This is a question I hear all the time when people submit a script for animation. "Why should your script be animation?" or "Why not make this live action?"
Animation can be VERY expensive, so it's not favourable to write a script for animation, if it could be done far cheaper and more effectively and efficiently with live action. BUT what if I just like writing for animation?
What are the KEY elements that help you determine whether or not your script is best suited for animation as the medium for storytelling?
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Hey, Kevin Jackson. The story and scenes. Some scenes would be too expensive/dangerous for a live-action movie. And some things wouldn't be possible in live-action films.
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Good response. What might not be possible in live action with today's VFX? I am excluding VFX from animation for the purpose of this discussion. Take for example Pantheon. Could have easily been done live action.
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You're right, Kevin Jackson. I meant some things wouldn't be possible in live-action films as in things that couldn't really happen, like in Looney Tunes. I should've put that in my other comment.
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Oh, I get you...I had this discussion the other day at the University I teach at. We were listening to students table reads and one script that caught a lot of attention, had concepts in it that just wouldn't make sense in the real world and the writer said it's not supposed to. It's a bizarre world where the rules of the real world don't really happen. So, we advised that they need to show us more stuff that helps us understand that. After saying that I thought to myself, this would make for a perfect adult comedy, because there would be far less burden on the audience's mind to accept the logical rules that were being broken.
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My main thing is that it's important my characters look how I described them, and I understand that I can't always have that with live action. As well, I love diving into surrealism fairly often which comes more naturally to animation than it does live action. All this to say that animation allows for so much more creative freedom which is attractive to me.
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Sometimes when I want to write Animation stories, I would much rather create a better subscription and strategize with a better profit for it before making a meeting. I have finished 7 pilots if you like to read the screenplay and longlines for each of my concepts. Also, I'm considering posting a job hiring writers to write non-pilot episodes for the first concept. I can't remember which one, but I know for certain it has to be a superhero concept.
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Being a Cymro or Welshman who lives in a hidden country, because you have never heard of a film or animation film about our hero's Owain Glyndwr , or Llewellyn ap Griffiths , our last king of Cymru /Wales, or folklore as in my script entitled, Nos Galan Gaeaf, (Night Of The Heart Of Winter) Our Halloween, the most ancient in Ynys Prydain (Isle of Briton) that was filmed produced and directed by a Welsh crew.
How many of you know about our cultural heritage or History and Folklore, literature, or Arts.?
So being of bardic tradition that runs through our DNA, in Cymru, Well have you heard of any creative arts belonging to Cymru, if so name one?
Being the Oldest Native Peoples of Briton, named by the Romans, Britannia, Latin for brythoneg tribes or early Welsh speakers, we have been in Ynys Mel, (Isle of Honey our name for Britain,) before the Romans came, before the The Irish tribe from Ulster that became the Scottish Nation came, in the 3rd century AD, and with the Welsh that were in what is now Scotland's highlands and low lands became the Pict's that you have heard of, well they spoke Welsh, then came the the Saxon invasion foiled by a Gwentian King Named,' Arthwyr ap Meurig ap Tewdrig', you will have heard of King Arthur I bet there is a Welsh version of the true story but suppressed, by ridicule by British academics, British is a nonsense word an English construct to have their language and Culture suppress the Celtic countries.
Did you know it was the Welsh that fought the Saxons, in 12 battles, not the English fighting their ancestors the Germans? Arth means bear in Cymraeg/Welsh and Wyr meaning man of power, then the Norman Vikings came defeated the Saxons so French was the language for the next 300 years after that , until both languages German and French became English, you know that of course.
What you do not know is that the Cymry (Welsh people not to be confused with Cymru the country) have been in this Island for 10,000 years about 8,000 years longer than our incomers Saxons Scottish and French. So having given you a tiny bit of our History you may ask why don't we know this?
For me it can only be Animation to explore our legends and myths. We were an oral traditional people, so unlike the other Brythonic speakers/ Nations of Kernow (Cornwall) and Brittany , who were to near their colonisers to evolve their own cultures against stronger powerful languages and traditions of their invaders.
So knowing some thing happened to our ability to show our traditions and legacies, heritage and History due to the battle of our culture and Language which is the last battle with our colonisers the English, so we have been gagged at funding source, knackered from jumping through hoops only to find its a paper exercise, so the Native people of Briton are voiceless , our folklore has been kept alive through Cymry people fighting every inch for our culture and Language, as sung in the song in Cymraeg, (Our language) Yma O Hyd, check it out on you tube.
Phew, got that off my chest, the script was originally a 4 year project of an interactive theatre play, a Script lecturer from the Atrium University Cardiff encouraged me to produce short 2D animation film , so any tips would be gratefully received, Diolch yn fawr iawn . PS, its a bilingual film.
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1) a good script, is a good script. 2) a good script can be either animation or live action - a bunny cop can be a cute as a bunny female cop. 3) cost? Make the movie any way you can. Animation or live action or puppets if needs be. Each production technique has strengths, play to them. I learned a long time ago getting it done is way more important than not getting it done. I like animation, it’s what I do, but I like watching/ making live action just as much. Storytelling is fun- enjoy it any way you want.
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One thing that to me makes animation the best way to tell a story is that it can appeal to literally everyone, and I mean it, to children and adults alike.
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Kevin Jackson Honestly, I think it comes down to what can’t be done in live action. Animation gives you the freedom to bend reality, exaggerate emotion, create fantastical worlds, or tell stories in ways that live action can’t easily achieve—or would be insanely expensive to try. If your story needs that kind of flexibility, animation isn’t just a choice—it’s the medium that makes the story possible. The key elements I look at are whether the visuals or action could realistically be done in live action without breaking the bank, whether the story benefits from stylization or exaggeration that only animation can deliver, and whether the characters, settings, or concepts are easier to communicate visually in animation. Basically, if animation adds something unique to the storytelling, it’s probably the right choice.