vehicles, the company buys it or commissions the building of the machine and the designers who work with it start discriminate it. Start pushing it away from its work. So it finally is pushed outside of the company and thrown into the trash heap, where it designs a brand new machine and engine that amazes everyone.
• A machine built for war is reactivated in a dense forest and starts to retrace how he ended up where it started, it quickly realizes that when it encounters something new it releases a new armament. It scares itself by harming the wildlife and begins to despise itself. Something convinces it to 'Live on' and the machine begins a new path.

These are just a few ideas I had that could be spoken about more in-depth, but I will probably come up with more after the workshop and it needs to adhere to the 90 second animation restriction.