The Bonnie project is a 2 year MFA 3d modeling thesis project at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco California. Throughout the duration of the project I will be keeping an online blog of my progress as it develops on a weekly basis. To view the blog please click here.
Abstract
The year is 1933, and the Great Depression is now in full swing. Alice and Michael are a young couple in love, however their future is uncertain. Alice often fantasizes about the glamorous gangster lifestyles of the mid-west. One of her favorite stories is that of Bonnie and Clyde. She often dreams about Michael and herself living in that world. Soon her dreams will become reality as the two make their way to Chicago to live a life of crime. The people of Chicago believe that Alice and Michael are in fact Bonnie and Clyde and will continue to treat them in this respect. This decision to live this way will ultimately be their demise.
The officer and his k-9 counterpart King have a very special relationship. They will soon discover upon Alice and Michael's arrival that the couple is not as corrupted as they appear to be. Aware of the Bonnie and Clyde's true fate, the officer and his k-9 companion make a desperate attempt to stop the imposters. Alice and Michael will soon pay the ultimate price for their subterfuge.
Setting
Written by Dave Eng
January 21, 2008
The year 1933 is just the same as any other year has been so far that decade. In fact most of the days are just the same as any other day in Devanstown. Alice swings her feet as they dangle over a porch that has seen much better days. She looks over the plain as a dust devil makes its way menacingly towards her sanctuary, but dissipates mere yards from her stoop, seemingly afraidthat touching the dilapidated shed of a house would curse itself as much as the house's occupants. The house itself is a castle compared to the Hoovervilles of the east. Besides the porch, this homestead features a bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen; this is four more rooms than most families were living in at the time. The big joke is that Michael's parents had owned it when the big dust bowl was more than just whipping sand. It was a time when life sprung from the ground and there was happiness and prosperity, instead of a place where hopes, dreams, and people came to die.
It helped that the government didn't know how to tax the property… considering that the state line between Indiana and Illinois dropped right between the front door and the stove. It was a fiscal anomaly that had its benefits, considering everyone knew where the place was, but didn't know where it “was.”
Is this any way to live? What a miserable existence. Her bare feet drag over the rough porch floor as the swing creaks back and then slowly swings forward, either a sign of the shoddy construction of the dwelling, or the spirit of the spruce that was felled to create it.
While being more of a shanty than a shack, it did have its benefits. The old homestead sits at the intersection of East Main Road and West Main Road, and around that: nothing. As far as the eye could see: nothing. Why did a town with a population of forty (including livestock) need two main roads is beyond Alice's comprehension. All she knows is that once in a while, if she got lucky, a car would drive by. If it was really her day then the car would have passengers, but if the good Lord decided to bestow a miracle on this failed woman then she would be blessed to see some runaway bandits speed down Eeast Main Road and hang a sharp left onto West Main Road, barely avoiding the house, apprehensive of the authorities closing quickly behind them.
That was the life that she dreamt of…the life that she longed for. Survival or not, living in a shack that is half in Indiana and half in Illinois is not her idea of living. Her eyes glanced northward towards the cloud covered skies of Chicago where all hopes and dreams are made, for the right price of course. She so dreamed of taking off right then and there: just getting off the porch and hoofing it northward. She'd get there eventually. Whether it took her days, weeks, months, or years, she would get to the glinting glamorous lights of the windy city as it sat at the base of the Lake Michigan. It was a metropolis: a seemingly gigantic infant at the teet of the nation's breast sucking it dry of every last quarter, dime, and penny. Chicago: where breaking the law could land you fame and fortune. How she had dreamed so many dreams of making it there… only to realize that she was still on the porch with her bare feet dragging on the rough hewn wood.
“The paper says that there's a dinner roll and a hot cup of soup for anyone willing to bind a dozen Bibles over at the Boylston Baptist church, Alice! Alice! Did you hear me?”
Michael's voice shattered the last remnants of her Chicago fantasy, snapping her back to reality instantly.
She swings one last time, letting the momentum carry her back to her feet. Brushing off the thin layer of dust that had covered her skirt while she day-dreamed outside she takes in one last breath of that boring plains air before making towards the front door.
As she heads inside she kicks the door closed while the setting sun encouraged a chill in the air. Before waiting for eye contact, she turns to Michael, who is still enthralled with the news of a hot meal in the month old newspaper, and says,
