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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
hi there sir ...i m really glad to read these golden things wot u had written ...i guess its very good tht experienced guys like u ..want to help passionate youngster who left off their formal education just like me i left my accounting and finance study to get in this feild ...i m really glad to read such beautiful things from u
thank u
This was great for me! I am currently enrolled in Westinghouse High school doing my senior project on animation. Your guidelines inspired me. Write back to my adress please. Could you give some more tips as well?
do you need an english a level to become an animator?
Dear Mr. Deitch,
I appreciate the time and effort you have given to help prospective animators. The reason I searched your name on google is that for years, every time I saw a Tom and Jerry produced by Gene Deitch, I said to myself, "this fellow Gene Deitch is quite a character." Those particular T and J's really stand apart and always fascinated me. Not only do they make me laugh, but the style is so fresh. Actually, I used to tell me kids, "Watch this one, it's really weird." I meant that in a good way. They obviously come from the mind of a very creative person. And your website may one day inspire me to get off the couch and actually try my hand at making something I love instead of just watching the creations of others.....Thank you....Mike.
Hey guys and gals. I have always loved Pixar movies and films, and i especially love cartoons. Youre work is interesting, and is something that i really want to take up. I attend college in tempe, arizona, the biggest college in the nation, Arizona State University.I am a freshman and I recently changed my major to intermedia, because i realized that my interest in my previous major, Psychology, was dwindling away. I began to think of animation. I love kids, and i love kid movies. I always want to have the humble heart of a child, being able to watch something from pixar and feel so moved by the colors, the image, and the awesome music. May you please guide me in the right direction on what i can do to show the team at pixar i can cut it. Thank you my friends :)
I loved the producer joke! And you are absolutely right about the junk that's on tv nowadays. To this very day when I watch the cartoons of today I can't help of think how great the cartoons I use to watch when I was younger were better! Also cartoons that were really good that don't show on tv unless you have Digital Cable are being forgotten, like Rocko's Modern Life, or Courage the Cowardly Dog. As a teen it's ok to see things appeal to me, but shows have been flooded to the max with mindless, unreal, and airheaded shows about "teen angst." It's sicka nd it needs to stop. The peeing in the soup must stop!!
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