Saturday, October 18, 2008

Writers

One of the favorite things for disgruntled animation artists to do when they kvetch is complain about how sh!tty animation scripts are.

Some suck, some don't.

Frankly, after seeing some of the tripe from the 1970's and 80's, the writing for animation has gotten a helluva lot better in my opinion.

I don't think writers themselves are the major problem.

The problem comes in when they're writing crowd scenes, epic battles, and other scenarios that require time to do.

Time is what we're not allowed to have by the studios.

What thee EFF?!

This goes back to the good, fast, cheap model. Or rather, IT SHOULD.

If the scripts were less complicated, the artists would be able to adhere to the sh!tty schedules given to them. Right? Sometimes the artists are allowed to edit down scripts before they begin boarding, but some executive @$$holes want it ALL and then will edit down after the artist gets used up and tossed out like a condom on prom night.


Here's a challenge open to anyone who doesn't have their set in a jar in the attic:

Ask an writer what their favorite cartoon is. IF they have one, it probably involves something simple: one to two characters doing something non-complicated. Hopefully a light should go on over their heads. If they kvetch about how execs want more-more-more, remind them:

FAST

GOOD

CHEAP

PICK TWO OUT OF THREE.

That applies to writers, too.

What would happen if writers and artists worked more in tandem to get the execs heads out of their ADD-riddled @$$es?

2 comments:

Steve Hulett said...

Dear Aniranter:

You make good points. Here are some others.

Human behavior doesn't change much through time. I had Disney veterans from the 1930s tell me their stories about abuses when I worked at the Mouse House in 1977 ...

They are pretty much the same as in 2008.

The artists who succeed in the biz need

Luck. A good work ethic. Skill. The ability to play well with others.

Also luck.

And if you have a abundance of ONE of the attributes above, you need less of the others.

God bless.

Steven Roy Hulett

Aniranter said...

And isn't luck something along the lines of opportunity and good timing? Robert Evans has a quote about that but I can't remember his exact words.