A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation

a lost and found bow
of Human sensation
A lost and found box of human sensation is an animated short film of about
10 minutes, based on a poem by Martin
Wallner.
A young mans father dies because of

pancreatic cancer and the boy has to cope
with the loss.
The film begins with the funeral and
shows how feelings change throughout
the years. It ends with the question: Is there a due date for grief...?
A lost and found box of human sensation, Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg, 2007
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There are two narrators in the movie: A

poem builds the framework for the storyline and is recited by an omniscient narrator.
Additionally from time to time this structure is interrupted by thoughts and expe-
riences of the boy himself in certain situations.

He talks to himself basically and thereby
gives the viewer an insight into a very personal point of view.
No cancer!
r!
nce
a
c
No
cancer.
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Whereas the language generally is very

honest and straightforward the visual language of the film is rather metaphorical and picturesque, representing
the inner perception of the protago-
nist and his world of thoughts, a mixture between reality and imagination.
The intention of this is not to dramatize
but to emphasize certain emotions and
sensations and to make them more comprehensible.
The prevailing mood of the movie is not
grief and melancholy but moreso an odd
unstableness, sad and quiet passages
take turns with anger, but also humor and
self irony.
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The film is realized as a mixture of 2d- and

3d-animation. The light setting is high
in contrast, emphasizing lights and shadows. Typographical elements are used
for some scenes and as title screens for
the different acts.
The music is part of the events and narrowly connected with the story. Some
sounds for example are used as rhythm for
a piece which then spans over a couple of
scenes and changes slightly meanwhile.
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The 3d-scenes will be rendered with a

sketch/toon like shader to stress contours
and planeness. Still we dont aim for a clean cg design as known from many movies
but moreso for a unique look as seen in
the sketches.
The color range is reduced to greyscale
basically, using a couple of contrast colors
for backgrounds and light shadows.
The characters generally are overdrawn

and burlesque. Still, the main character
has very realistic facial expressions and
gesture, without overacting or exaggeration. His emotions, after all, are honest
and real.
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PROLOGUE
Scene 1: Black screen. Definition cancer Oxford Dictionary. Fade out.
1 a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells
in a part of the body.
2 a malignant growth or tumor resulting from such a division of cells.
3 something evil or destructive that is hard to contain or eradicate
Scene 2: Black screen. Title. A white square in the left top corner becomes bigger and
bigger.
BOY:
6 feet. Just 6 feet. A small car. 10 pencils. 182.88 centimeters.
A fucking lightyear.
The square becomes an opening where we can see the outline of somebody staring
down at the camera.
Scene 3: A cemetery in backlight. The boy and some other people stand in front of a
grave. But the grave is not a normal hole but more a deep and narrow shaft that goes
deep into the earth.
NARRATOR:
The boy stands at his fathers funeral and tries to comprehend
why the sun still shines, it should be raining
and how a stable and rock-solid world can fall apart and (simply) end
without a decent warning
The camera pans down and follows the shaft, the cemetery disappears.
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Scene 4: Title screen is faded in and out:

CHAPTER 1: The devil in the details
Scene 5: The shaft turns into the outline of the gullet, stomach and finally the pancreas. Some medical details are given with typo and colors.
NARRATOR:
It started with a sore throat that wouldnt go away
The stomach cramps came after two months of delay
They learned a lot of new words like abdominal CT
like contrast agent, tumor marker or endoscopy
endocrine and exocrine and many many more
they learned about the pancreas and what you need it for
Scene 6: Pancreas is eaten by tiny black monsters (outlines, black shapes) until the
whole screen is just black
Scene 7: A doctor, looking a lot like a mad scientist/evil genius mixture is plucking
petals from a daisy, singing musical style as in the carmina burana: it is cancer, it is
not. Meanwhile there is typo on the screen that shows notes to self of the boy:
NOTES TO SELF
1. 53 kilos are the borderline to invisibility
2. people with liver diseases turn yellow, even their eyes
3. sometimes there are things that doctors do not know
4. pancreatic cancer has a fatality rate of approximately 99%
5. if you never give up hope it leaves no room for saying goodbye properly
Scene 8: The doctor uses a slot machine with three cylinders to determine the treatment. It shows -chemo- -chemo- (-lemon-) -chemoScene 9: The outlines of the screen form the word CHEMO as seen on the cylinder. We
see drops of liquid, infusions and the oscillation of a heartbeat that finally stops at
zero line. The letters whither and disappear slowly.
NARRATOR:
At the end his father could barely stand on his feet
weightless, fragile, transparent, unwilling to eat
and seeing him slowly wither and fade away
broke something inside of the boy as well
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Scene 10: The cemetery again. The boy shakes the hands of robots that pass him by
like on assembly line. All robots move in exactly the same way: Shake hand, move
aside. Shovel some earth on a grave mound. Throw a rose. Very rhythmic, mechanical and apathetic. The camera zooms out so that we can see the whole scenery. The
grave mound has a very burtonesque and surreal shape, roses sticking out everywhere.
NARRATOR:
Paralyzed the boy stands at his fathers funeral
and shakes a lot of icy hands just like a wind-up doll
and for the first time in his life he truly understands
that in the real world there is no guarantee for happy endings
Scene 11: Title screen:
CHAPTER 2: The secret art of repression
Scene 12: An interview sequence in a living room. Boy sitting on a table, no microphones or cameras visible. Boy glances at the camera sometimes, but talks mostly to
himself. There may be some description masks popping up from time to time, as used
in talk shows to introduce the guests, such as Just a whiny twenty-something?
BOY:
What really wears me out is normality. I expect him to come through the door any
moment. As if nothing happened...
The world turns, but Im not turning with it. Im floating an inch above the ground,
disconnected, while everything else is moving.
Scene 13: Typo, appearing in the background, the lalala getting bigger and bigger
until it fills the screen
DontthinkaboutitdontthinkaboutitdontdontdontdontDONTTHINKABOUTIT!!
LALALAAAA....
Think of something nice...
Scene 14: Nice thoughts. Such as pink elephants, or the shape of a girl with nice
breasts and butt, just scribbled like matchstick men. They appear around the boy.
Then there are black flashes and the thoughts disappear
Scene 15: Interview again
BOY:
I wish I could turn off my head...
It is like one of those nightmares where someone invisible is haunting you and
you know that if you stop or if you even take the time to turn it will catch you.
Thats my head.
So dont stop, stay in motion, and do not slow down. Never EVER stop...
It helps to get angry sometimes
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Scene 16: Bird view: We see the boy walking through a city. His shadow turns into
different shapes and attacks other people, but they dont notice. It kicks things and
pees against a wall. Whatever.
NARRATOR:
He gets angry at global warming, gaining weight and passing cars
at flat beer, comforters, TV talk, bacteria
Gets angry at everything and nothing in particular
Angry at the frickin kids in Africa
who stole his right to feel sorry for himself
since of course they are so far worse off
than anybody else
Scene 17: Still walking through town, there are flashes where parts of the city appear
to be something else, like injections, pills, morphine, coffins
And how the hell can it be that
every single instant of the last night
is replayed in his head
like a silent movie flick
while at other times the simplest things dont stick
like names or PINs or birthdays or global politics
Scene 18: Bird view: The boy lies in bed, embryo-like. Sleeping. Dreams appear as simple matchstick-people that entirely overact, like in silent movies. Big fake emotions,
happiness, laughter.
BOY:
The dreams are the worst. Hes there, every night, healthy and full of life as he has
always been. I know that something is wrong, but it feels so real. I try to hug him,
grab him, to assure myself that hes substantial, that he is really there
Scene 19: Still the boy, unmoving, curled up. The camera zooms out so that we can
see that the boy lies in a huge bed. Huge as in kilometers wide to emphasize the fact
that he is too weak to get up, to reach the edge of his bed.
NARRATOR:
Every single morning with the breaking of dawn
no matter how hard he tries to hold on
the dream fades away and all that remains
is reality in its brutal emptiness and some pillow stains
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Scene 20: 4 different scenes: Eats, drinks, works, fucks, each with a specific sound
effect. Fast cuts
NARRATOR:
and he eats to distract him from this sensation
and he fucks to get a different sensation
and he drinks to, well, kill the sensation
and he works to distract him from this sensation
he works quite a lot and sometimes it works.
And sometimes he cries in awkward situations
and he cant even tell why it hurts
Scene 21: Boy sits in a cinema, the screen light is reflected on his face.
Movie: Commando
Puny guy: Hey, you promised to kill me last
Schwarzenegger: I lied.
The boy starts to cry.
Scene 22: Eats, drinks, works, fucks scenes, faster and faster
and he eats, and he drinks,
and he works, and he fucks,
and suddenly a year is gone.
CHAPTER 3: Paradigm change
Scene 24: Interview again. At the end the boy rises and leaves the screen
BOY:
God, I feel so old. Like about 3400 years old. At least. I grew up within days and
didnt slow down, did my best not to.
But now Im tired and exhausted and old. Im out of breath. Deflated. And I need
to get out of here
Scene 25: Abandoned places from the scenes in chapter 2. Maybe a tumbleweed?
Maybe not.
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Scene 26: A worldmap where the traveling route is displayed in Indiana Jones style
He cuts all the strings
and leaves everything
and everyone behind
he puts some thousand miles
between himself and his life
distance physically
and distance in mind
Scene 27: Boy sitting on the beach, staring out to sea. Hes lying down, sun on his
face. Close up on his face. Zoom out again: There are three other people next to him.
the ocean and sunshine and time to breath
and strangely funny people he meets
funny in a good sense
and somehow they connect
they start to share their problems
in a way neither of them did expect
and he talks about his father in past tense
for the first time
Scene 28: Party sequence. Maybe a campfire and black shapes. Maybe some graphs
or diagrams. Maybe a scale with two pans that are in balance.
And they drink and they talk
and they party and they smoke
and they see dancing squirrels in the clouds
theres still nothing better to cheer you up
than a couple of beers with friends in a pub
Scene 29: IN- and OUT-lists: In tabloid-paper style
(as in BILD or MediaMarkt commercial)
OUT:
1.Sudden attacks of hypochondrism
2.Sudden attacks of heavy self-pity
3.Sudden flashes of anger
4.Other sudden emotional outbursts (mostly in connection with tears)
IN:
1.Meeting people
2.deep breathing
3.sleeping save and sound
4.Going on a road trip
5.vociferous singing in the car with all windows open
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Scene 30: Road trip. Boy is driving through the great wide open. Different angles and
a lot of horizon.
BOY:
Driving is like collecting bonus miles for your head. Every mile on the road counterbalances a tiny part of the weight. It is still there but feels lighter, like floating in
water.
It gives you time to regroup. Time to gather strength.
Scene 31: Car stops. Boy gets out. Close up on his face, sun. A smile.
And suddenly you stop. You turn and let things catch up on you...
Scene 32: Boy gets back into the car and drives towards the horizon. As in a horribly
tacky Hollywood ending. Fade out. A decent gap for the audience to think that this
was the ending of the film.
After two years he establishes a balance in his mind
all memories bottled and emotionally resigned
leaving just an itchy scar to scratch from time to time
and apart from phantom pains hes feeling just sweet nothing
which is absolutely fine
CHAPTER 4: A dea ex machina
Scene 34: Interview again. Boy sits in a chair. Then he looks down at tiny people, playing around his ankles.
BOY: I became arrogant without even noticing. I figured that I had moved on mentally, had experienced real life. When meeting new people of my age I quite often
had trouble to take them seriously, because I felt so much older and wiser. The
happier they seemed the more I despised them.
I needed this to see at least a little sense in what had happened.
On the other hand I envied them for their innocence, their youth and their ability
to just enjoy themselves. But still I was content.
Scene 35: A flash that bathes him in light (as of a nuclear explosion we dont see). At
first hes dazzled, but then he closes his eyes and enjoys the feeling.
And then I met her. Lighthearted, full of life, happy, jesting, so warm. And me:
tired, old, insecure, distant, cynical, cold.
She revived my center of emotions, a device I had thought to be busted and
broken, and it immediately tried to make up for its downtime: It flooded me with
desire, dry and hot and asexual and desperate and entirely unanswered. And just
like that, without even noticing, she gave me back my ability to feel.
And it felt fantastic. Like springtime
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Scene 36: Then shockwave blows him away and down an abyss. Hes falling, spinning.
All is white except for him. Meanwhile hes tortured by shadows, stabbed, bitten by
monsters, Then he crashes into the ground with a dull, short sound. The ground is
like a huge snow plane. Where he crashes there is a outline of his body, but thats the
only visible contrast.
Of course she is a carnivore
that preys on his insides
of course shes smart and beautiful
and kills him when she smiles
of course his knees start trembling and
wont do as he intends
of course shes got spirit
and of course shes got a boyfriend
But even though it feels like crashing straight into a wall
Its so much better to feel this than to feel nothing at all
Scene 37: He gets up, cleans the snow from his cloths and we see, that his landing
cleansed the snow from that particular spot. Underneath there is a meadow and
flowers.
THE END.
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a lost and found bow

A young mans father dies because of

There are two narrators in the movie: A

riences of the boy himself in certain situations.

Whereas the language generally is very

The film is realized as a mixture of 2d- and

The 3d-scenes will be rendered with a

The characters generally are overdrawn

Scene 4: Title screen is faded in and out:

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