I'm not going to tell you how to make cartoons the typical modern way. If you like Scooby Doo and Shrek and you want in on easy money and to have all the artists hate you, buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Animation-Jeffrey-Scott/dp/1585672408
"The biggest difference between animation writing and other forms of TV and film writing is that in animation the writer has to practically direct the show. In live action you can say "the Indians take the town" and the director will spend five days shooting dozens of pieces of action. But animation, if you say "the Indians take the town," you'll see two Indians enter shot, pick up the town, and carry it away. It's very literal. So instead you call out every shot and describe everything you want to see on the final show. The reason for this is because there is no director, as in live action, who is working on the show from its start (script) to finsh. So it's up to the writer to do it."
I imagine if you are a Ren and Stimpy fan, you would rather know how to write for a show that uses the drawings and every other creative element as part of the entertainment and storytelling. Maybe you want to know the process behind Space Madness, Stimpy's Inventions, Ren Seeks Help, Man's Best Friend and the like. I can tell you how we wrote those. Not in one post of course, but I can start now.
"Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language." - Walt Disney
How many times have you heard this cliche?: "Well, the animation was great, but everything really all comes down to story." The people you hear it the most from, are invariably the people who don't know anything about story- especially the folks who make animated features. Most features follow the basic structure and trappings of Snow White and have turned it into a blind formula. The original Grimm's fairy tale of Snow White has about 4 pages of story (about 10 minutes worth of screen time). The movie added about 50 minutes of filler: animals cleaning plates with their rear ends, comedy relief, romance between two lifeless people, pathos. They also added some delightful song sequences. I would call those entertainment, not necessary for the story but worth putting in a movie because they are fun.
Clampett made the exact same story as Disney's version of Snow White in 8 or 9 minutes and left out all the filler. Most animated features today are about 90% filler. The songs are no longer fun; they too have become filler.
People toss around the words, "story", "writing", and "plot" as if they are some mysterious concepts that don't need definition, but somehow are the magical ingredients of entertainment that only "writers" can grasp.
If you like a cartoon, you might say: "I liked that, therefore it was a good story." Sometimes maybe it is, but story is not the main ingredient of entertainment. Sensations are.
I've never heard anyone say, "Boy that was a great dance. I wonder who wrote it." or "Who wrote this ice cream?" These make about as much sense as "That cartoon made me laugh, therefore it was a good story."
Most pleasures are not derived from story. In entertainment, story can certainly be an ingredient of the experience, but it isn't entirely necessary and it's only one of many possible things that are fun to watch, listen to and experience.
I use drawing, acting, animation, sound effects, music, voice acting and every possible type of entertainment tool I have at my disposal to try to amuse the audience. Writing is one part of it, and really for me, the easiest part. Learning to draw takes years and can only be done by people with a gift and a lot of time to learn. Everybody kind of knows how to write.
Today, "writers" (meaning merely: people who can't draw) make the creative decisions in the visual medium of cartoons. That makes them the bosses - which makes about as much sense as putting the sound effects editors in charge of the artists.
First, why don't we get some definitions clear. Writing and story are different things. A story is a sequence of related events. Period. A good story is a story that keeps people's attention. Not many stories are so interesting in their raw ingredients, that a mere reading of them adds up to good entertainment. You need a good storyteller to make a story interesting. You can have a bad story told by a good storyteller and it will still keep people's attention. It's much harder to keep people's attention with a good raw story and a weak storyteller.
Strangely, everyone today seems to have opinions on writing and story. Vague ones for sure, but most folks are firm in their vague beliefs and the beliefs change from year to year. I know, because I changed a lot of the dogmatic faiths.
I think maybe the reason everyone and his dog is an expert on writing is because everyone writes. Not everyone draws.
Everyone knows the basic rudiments of writing and practices them every day. This gives great confidence to charlatans and executives. Writing is a medium of communication common to all humans. Art or music is harder to talk about because not everyone practices them. To be an artist you have to have obvious demonstrable ability that most normal people don't have. It's a lot harder to fake being an artist than being a writer. A singer who sings flat will make almost anyone cringe, probably even a cartoon executive. Clumsy writing though passes right under the noses of any executive, so management is easy prey for many used car salesmen types who sell them on their brilliant story ability.
It takes extra gall for people who don't draw to tell you what's good or bad about your drawings. Of course, there are people who do it - as you all have witnessed, but it's harder to get taken seriously if you yourself draw stick figures while boldly giving your opinions to real artists.
Here are some terms as defined in the dictionary.
story /'st{phon_capo}:ri/ noun (pl. -ies)
1 ~ (about / of sth/sb) a description of events and people that the writer or speaker has invented in order to entertain people: adventure / detective / love, etc. stories * a story about time travel * Shall I tell you a story? * He read the children a story. * a bedtime story—see also fairy story, ghost story, short story
2 ~ (about / of sth/sb) an account, often spoken, of what happened to sb or of how sth happened: It was many years before the full story was made public. * The police didn’t believe her story. * We must stick to our story about the accident. * I can’t decide until I’ve heard both sides of the story. * It’s a story of courage. * Many years later I returned to Africa but that’s another story (= I am not going to talk about it now).—see also cock and bull story, hard-luck story, life story, shaggy-dog story, sob story, success story, tall story note at report
3 an account of past events or of how sth has developed: He told us the story of his life. * the story of the Beatles * the story of the building of the bridge
plot /pl{phon_capq}t; NAmE pl{phon_capa}:t/ noun, verb
" height="10"> noun
1 [C, U] the series of events which form the story of a novel, play, film/movie, etc.: a conventional plot about love and marriage * The book is well organized in terms of plot.
plot /plot; NAmE pl
t
/ noun, verb
" height="10"> noun
1 [C, U] the series of events which form the story of a novel, play, film/movie, etc.: a conventional plot about love and marriage
The book is well organized in terms of plot.
writ•ing /
ra
t
phon_capn}" class="ipapic" height="10">/ noun
1 [U] the activity of writing, in contrast to reading, speaking, etc.: Our son’s having problems with his reading and writing (= at school)
a writing case (= containing paper, pens, etc.)
2 [U] the activity of writing books, articles, etc., especially as a job: Only later did she discover a talent for writing.
He is leaving the band to concentrate on his writing. creative writing feminist / travel, etc. writing—see also songwriting
writer /
rat
shwa}" height="12">(r)/ noun
1 a person whose job is writing books, stories, articles, etc.: writers of poetry
a travel / cookery, etc. writer
2 a person who has written a particular thing: the writer of this letter
com•poser /kshwa}" height="12">mpshwa}" height="12">
phon_capu}" class="ipapic" height="10">zshwa}" height="12">(r); NAmE pophon_capu}" class="ipapic" height="10">z/ noun a person who writes music, especially classical music
k
phon_capq}" class="ipapic" height="10">riphon_capq}" class="ipapic" height="10">
phon_capg}" class="ipapic" height="10">rshwa}" height="12">fi; NAmE k
phon_capo}" class="ipapic" height="10">riphon_capa}" class="ipapic" height="10">phon_capg}" class="ipapic" height="10">/ noun [U] the art of designing and arranging the steps and movements in dances, especially in ballet; the steps and movements in a particular ballet or show
chore•og•raph•er /kphon_capq}" class="ipapic" height="10">riphon_capq}" class="ipapic" height="10">phon_capg}" class="ipapic" height="10">rshwa}" height="12">fshwa}" height="12">(r); NAmE kphon_capo}" class="ipapic" height="10">riphon_capa}" class="ipapic" height="10">phon_capg}" class="ipapic" height="10">/ noun
I added the definitions for composer and choreographer to make this point: There should be a similar word for an artist who composes the stories for cartoons. A cartoon writer is more like a person who composes and arranges the visual entertainment -framing the characters and story. The term we use for a traditional cartoon writer is "Storyboard ARTIST". These 2 words unfortunately confuse executives. Because the term contains "artist" the modern executive assumes that the person doing the storyboard is not a writer, when in actuality he should be. You can't separate the writing from the drawing in a cartoon. It's like asking someone to describe a tune in words. Try it.
The kind of cartoons I like (and most of you too)-the classics and the modern truly "creator-driven" type can not be created with scripts. They have to be written with outlines and storyboards.
I will post a basic list of the basic skills you need to be a good storyboard-writer-artist on Monday, so keep checking back if you are interested.
Later, I will do more detailed posts about each of the separate skills using examples from both classic cartoons and my own to make the concepts clearer.
