EDUCATING YOURSELF IN AN ANIMATION
WRITING OR PRODUCTION CAREER
By Shannon Muir
Originally
published at Suite101.com, Reprinted at Digital
Media FX
***
I happen to have
a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-Television and English, as well as a Professional
Certificate in Screenwriting, but I realized recently this might give a false
impression that formal education is a “must” to be part of the animation
industry. While it doesn’t hurt to have
formal training, it is by no means required. If you have had the discipline and desire to teach yourself, or the
determination to find someone who will informally instruct you, then show these
qualities to people in a position to hire you, I believe you can go far in this
business.
There are some,
like myself, who like learning under some semblance of structure. For me, formal education provided a great
way to interact with others (since I’m not terribly social) and learn to meet
deadlines. It also helped me get well
versed with structure. However, there
comes a point where formal education can be a crutch and blind you to other
learning opportunities, or at least that’s what I believe. I also feel I’ve nearly come to that point.
One of my
animation writing mentors stopped being formally educated before getting a
college degree, but after being in the industry for well over a decade,
received an award from the Animation Writers Caucus for achievement in the
field. This argues that formal
education is by no means necessary to succeed as a writer, though I know many
animation writers who have degrees in English, Film, or Theatre. In the very first letter I received from my
mentor, the opinion was expressed that most writers “fail to get out and live
life,” which could strengthen their writing. It seems to me the animation writer who gets out and observes people and
situations, and brings those qualities to a script no matter what the setting
(reality, science fiction or fantasy) should have a far better advantage than
the formally educated writer who never steps outside the library or
office.
However, in fair
contrast, two of my animation writing mentors do have a lot of formal education
and are relatively successful. One has
completely a Theatre background, the other a mix of Theatre and English. My solely theatre trained mentor is also an
avid world traveler, so he’s brought a lot of richness to his writing by
traveling the globe and looking at various cultures. The other constantly seeks to explore new challenges and
ideas. These are things you can have
with or without a formal education to expand your knowledge of the world and
strengthen your writing.
Formal education
isn’t necessarily needed for animation production jobs either. When I first joined what is now Sony
Animation, the Production Supervisor I worked closely with on JUMANJI had
no animation background whatsoever before coming there; previously this person
spent years in retail sales. However,
many of the things learned in this totally unrelated field translated to
animation production management, such as how to deal with people. It wasn’t that many years later the same
person turned up as Line Producer – two job titles higher and much more
responsibility – on DILBERT for UPN.
Even if you
haven’t gotten your first job in the animation industry yet, or aren't in a
position for or don't desire any formal education, you can still start
educating yourself. Sit and analyze shows on the air. Pay attention to how everything’s assembled, the flow of
dialogue, how long time passes before the picture changes to a new shot, or the
timing of how high an animated ball bounces on screen. If you want to write, track down animation
scripts and their completed counterparts. See how what’s on the page translated to the screen, what was cut, or
what dialogue lines were changed. You
can start educating yourself this way right now, until the opportunity to
educate yourself on the job comes along.
Whether it’s
writing a scene every day for a sample (“spec”) script, or communicating with
artists and production personnel on a daily basis, you’re learning and honing
skills to make you more effective in the animation industry. There’s always room to grow and learn and
improve over the years. “Doing” is the
greatest teacher.
NO ARTICLE MAY BE SUBSEQUENTLY REPRINTED
WITHOUT EMAILING SHAN@DUELINGMODEMS.COM FOR PERMISSION. Thank you.
All content copyright 2001 - 2011 Shannon Muir. All rights reserved.