The Book Thief

The book i previously discussed in initial ideas is titled the book thief, and is written by Markus Zusak.

IT IS 1939. NAZI GERMANY. THE COUNTRY IS HOLDING ITS BREATH. DEATH HAS NEVER BEEN BUSIER, AND WILL BECOME BUSIER STILL. 

Liesel Meminger and her brother are being taken be their mother to live with a foster family outside Munich. Liesel's father was taken away on the breath of a single, unfamiliar word - Kommunist - and Liesel sees the fear of a similar fate in her mother's eyes. On the journey, Death visits the young boy, and notices Liesel. It will be the first of many nearer encounters. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is "The Gravedigger's Handbook", left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. 

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. 

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down. 

"The Book Thief" is a story about the power of words to make worlds. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-wining author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

So the book thief in short is about an unusual perspective of world war two, infact, two unusual perspectives. Deaths (the narrator) and a little german girl.

I dont know about you but ive never read a german childs perspective of ww2, and yes at times the book makes you want to reach in and yell at them that no! you are following the wrong person, but it shows how the germans lived in fear also, and nobody was safe.

I loved how it was narrated by death (perhaps seen as a childish book, but itll make a grown man cry by the end, i guarantee it) so in the teaser trailer i wanted to show it was death, but lead up to that fact, have some confusion, within the first three pages you know death is the narrator as he introduces himself and the story and out of the whole book, i want to animate just those pages. forget the rest, thats what the movie and book is for, they can tell the story, as far as i know a teaser tailr is just suppose to get the buzz going and make you want to read/watch it. 

Im a big reader, mainly down to the fact i read relatively fast and get through an average book in a day, but also because i have quite a vivid imagination, especially when books come into play. So i think this project idea is perfect for me. 

When i read i get so lost, i suppose my eyes must see the words but my mind sees a whole different world. 

So i dont think story boarding the words would be difficult, researching and using movie techniques that let some of the story away but not all will be tricky, i dont want to give away the story and i want to have some mystery about the narrator, so the way i present the story will be crucial.

As seen below in snippets from my sketchbook (ignore how messy i am when i know nobody but me will have to understand the drawings/writing) I brainstormed ideas, what phrases i want to emphasis, just how much should be in it, and initial sketches of Death.... should i actually show death ? i think it suits the narration to show a tortured soul/death, but should it be a controversial or original death? or a very stereotypical death ? i think i created a suitable mix of both. 

Using my own drawing style, i created a shinigami looking grim reaper, im hoping it looks obviously like death and the confusion over the narrator is sorted in this short animation, otherwise the viewers will be even more confused than the cryptic words.