Wire Animation Segment Pitch
(this file name should contain both of your last names in alphabetical order. So, if Saddam Husein and Albert Einstein worked together on the pitch, the file name would be:
Einstein_al_Husein_sa_8
This assignment can not be turned in late.
In this assignment, you and your work partner will in 75 – 125 words make a pitch to me for the themes of your upcoming animated episode of The Wire. The final version of the animation is due by Blackboard 12/20 at 11:59 PM (you will be submitting to Blackboard a link to your animation youtube ).
To understand how to craft this pitch, you need to know the nature of the animation assignment itself. In this assignment, you will use the software application Plotagon to create the animation. Plotagon works by you providing a script (with staging instructions) to the software; the software then dynamically creates the animation from that script and staging instructions, with characters speaking the lines and doing the actions you specify.
But your script must be tied explicitly to the course readings. Here’s how that tying works. When you submit your video, you must also submit an “annotated script.” The annotated script footnotes every statement made by your characters that gives voice to an aspect of the reading; the footnote itself will be the original text from the relevant reading.
Here’s a simplified example:
Detective McNulty: “But here’s what I don’t get. Why, if the game was humming along nicely and everybody was making money, why did your man Jason take down the dealers in another part of town who weren’t botherin’ you? Why not just leave it alone?”
Leila the footsoldier: “Cause, man, that be the only way Stringer is gonna see you valuable to the organization. Ain’t nobody need muscle if there aren’t problems. Problems mean they gotta pay us, so we saw to it there’d be a few problems so we could, you know, solve them. You feel me?”(1)
- (1) “One of the few ways that a foot soldier could distinguish himself—and advance in the tournament—was by proving his mettle for violence.” (Freakonomics, p. 108)
So, in this pitch you will detail in 75 – 125 words the themes from the course readings your animation will address. Be sure to specify:
(1) when the action occurs (as part of season 1 or 2? 10 years later? 5 years earlier?)
(2) Where? (The docks? The low rises? The nearby prestigious Johns Hopkins University?)
(3) the characters you plan to use
(4) in a very specific fashion, the themes from the reading your segment of The Wire will address and how. Remember, your grade will depend on how well your segment illustrates your theme(s); that is, I will grade you in how well you manage to convert academic writing into a compelling script.
And, to be clear, the bulk of your script should be illustrating a theme from the readings.
Some guidelines for your animation:
- You can have up to four characters in your animation; but regardless of how many characters you have, no more than one can be a new character. By “new” I mean here a character that did not appear in either Season 1 or 2 of The Wire.
- Your animation should not ridicule or demean any group or individual. That doesn’t mean your characters have to be Boy Scouts, but you should not illustrate the course themes at anyone’s expense.
