Project Pitch
I first pitched Uranus Whispers (originally titled “Wiss & Krill”) in 1997 as a CGI short project collaboration with a NYC post-production facility hopeful to generate character-based content from my designs and script. My deal with them fell through as I was completing these pre-production assets for the project. Fond as I was of this idea, Wiss & Krill remained dormant for years until I decided to use it as my thesis film idea while earning my graduate degree with the School of Visual Arts, NYC (MFA/Computer Art 2019).
Proposal
•Traditionally animated 2-D pilot short film •Full color, with dialogue, music, SFX •3-4 minute duration •Narrative story line •Self designed and directed; production assistance as required.
Story
Two self-absorbed extraterrestrial malcontents, Wiss and Krill, complain tirelessly over conditions on their planet Neptune. They attempt an escape to neighboring Uranus via rocket-ship, but are unknowingly thwarted during launch and go nowhere. Emerging from their spacecraft full of hope, our idiot buddies convince themselves that they have indeed emigrated to Uranus and life is now better.
Waverly Wiss
•Robotoid unicycle/trashcan/’59 Chrysler sedan hybrid •Gentle and stupid mouth-breather •Complaints: heat, humidity, excessive noise
KloroPhil Krill
•Anthropomorphic turtle-insect-dinosaur mashup •Colloquially accented •Aggressive ignoramus •Trigger: cold coffee
Kitch’N’Little
•Poultry pull-toy/tea-kettle/feather-duster/dish-glove hybrid •Impulsive road crosser •Intellect: exactly like a chicken •Behavior: exactly like a chicken
Celestial Uranus
•Taunting from the Neptunian sky •Beckoning; redolent with promise of a better life.
Neptune’s Surface
Increasingly inhospitable to the sensibilities of our genteel protagonists; from an arid expanse criss-crossed by poultry-pavement, scoop-mound organ-pipes intermittently explode scoop-spawn skyward, subsequently secreting streams of serpentine sulphuric steam.
Vending Machine - preliminary iterations
Signal Mast - preliminary iterations
