This story is a metaphor for an event in my life. I came up with the story, concept art special thanks to Geraldine Kovats and Peter Moehrle for artistic suggestions, modeling, rigged from scratch no cloth modifiers all bones, my animation with special thanks to Tony White for animation suggestions, I unwrapped everything and painted all my textures. I chose all my camera placement with special thanks to Jim Johnson and Tom Price for camera suggestions. I placed all my lighting. I edited my short film, the foley was not made from scratch but I did manipulate it. And music by Alanis Morissette - Not As We (Instrumental).
Programs used in the making of:
Pencil, Paper, Water color - Concept art
3-D Studio Max - Modeling, Rigging, Animation, unwrapping, lighting
Photoshop - Texture painting, Concept art painting
After Effects - Compositing
The True story:
Melissa was my roommate for one month. I was rooming with Maile and Ryan but Ryan was moving out and we needed a replacement.
I found Melissa on Craigslist. She was perfect for me and Maile. Well, perfect for me because Maile didn’t really live in our apartment because she preferred her boyfriend’s place. Melissa worked for Rare. Yes Rare… if you don’t know who Rare is go look it up. My all time favorite game company. Made games like Killers Instinct, Donkey Kong Country, The original Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, ect… so many great hits. She had a chance to work on Halo, Gears of War and at the time she was working on the new Banjo Kazooie for Rare. So she was amazing to me from the very start.
I will not go too much into detail about her relationship out of respect but I will say that she moved in with us because she needed space from her husband. She was considering a divorce and was going to try and work it out. If any of my friends know me I attract broken and mending people. I listen and open my heart to them and they share there pain with me. Melissa was no different. And since she was my roommate, with an awesome personality, had a career I had dreamed about… we got along great. She would always talk to me every night about her life and I loved to listen to her. But as a few weeks passed she saw that her husband was not changing and she knew she had to get a divorce.
One morning, as always I hear her take a shower to get ready for work. I hear her blow dry her hair for like 20-30 min like always. I lay in my bed half awake not wanting to get up. I don’t hear her exit the apartment, but I never do because the door is too far away from my room. I hear gunshots just outside my window. I don’t even think they are gunshots because it sounded so fake… it terns out the movies make guns sound fake and an actual gunshot actually sounds a lot like fireworks. But still I look out my window to make sure. I see nothing. I think… that could not have been gunshots… they where too spread out and consistent to be gunshots. I worry for Melissa who I think is still in the apartment. I get the idea in my head maybe I should check up on her because maybe she thought that they where gunshots. I get out of my room. Call for her. Knock on her door look inside, no one. I go to the living room, no one. I call her name, no one. I look out the front door… I see two people on the ground just down the steps and a few feet away. Still my mind doesn’t get it. I get closer… no shoos on cold pavement. I think its just two people playing a prank. I see his face… I recognize him, I met him once before. But I still didn’t want to believe it. I think it’s someone who just looks like him. I get close enough to touch them. I see her hair… it finally hits my brain and I don’t want to see her face. I see a blood puddle, and the blood is going down a drain. The sky begins to cry a little. And the day goes on.
Melissa was murdered by her husband. Shot 8 times in the chest and then her husband shoots himself in the head and kills himself.
Pieces of Me Metaphor:
Of course the metaphor is almost obvious. Abrums is me and Missy is Melissa… my nic name and her nic name given to her by her family. Pieces of me, we are stitched up dolls made of different pieces. My heart of course I split into two pieces and give her a piece of me. The stuffed animals in the background are also pieces of me. Each representing some one I love in life who has given me a stuffed animal. I own and have all the stuffed animals I used for the environment.
The cow = My Nephew in Texas
The Red Frog = My Nease in Texas
Yellow Duck = Jenny from School
The Alaskan Moose = Arisa my 3rd (most recent) X-girlfriend
Green Bear = Clare my 2nd X-girlfriend
Gray Bear = Sandy my 1st X-girlfriend
And the Cat who actually belonged to Melissa. When her family came over from the East Coast they where nice enough to let me have a piece of her.
The flowers I have for Missy are also special and for her.
Forget Me Not's = just like the name of the flower says
Iris’s = Inspiration
Pansy’s = Loving thoughts
And Stars of Bethlehem’s = hope
I give her a piece of my heart… not because I’m “in” love with her but because I loved her, more like one loves a sister. Just like I love all my X-girlfriends, almost the same love I have for all my close friends. Melissa has a piece of my love. I hope it makes her happy where ever she may be.
The short was made for people like me. Not for me even though it helped me it wasn’t made for me nor was it made for Melissa or her family. In a way it was made for all the reasons I just gave but I made it more so for the people in that situation. For the people that give pieces of themselves to others.
Hope you enjoy a piece of myself,
ABE
Melissa's last interview at E3:
http://www.mahalo.com/Melissa_Batten
