So I've been brain storming ideas for a short that I want to work on, I discovered that after work hours I needed something to keep my mind occupied, something other than my shots that animate at work to care care about and work on.
This process of thinking and brainstorming and seeking a good premise for a story revealed a couple of great thoughts about film making in general and animation in specific, these thoughts are going to be posted here to share with my friends and they really are my thoughts unless someone else beat me to one of them and did not tell me:
1- Animation is not a genre, it is a medium. Just like a painter may use oil colors or water colors or even graphite to create a painting, a film maker may use animation or live action or a mix of both to make a film.
2- Too many animators want to animate, and create what's "Funny" cause "The funnier the better" WRONG. Animation is believability and entertainment. Entertainment and not comedy or clowning around.
3- Good comedy is much harder to achieve than tragedy (Drama). Comedy is harder because in its structure comedy heavily depends on the surprise factor, the unexpected, the unforeseeable twist of setting, whereas tragedy (Drama) relies heavily on recalling painful and unpleasant memories. The difference is comedy adds something new to our experience and tragedy recalls our long stored experience.
4- Why would I want to animate this? is an outdated question, don't ever ask it cause it sounds more like that "Hey, it's 2009, what's your beeper's number please?". Don't ask what animation is good for, ask how you can utilize animation to serve your idea ,purpose and strengthen your story.
5- Due dates are crucial, and important. Make up showing dates for everything you do. A date to show a certain amount of work done to certain people cause if you don't you will keep giving yourself a time off and excuses not to work, and you are very generous when it comes to your time off.
more to come...
