It begins! - long post...

Alright, i'll begin with the first development of my script last year. It all began with an idea about the relationship between a dog to his owner.

The term "Man's best friend" doesn't surprise me at all as i had a beautiful western highland white terrier and she was my best friend through the years.

After my last visit in Israel, i understood that Minnie (that's her name) has a heart problem and i might not see her again as i'm studying here.

I can't really describe the feelings i felt and the thoughts that were going through my brain.

I really loved her and i knew that i sacrificed a lot deciding to come here to Melbourne to study.

Not so long ago she died in the arms of my sister as they were taking her to the vet'.

After a few weeks, my mom called me and told me i must watch "Marly & Me" so i can think about the full dedication, loyalty and love dog can give you and by that change your life.

I saw the film and not only that, my sister sent me the book (it was the best seller in the U.S for a really long time according to the N.Y Times) for inspiration. The book is truly great and simple and the lines at the end made me think about the message i want to say through my film.

These are the lines:

"A DOG HAS NO USE FOR FANCY CARS , BIG HOMES OR DESIGNER CLOTHES. A WATER LOG STICK WILL DO JUST FINE.

A DOG DOESN'T CARE IF YOU'RE RICH OR POOR, CLEVER OR DULL, SMART OR DUMB. GIVE HIM YOUR HEART AND HE'LL GIVE YOU HIS.

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN YOU SAY THAT ABOUT?

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL RARE AND PURE AND SPECIAL?

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL EXTRAORDINARY?…"

I think that the beauty about it is that a dog gives you 100% and would do anything for you (or almost everything) just like the line that says "give him your heart and he'll give you his".

It's as simple as that. Dogs have unconditional love where humans don't , because we can't…that's how god made us.

The idea i had in mind is the same idea i wrote the script about:

It was about a restless dog that doesn't let his owner sleep just a day before he supposed to get promotion at work. Eventually the guy wakes up, but late and as he tries to get dressed the dog follows him around. The guy start to search for the car keys around the house hysterically, but doesn't even notice that the dog has it the entire time and that's because of time pressure, but also because he's pissed off at the dog from last night.

When he gives up, the guy finally see that the dog has the keys, so he grab the keys as the dog follows him to the car.

Once he get to the meeting, the boss is too angry at him and shows him he's late.

The guy doesn't know what to do just when he hears a bark. He notice that the dog with him and see that his boss steering at his dog and slowly changes expression (becomes soft and sensitive), and the guy doesn't understands what's going on.

Just when the boss pulls out his wallet out and shows him he had the same dog for years, he realize that's the reason.

Eventually they shake hands happily when the dog licks the boss.

In that way the dog saves the day twice - he finds the keys and also his owner's promotion BUT the story is too long and the focus is about the guy and the boss instead of the dog - what creates a problem when it comes to the message and the character development. Hunni told me that it might be confusing for the audience and for me as well. She's 100% right. The dog doesn't go through any development and there are no dramatic problems for him. Instead of him the 2 other characters are going through a journey.

So then i thought and i thought hard and wrote notes especially about my own dog and its character.

What made her Minnie - what was so special about that dog that i loved so much…and amongst the things that defined her, suddenly her phobia from being in open places reminded me how i used to force her to come with me to the parks and how she just froze and tried to lead me back home. There was no way to convince her to stay there - she wanted to go home.

In psychology this phobia is called AGORAPHOBIA.

Then everything started to work out in terms of story - because that could be a problem she needs to overcome in order to proof her loyalty and love once her friendship with her owner is tested.

I really thought that that's it - it's based on her and it's a true story and i could show great character animation this way - she'll have to go through character development as she confronts her fear.

The only problem was that i saw this beautiful 2d Animation several months ago about a girl and a toucan which had this rain phobia that made the girl lose her guitar and so the girl was so important to him that he decided to confront his fear and in the rain fly out and bring the guitar back.

When i saw that animation again - i realized that despite the fact i have a different story which is based on Minnie, i will still use the same structure and it really frustrated me, so i dropped it.

Today in class and on the bus back home i wrote some notes and pushed myself to think about the script. I thought about minnie again and about me and how i would have loved to just see her again just to say goodbye for the last time, lift her in the air and hug her.

i wrote down things that really described her character and from that list i continued to write things and it developed into many notes on the paper that led to an idea which focused on the dog as the main hero and not the guy - from here everything worked for me and i thought about 3 act structure.

Since i had this final act in my head where the guy just hugs his dog at the airport (Me in other words saying goodbye to my best friend before i leave, as i know i won't see her again) and the 1st act from the original idea (the late night when something important is about to take place), i had to think about the middle - which is the problem that makes the character develop and learn and by that go through a lesson that delivers the message of the story.

Here is what i came up with (i just wrote it down - it's not the edited 1st draft script, but just the idea and what happens:

“Man’s Best Friend” – Major Animation Project.

Night-time in the quiet neighbourhood. Zoom into the window of the house. Beam of light. In the living room we see framed photographs of Minnie and Nir playing in the park, together at the university graduation ceremony when Nir holds her in his arms and she licks him. The last one is when they sitting in the wide open field.

Through the hall-way we see the beam of light in the bedroom.

Inside the bedroom Minnie wants to play holding a tennis ball in her mouth.

She drops it on the floor near the bed as she wags her tail.

She looks at Nir. His eyes are almost shut. After she barks several times, she realise it’s late and Nir wants to sleep.

She gives up but keeps looking at Nir as he falls asleep. Frame fades out.

The following morning we see Nir’s diary opened just besides the clock (flight to…at…is written there). Then the clock buzzes. Nir is asleep. Frame fades out.

The clock buzzes again 30 minutes later.

Nir wakes up hysterically and jumps out of bed. In the meanwhile Minnie wakes up and spots him, rolling the ball towards him, but as an answer, Nir waves his finger at her and then to the clock angrily.

Minnie makes a “sorry face” that doesn’t work on Nir, and then walks slowly to the corner passing by the framed photographs of them together.

She’s sigh. She understand she did something wrong. (her back is in an angle as she folding her head down – the ball is on the floor next to her). We hear the door slams behind.

It’s real quite when she’s looking sadly to the side and all of the sudden notice Nir’s plane ticket on the floor.

She grabs it in her mouth as she looking at the door but notice that it’s locked (Zoom on the upper lock of the door).

She thinks what to do, and then rushing to the backyard.

She is facing a long tall scary fence and tries to jump over it unsuccessfully, she hesitates before gathering courage and in determination jumps over the fence and falls in the bushes on the other side.

Dazed and confused Minnie opens her eyes. She made it and the ticket is with her too!

She starts running fast towards the airport (We could see the background (trees and houses in the neighbourhood) moving fast) as Minnie runs.

Cut back to the check in counter - check in lady stands there blinking (cold expression on her face) while Nir realise he doesn’t have the ticket.

Cut back to Minnie running down the hill passing through some village scenery.

Cut back to Nir sitting under a huge pole at the airport – looks at the clock and sigh. After a minute, we Suddenly see him shifting his eyes and look hypnotized as he sees Minnie looks at him (small panning from him to her), the ticket is in her mouth and she’s just looking at him and wagging her tail.

He’s smiling so happy to see her. He lifts her in the air before he hugs her and she licks him. In the background we could see through the wide airport window an aircraft that just took off.

The End.

Credits.