 Animation scripts and screenplays are making waves in today’s film and TV markets. Recent animated hits in the 3D-CGI style have generated literally billions of dollars in revenue for companies like Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks. Additionally, 2D or ‘traditional’ animated films have also done well, both in TV and film. It wasn’t so long ago that a hand-drawn, black-and-white singing and talking mouse in a short film called ‘Steamboat Willy’ took the public stage as Mickey Mouse, and quickly conquered the world as the Walt Disney Company became a global power in film, animation, theme parks and more. So, if you’d like to try writing for this genre, here are a few points to consider before diving in.
One up-front consideration for a writer interested in creating a ‘spec’ animated project, is that this market runs by slightly different rules than writing for ordinary films or TV shows. High-profile projects, which may cost even hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, are almost always written by in-house writers or directors. A big project will be developed years in advance, and teams of writers, producers and creative people will work together to consider stories that will be the most profitable and rewarding. So writing a blockbuster animated film script ‘on spec’ may be met rather coldly.
The good news is that smaller projects with smaller budgets may be well-received. Production costs for all kinds of animation are coming down fast as new and faster computers and animation programs are developed. A company in Europe may develop a project, and then have it animated by workers in India, where costs are considerably lower. There are many small companies who would love to have even a small slice of the multi-billion dollar global animated entertainment revenue pie. If you can bring them a highly creative, well-written script for animation, you might find the door is open just a crack.
But there are still questions the writer must ask. Is this a feature-length story, or would it be more suitable for a short, or a series on TV? For a feature, it’s not uncommon to prepare more than just the screenplay: you can compose and record music, design characters, create a business plan, a website, and even do a short promotional presentation about the story and characters in an easy-to-use consumer animation style such as Flash. Of course, you also need the script and story, but you’re more than just a writer here---you are the creator of worlds and realms populated with amazing and wonderful characters and beings. You’re also asking a company to invest as long as a year or more of production time, and perhaps several million dollars. For the results you want, an investment of your own time and creativity will get you noticed.
For TV show proposals in the animated genre, a typical approach might be to summarize the plot, characters and settings of your series. You can do this for several stories at once, and also submit them together, giving companies a selection of your great ideas. Any additional touches, such as character sketches, will be welcome. You can then also create a list of ‘loglines’ for half a dozen of the first proposed episodes, and even create a complete script for at least one of these. These are submitted through ordinary channels, but remember you won’t necessarily be approaching Warner Brothers, Disney or Fox. For the beginner, smaller is better.
Also in the animated screenplay market, the writer must decide if he wants to create material for kids or adults, or a particular audience segment such as teens. There are any number of popular genres, such as animation from Japan, family stories, martial arts or warrior-type stories, material for very young viewers, and even animation created from existing video games (machinima). The state-of-the-art modes of story-telling for each should be considered, and the material you write should ‘fit in’, largely so that producers will more-or-less know what to expect when they look at what you have. Budget is also something you should think about, which although is somewhat specialized knowledge for a writer, can be estimated with a little research of the costs of similar films already in release. Know your market in order to conquer it, and your chances of success improve.
As far as format standards and the actual writing of your script, you shouldn’t set foot in the world of animation script writing if you don’t have at least some idea what a normal film script looks like. This is because they are actually quite similar. If you have written a couple of film or TV scripts, you would be familiar with scene headings, descriptive blocks, basic camera moves, action sequences and directions, dialogue placement in the document, and so on. If this doesn’t make sense to you so far, an article like this will not be much help, and the best you may be able to do is find a good book on the subject of screenplay formatting. But for animation scripts in particular, it can be noted that the scripts feature a lot more action, a lot more specific arrangement of images and on-screen ‘moments’, camera moves are considered more acceptable than in film scripts these days, and you may also need to conform to time constraints for TV, or provide for commercial breaks, etc. But in general terms, your script formatting will otherwise be basically the same as a film script, unless you happen to be working with a producer who favors some other style, such as split-page with visuals and sound on one side and dialogue on the other. But this is rare.
Story, however, is an area where writing for animation sets you free. The reason is simply because the writer has fewer limitations in terms of his subject, settings, props, characters, and so on. With animation, a dancing mouse can boogie and sing on a steamboat, and it’s just as easy to set your story on a moon-base or another dimension as in an ordinary Earth-town or setting. Similarly, such things as rocket ships, submarines, fantastic weapons, creatures from other worlds, dragons, talking animals, historic battles or personalities, or really anything you can imagine, are notoriously easy to accomplish for producers. In fact, they are preferred, because you don’t often see an animated film about a person struggling with a disease, or a marriage in trouble, or a standard crime or police story. Whatever you come up with, the cost to the producer won’t change much, so make your story something meaningful, positive and amazing that audiences will benefit from in some way.
Clearly good story-telling for the screen for modern audiences follows some basic rules in terms of plot and story structure, and this applies to animation as it does to any other type. So you will want to have a grasp of the three-act structure, rising action and character development, conflict, resolution and so on. None of these can be neglected, and your story must be packed with action, crazy and current comedy, and colorful and amazing characters. Each page, for a comedy, must have several jokes, and with action you need to keep it coming fast. This calls for a lot of creativity, but the key for the writer is to ‘think visually’. Whatever you come up with, make it visually appealing, and make the action on the screen happen in a kinetic and amusing way. Don’t’ waste time with two characters sitting on a bench talking. Keep it moving and don’t let up. Otherwise, with the selection of a genre such as fantasy, family, science-fiction, Western and so on, your story for animation can ‘go wild’ and fly as high as your own imagination. All of this basically applies to TV serial episodes, or features.
A note about material for young people: there is a broad range of non-offensive subject matter and subject treatment that will get you the best results, and you should not necessarily go beyond this. While it’s true that teens like violent video games with occult or dark subject matter, such as bloody wars and battles, if you’re trying to sell your material to a wide audience, such as you might find in global markets, tone it down a bit for improved chances of success. Animation today runs the gamut, and there’s no doubt a creator of stories can shock or thrill with all kinds of highly active visual material (such as martial arts battles and so on). But for the beginning freelancer, smaller companies will be pleased if you can create works that are not going to be obviously offensive to wide audiences. This is because the animation medium is traditionally a kid’s markets, and parents around the world share the common goal of protecting their young from material that will give them nightmares. The good guys need to win, the bad guys need to get what they deserve, and sex and violence are only written for appropriate markets.
Breaking into the animation market is as easy or as hard as any other. Create your material, polish it until it is as good as it can be, and then search the Internet or the library for companies that you may submit to. Again, this may not be Disney or Pixar, but who knows? You may be surprised to find an open door at Nickelodeon or Fox through a friend or business associate. More likely, you can find dozens if not hundreds of smaller animation companies on websites such as Animation World Network (www.awn.com), and even requests for material from some of these. Always approach companies like these in a completely professional manner. A query is submitted first with some initial information about your projects or creations, and upon receiving a reply with a request for more, you can send the script or anything else you have come up with. Be as bright and as amazing as what you are trying to sell, and if you get a bite, you can work out the details of a contract, etc. Also if you have samples of scripts, you may find yourself hired to write scripts for TV shows, or even direct-to-video DVDs, etc. This could also extend to things like TV commercials, Public Service Announcements, private projects like corporate training videos, and so on. Rates of pay can be very low, and for a feature project your financial rewards would depend on the level of interest from the buyer, as well as their resources and budgets.
Writing for animation is a great genre, with a big market, billions of fans, and a palette of possibilities for stories and characters that is truly limitless. Success depends on your persistence and skill, like all writing, and maybe a little of that special un-real rodentia that people everywhere know and love. It can be done, and you can do it, and now you know a bit more about what’s involved.
Julian Phillips is an award-winning author, with screen credit on numerous short film and video projects, a feature screenplay under option, a cartoon series in production and a series of short children’s books soon to be published, and audio-theater projects, in addition to many other works. The author’s first feature film will be produced in January of 2005.
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