Let's face it, we humans love to hear tales. Perhaps it's our curious nature that halts us in our tracks to hear a joke or recalled personal experience. However, have you ever noticed that when some of your friends recount their bag of amazing tales they clear the room? Truly, the knack of storytelling is a gift the gods gave to only a few.
Those blessed few seem to possess great insight into the needs of the masses...the Everyman.
Although familiar stories such as legends pr parables can hold one's attention when well told, an audience generally expects unfamiliar material...Something to surprise, delight and entertain them...or maybe even tell them something they didn't know: yes, even educate!
The Storyboard
A classically animated film is similar to live action in its following of the dramatic form. For both, everything begins with a good script (story)...that is a given.
The process of visualizing that script in a series of still drawings (much like a comic book) that convey dramatics, lighting, staging, emotion, humour, clarity and continuity is called "STORYBOARDING".
For me, the storyboard process is the most crucual to the success of an animated film--and so the most challenging. If properly executed, your storyboard drawings should elicit viewer reactions; therefore, welcome scrutiny. Tell your ideas to friends as you point to the pictures you have drawn describing the action. Pay close attention to their reactions. Ask for suggestions, seek outside input...and accept it openly. Don't be hurt or offended if no one laughs at one of your gags...use that reaction to guide you. Perhaps the drawing you made to describe the action isn't working properly...try another.
There is a great fallacy in storyboard thinking: "The story ideas and gags will be better after they are animated." This is absolutely NOT TRUE. Animation will only dress up your material. Good story material can be poorly animated and it will still play for the audience. Bad story material can be superbly animated and it will never play...it clears the room.
CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE
Read the script and come to believe in it. (If you can't believe in your script...you'd better choose another.) Once you have your script, sit quietly with your eyes closed and envision the picture in your mind (finished if possible); don't edit yourself at this point.
Select a section of the script that you fancy and try to view it in your mind. See the characters, their actions, costumes and facial expressions. Hear the voices, music and sound effects.
My brain is not always willing to do this exercise on command, so I don't force it. Often it wakes me in the wee hours of the morning when it is ready.
Keep a sketch pad handy to jot down the ideas and special notes when this 'inspiration' session is over. Don't edit your ideas at this stage...collect them. I often recount these small visions to John or Gary to see if they make sense. Good ideas stand up under scrutiny, poor ones don't. So let your friends' reactions help you filter out the bad ones.
THE SETTING
The setting, or where the action takes place, can heighten the emotion of a scene. It can make it unusual, interesting and fresh.
For example: there is a sequence in AMERICAN TAIL where all the mice in New York gather at a warehouse on the pier. This is a very important pow-wow. I wanted the audience to feel the cleverness and industry of the mouse community, so an ordinary warehouse would not do. Rather, I chose a museum of the weird and bizarre belonging to the deceased charlatan Professor Digitalas. I filled it with dusty mummies, torture devices, hydras and a host of unusual items the mice could use to build with. (What kind of mood do you think these interiors create for the viewer?)
Before storyboarding the continuity of tthis sequence, the set needed to be designed: location, exterior view, interior layout, props and furniture all needed to be brought into focus. Use books or old photographs related to the subject you are boarding to help 'inspire' your designs. Such reference can spark your creative fires.
SECRET OF NIMH depicts Mr. Ages as a cranky, too busy to help you metaphysician puttering away at his science deep in the belly of an old thrashing machine. These surroundings described his personality far better than a mere hole in a log could ever do. Besides, who in the audience had ever seen the inside of a thrashing machine?
STORYBOARD TOOLS
A varied selection of pencils is important. I find that Berol Turquoise HB or 2B are good for sketching and a 6B is ideal for shading. (Some of our artists prefer Mitsubishi UNI pencils in the same 6B, 2B, B, and HB gradings) Although pencils are the most expedient, you might want to expand to charcoal, ink, pastel, colored markers or watercolors for a really good look.
This template can be made easily by cutting from sturdy cardboard or chipboard (1/10" thick) a rectangle measuring 8" x 5 7/10". Everything you see within the rectangle will be on the screen.
LABELLING: As your sketches grow in numbers, you will need to label them. I use Avery round stick-ons in the upper right corner for the scene's footage length and one in the lower left corner for the sketch number. Use push-pins to pin the drawings up on a board in continuity...looking at your sketches in continuity will aid in determining whether more sketches are needed, if any are confusing, etc.
In the next issue we will continue the Storyboard by discussing staging, perspective, dramatics and visual jokes, continuity and clarity. Until then, practice visualizing ideas and sketching them.
On Septiember 13, 1979, Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy resigned from Walt Disney Productions to bring back the qualities to animation that had been lost for many years. The following day, 11 other animators from Disney joined Bluth--and the team was labeled "The Disney Defectors" by their former co-workers, and the press.
But a group of animators resigning from Disney en masse was not a unique occurrence. Throughout the years, other "defectors" have boldly stepped away from the workshop of 'Uncle Walt', and succeeded in making their own, lasting mark in animation history.
1928: HARMON-ISING
The first, and most famous, Disney mutiny occurred in 1928. Animator Hugh Harman, who had worked with Walt Disney on and off since 1922, had been approached by George Winkler and Charles Mintz, producer of Disney's then popular silent series OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT. Harman was offered the chance to be the head of the studio, and managed to sign up all his fellow animators (save for Ub Iwerks) to continue working on OSWALD, without Walt. Successfully stealing away his staff, Disney & Iwerks were forced into creating a new character -- Mickey Mouse. But Harman, with partner and friend Rudolf Ising, only ran the shop for a year, when Universal Pictures, owner and distributor of the OSWALD shorts, replaced the team with Walter Lantz and his animators from New York.
Undiscouraged, Harman and Ising (with the original Disney staff including Rollin Hamilton, Friz Freleng, Carmen Maxwell and Norm Blackburn) produced a pilot film featuring their own talking cartoon star, BOSKO THE TALK-INK KID. This led to selling their series of LOONEY TUNES and MERRIE MELODIES to Producer Leon Schlesinger for release through Warner Bros.
Harman & Ising's Warner Bros. cartoons are the epitome of early 30's Hollywood cartoon making, most following the standard damsel in distress plot elements, set to an extremely bouncy musical beat.
A few years later, relocating to MGM (with bigger budgets to work with) they kept pace with Disney by producing lavish color cartoons. Later shorts, such as THE LITTLE GOLDFISH (1939), and the Oscar winning THE MILKY WAY (1940), represent classical animation at its best. They became Disney's greatest rivals during the 30's, and even foreshadowed FANTASIA by a year with Harman's THE BLUE DANUBE, an animated intrepretation of the Strauss melody. In fact, Disney even farmed the animation of MERBABIES (1938) out to Harman-Ising's studio, when his studio was immersed in the production of PINOCCHIO.
Harman & Ising left MGM in the 40's, and continued in animation as independent producers. Their place in cartoon history would be secure as the founder of the Warner Bros and MGM cartoon departments, but they also produced some great animated films that will continue to entertain generations to come.
1930: UB IWERKS
Many individual animators have worked with Disney, and left after a few years to pursue their careers at other studios. But no one individual ever hurt the Disney studio with as much impact as the defection of Ub Iwerks. Ub was the sole employee of the Disney brothers when Mintz stole away Hugh Harman and crew. Between 1928 and 1930, Ub designed Mickey Mouse; single handedly animated PLANE CRAZY, STEAMBOAT WILLIE, SKELETON DANCE and others; directed many of the early Silly Symphonies; and even drew the first Mickey Mouse comic strips!
Ub left the Disney group early in 1930 when distributor Pat Powers offered him more money and a chance to open his own studio. (The only other "defector" to leave with Ub was musician Carl Stalling, who free-lanced for a year before joining Ub's studio in 1931).
The Ub Iwerks studio soon began producing 'FLIP THE FROG' cartoons (for release thru MGM). The FLIP cartoons are fun, but nothing special, and while Iwerks cartoony style is appealing to watch, Flip was no great personality. Iwerks was discovering that he was more interested in the technical aspects of cartoon production, than the actual animation itself. When Flip flopped, a new character, Willie Whopper, a little boy who told tall tales, was introduced. At this time Iwerks debuted his prototype multiplane camera, which enhanced his films with the illusion of depth and dimension.
Iwerks had also experimented with color on the Willie Whopper cartoons, releasing two in Cinecolor (The first FLIP THE FROG cartoon, FIDDLESTICKS, was also released in color). Some "Willies" were produced with color artwork photographed in black and white, for the experimental purpose of giving the grey tones in Iwerks films a look unique to the studio.
A series of independently released Comi-Color cartoons kept the studio going through 1935. This series , including such classic stories as JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, THE LITTLE RED HEN, PUSS IN BOOTS and THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER was not special enough to keep the studio alive, and Iwerks was forced to close for a short time in early 1936. The next few years had Iwerks studio subcontracting cartoons for Warner Bros, and Columbia release; also producing advertising films and a short lived series of GRAN' POP cartoons for England.
The one man who contributed the most to Disney's early success courageously took a chance with his own studio, but wasn't prepared for the challenge. In 1940, Ub Iwerks returned to the Disney studio, and added to the Disney legend by pioneering many achievements in special photographic effects. He received two Oscars in his lifetime, for his work that enabled the studio to convincingly combine live action and animation. And he is now receiving the recognition from fans, for his films, technical innovations and unsung genius in the field of animation.
1941...
Another group of Disney Defectors, through a round-about way, became the famous U.P.A. studio -- challenging the classical style of animation.
In 1941, the Walt Disney studio was picketed by animators in favor of unionization. Frank Tashlin had just been appointed production Supervisor of Columbia's Screen Gems cartoon dept., and was preparing a complete reorganization of the studio. He went down to the Disney picket lines and hired his new staff from there. John Hubley, Dave Hilberman and Zack Schwartz were, among the Disney staffers to join Tashlin's new group.
The new team was charged with energy and imagination. They tried experimental things, like stylized, surrealistic backgrounds, and off-beat humor -- This group of renegades were the nucleus of the UPA studio and style.
Another management shift in 1942 ousted Tashlin, and many of his crew decided to help their country by animating for the U.S. Army Motion Picture Unit. Zack Schwartz and Dave Hilberman set up shop with another ex-Disneyite Steven Bosustow -- and under the banner of Industrial Films produced their first short, a propagandic re-elect F.D.R. film, HELL BENT FOR ELECTION. Successful in producing commercial fims, the staff began to grow, and one by one the Disney Picketers, including John Hubley, Bill Hurtz and Art Babbit, were reunited under the UPA umbrella.
The UPA cartoons were purposely two-dimensional and flat -- a rebellion against the realism of Disney's character animation. Inventive use of color and the influence of modern art were UPA's trademarks, and their clever films were a critical and popular success in the early 50's. They won Academy Awards with films featuring Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing Boing, and the other cartoon producers followed UPA's lead, and switched to stylized art -- including Disney, who ironically won an Oscar for the UPA influenced short TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK AND BOOM (1953)
The Don Bluth Animation Team is by far the most successful of 'the Disney Defectors,' with a feature film, TV special and two pioneering video games to their credit. The group, currently working on their second feature, is preserving the values of animation's past, while expanding the potential for its future. This is what Walt Disney devoted his life to -- And I think he'd be proud.
WHITE WONDER AND WIND! (England)
It's another case of "it all starting with a mouse." Cosgrove-Hall, a British animation studio, spent their early years doing commercials and an occaisional special; However, the studio shot to international fame when, in 1980, they began a series satirizing secret agents. Today, DANGERMOUSE remains one of the most popular shows on TV. With the aid of his assistant Penfold (a hamster who is a devout coward), DM (as his friends call him) battles evil--usually in the form of Baron Silas Greenback, "the world's most villianous toad." The "White Wonder" can also be found in newspapers, comics, books, and a wide variety of merchandise from shirts to stickers. DM can be seen in this country on the cable channel Nickleodeon and on home video cassettes from Thorn-EMI. He recently was picked up by a New York licensing firm so merchandise cannot be far behind, especially since he will begin on regular TV (via syndication) in the fall of 1986.
More recently, Cosgrove-Hall has added another popular TV series to their line-up: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. The series comes from a feature film done by Cosgrove-Hall in 1984, using puppet animation. (C-H is one of the rare studios that does both cel and puppet animated films.) The feature proved popular enough for a series to be made. Both the feature and series, now seen on The Disney Channel, are based on Kenneth Grahame's novel about Thadeus Toad and his animal friends. The stories have been seen previously in Walt Disney's THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD (1949) and Rankin-Bass's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (1985), both using cel animation.
DEFINITELY NOT FOR CHILDREN! (Japan)
A new subject matter has become popular with Japan's animation buff: characters active in the buff! There is now a growing market in Japan for "erotic animation" on videocassettes. Though adult Japanese animation has often contained "Playboy-esque" material with characters posing and "teasing," this new series features scenes of "intergalactic" sexual encounters (usually via some alien taking advantage of an Earth female). This allows the tapes to avoid breaking any laws by not showing "sexual relations between a man and a woman." (Japan has very strict pornography laws.) As stated earlier, actual animated nudity is not unusual in Japan; since Japanese animation is produed for all age groups (with some of the most popular shows airing on late night TV), adult subject matter and visuals are not uncommon. Although mnore lenient than here, Japan does have strict rules about what can and cannot be shown on television.
HOME VIDEO ONLY! (United States)
Hanna-Barbera, pioneers in TV animation, have follwed the trend by releasing many of their previous TV series to the home video market. However, they have now gone one step further into home video production with the announcement of a new animated series for videocassttes only! Entitled THE WORLD'S GREATEST STORIES, the cassettes feature tales from the Bible. No sale to cable or TV is intended. The first 8 will be out this year, with an average of 12 new shows released each year until a total of 60 shows have been completed.
Bill Hanna stated that they'd tried to sell his idea for years to the networks, but that the series was shot down as too controversial and not "sellable." Believing that there was a market for the product, H-B decided to go ahead with the project independently of television. The series will feature the tales of the Bible as seen through the eyes of two American archaeologists and Middle Eastern nomad sent back in time via a time warp. To ensure proper handling of the material, a three-member board consisting of a priest, a rabbi and a Presbyterian minister was established to oversee the series.
Upcoing video releases of Don Bluth animation include BANJO THE WOODPILE CAT from Vestron. The first independent production by the Bluth team, BANJO has aired on cable and network TV. However, the Vestron version is longer, by a minute or two, than versions seen on cable and network TV. (Cuts were made due to time restrictions.) The story begind the production of BANJO was seen in Exposure Sheet #4. Also, MGM/UA Home Video is re-releasing THE SECRET OF NIMH on their new children's label "Viddy-Oh" at a new reduced price of $29.95.
DOT'S NOT ALL! (Australia)
Yoram Gross, Australia's most prolific animation director, is working on a new feature: TERRA AUSTRALIS. It tells the history of Australia 30,000 years ago. Gross is best known for a variety of films featuring a young girl called "Dot;" Her adventures include DOT AND THE KANGAROO (1978, DOT AND THE BUNNY (1982), etc. Though he has done a wide variety of stories, with many different characters, he continually returns to Dot due to her ongoing popularity. (He is currently working on her fifth adventure.)
What makes Gross' films unique is that he uses live backgrounds rather than the more "standard" painted backgrounds used in cel animation. He scouts various locales around Australia and has them photographed; This film then becomes the background for his animated characters. For his newest film, however, he is experimenting with three-dimensional "puppet" animation. (All of his previous feature have used cel animation, though he did create some puppet-animated shorts prior to setting up a studio in Australia.) A variety of the Dot features are available in this country from CBS-Fox Home Video and are often seen on cable networks.
BOOK BEAT
Though not as common as cook books, titles on animation do appear--and some of the more recent titles may be worth looking for. One is a biography of Walter Lantz by Joe Adamson. Lantz, best known for his creation Woody Woodpecker, is truly one of animation's pioneers: having started his career with silent cartoons, he went on to become one of the most successful producers of theatrical shorts. His contract with Universal Studios (who released Lantz's short subjects) ran for 50 years. Along with theatrical animation, Lantz also hosted his own TV show (ala Walt Disney) in the early sixties. In 1982, he completed a special mini-documentary on his career for the animation exhibit at Universal Studios (The short is also viewable on the first "Woody Woodpecker And Friends" videocassette.) More recently, Lantz has kept busy doing oil paintings featuring his various famous characters--which are now sold in various prestigious art galleries. Adamson has written a variety of articles on animation. His first book, Tex Avery, King of Cartoons, recently came back into print.
Speaking of biographies on famous animation personalities, Leonard Mosley has penned a new look at Walt Disney; the publshers are Stein & Day. Interestingly, Mosley states at the outset that the Disney Studio was not able to review the final draft. Though less affectionate than the earlier bio by Bob Thomas, it is not as acidic as the infamous Disney Version by Richard Schickel. A new edition of Schickel's book has just appeared with an updated final section covering the recent management changes at the Disney studio. Also updated is Leonard Maltin's The Disney Films, which now covers all films produced by the studio up through SPLASH, though the emphasis is still on those personally produced by Walt Disney.
THINK SMALL! (Japan/United States)
Several video recorder companies are hoping to convince consumers that "smaller is better," at least in the size of videotape. After almost a deade of battling between the VHS and Beta formats, a third tape size/system is entering the fray: 8mm! The tape cartridge is not much larger than a regular audio cassette and offers around 90 minutes of time. At that size, it's easier to make smaller hardware, notably cameras. Though the big push in size will be the home movie market, the manufacturers plan to support this new format with full force.
One such support will be in the area of pre-recorded tapes to play on the system. Since there will be a small market at first, companies do not feel there will be much of a rental market, hence they have chosen subjects that will have high "sell through." (These are tapes that actually sell well to consumers to take home, not just video stores for rental purposes. The two video genres that have the best "sell through" are children's and music videos.) Sony has announced over a dozen titles to be released in the new format, all either animated or music videos. Titles from Sony include VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE (from the popular syndicated TV show), THE HOBBIT ( a TV feature from the 1970's), and CURIOUS GEORGE (short cartoons based on the line of children's books about a monkey). Family Home Video will also begin releasing titles in 8mm.
COMING ATTRACTIONS (International)
Feature film production has begun to grow in the last two years. Currently in the works are a variety of features due out in the next year or two, including: THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (aka "Basil of Baker Street," based on a series of children's books about a mouse living in Sherlock Holmes' basement from Walt Disney Pictures); NEMO (Based on the classic newspaper comic strip by animation pioneer Winsor McCay from Tokyo Movie Shinsha); AN AMERICAN TAIL (a Don Bluth film presented by Steven Spielberg); THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER (a former Disney project now being produced by Hyperion Productions); and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO (from Filmation).
"Sweatbox," as I have said before, is the term used for reviewing the animated motion picture for details and correction of errors. Prior to Sweatbox, the attention to detail is a pre-consideration by Don Bluth, his storyboards and the Layout Department that interprets his storyboards.
The Layout Department is similar to set design in live-action. The Layout Artist must pay particular attention to scene to scene detail in background contunuity, especially props, their location, size and perspective. At this time, Larry Leker and Mark Swan handle all layouts for Don Bluth.
Layout's challenge is not only that of the artist's drawing ability. Considerable research is done for each motion picture. This research involves the detail of props that are included in each scene, to indicate locale, period of time, scale, perspective, mood, time of day and point of view. They are constantly looking for interesting staging and good basic design for each and every scene in the picture.
Each Layout man must understand camera and its mechanics for movement, its capabilities of panning, trucking in or out, north/south movements and complex multiplane set-ups.
It is important to lead the audience through the motion picture. Interesting staging and accurate detail of each scene is crucial and must be done wihout destracting the audience's attention from the focal point of the scene. The overall design of a layout may encircle the character(s) and the elements or props that encircle him will point the eye inward to the character. If the character is not centered, we will take the audience's attention to the character by moving the camera. In this case, Layout would consider designing the scene so the props point, or direct, the audience's attention to the acting area of the screen.
The animator must have an accurate layout and act or move the character within the boundaries of the layout and its props. This accurate layout will also become the colored background and its associated overlays and/or underlays, depending upon the needs of the scene.
Larry Leker started with the Don Bluth animation team in 1980 on THE SECRET OF NIMH. Before that, he had worked on television animation product and Ralph Bakshi's LORD OF THE RINGS. Larry draws extremely well and has adapted himself to the Don Bluth style. He is now head of the Layout Department. He works closely with Don Bluth and has made major contributions to THE SECRET OF NIMH, DRAGON'S LAIR, SPACE ACE, DRAGON'S LAIR II, several presentations and our current project, AN AMERICAN TAIL.
Mark Swan joined the animation team during the production of SPACE ACE, our second laser disc video game. He was an art graduate from Rick's College in Idaho. He did layouts for SPACE ACE and DRAGON'S LAIR II. In 1984, he attended Brigham Young University, then signed up to do layouts for AN AMERICAN TAIL after graduation in the Spring of this year.
Larry and Mark receive story sketches from Don (Larry many times works with Don on the story sketches themselves). These small sketches are then enlarged to production size on a special Xerox machine. The Layout men must then create a new drawing, detailing the acting stage, its props, back-drops, architectural design and perspective based on the original story sketch. Any characters included on the story sketch are separated so that the animator may use them as a starting point for characer size and model accuracy, which will include the character's attitude for the scene.
Larry and Mark must meet a deadline, therefore, a fairly heavy weekly output schedule is maintained. Their skills have been honed to a level which enables them to perform consistently in very complex situations. Their work is proceeding smoothly and they expect to move on to the next project in March of 1986, as scheduled.