Around 2018/19 I started to become interested in storyboarding. So, I began the age old practice of self-teaching and purchased whatever books (glorious, tangible books!😂) and online courses I could reasonable afford.😂 One of my first extensive personal projects was, what I would call, a deep thinker of an idea. I'm sure YOU have heard the phrase "race card" at some point in your life. The "race card" essentially means when someone uses their race as a weapon andor shield whenever it suits their advantage. Think of the Get Out Of Jail Free card from the board game Monopoly. Well, there are other "cards" we all play in this messed up lose-lose game called Life (not totally unlike the board game Life, but meaner😂).
This reality inspired the idea for The Cards We Play. In my head I could see a classic basement/underground style casino, with rows of card tables with dealers in the center of them, and dim hanging lights over each table. If you've ever seen the fantastic anime film, Spirited Away, there is a scene that depicts ghost like figures on a train. You can make out if one is a man wearing a hat and suit or if it's a little girl wearing a dress, but they have no faces and they're all the same transparent-ish black-grey color/texture. In my mind, I saw the players and dealers in this World Casino in a similar way, except that you couldn't tell who was a man, woman, child, adult, what they wore, what they did, etc.
While working on this project I sought the advice from other storyboard artists across the interwebs, and some did mention that it would be better if the characters, particularly the main character, would have more distinguished features - like if they wore a hat or something to that affect. While I agree, I also felt it detracted from the point of the entire story. The Cards We Play is a depiction of how each of us are dealt a certain hand that we have no say or control in. And, as we seek out the appropriate table in which to play at, we find that one or more of our given cards may disqualify us from playing at that table. Metaphors aside, this is meant to reference how, for example, you could be a heterosexual white female who doesn't have a set religion and, one of more of your "cards" (the straight card, the white card, the female card, or the no religion card) could end up being the cause of your rejection from other people you would like to "play" with. This straight, white, non religious woman may be barred from entering, for example, a pub because she's straight (example case), or because she's white, or a woman, or because she has no religion.
The reasoning for the figures to all look the same is because, we are ALL the same overall, especially when we die. Regardless of beliefs, no one can deny that when you die you die. You don't "go to sleep" only to "wake up" the next morning (unless you're in a vampire movie😂). It's also important, as the film/story progresses, because you see the main character behave in the exact same way once they get a seat at a table and a new player tries to sit at the same table. The MC admonishes them, rejects them, admonishes them for trying to sit at a table they didn't belong. This was the same treatment they received when they were searching for a place to belong. So, we can see that the MC became the "bad guy" once they were in a "secure" position to do so and were amongst "their kind."
The ending is beautiful, if I do say so myself, simply because it elegantly shows that, once the light shines through the windows, the last rejected character sees that they are disappearing as the sun rises, along with the rest of the players, tables, lights, carpet, and the entire casino. The only thing left in the dimly lit basement is some trash, dirt, and a pile of cards. One of the metaphors for this scene is simply, once we die, we leave behind all the cards we were dealt. The game is over once the sun rises and the day changes, leaving us no longer a player and all that's left is the cards that we can't take with us.
Such topics aren't really "appropriate" because, I think, it forces people to think deeper than what they're comfortable with. Which is sad, but fine, because reality doesn't need to wait for us.😂 It just keeps doing it's thing, whether we like it or not! While looking for some additional tid-bits for this post, I stumbled across an article on The Black Market (not THE black market 😂) that explains some of the cards some people play. And it makes me happy that I'm not the only one who recognizes such aspects of our reality and isn't afraid to voice them.😂 I'd recommend checking that out for a good read through.
The Cards We Play storyboards
The Cards We Play animatic
Till next time MMP Fans!