EVOLUTION FOR BEGINNERS
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The Big Man and the Little Man

Humboldt “The Evolver” is a bumbling, accident prone ‘creature’ (sometimes a fish, sometimes a lizard, always a victim) who finds himself stuck in unpleasant circumstances over which he has no control. His only means of escape, he thinks, is to evolve out of the tight spot. Sadly, however, his attempts are invariably ill-conceived and unsuccessful.

In 2005, Fopspeen Moving Pictures produced the pilot episode of “Evolution for beginners”, a 90 second animated insert to pitch to “Groen” on KykNet. The producer wanted a quirky weekly insert to give the program a bit of an edge. Nothing came of it. We thought it was cool nevertheless and proceeded developing the idea, even making a second episode when we had time to spare. Every now and then, on hearing reports and rumours about the emerging mobile TV market, we would say to each other that Humboldt would look just great on the little screen.

Along came the M-Net EDIT competition at the end of 2007 with a new category for mobile content. We dusted Humboldt off and entered him promptly, glad for the opportunity. He did well. He proved to be popular, and ended up in the top three in the mobile category. He went through to the second round of the competition, which required us to create – in only two months, five more animated episodes. We plunged into the task with unbridled enthusiasm and promises of a contract and a R20 000.00 grant.

And then the contract came.

Suddenly we were Humboldt the evolver, stuck in unpleasant circumstances over which we had no control. With no idea which way to evolve. M-net wanted us to sign all rights pertaining to the five episodes we were in the process of creating over to them. Those are the rules of the competition, and if we want to play along, we must play by the rules.

I suppose this is a fairly common “Little Man” versus “Big Man” scenario. The little man has a face. The “Big Man” has a façade, a board of directors, shareholders, a murder of lawyers, and a desire to obtain new and exciting ideas. He buys these ideas because they are unique and special and he can make money from that. They bear the markings of individual thought. He wants all rights to them, because that is just one of those things about desire. He wants control of this unique new idea so he can manage it, and maneuver it to fit his market and his ratings. At which point it ceases to be a unique, special idea.

The “Little Man” needs the “Big Man”, and the “Big Man” needs the “Little Man”. But because he is big, he pretends he doesn’t. He is actually being very nice and philanthropic, and if the little man doesn’t like it, he can crawl back into his little hole with his little idea, because there are lots of little men with unique and special ideas out there, who will be only too willing to sell them for a song. Which is true.

This is actually a cool idea for an animated series. I can already see it: a big squarish blob, and a small agile little blob that can change its shape into anything and perform all kinds of tricks. And the big one gets jealous, and tries to steal the little one’s tricks. Or buy it from him. In some episodes he can cunningly cheat the little one out of it. Sometimes he will succeed and win. Sometimes he won’t succeed, and still win.

I am sure someone will buy it.
I think I must pitch it to M-Net.

Author: Diek Grobler, Copyright: Fopspeen Moving Pictures, 2008, written for ....