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How to Succeed in Animation
When I first became a director, and even up to this day, whenever I enter a studio engaged in producing films under my direction, I can’t escape a certain moment of panic. “My God! All these people are working on something that is my conception! What if I’m wrong? They are all trusting their livelihood to the notion that I know what I’m doing!” Well of course, I must know what I’m doing. What does a director do? If you’ve sat through the end-credits of an animated feature film, you know that what we do is a (large) group effort. Sure, you would love to think up, write, design, animate, paint, voice, shoot, compose, computerize, and edit your own film, all by yourself… Great! Maybe you will win a major prize in a major festival…. That is, after years of work, possibly being financed by a grant, but more likely from your career as a McDonalds fry cook. But if you actually want to earn a living in animation, you will have to find your place in a studio, and your place in the complex interplay of many talents.
A good animated film is a deft amalgam of many talents and crafts. But a good animated film must look like the work of one hand. And that is what a director does. The director is the one with the responsibility for the overall vision, and he or she is the one who must know what goes in, and what is discarded; the one who holds the production to a straight line. Without a director’s clear vision and firm hand, the movie will wander all over the lot.
A good animation director should basically know how to do, or at least understand the place, of all the elements of the movie, and strive to keep them all in balance, not letting any one thing dominate, and have his or her eye and ear at all times centered on the story being told, the premise being proved, and the point being made.
How to gain the confidence, the support, satisfy the egos of many diverse talents, and draw from them their best work, integrating it all into a seamless unity, is the constant endeavor and challenge of an animation director, just as much as any film director. Go for it!
© Gene Deitch - March 2010
Hey, that's the greaetst! So with ll this brain power AWHFY?
thanq sir am really impressed for ur success tips and i want more tips from u please can u make it for pdf files so i can dowl the links easilly and when i want i can learn it
but as a animator am happy sir...
Thanks dear sir
Anyone who would like to reach me directly with their question, please put your email address into your comment. Thanks, Gene
Inspirational - I especially appreciate the evocation of the cave experience!
Dear Gene,
Your producer story is hilarious, and may I suggest an addition to the story in light of recent developments in animation?
Everyone MUST make EXACTLY THE SAME SOUP.
I just polled my kids.
My (13 year old) daughter's favorite contemporary 'toons: "As Told By Ginger" and "The Simpsons."
My (12 year old) son's fav's: "Invader Zim" and "Sponge Bob". "Oh dad," he adds. "They have 'Sponge Bob' characters at Burger King now, canwegoferlunch?"
His extra little question spurred me to take Mr. Deitch's analogy one step further. To wit: Not only is today's animation gobbled mindlessly like "junk food", contemporary animation and junk food make a marketing match that envies soup and crackers.
This marketing, aimed at the kids who watch contemporary TV and film 'toons, works. And results in boxes and boxes of plastic toys that are 10-for-a-buck (freebies on Sunday afternoons) at yard sales around the world. Toys that are cranked out in sweatshops in Taiwan and China by kids younger than the ones who haul them home in America and other prosperous countries.
If it were not so horrible, this whole concept in itself would make a great full-length cartoon. Funny with a social statement.
Gene Deitch is an exceptional man. I found all his comments from the piece entitled How to Succeed in Animation very special indeed. His story is also very encoruaging and informative.
He display's a true love of the craft and has a special role to play because of his approach in his vocation, and he seems tome to be a person to whom I could certainly look up to.
I am a cartoonist and humorous illustrator with aspirations to get into animation. Gene' article was really one of the first pieces I've read that beacuse of the insightful information I have gleaned I'm sure I can use it and venture into the world of animation with a little more courage.
Thanks Gene,
best wishes,
Liam
To all the producers out there who feel that the audience is morons that will except anything: My six year old son will not watch Rugrats and many other newer cartoons. Why? Because he says they are drawn poorly.
Dear Gene:
Your How to Succeed In Animation site is very informative, especially the forward and Part One. I just have one question: is it possible for a former animation student living in Canada who's a big Nudnik fan to get a Nudnik T shirt like the one you are wearing in the picture of you at your computer? I'd really love a Nudnik T shirt- Nudnik is just so cute and such a sweetie, I just love him! If you could send me a size XXXL (3X) Nudnik T shirt, that would really make my day. I'll even pay for it if need be. Please contact me at cherrycharmca@yahoo.ca about this. Thank you. Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Patricia McClain
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