Ascend

(A short film about Gigantophobia)

Imagine for a minute, evertything you see on earth to be a false perspective. That’s what three teenagers discover one night in the restricted section of a park. What follows is a series of adventures on an outer planet, filled with creatures and aliens that a several times larger than them. Will they be able to survive the harsh conditions and escape?

Plot Summary

A concept developed during the VFX course, aimed at understanding the process and nuances of production, VFX and CGI. The story is inspired from the folktale “Jack and the Beanstalk”, where Jack climbs a Giant beanstalk to explore the realm of the giants.

Created in three weeks, the short trailer-film comprises of three friends who trespass into a park during the night, exploring restricted sections. The patrolling guards notice them, and are hot in pursuit. They decide to hide behing an overturned cup. Unbeknownst to them, the cup is actually a crashed spaceship lying in the park. It detects the three friends close-by and opens an emergency hatch, making them fall in.

As soon as they fall in, the space ship launches and travels away from the planet, into unknown territory. As they enter the atmosphere, they find something off about the planet. When they land on one of the areas, they realise that most of the planet is giant-sized, and they have landed on someone’s breakfast table. Amidst the panic, a female giant walks up to the table, looking at the three friends and the overturned cup.

Will the friends be able to escape back to Earth? What other dangers lie on the surface of this planet? How wil they get back, if their ship is confiscated or compromised?