Second Ideas Pitch: The Pantheon

Having developed a second pitch deck individually, we had the opportunity to pitch to each other around the central theme of ancient Mesoamerican mythology and culture. Another chance to develop our skills presenting and pitching, repeating this process is the only way to better ourselves at this crucial (and often undiscussed) aspect of the industry. With ourselves both choosing to pursue a formal and considered presentation, we both felt more confident and comfortable discussing our ideas. Having a core theme and subject area allowed our ideas and pitches to complement each other nicely, and we were both genuinely interested and excited at the narrative proposals presented today. While Jack was more interested in depicting a different culture, I was drawn to the fantastic legends described in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya. Depicting these legendary narratives, characters and beasts of the ancient Maya would be an exciting direction to pursue further, without delving too much into modern representation issues and appropriation themes of a culture not our own. 

We both felt the pitch was a success, representing an opportunity to present the various mind maps, style inspiration, and rough concept boards. Once again utilizing Microsoft Teams for the call, we both delivered considered high-quality pitches with confidence and clarity. Despite having a long way to go in this area, I am beginning to develop a sense of confidence when discussing my work, which has helped the pitching process. While I have some concerns pursuing The Pantheon as our graduate film, we both felt a strong shared enthusiasm for the subject. We are both excited about these compelling legends and myths and look forward to exploring this further. From these conversations and bouncing ideas off one another, we were able to leave the pitch with remnants of an idea to explore and some key story concepts to play with further. 

The first of these points would be to explore legends and the culture of the ancient Maya, as opposed to blurring the lines between various Mesoamerican societies under the umbrella term of 'Aztec' as many other Western examples have done in the past. Our initial research dived into the mythology and legends of the Inca and Aztec as well. However, we both identified a strong focus on Maya mythology through our actual story pitches. With this, we have decided on purely exploring the ancient Maya as a culture for this film, which is an important aspect to establish early on in project development. As we are dealing with the representation of another culture, we must complete the correct research before doing so. 

Perhaps the most crucial decision from this second pitch would be to focus on the legend of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xblanque. The oldest Maya myth to have been entirely preserved, we follow the lives of the two brothers, skilled huntsmen possessing supernatural abilities. We discussed how exploring a story from this perspective would create an engaging and compelling entrance into exploring ancient Maya legends and culture as a whole, following the various adventures these two brothers embark on, exploring temples and jungles, and taking on demons and false gods in the process. The key direction to my pitch, I'm happy that I was able to successfully convey the potential of pursuing this direction and look forward to developing this further. 

Alongside my proposed 'Hero Twins' direction, Jack pitched the concept of a priest. The idea of a priest keeping the gods at bay through a small bloodletting of his hand would be an interesting approach to take, and we subsequently avoid the stereotypical ideas around human sacrifice that populate Western representation of Mesoamerican civilization. This idea is one aspect that I both found to be pivotal to our development and continuation with this idea, to avoid and actively counteract typical Western stereotypes attributed to the Maya and Aztec people in the media. We both recognize that sacrifice and offering to the gods had a significant role in ancient Maya culture, but there is an abundance of this represented already to harmful effect. 

Perhaps the most telling example of this would be this comment from an online discussion thread about Mehua, an animated short film featuring two women rising against Aztec sacrifice rituals – 'I'm still waiting for a film about Aztecs that doesn't center around human sacrifice.' This comment is one of the key reasons for further exploring Maya culture and mythology in a film that doesn't deal with traditional human sacrifice in Mesoamerican culture. Voluntary blood-letting would be an appealing approach to the subject, simultaneously allowing us to avoid traditional 'ripping out the heart' images while also reflecting on the importance of religion and sacrifice to Maya culture in the hope of appeasing powerful gods. 

The conversation also touched upon ideas of character design and aesthetic, with both of us finding a universal interest in exploring a highly stylized approach to character design playing around with proportion and, where necessary, challenging traditional western design principles. Inspired by the work of animation director Kevin Roulland and Maya art as a whole, this is an aspect that we will be pursuing later down into the production pipeline. 

Finally, we spoke about the issue of cultural appropriation, and its sudden prevalence in this proposed project. Rather than merely avoiding the conversation, we both felt it was essential that we discuss this and establish that as creatives, we need to conduct authentic research into ancient Maya culture, myth, and religion in a sincere attempt to understand people's experiences that are different from ourselves. For example, we could work with historical professionals and reach out to modern Maya individuals. The best way to avoid harmful appropriation would be to have an authentic voice guiding us throughout the production of this film. This topic is an incredibly important discussion, and we will continue to have these conversations as we progress with this concept. 

From this second pitch meeting, we were able to identify several areas to develop upon further. We were both happy with the pitches, and I look forward to exploring the mythology and legends surrounding The Hero Twins as we progress through this project. Having discussed a core direction for the film today, we set out to develop a collaborative pitch deck - developing a mind map together and working on concept pieces around the same pitch. Aside from this, research will represent a continuous process, continually informing and evolving the shape of our film as we undoubtedly explore alternative avenues, directions, and ideas.