mermaid
09/23/22 - in-class writing prompt, an image prompt. i cant find th eimage anymore but it was a scene from the little mermaid where she's loooking up i'm guessing from her secret grotto, and flounder is by her side. this one was SO hard and i don't really like it too much but sure. SURE ITS WRITING I GUESS WHY NOT
“I think her arm should bend in this way. It’d flow better with the natural path the eye taks.”
“Alright, I’ll note that here— wait, shouldn’t the other arm be repositioned as well to make sure it gets across clearer?”
“Yeah, yeah, I like the sound of that. Hold on…”
Two storyboard revisionists huddled over their combined work. They had been given the task of animating a fantastical scene—a little mermaid under the sea, giving her fishy friend what appeared to be a high-five…or a fist bump, or a handshake— they weren’t sure, the storyboard artist before them had been a bit unclear. But they worked with what they had.
“Here. I’ll position her hair a bit higher up to make sure the fish isn’t covered…”
“That fish is named Flounder,” the taller one said almost mockingly, calling memory to one of the script writers that had lectured them earlier. They shared a laugh over it—he was always a bit defensive when it came to his characters. It was welcomed, however, seeing as the team all wanted for the film to come to fruition.
This was one of the last scenes they had to revise. It wasn’t near the end of the film itself at all, but the colored cells had been lost along the way being transported to the building, so now all they had to do was work off it and rebuild the missing piece to the film’s puzzle.
“Alright, how’s this?” The shorter man held up his work, jotted down against a large sketchbook.
“Hm. Gimme a shot at it.” The tallest snatched it from his hands and bent over it, erasing something and quickly scribbling in its place. He then held it up with the same motion, grinning proudly at his revision. The shorter man put a finger to his chin, and soon his eyes widened.
“Dave, you’re a genius! The light source was exactly what we were missing!” He grabbed the sketchbook and put it down, tearing the page out, and signed his name at the bottom. “Alright, we’re done here. Sign here and we’ll send it off to the line artists to finally wrap this thing up.”
Dave did so. Once their names were emblazoned on the sheet— David and John— they stood back to admire it one last time. The thinning light from the aging fluorescent bulbs above them framed them in a beam of gentle light amongst the otherwise dim room. Old props lined their workspace, all used as reference for certain shots in their film, including a large golden trident now obscured in shadow against the beam of light. The walls had been painted ages ago by the original team that had been working here, and it now cast a blue light upon them.
Dave’s hand shifted to rest on his waist, letting out a relieved sigh.
“Good work, team,” said Dave, holding out his free hand to his fellow partner. John, without even moving his head to look at him, gave him an enthusiastic high five back.