Story Outline

While continuing with visual influence before moving into character design,we have developed a step-by-step outline for our story before moving into drafting a rough storyboard. With our basic concept finalised and deciding to proceed with the idea of a comical instructional“How to Defend against Vikings" video, we collaboratively combined we decided that escalation comedy would be a suitable fit for our story. We also liked the concept of using British comedy to incorporate smaller jokes, being able to create a quirky atmosphere that would allow us as designers to create comedy at the expense of both our off-screen English characters of the Bard and the puppeteers, as well as our main character of the Viking.

Step 1: The Voyage

Our Viking is introduced on his voyage over seas to conquer new lands to the west. He reaches land after a long trip and can't move his disproportionate legs properly and struggles to exit the boat.

Step 2: The Attack: 

The Viking is shown initiating the first attacks on a Monastery which will be an adaptation of the first raid on Lindisfarne in 793. Our character will be seen 'entering' the Monastery, and heard reaping the rewards of his raid.

Step 3: The Defense: 

The English initially try to defend themselves with weaker weapons that cant match the brute force of the Vikings. Simple farmland tools such as pitch forks will be pointed at the character from all angles before our character bellows and scares them away.

Step 4: The Befriending:

The Englishmen then begin by trying to befriend the Viking to prevent any further conflict by dressing as Vikings themselves trying to imitate their behavior which ultimately fails.

Step 5: The Walls:

Walls of straw, wood and stone are then erected to prevent further attacks, however, the Viking manages to blow away the straw with a clap, splinter the wood with his weapon, and shatter the stone with his head. For extra comedic value, the Viking will need to do a double take on the stone wall and headbutt it twice.

Step 6: The Moat:

Ditches and moats are then installed around important buildings and settlements to prevent the raids. Our Viking manages to use a primitive 'see-saw' mechanism to propel himself across the gap in a humorous fashion to gain access to his rewards.

Steps 7 & 8 are still being altered. Here we want two methods, one bordering stupidity, and the other beginning to be utterly profound so that it supports the concept of escalation comedy.

Step 9: The Dragon:

Once the English decide enough is enough and build a strong fortification, Our Viking will summon a dragon to do his dirty work to destroy their building leaving their defenses open for raiding. Our Viking will enter the now-ruined battlement to collect a bigger sum of gold.

Step 10: The Treaty:

In the end, the English will be 'the bigger men' in a typical English manner and admit defeat by signing a treaty which agrees to share their land with the Vikings equally.

Whilst these are the essential keystones within our story, there will also be plenty of room for background jokes which will be different depending on the characters. We will try to reference typical English humor during these segments which we agreed would be a beneficial part to give our comedy that direct 'British' feel.