Make a film without a camera?

Make a film without a camera about Ariadne’s childhood. Hint: animation, or...?

At first I was completely bewildered as to how I'd make a film without a camera. Isn't that the most basic instrument? Then I realized that the computer would largely be my tool for this project, kind of locking the entire film process in the post-production phase. It feels like something endless, infinite... yet I'm comfortable with it.

I'm not too keen on the idea of using a mythical greek goddess as the main character to my plot. I'm hoping to change it to something more general, like the childhood of a character I make up myself, or of multiple characters.

I would really like text and audio to play major parts in this film, as well as animation. I feel like sound plays as big of a role as you want it to, and can largely set the tone and tell the story if you want it to. I'd like to craft this movie into a collage, of sounds, songs, still photographs, previously recorded footage, animation techniques, and possibly physically manipulated film. I read about an avant-garde director named Stan Brackage who imprinted butterfly wings onto film to create his movie, and am very inspired to research the possibilities of techniques like this.

The scene I'm inspired to start out with is in a crowded place, with the garbled murmur of indiscernible conversations blending into one. I don't think I even want the images to directly represent what actions are taking place in the story, but to maybe represent sound frequencies or something of the like. Then I want to zoom in with the audio on specific conversations, describing events of the lives of people involved, depicting the personalities and character of each.

This project will take me getting pretty familiar with Adobe After Effects. I've worked with the project some, but have done further research for resources to help me. One is the catalyst webpage:

http://catalyst.washington.edu/help/video/aftereffects/index.html

And have placed a hold to pick up "Creative After Effects 7: workflow techniques for animation, visual effects and motion graphics".