Brief Synopsis and Background information

Hey everyone, thank you so much for showing interest in this animated project titled "For Your Own Good" that I have going. I've attempted to make this page an easy way to get introduced to the story and charcaters I've been develeoping. Hope you like it.

A little about me: I was born and raised in Rexburg Idaho in an LDS family. I moved to L.A. a few years ago to go to animation school, and this project is being made by myself as my senior thesis. Many of you have probably already read the full script behind the idea, and while I intend to animate the whole thing, I will only be concentrating on part of it for my senior thesis. I'll focus on the main storyline of Mary Anne and Monty, and leave a lot of other stuff out until after I graduate and have more time to put it back in. Kinda like those annoying "ultimate director's edition" DVDs that come out after you've already bought the normal DVD. Well, don't worry, you won't have to pay for my stuff.

So, the main story of "For Your Own Good" is about a mother doing her best to raise her child, all the while facing humiliation and judgement from others around her. When I was born, I had a cataract in my eye. Yes, those things 80 year olds get, but I got one at birth. So I had surgey at 6 months to remove the cataract from within my eye, and then up until I was 6 or so I had to wear an eye patch over my good eye for a few hours every day, in an attempt to force my weak eye to strengthen itself. I hated that patch. When wearing it, my vision was completely blurred. I had no idea what the numbers and letters on Sesame Street even looked like, they all looked like blurs to me. I would rip that patch off every second I could. My mom tried everything to keep that patch on, and it came to the point that she had to make little splints on my arms so I couldn't bend my elbows, thus keeping my hands a good distance from reachng the patch on my eye.

It might sound sad, or mean, but it was for my own good. And I think it's a really funny story. Especially when my mom then had to take me out with her in public, and face everyone's judgemental looks and stares.

So this is based on that, the other characters are based on my family as well, and if this thing ever took off into a series, there's all sorts of funny stories that happened to me and my family growing up in Idaho. Hope you guys find it amusing too.

Meet The Hurley Family

Here are some turnarounds of the different family members. Not the most cleaned-up versions, but enough that you get an idea of what the look of these characters is all about.

MARY ANNE HURLEY

Mary Anne is the world's greatest mother. She loves her family, and will do whatever is necessary to do what's best for them, even if it means humiliating herself in the process!

Picture a mix between Marge Simpson, Norma Arnold (The Wonder Years), and that nice mother from your home ward who somehow manages to keep her family in order, all the time keeping a smile on her face.


SAMSON HURLEY

Samson is a teacher at the local University, but that doesn't mean he always displays the characteristics of higher education. He's loving and caring, but has a knack for messing things up as well.

Picture Clark Griswald (National Lampoon's Vacation) mixed with the dad from A Christmas Story, with just a dash of Homer Simpson. (Just a dash, he's not THAT stupid.)

SPENCER HURLEY

Spencer is a shaggy-haired 16 year old who isn't too excited about his first job as a bag boy at the local grocery store. He'd much rather be shooting aliens in his favorite video game "Commando Man," or playing bass guitar with his friends in a local garage band. (they're still trying to think of the perfect band name...)

Picture a nicer Nelson Munns for The Simpsons mixed with a not-so-dumb Napoleon Dynamite.

ANNA HURLEY

Anna is a 10 year old girl who finds herself trying to survive in a world full of cellphones, text messaging, Myspace, and Facebook. She believes you're never too young to start building up a good networking pool of contacts, and she believes it so much that she is never without her cell phone.

Picture basically any kid today who likes to text message, and multiply that by 10. She's real sweet though, when you can get her attention.

MONTY HURLEY

Monty is 2 years old, and one of the happiest kids you'll ever meet. And this is despite of his crazy, lazy eye! Yes, Monty was born with an odd eye that now sporadically darts all over the place independent of his other, normal eye. His parents are trying all they can to help remedy this problem before he gets old enough to be teased by other kids. (That can really effect how a kid turns out, you know...)

Picture a happy little boy who loves Frankenstein and Sesame Street. Then give him a crazy eye.

Audio Samples (from the real people behind the characters!)

Here are some initial recordings of the actual people who inspired these charcaters. (My family!) This is for you to get an idea of where these characters came from, and what they kind of sound like. Use these clips as a springboard to develop what YOU think these characters would sound like, or to take them in a radically different direction. Whatever you feel like.

Click here for more information about the songs
Click here to create your own MySpace Playlist

"For Your Own Good" Rough Animatic

Here is the very first rough animatic that I've made of this project. It contains only a portion of the script, with a slightly different intro scene. I plan to have a short version of my film that closely follows this animatic finished by May 2008. (something has to be finished so I can graduate....) Then, I'll go back and complete the rest of the scenes from the script and re-edit it all to make a final master cut.

Anyway, this animatic is VERY ROUGH, and the voices are VERY VERY TEMPORARY. It's just so you can get a feel of how the end result will play out. Enjoy!