Chum Bucket
An original story by Elijah J. Roberts, directed by Davis Forge and Elijah J. Roberts
In a world soaked in watercolor, Reggie is the only thing left blank. He's been called a chum bucket since he was a kid — the fat one, the joke, the bait — and he's spent every year since in the gym trying to outwork the name. The body changed. The feeling didn't.
Color is Reggie's tell. A kind word, a small win, an affirmation from anyone — and pigment floods through him all at once. Then it drains straight back out through the paper and leaves him white again. He keeps chasing the next hit of it. It never holds.
When the bullying follows him to work, the dream starts to run out with everything else. Then his father shows up, and what he gives Reggie isn't a pep talk so much as a handoff: only you can make your dreams come true. They finish it in a hug — and for the first time, the color floods in and stays.
The camera pulls back from that hug and finds him years later, in the ring, in full color. A professional wrestler.
- Format
- Short film
- Status
- In development
Story
Elijah J. Roberts
Directors
Davis Forge & Elijah J. Roberts
Production Manager
Kassi Bravo
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Chum Bucket is in production now. What people give goes into finishing it — the animation, the sound, the grade, and the festival submissions that follow.
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Project portfolio
Storyboards
Sequences boarded end to end, with the camera and the cutting already in them.
Storyboard sequence CH_FC_SQ001 — red line figures over blue-grey environment layouts, two characters talking across a gym floor.
Storyboard sequence CH_END_SQ001 — red line figure working out among blue-grey gym equipment, drawn in perspective.
Animation blockouts
Blocked passes in untextured grey and magenta — timing and staging first, everything else later. Some carry the live-action reference the animator worked from, playing in the corner.
Animation blockout CH_GM_SQ001 shot 004 — Reggie at a pull-up bar in a blue shirt, the gym rig blocked in magenta and grey.
Animation blockout CH_GM_SQ001 shot 006 — Reggie lifting a barbell in the blocked gym, with the live-action reference the shot was animated from playing in the corner.
Animation blockout CH_GM_SQ001 shot 010 — two characters closing on Reggie in the blocked gym, with the live-action reference the shot was animated from playing in the corner.
Animation blockout CH_END_SQ001 shot 002 — an overhead angle on Reggie in a blue shirt, gym set blocked in flat magenta and grey.
Characters
Textured turnarounds, body and face.
Reggie, textured — a painterly close pass on the face beside a full-body turnaround in a white tee and dark jeans.
Brian, textured — a close pass on the face above a full-body turnaround in a white tee, with lighting reference spheres beside it.
Zach, textured — a full-body turnaround in a red vest and shorts above a close pass on the face.
The gym worker, textured — a full-body turnaround in blue training kit above a close pass on the face.
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