I don't think I'm gonna go with the scrap metal look from the drawing but I do plan on adding more detail like windows and slight imperfections.
Below is the basic story outline, it includes two links to short audio clips of my nonno. I've cut them down pretty significantly, and I plan on incorporating them in small 10-20 second pieces throughout the rabbit story.
Outline:
Music starts at the title sequence, and plays over a long-winded push-through of outer space, which eventually reaches the rabbit's ship and into his cockpit, which is where the song ends.
The last note plays and leads into deafening silence. There's a notable juxtaposition between the heroic story that was just advertised by the titles, and the actual reality of this lonely rabbit.
We meet the spaceman rabbit in distress, he's traveling alone. One wall is covered in marks counting the days, he lost track a long time ago. There is also a little drawing of a group of rabbit men standing together and smiling. He believes this is what his home could look like.
He looks like he's been defeated for a long time. I'd like to squeeze in some more visual queues to indicate that he's been stranded for longer than he can remember and hasn't seen another person.
Eventually, the rabbit approaches a desolate space station his eyes widen, it’s the first sign of life he’s ever seen. He lands his ship apprehensively.
He cautiously walks along a floating pathway and stares at the environment. He begins hearing things. Then, at the end of the pathway, he sees a pair of floating glowing eyes (lineart). He is petrified and starts running back to his ship. The noises get louder (noises will be decided with the composer). More glowing shapes begin appearing in thin air and disappearing. He is terrified
The rabbit leaps to the controls and starts trying to pull the ship out of the station. A bright warm light floats in front of the windshield. He falls backwards and crawls against the back wall. Two massive eyes stare back at him, they come closer, then move on. Seemingly random glowing lines fly past the windshield, eventually revealing the rough outline of human forms, appearing and dissipating from reality.
The visions in the windshield become more abstract. Brighter shaps and colors take hold and the rabbit is in a trance. He’s having intense flashbacks. real footage of the Russian space dog program plays, we see flashback shots of a tiny shuttle flying backward through space, through the window we can see a normal rabbit strapped down and panicked, colorful lights strobe past its face brighter and brighter, everything begins warping. this is cut between shots of an empty rabbit penn and the sound of old italian men yelling at eachother. the flashbacks all warp into eachother. Until suddenly the door opens behind the rabbit and sunlight pours in. the space rabbit is looking up at the silhouette of a young boy in the 1940s.
In my larger plan for this story (a feature version), there's a lot of focus on Nonno's family being taken advantage of or generally menaced by a neighbor family, the Rosomanos. the Rosomanos are integral to my Nonno's lack of trust in his community, and his ultimate belief that his Rabbit must have been stolen and eaten. In the case of this short, I don't think it's necessary, but here are a bunch of little stories about them.
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