First Traveler

First Traveler

Medium: Cinema

Type: feature length animation, color

Format: 16:9

Technic: Animation, 2D 

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy/ Comedy 

Target group: both young and adults, PG

Foreword

My final project is a conceptual design/pitch book for a feature length animation First Traveler. I wrote the script about twelve years ago. It’s the story of a boy who is searching for his real family and through this journey he also gets to know himself. 

The story is sometimes sad, sometimes happy, just like life. The boy in story is called Rebin. On his journey he meets bad and good people. Some help him and some take advantage of him. He learns how to deal with problems while he does not let go of his innocence. 

The story begins in an archaic world. Each chapter Rebin passes, he comes closer to modern life and finally it ends up at present time. It’s a modern fantasy, the retelling of my grandma’s folktales at long winter nights. 

Once I read somewhere - I don’t remember which book- that most of children at their childhood, imagine that their real parents are kings and queens of somewhere and they actually does not belong to the current family. However when they grow up they have to face reality and deal with the truth. First Traveler is the imagination of that crashed dream that I also had it when I was a child. 

But how can I design this sweet/bitter fantasy? The story has seven chapters, seven different worlds with lots of characters, will I be able to design them, all alone by myself?

First Traveler is a comedy fantasy/adventure script for both young and adults. I have a Kurdish background so I used elements from Kurdish and middle eastern folktales and mythology in my design. Elements like characters, nature and culture. So it might seem familiar for those who have read 1001 nights. 

The similarity between Kurdish folktales with both Russian and those collected by Grimme brothers reminds me of how akin we are. However First Traveler is a parody of this black and white world, where the border between good and evil is not clear anymore. For instance the characters do not have their traditional roles anymore and they behave in a strange way.

The story has seven chapters and I have tried to create a new atmosphere and location for each chapter. Since it’s a comedy written for families, I have tried to create concepts, locations and characters which are fun and unique for audiences from different generation and perspective.