Review
of Gardner's Guide to Feature Animation Writing: The Writer's
Road Map
Review
by Shannon Muir
Book:
Gardner's Guide to Feature Animation Writing
Author:
Marilyn Webber
Year: 2002
dFX Review Rating: 5 out of 10
More
Info from Amazon.com
Chapters:
1. Animation - An Overview
2. Animated Feature Genres - Your Tunnel Vision
3. The Premise
4. The Central Idea
5. Universal Appeal
6. Dead End Ahead - The Central Question
7. Introduction to Plot
8. Characters
9. Act One
10. Act Two
11. Act Three
12. Checkpoint Charlie
13. Themes
14. Make 'Em Laugh
15. Prose - Your Information Highway
16. Dialogue
17. The Scene
18. Sing a Song
19. The Rewrite
20. Hollywood or Bust
The design
of Gardner's
Guide to Feature Animation Writing is to take you from
premise to completion, including a rewrite, of a feature-length
animation script as intended for theatre or direct-to-video. The
last chapter does provide some general assistance with attempting
to sell your completed script, but that really is not a focus
of the book. One thing I want to point out is the tagline on the
cover of this book: "The formula for writing a full-length
animation." The process this book contains is indeed a formula.
Terminology
in this book speaks of script structure if you intend to hop in
a car and take a trip. After considering saleable concepts (classic
characters, marquee value, or original concepts), you are encouraged
to decide on one of six "animation tunnels" -- a genre
-- for your script. After laying down "Central Question Avenue"
(the question that launches your story and that the climax resolves),
you move the plot forward along the various cross-streets until
you reach the "20th Street On-Ramp," basically the situation
at the end of Act One that propels us into Act Two, and so on
until we reach "No Outlet" at the end of Act Two (where
you can't turn back) to the "end of the freeway" as
the resolution of the climax. You are also encouraged to create
character "dipstick" and "compass traits"
to help define their personalities. Advice that would normally
be notated as helpful hints are labeled "road rules."
There's even a map in the back behind the glossary designed to
be blown up so you can graph your script out using this structure.
If these kind
of labels make your first attempt at a script more of an adventure,
or helps the learning process be more accessible, more power to
you. Just bear in mind, no one in Hollywood speaks of "20th
Street On-Ramps," "Falling Rocks," or "U-Turns"
in scripts. These are only tools for applying a learning process
and bear no relevance to the professional world. You will still
have to learn the proper terms for these items if you wish to
have a serious career.
Marilyn Webber,
the book's author, mentions having worked as a professional writer
for the past ten years and that she began in her career "writing
Saturday morning cartoons and animation teleplays." No animation
credits are ever listed; most of the information in her bio revolves
around scriptwriting teaching experience or live-action credits.
Ms. Webber
does provide examples from animated films for the concepts she
discusses, often from multiple movies. However, I soon came to
tire of phrases like "forgive me while I depart to a live-action
film" when making the strongest examples of her point (instances
from the book include using Raiders of the Lost Ark to illustrate
writing the unexpected into a scene, and Jaws to describe the
One-Two Payoff). While these examples may indeed be effective
in explaining her points, the fact that more than once a live-action
film was deemed stronger than any animated counterpart seemed
to undercut faith in the strength of animated films. However,
Ms. Webber does include a full-length sample script, though whether
it is an unproduced or produced script is unclear.
Gardner's
Guide to Feature Animation Writing: The Writer's Road Map does
provide exercises to help you consider how to strengthen your
own script by watching produced animated features. While the intent
is good, and could be effective, Ms. Webber rarely dictates exactly
what should be watched. Only a few exercises actually specify
watching movies such as Mulan and Chicken Run, and then provide
feedback as to what the reader should have gleaned. Most of the
book's exercises are along the lines of writing down the central
questions of six different animated films, of which the films
are the reader's choice. No way is provided for the reader to
verify that they have accurately understood and answered the question,
since specific films are generally not suggested.
This book
does a large disservice in its final chapter. It gives the impression
that once your feature animation script is completed that you
have written by following this book, it will be salable to production
companies. Very few, if any, speculative (not originally written
for hire at a company) feature animation features have ever been
sold to date. What these type of scripts are best for is to show
that you are capable of writing a feature animation script, so
that companies can consider hiring writers to flesh out ideas
developed in-house. Ms. Webber does not help readers confront
this reality, either upfront before launching into the script
process nor at the tail end.
Pros
- Provides a structure system with road map imagery that may
make initial learning more accessible for some, since it's
something that can be easily related to
- Easy to tackle at your own pace
- Complete sample script written by Ms. Webber included
Cons
- Gets bogged down in the "cutesy" road map terminology
as some of the terms stretch to fit the formula
- Most exercises that require watching animated films and
analysis do not have provided answers to check work, so it
is difficult to know if you are on the right track
- The most-recommended illustrations from films frequently
come from live-action films
- Fails to acknowledge the reality that spec feature animation
rarely if ever sells
Also, it is
worth noting that I compared this book at a glance to Gardner's
Guide to Animation Scriptwriting: The Writer's Road Map, also
written by Ms. Webber and geared to television animation. Many
of the chapters have near-identical text, with only a couple chapters
that are unique to each. Also, in the Introduction to that book,
Ms. Webber states, "those of you wanting to write a feature
animation script, use the rules of this book combined with the
structure of the feature script Screenwriting: The Writer's Road
Map" (which is the book in this series devoted to live-action
screenwriting). Clearly something caused a change of heart as
this separate volume devoted to feature writing was released two
years later. Other than the inclusion of the sample feature script
written by Ms. Webber that would have radically changed the page
count, I could find no reason why a Revised Edition of the Animation
Scriptwriting book -- covering both television and feature animation
-- could not have been issued in place of this book with the few
new chapters and additional information.
My advice
to the buyer -- if you think this Road Map structure would be
helpful to you, make sure you buy the proper book for your needs
and goals.

You can order
Garnder's Guide to Feature Animation Writing by clicking
here.
Shannon
Muir is known in the animation industry for her work as a production
coordinator for Nickelodeon's Invader Zim. She also served as
a Production Coordinator for Extreme Ghostbusters and a Production
Assistant for Jumanji: The Animated Series. Muir is an accomplished
writer and often participates on panels or as a guest speaker
at conventions like Comic Con International.
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