Kelsey Best

Mark Ladd

Flash Project

            In our original story, Cinder, we chose to explore the mind of someone who witnesses the end of the world from the safety of space. By doing this, we worked to show the story from both a first and third person perspective, opting for sound effects and scenery to help tell the story. It begins with our character, a man in the military, waking up to the sounds of sirens from his army base. He quickly dresses and rushes outside, finally arriving at his destination: a launch pad with a space shuttle. Switching to first person, we see the inside of the shuttle from his perspective, highlighting the fact that he is alone. The shuttle launches, spiraling upward away from the Earth. Meters on the dashboard indicate that something is about to collide with the Earth, but the added soundtrack acts as a comic relief, reminding the viewer that this is indeed the end of the world as we know it. The Earth is destroyed by an asteroid leaving the viewer with a cliff-hanger ending. The manner in which the video ends leaves us to ponder our own mortality and the fragility of both human life and the Earth itself.

            We used a combination of stop animation and video game-like graphics in this piece, changing styles as the perspective changes. This acts to emphasize his loneliness as he transitions from the Earth into the shuttle, and then into space. Watching the Earth be destroyed and experiencing the notion of being the last person alive provides the character with a sort of false hope. Though he has survived the asteroid collision, how long can he survive alone in space?