For my story, I still want to have my main character portrayed as a villain before I reveal that she is the antagonist. I have been trying to figure out a way to do this without using up time.
-Opening scene: man in a boat, lit by his smoking pipe, and backlit by his fishing light. He is singing a sea-shanty about mermaids and their evil, wicked ways (this cuts out the need for a backstory, and introduces the main idea of the mermaid as a villain. The only problem with a shanty means it would need to be kept short, if it is too long, it will take up most of the narrative!)
-The wind starts to pick up and blows out the smoking pipe.
-The boat starts to shake, and the audience see’s it start to topple
-The camera is underwater, and we see him fall in
-He starts to descend into darkness, until the screen is pitch black.
-A green light starts to glow, and it is a close up on the mermaids face
-she swims away and picks up the body, the screen fades into darkness
-we see her hunched over him from a medium shot, before we go close up and see she has given him gills so he can breathe
-at first he is scared because she is a mermaid, but then realises that she is good and accepts her.
Animation Project Development 