The idea for my Honours film is about an angel named Rick, who is sent to earth as punishment for his incompetence, however instead of serving out his sentence as a nobody on earth, he partners up with a saleswoman to sell space in heaven to those willing to pay top dollar.
The story was thought of for my business and policy subject in 2008. The idea came to me when I heard of a crystal church that had been built in the United States and paid off in a single day. (http://www.crystalcathedral.org/inchurch/) There is also the scientology belief where it seems the more you donate the higher ranking you receive within the church, hence Tom Cruise being one of the churches highest ranking figures. There was also the time Pope John Paul the Second was given the proceeds from the worlds 400th Ferrari Enzo, a US$1,274,229 car. I started to think, there is a lot of money in religion and I’m sick of hearing of people who seem to think they can buy their way into Heaven. I did some background research on the many beliefs that believed in an afterlife to get some ideas on what heaven could generally look like. I plan to stylise the traditional view, but keep aspects like using a lot of white, and a lot of cloud and mist, however I plan to make it more of a society, that's why I also looked up the different rankings of angels, and their names, and using these pieces put together my first draft, using their rankings as the justice system of heaven. My aim was not to offend anyone in particular; I believe I have just used common elements to create my own setting so that people will recognise what I’m saying without people thinking I’m just having a go at one set of beliefs in particular In the last week I have also done a couple of quick animation tests of the two main characters.
