The Turtle Story Script
Animation Short 2015
The Turtle Story
2:30-3:00 min
Sequence 1 - Birth Twilight at the beach with starry skies, sound of waves crashing, winds howling.(Camera pans down from the constellation lit sky to the sand-bed hosting a turtle nest) One of the eggs reveal a Turtle embryo forming into a hatchling, Accompanied by other eggs. The Hatchling struggles and breaks the egg open escaping with other cracking eggs below. (Close up shot) The Hatchling opens her eyes for the first time with reflections and glitter of the moonlit beach.(Soft sound of waves) (Cut shot to the moonlit waves crashing the shore) She sees the ocean for the first time. The Hatchling embarks the journey to enter the ocean, she struggles to make her way, hunted by a kettle of hawks. She moves closer to the sea, lightning crashes and a wave takes her away into the ocean.
Sequence 2 – Exploration (Cut shot to the turtle in the ocean) The Baby Turtle illuminates surrounded by the dark deep ocean. She swims softly towards the unexplored world before her. The Ocean slowly begins to reveal itself in layers. The Darkness softens and a densely populated ocean bed, flourishing in rich corals, fish and ocean mountains emerge. Close shot of the turtle embracing this overwhelming sight for the first time. The background reveals shark silhouettes hunting down a little hatchling in sudden motion. The Turtle startled shifts her gaze. She looks ahead at the dangerous territory below. It’s a school of hungry sharks. Noticing the danger around, she swiftly dodges a nearby shark thrusting her way ahead. She moves in a swift motion and the background cuts (Time shift) to a cave like structure with a hole. A shark moves through the hole. The background cuts to deep underwater (style changes to line work on black)
(In the following sequence, The turtle remains and grows in the center of the frame, while different stages and backgrounds are revealed from her journey) As the turtle moves ahead maintaining her motion Background cuts to hundreds of jellyfish Background cuts to illuminated dead white corals. Background cuts to ocean garbage/oil spill. The Turtle takes rest while passing through the ocean bed with little fish cleaning her shell. (The Turtle grows in the process of changing backgrounds to representtime and aging)
Sequence 3 - Union POV shot – A Faint glow reveals itself far in the ocean. The Curious Turtle notices and moves towards it. The faint glow reveals itself as another wandering turtle To her surprise, she acknowledges the other turtles presence. As they approach each other she too turns into a glow of light illuminated by the school of fish passing by. The glowing Turtles circulate each other surrounded by bioluminescence and circling fish. The Turtles circles around and come together to merge themselves into a ball of light - The fish take over the frame leaving nothing but Luminescence as they leave.
Sequence 4 - End (Fade in from white) Close up shot of Turtle gazing up towards the light shining into the ocean. She Embraces her new form. The glowing lights circle around her belly illuminating her pregnancy. Tiny fish move around her as she breaks into soft paddles to gasp a breath of air.
SWOOSH ! A giant net entraps her, she struggles to escape and gets entangled. The tiny fish disperse and reveal the Turtle completely caught in the net. She struggles for air, slowly drowning till she succumbs to her entrapment. (Fade to black) Cut shot to the beach established in the first frame. Her dead body washed away on the shore. Cracked eggs emerging from her still body. The sun bright in the sky, sounds of waves crashing and a hawk circling above her body. (Fade to black) Text: ‘The survival ratio of a Turtle coming to age is 1:1000 hatchlings. Human encroachment on nesting sites and coastlines have made their survival bleak with less than a handful of hatchlings released per year.’ Sea turtles have roamed the Earth's oceans for the last 100 million years. They may not even see another 100 if not protected. ’ (Fade to black) END.