Brainstorm, blue sky thinking, spitballing, whatever you call it, there is no more important an activity for an animation writer or storyboard artist than the free associating of ideas. If you’re not good at this, you can train yourself and I'll give some ideas at the end of the post.
In the summer of my junior
year, knowing that it was the last chance to try anything different before
“real life” began after graduation, I spent every day creating and trying to
sell gag cartoons. Okay, maybe I
should have hitchhiked across Europe but chaining myself to a drawing board is what I did. Every day, like I was punching a clock,
I tried to come up with single panel gags. I quickly filled a bulletin board filled with rejection letters. Got close twice. The Saturday Evening Post, the last of
the great magazines that printed gag panels, kept one for further consideration
before they passed. Then in a
letter to my girlfriend, a doodled a gag cartoon of a parent holding the hand
of a child at Disneyland who was floating along, being lifted by a Mickey Mouse
balloon. The next month I saw the
exact cartoon without the Disney overlay.
It wasn’t theft, but it showed I was on the right track.
Maybe I was carving new wrinkles into the lobes of my brain. All I knew was that my the end of the summer I could generate all sorts of gags on about any situation. The bulk of them were lame but it was something I couldn’t manage at summer’s start.
About two years later I was at Disney and moving into the story department. The Rescuers was finishing and Fox and Hound was getting underway. Back then, there was no script to work from. Animators and Storymen read the source materia then batted around ideas until the clothesline of a story emerged. Then a storyboard guy was handed a sequence, like the meeting of the kit fox and the puppy.
The idea was
that they’d start out as friends.
Side note: without a script, every storyboard artist was a writer, a
“storyman” if you will. Anyway
he’d brainstorm ways they could meet: fox curious about the chicken coop, puppy
falls out of the hunter’s car and gets lost in the woods or the two decide to
play games. Kids make friends
instantly. The sequence should
feel natural to a human but not ignore the animal traits of the characters. Most of these options would be
talked out with the director before drawing starts. Of course, everybody knew that the more visual the choice,
the better. If “playing” is picked, it was up to the storyboard guy to brainstorm all sorts of
possibilities and do it with drawings.
After he had a 4’ x 8’ bulletin board covered with sketches, there’d be
another meeting with the director and key animators. Everything is considered but the job is to narrow it down to
a single direction.
So they picked a game of “Hide and Seek” because it’s a familiar kids game and it will show off the abilities of the animals, the cleverness of the fox and the scent tracking of the hound. These abilities would be mirrored when they meet again as adults and when the stakes are much higher. This process is repeated: brainstorm then narrow it down, brainstorm then narrow it down. It keeps things entertaining, it constantly considers fresh directions and it keeps the film visual.
There’s an old animation trope that development execs parrot all the time, “Why does it have to be animated?” In the age of cheap CG, it has become BS. It was true once, but any of the Disney animated features can now be down as live action films with similar sensibilities. Tim Burton is working on Alice in Wonderland even as we speak and the line between live action and animation was forever blurred by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and of course the Star Wars movies. What IS important is to keep the storytelling and entertainment based in strong visuals. “The animation is better without dialogue,” another ancient saying, also BS. Clever and character defining dialogue adds more entertainment. Yes, great animation can be silent but it can also be talky as all get out. Doubt me? Go rewatch the creation of Robin Williams and Eric Goldberg in Aladdin known as “Genie.”
But I’ve digressed. My “Summer of Bad Gags” was great prep for that kind of visual story development. And it’s paid off in scriptwriting too but I’ll save that for the next post.
Brainstorming is mental improv. The basic rule when brainstorming with others is the same as in improv: “Yes And.” You accept what is given and build on it. Picture two actors side by side on folding chairs. If Actor A says, “I’m really happy driving my new car,” Actor B should NOT deny that idea by saying, “Car? This is your Dad’s spaceship!” or "Are you deranged? These are folding chairs." That denies the premise and the scene must start over. Possible yes statements: “Wow. This must have cost a lot. Oh, is that a scratch?” / “It’s beautiful… and this gun says it now belongs to me!” / “Yeah, it’s uh, certainly unique. I’ve never seen a car customized with both flames and polka dots.” / “Is that a voice I hear coming from the trunk?” All of those statements accepted the idea that the two were in a car then added new information that offered a story direction. When brainstorming, consider every idea and explore it. What can you add? What are some visual possibilities? Listen. Don’t be so anxious to add your idea that you don’t give other ideas a fair investigation. The trick is that you often have to do this within your own head. You need to free associate before you pick a path. Otherwise, you’ll just be choosing the most obvious route.
Here’s an exercise: Find a webpage with a bunch of objects. Try an eBay search for "antique" or look at Amazon gift suggestions. Make a quick list of about ten objects, as varied as possible. Then you need professions. After you've listed ten jobs, list ten character types; clichés are fine. Bully, femme fatale, slob, know it all, shy girl, good ol’ boy, over-achiever, whatever.
Okay, take one from each column and write down as many gags that come to you. I’m not talking one-liners, I mean funny situations or a visual gag. Push yourself to actually make it a complete gag. I’m not going to do the math but those three columns can be mixed up in all sorts of ways to give you a fresh jumping off points. You could end up generating a full length feature idea from this sort of exercise. Revisit the list everyday. If you’re in a studio or class with others, try it as a group. It’ll get easier and easier for you. Dive in and don’t come out until your brain is all pruny and wrinkled. -- Tad
smart article about brainstorming..
this was really informative.
let me begin with a big salute to all your efforts and contributions to the world of animation.
im an artist/ illustrator/ character and story artist /animator from india...now working as a designer on a themepark project...
its always interesting to go back to those days of 2d disney days...
and the exercise you have noted down is very helpful.
i was teaching in an academy for about a year ( later on i stopped since i realized that the management was more keen to 'rob' the money from students and eventually i was hardly getting time to draw...so i quit)
i used to do these sessions called the 4 boxes - a name i gave myself ..
i called them who, when, where and how.
in the first box , i used to put random nameslike - the violet penguin, the young astronaut, the soldiers wife,etc.
in the 'where' box it was like - christmas eve, stormy desert, bankers cabin, castle of cards..
in the 'when' box it was like - tea time, rushing to buty the engagement ring...
in 'how box it was like - riding the firetruck, rolling over marbles..
so each student will have to pick up one from each and then construct a sentence.i used to sit with them and then ask them to construct a stor and then we used to develop the gags.
it was so painful to be part of a system where innocent kids were cheated by the animation.
i quit since i coldnt stand the audacity.
thank you once again for sharing the pitch of ;herculoids',, sheer bliss..ima big fan of ben caldwell and aj jothikumar too.
infact im an unlucky guy , since my old studio had shortlisted me to be sent to america to work with marvel series..this was the origin of wolverine.
but then there was no budget for sending a fourth artist..and the fourth unfortunate guy was me.
i know you are an extremely busy person..but it wil be a great pleasure to have you onboard my blog
http://noisefromfuture.blogspot.com/
pls feel free to write any comments/advice to me.they will be highly helpful for my future.
[email protected]
im a self taught artist and im still teaching myself.
if luck favours in a way that you like my work... pls let me know in any way that i can be associated with you.
its not for money ..but the pleasure of getting a chance to work with such great projects.
wishing you and all your team members a prosperous future.
pls do convey a 'hi' to jothikumar...really wanted to work with him.
yours sincerely,
manoj a menon
Posted by: manoj a menon | 11/12/2009 at 01:32 AM