The Lost Shaman

Introduction

The Lost Shaman is a father-son story about letting go in life and stop living in fear, as well as committing to a passion, no matter what the risks are or will be in life. The story is being told in a world and time period where shamans still have a powerful influence over their tribes, and where the next generation of shamans is rising.

This story reel was developed from beginning to end during the 9-week storytelling course called StoryXperiential, which was in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios during that time.

Story Development

My original idea that set the whole story in motion was ‘What if… every time a shaman has to perform a ritual within the tribe, his stage freight kicks in?’. The thing I initially liked about this most, was the contrast between him being a leading type for the tribe, but having stage freight as that leading type. That flaw shows one very important thing, that he’s still human, after all.

Gregor – The protagonist of our story is Gregor, the shaman of a long-standing tribe in Siberia. To keep the tribe peaceful, balanced and fearless is what he desires most. However, there’s a fear hidden inside of him that gets released every time he has to perform shamanic practices when demons are around. His muscular appearance but very soft and helpful character further emphasizes the contrast.

The World

Before I started developing The Lost Shaman, I knew barely anything about shamanism. The process of researching all about it was very exciting. It really helped me to bring authenticity to the world where our characters live in, together with their rituals and their own unique, but relatable way of living.

Big Changes

Throughout the process of the story, I made some major changes, both character-driven and in story structure. This was mostly based on the amazing feedback that I received from the Story Xperiential community. This also meant that multiple times, the story had to be reworked, even though big chunks of the story were already storyboarded. In the end, I ended up re-storyboarding about half of the entire story—not an uncommon practice in the world of storyboarding.