A FEW WORDS ABOUT ANIMATION SCRIPT FORMAT
By Shannon Muir
Originally
published at Suite101.com
***
One of the
questions I often encounter when interacting with hopeful animation writers is:
"What exactly is proper animation script format?"
Animation
scripts are standard screenplay format, with one exception. That difference comes when you are talking about
an animated show geared at prime-time (say THE SIMPSONS or KING OF THE
HILL). Writers for these shows
originally came from the live-action sitcom world, so they brought the dialogue
style used in sitcoms into the prime-time animated scripts.
In sitcoms,
dialogue is double-spaced. This is in case they decide to rewrite jokes on the
set at the last minute, there's lots of room to do it. No scribbling tiny text in the margins.
So why bother to
do so in prime-time animation, where the product ships overseas to be animated
and then comes back for final assembly? Series creators in prime-time animation build in a similar advantage to
their live-action sitcom counterparts by creating window of opportunity in
their production schedules (one that normally cannot be afforded in other
series animation). The show's producers
budget time to re-record dialogue in order to make the comedy fresh and
topical, but the only restriction is that the new lines must fit the existing
mouth movements.
"Saturday
morning" series, such as the ones I worked on for Sony Animation, and
animated features use the format identical to a live-action screenplay. I have heard of some people that employ the
two-column audio-visual format for animation, but this is not the industry standard
and I personally have not seen an animated script in the two-column format; I
recommend not using it.
So how do you
find out what "standard screenplay format" is?
The books that
remain the traditional reference of standard screenplay format are Cole and
Haag's Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats books. Volume One covers screenplays, which is the
one I'm talking about. Volume Two
covers one-hour drama and half-hour sitcom formats. You can find the book at the usual places, like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble,
also consider specialty stores such as The Writers Store that may be able to fulfill
your other writing needs. (I will be
honest, I used to work for The Writers Store. But it's on that basis I'm willing to recommend them directly, because I
know the kind of operation they run. Also, they've been in business for almost twenty years and the Internet
was an expansion of what they do versus being just a virtual storefront.)
Or, you can get
screenwriting software to help you do the job. Final
Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, and Scriptware are the three major programs. You can
visit their sites directly, or again, The Writers Store has all three (they
also happen to be Final Draft's preferred vendor, so it's not just me singing
their praises).
This should give
you a solid start in formatting your animated script and bringing your dream to
fruition.
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All content copyright 2001 - 2011 Shannon Muir. All rights reserved.