Transcripts

1. Class Intro : Hi, everyone. My name is Masai Singleton, and I'm an animation writer. In 2016 I graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, having studied at the same school that is produced creators like Shonda Rhimes, Judd Apatow and George Lucas and spending time in Japan studying its literature with the aim of learning more techniques. In this course, I'm going to help you to write better animated stories. What do you mean? Well, stories are part of human evolution. The way remember fax and feelings and a beautiful image in the context of an animated film with a strong story is more memorable than just a beautiful image in this class. I hope to give you a new perspective, and some tools that you may not have thought about this class is to give you the literary tools to independently express your vision. 2. Developing the Idea: first of all, thank you for joining us for sketching with words. Before you can write your script, you need an idea. The first topic that will be covering is how to develop an idea from three main elements. Premise, character and heart. These three elements give you the ability to tell a story. For example, Toy Story is more than toys come to life. That's only the premise. The character is a cowboy doll who's used to being the favorite, and the heart is him learning how to share Andy's love. It's the balance of premise, character and heart that make the classic. So how do you get an idea for a premise? Well, what do you want to be on TV? I know that sounds obvious, but what I mean is, what's going on in your life? For example, Andrew Staten, the co director of Finding Nemo, was inspired by his own over protectiveness. Besides coming your own experiences for stories, you could also tackle a genre that you feel deserves. Commentary. Jordan Pills Get Out was a response. The historical marginalisation of black people in the horror genre while Ralph back, she's coonskin is a blaxploitation version of Disney's Song of the South, and especially if you write satire, you can develop story ideas by commenting on things that annoy you. I myself wanted to make fun of millennials and y a novels, so I wrote about Dracula's daughter becoming celebrity kid. Bad bitch. Think back to when you were a little kid and remember what it was like to say with your friends. What if? And now that you have that? What if Let's think about who would be the most interesting person to experience it. Your main character should really not even be a choice. It should be someone suggested organically by the story. Buddha once told a screenwriter. Plot is character way. Our our actions think about the following characters and how they relate to their cartoons . Themes. Old and new freedom and control, bravery and fear. A boy from a small town where nothing unusual happens and a weirdo who's literally from space and summons guitars from brain matter. Besides being embodiments of their stories, themes, these character pairs also contrast one another. This is why diversity is important because people with different views make stories active . Once you have an awesome premise make sure your characters experiencing it represent contrasting ideas. You'll be off to a great start and closer to the next step. Writing with Heart. The goal of premise and character is hard. If premise is the occurrences in the story and a logical statement that they point toward characters are the vessels through which an emotional statement is made. Every choice than a film should be in the interest of heart, and heart and comedy are not mutually exclusive. You'll be ahead of most riders just by asking yourself this question. What do I want my audience to feel? For example, in Steven Universe, character designs are of diverse body types and colors. This ties in with the show's theme of showing many kinds of love. Romantic, platonic, interracial, gay. The show is about all kinds of love and the sweetness of friendships. Despite all the wacky comedy, this Heart is the real reason fans watch the crystal gems who always save the day. Another example of subtextual story Heart is in my after mention vampire bad bitch story, innit? Dracula's daughter has been raised as a Christian, and her realization that she is forsaken by God is paralleled with the ostracizing ation felt by people in the real world. Even on the scale of episodes, a show should have both a hook and an emotional component. Think of it as two sides of an iceberg. The aesthetic in action is the visible part, but the meaning and emotion is what keeps it afloat. Here's an example on a smaller scale from young justice. Fun with me. I loathe big alien Death Moon notices when I'm around. Was that a slam on me in the middle of a mission? What, you not in the middle of a mission? Even in this action packed fight scene, it's the relationships that keep us engaged. Pew Pew alone gets boring fast. So ask yourself, where is the heart of your story? What does the pew pew mean? So to create a real story concept you need on idea based on what you want to say about something, characters who contrast one another and on emotional core, each of these components suggests the others. So if you have a problem with one, ask yourself what the others are pointing toward. Lastly, when writing your story, I suggest you take notes on these three elements and do so digitally. I use Evernote, and it allows me to write my ideas on any device and reorder them into something cohesive and correctly spelled later. For now, fill up the idea prompt in the class project section and let the class know your thoughts on balancing these concepts. If you balance all these elements correctly, you should be able to develop an idea that you're passionate about and now you're ready to procrastinate by outlining. 3. The Beginning: outlining is the coolest part of writing because all possibilities are open. This is the stage of writing where you can get a lot done just by riding the train and jotting down your ideas while you play Pokemon Go. Yes, that game still exist, and our community is strong anyway. Now you've got an awesome idea. It's made up of a great premise, thematic characters and a heart. Now you get to play with that idea. But before film gets going, it has to begin. You may already know that screenwriters break stories into three sections or acts. Acts 12 and three. Obviously, every story has three acts, and people who tell you otherwise are just plain wrong. You see, a storyteller is like a party host. She go through the process of introducing you to the guest, enjoying the party with you and leading you out in a way that's satisfying and isn't super awkward. Three acts in this section on Act one will be teaching you how to introduce an audience to the guest inside your story. When outlining the first act, you should be thinking about how choices and cinematography and dialogue can subconsciously inform your audience about the premise, characters and heart of your film. Check out the first shots of this clip from the anima classic Fully Cooley. The pell Green Color of the Town hints at our heroes experience of the ordinary, a theme that will be challenged in this show and at the same time, the haphazard way in which the camera moves hints of confusion. F. L. C. L is a coming of age story, and those confused emotions are very much present. Even if we forget we saw that shot, it has an effect on our sub consciousness. It's primed us for the emotions and themes to come. The idea of organizing the first frame as a thesis was one of the first things I learned about filming. My father was a director, and as a boy he told me that the first image should be a microcosm of the whole picture. The next time you started movie, try looking to see if this technique is used. You'll notice it in the best films I frozen or Hercules. So tell us what your film is about immediately because these days, if you don't, we'll just see what else is on Netflix. Remember in first grade English when your teacher taught you about who, what wear and why the three W's your audience needs to know where your story is taking place. This is commonly shown in an establishing shot, such as the very clever one from FL Seal that I showed you in the last section. Another example is the opening of The Little Mermaid, which reveals the setting and the mermaid race by using delayed entrance. Sailors talk about mermaids on a boat above. Then the camera dives underwater, showing us what to them is the stuff of legend. We feel lucky because we just saw what the sailors have been wanting to see forever, and we're in awe again when the camera reveals the Palace of Atlantis. This is a great way type of your movie. The sailors are hype about mermaids, so we're hype about mermaids. Furthermore, the mermaids the camera follows our movie, so the reveal of Atlantis is natural, So the first act should tell us about where we are but not be boring about it. And speaking of what is and is not natural, let's talk about voiceover. But don't get excited. Don't get excited if you can help it. Don't open your movie with a voiceover telling us where we are. That's lazy writing. Voice over only works in specific contexts. For example, Winnie the Pooh was based on a storybook and Disney animated the movie like a moving story book. In a case like this, voiceover is warranted. Voiceover also works in many other Disney films, but that's because so many are based on legends, and we're used to hearing legends be told. Another example of voiceover working is anonymous. This is partially because it's a paradigm of the genre, but it's also due to the intelligent way in which it's used. Anima voiceovers are almost always the heroes. Internal monologue. These voiceovers are used to create a personal connection between us and the characters. An example of my own excuse for voiceover is in my vampire bad bitch story. My world is based on Dracula, and that novel is told Episcopal E through a series of journal entries. So my millennial cartoon vampire as the voiceover of a tumbler bog rule of thumb. When using voice over, make sure it fits your story. Good one, Mr Crabs. Lastly, the first act of your script should introduce your characters. Your character introduction should let us know what role your characters occupy in this world. You should also let us know if there's a different role they want. I have awesome news. The doctor who gave Mr Cares in 16. You could make me calling black. What sociologists say our identities Onley exist as our relationships toe. Others consider this. The movie Toy Story opens on Andy playing with his toys, and as the scene plays out, it becomes apparent that Woody is his favorite. Keep in mind that would. He has not yet said a word. We don't even know that the cowboy doll is alive, Yet he already has an identity because of how he is perceived by others. Thea Other layer of this is that sometimes character self identities don't match up with what is expected of them. Think of Milan, who is expected to be the perfect bride but really doesn't fit into the narrow roles of women in our society or Jack's Killington, who is seen as the king of Halloween but yearns for something more. Ask yourself who your heroin is at your stories, beginning and show that identity in relation to the other characters. Perceptions. If you can't do that, she probably isn't who you thought she was. There is. He's the one who keeps the bosses in power. He's the one who is holding you down. So the first act of your movie should introduce theme in an opening image, plant the audience in the setting, not use voice over, except for a good reason, and introduced the heroine and her relationship to the world around her. Keep in mind that these steps do not necessarily have to appear in that order. Many of them can occur at the same time as in some of the examples filling the prompt in the class project section to brainstorm your own openings. Now, when the audience is just getting comfortable in your story, something happens that changes your character's life. 4. The Middle: with second act is notoriously difficult. A common phrase among writers is God damn second acts, damn you, but it helps to remember what we talked about in the section on developing an idea to review. The three components are premise, character and heart. When you have trouble in act to remember these elements and let them guide your direction. Act two is the bulk of Were Characters. Act on your premise to convey your heart in this section will be exploring some not always obvious tools to help you achieve maximum heart. The story gets going with the explosion of a conflict. The conflict that arises is often the natural counter to the status quo of the first act. Let's reference Toy Story again. Woody is the favorite. This is the set up established in Act one. Act two begins after buzz arrives, and suddenly would he may be replaced. The world of Act one has changed and for Act two were challenged by the opposites of our norms. Ariel, the amazing singer, loses her voice. Aladdin, who wishes to escape the confines of poverty, must confront the in authenticity of wealth. Bugs Bunny, who loves the tuba, must face a music hater. The second act always begins in the spirit of his famous line. So what's the conflict in Act two? And how is it in direct contrast to your character in Act one? One literary tool that works great in animation is the subjective correlative. A subjective correlative is essentially this, a symbol that gets its meaning from the context of your story. For example, in Like his Academy Award nominated film Qiu Bo and the Two Strings, Cobos Eye Patch is a subjective correlative for his relationship with his grandfather. Anytime Kobo touches it or makes reference to it, we think of the villain who stole his eye. In fact, his father's armor is also a subjective coral. It his search for it, is representative of his longing for that relationship. Imbuing an item with an associated idea is a great tool to enhance the stories drama in Cuba, so it gives the grandfather of presence even though he's hardly ever seen. Colors can also be used a subjective correlative in my vampire bad bitch story. Dracula's daughter struggles with realizing she is unholy. Her journey is about not wanting to be a monster, and I expressed this with use of the colors red and pink. Read already has a cultural association with vampires and with blood. So in my pilot, I enhanced that I make the house where her mother lives red. I make the drapes, read the carpet, read everything red, and one, Svetlana falls in love with another girl. That girl is wearing pink. Lana's looking a pink lollipop now gives the subtext of her attraction because the color pink becomes associated with her crush, A star progresses. There's more pink as Lana distances herself from her identity as a monster. This use of subjective correlative is also a motif, and it's a great way to express your ideas. Visually. This vampire and finding peace is surrounded by pink because the color pink is a low intensity red. Fill out the quick prompt on subjective correlative in the course project section, and let us all know what associations you think would be visually expressive. Try looking at a color will and think about how it can make your writing book visual and moving. You just sing with the voices of the mountain to paint with cover. When you start telling a story, you make an implicit promise to the audience that it will not be boring. My wife and I argue about this all the time. There are other kinds of promises you can make in your script. In fact, these air necessary promises. There's a saying that if at the beginning of a film there is a gun on the wall by the end of the film, that gun needs to go off. Think about that for a moment is actually satisfying for the audience, although not for the guy who got shot. But it's satisfying to the audience to see things or hear things in a story that matter later on. Those moments when you're watching a film and you're proud that you've guessed something that's going to happen, sure, a lot of those moments or because of just bad, obvious writing. But the guess is you're really proud of that aren't super obvious those air Because of inception? The filmmakers shot an insert on that gun so you'd know it was important. And from then on, every scene that occurs in that room is plussed by the suspense of knowing that gun will go off. On the other hand, if the gun doesn't go off. The writer is an asshole. Think about a movie or TV show that broke its promise to you. You know it's true. So do us all a favor and set up dangers and ideas and the first act and early in the second that will have impacts later on. One great way to keep a story well paced is through comedy. Personally, I have a harder time telling of a script is good if it's not comedic. This is because yes, text is in some ways inferior to visuals. Drama in particular doesn't come across to me in a way that's markedly different than just slow pacing. But jokes. I can see or read jokes and know they're funny. That's partially about knowing the proper sentence structure for a joke. But we'll discuss that in the section on rewriting. For now, let's discuss the most important criteria for a joke. The most important criteria for a joke is not even that it be super funny. It's actually that the joke be based on story. Tell a joke. That's right, for the moment, not a non sequitur that distracts from the drama. For example, the first time my vampire bad bitch hooks up with the guy. He asked her to suck. In the result, she does suck his Penis for blood. See, regardless of if the audience enjoys sex humor, the joke does more than simply be funny. The fact that she misunderstands his request illustrates the innocence of her character and in contrast to her status, is a vampire. The B J also pushes the story along because when she sucks the blood from his Penis, the cocaine he's been taking gets into her body, causing her to act out in ways that propel the rest of the scene. My point is that your jokes should elucidate your characters while being responses to and having effects on your story. You can find the blowjob in the class materials, so remember, even a blowjob should have a reason behind it and achieve dramatic effects as well as a laugh. Here's another thing. The book can also be perfect, So to summarize my advice for Act two hit your heroin with a conflict. In contrast to her after one experience, use objective correlative and motif to influence your audiences. Emotional journey make promises to your audience to create suspense and keep them involved and write jokes that are influenced by and propel the story. Let us see your act to outline in the class project section. If you can achieve this balance, your audience will be glued to the screen and hyped up for Act three. 5. The End: Now let's talk about the end theme in this section will discuss concepts that will allow you to give the audience of fulfilling climax way. As we discussed through the middle of your film, your heroin should have been involved in a conflict that challenged for nature. By the third act, her interaction with your stories themes should have made her grow. This'll is not as obvious in shorts and television, but it is still true. Let's take, for example, one of my favorite Porky Pig cartoons. Porky's romance is one of the juiciest cuts from the era of fact Porky in the story, Porky crushes on Petunia, who snubs him until she realizes that he's a great source of chocolate. When she refuses his marriage proposal, he goes to a tree and tries to hang himself. Okay, this wouldn't make the cut today, but trust me, it's hilarious. See, Porky is so fat that the branch breaks and knocks him out. Now the pig protagonist has a dream. Think of the dream is act to time Bunches on, innit? Petunia is a verbally abusive wife who does nothing but eat and leave him toe all the child care when he wakes up, the real Petunia agrees to marry him. But through the active journey, Porky's assessment of the situation has changed. He's grown great. Characters always have some measure of growth, even if it's subtle or for gotten by the next episode. I often like to think about how my characters personal issues effect with wider society. It's on especially useful tool for captivating your audience. In the climax, The Spirit Bomb and Dragonball Z is the quintessential example. When Goku uses the spirit bomb, it borrows energy from every living thing in the universe. On literary level. This is creator Akira Takayama hyping us up, telling us that go crews fight is more important than one person. In fact, any superhero movie that shows a news broadcast about what the heroes air doing is using this technique of relating the micro to the macro. They're making the audience relate to the events of the story because those events have been put into a context that affects more people like the audience. I first noticed this tool while studying at U. S. C. A few years ago, I was up late watching an automatic called Summer Wars, that film is about a Japanese middle schooler who pretends to be a classmates boyfriend while visiting her family. He's framed for a global cyber terrorist attack. I noticed that because the family was helping him stop the terrorist, his rocky relationship with them now had implications for the fate of the world pretty cool , even though it was broken up by commercials on to NAMI. So if you want to be epic, think about how your characters personal issues affect others thing. This is literally my favorite part of any cartoon. The end of the end. Remember that Porky Short? Yeah. At the end, he ran back and kicked petunias Dog, that was satisfying. This is the day Noma the part of the story wants. All of the growth has happened. Now we're just giving the audience an awesome moment to ponder as they leave the theater or a cliffhanger that makes them keep binging. One element I find enjoyable and enemas is the Japanese sense of moanin a lot it to me, the feeling of moaning a lot. It can best be described as sinking into bed after a stressful day. It's a sort of melancholy. The literal definition is the pathos of things. Here's an example from FL CEO the last shot of the first episode. But first, the set up recall in the first chapter that one of our examples of contrasting characters waas a boy from a small town where nothing unusual and a weirdo who's literally from space and summons guitars from brain matter. Well, one way the writers tell us how boring now does. Life is is an act one when his kind of girlfriend, but not really buys a sour soda from a vending machine. The UN remarkable now that says its final kid I know. Look at him. This next clip I'm about to run exemplifies many of the ideas we've been over, including Promise, character, growth, cliffhangers, monologue and heart at the beginning of the episode. Now that said, final Look. But by the end he goes right, - Okay . As a writer, I am nerdy out, but that moment is amazing. See now to still in character. He doesn't like sour drinks, but he's growing willing to try something new. Stellar Super Shwe. I'm totally whelmed. You're overwhelmed. Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn't anyone ever just well, so do your fandom of favor maker Denham, a culmination of the many emotional elements set up in the rest of your film, make it relevant to the character. Ah, moment that shows their growth is fulfilling of a promise and is illustrative of your films theme. Not every film will have an ending that hits all those beats, but the greatest hitting many. After all, the last thing we see effects our perception of the whole in summary. Grow your pigs fight, Let go coo and do French things in Japanese ways. Share your outline in the Class Project section. If at the end your heroin has grown, had a personal journey with wider implications and summarized the film's themes and tone in a visual way, then you're on your way to getting us out the door of your party without being awkward. Theme me. Oh, no, 6. Outlining Dialogue: before we wrap up the outlining process, let's talk about a tool that could be used in all three acts. Dialogue later will discuss the mechanics of what makes good dialogue on the page. But for now, let's discuss dialogue tools that could be used even while in the outlining process. No dialogue is made up of sentence structure and word use as well as accent. Because of sentence structure and word use, you can convey a character's dialect even in text. Obviously, you won't be writing much actual dialogue in the outlining phase. But in paraphrasing the beats of your story, it's good to think about the ways in which your characters speak. You can paraphrase dialogue in your notes and translate into the proper dialects while rewriting here. Some examples of dialect and soc away characters using complex or simple sentences can be a reflection of their education. Technical vocabulary can hint at their occupation. In other words, the language used can hint at subcultures they're involved in. In America, for example, we have both gay and black Soc elects, among others. These are, of course, archetypes. Not all gay people speak and J soc alecks and not all black people speak in black, so selects, but they will likely have been exposed toe others speaking in those ways. And those soc elects may affect their speech in great Asians. How would you like to bug out now? By God, man? I'm gonna buck out Bt book out, maybe Teoh contrast Someone who says to someone who says to infinity and beyond And you should see how manner of speech illustrates elements of character. Think about your characters, many intersecting identities when considering how they speak. What? The second dialogue tool that we will be discussing is writing An example is when you go final, kid, I know. Look at him at the beginning of an episode and at the end you go so final keep going on. Look at all The repetition of that line in a new context is super satisfying. No, And I was there 7. Drafting: If you follow my advice, you'll hammer out most of the elements we've discussed in the outlining phase we outlined before you write, just like we storyboard before we animate writing takes time just His animation does cheaper, and it's a miserable endeavor to go into without a plan. So you should read your outline over and over and make the changes that come to mind. I'll put it this way. Rewrite your outline more so you can rewrite your script less. Once you've gotten most of the beats Paraphrase, you might notice yourself start to add dialogue and specifics. This means it's time to draft your script if you outline thoroughly. Drafting is easy, but boring. That's why I get it done as soon as possible so I can rewrite In. This section will discuss some specifics about how to make script pages read. Well, this isn't so much about format as it is about use of format to better express story. A lot of artists discount dialogue because they've dealt with writers who don't write visually enough. But the truth is that using both words and images effectively can be much stronger than just using one dialogue can be used to contrast action or give it more meaning, such as in the fight clip. We watched from young justice you not in the middle of a mission. So how do you make dialogue work for you? Let's discuss methods, brevity, balance and Sim packs a baby started to what a favor he's gotta do. If you read Hamlet in high school, you remember that brevity is the soul of wit. This is the case in all film, but certainly an animation. Talking heads create a distinct boredom. A good rule, I've heard is that most segments of dialogue should be no longer than a tweet. This relates to balance. If someone has to say a lot, you should break up the dialogue with action. It's the writing equivalent of the eighth principle of animation. In our context, what a character is doing, adds a layer toe. What they're saying. Check out this half page from Batman, the animated series. Do you see a giant block of text? No, it's like poetry. Another good role to keep in mind with dialogue is the funniest word should be at the end of the sentence. Take, for example, this Facebook post I made the other day. When will Facebook at an eggplant reaction? An alternative wording for this is. What if there was an eggplant reaction on Facebook? For all you non millennials, the eggplant emoji is used as a symbol for an aroused Penis. I would argue that the former wording is the funnier of the two. Besides being two word shorter, that sentence also ends with a funnier thought. Eggplant reaction versus on Facebook. The funniest part of the idea is eggplant reaction. So it belongs at the end of the sentence. Remember what we learned in the section on Dental mas? The last part of the experience colors our perception of the whole. So if your jokes aren't landing, experiment with the grammar action is something that lovers of animation no well. But how does action work on the page? You have the events and jokes for your script paraphrased, but how do you write them in script format? Think of action lines in the script like panels on a storyboard. There really isn't much room for paraphrasing yet. At the same time, you need to be succinct. Outside of character introductions. Most action paragraphs should be two lines or less. They're also like the panels of a storyboard, in that new paragraphs denote either a new shot or a change in the dynamic of the current shot. See on the page of a screenplay. Space is time. Shorter lines make a scene read faster. And in a world when nobody likes to read, you should be taking advantage of paragraph breaks. I've often gotten comments for my friends who aren't in the industry that my scripts read like poetry. Learn from poetry. Be succinct, and don't waste anyone's time with extra words. Language. Let's review these two elements of the drafted screenplay. Dialogue and action. Some helpful tools for dialogue are brevity, Balance and Sim packs. Action, as it appears on the page, should be short, though not to paraphrased, and should be a clear conveyor of what the film feels like. Poster Rough draft in the Class Project section. If you're dialogue and action are in balance, you'll have a script that's easier to read. Well, I feel that what power 8. Rewriting: Now that you have a draft of your script, it's time for rewriting. Rewriting is doing everything we've talked about in this class again. The first step is to read your script and see if it's as good as your outline in the places where it's not. You re evaluate the concepts we've been through, pulling it closer and closer toe what's in your head. This is why our classes called sketching with words. As a writer, you're always feeling things out. Drawing and erasing rewriting is like using multiple colored pencils for your sketch. You do passes on the script, focusing on one aspect at a time. Everything we've discussed in this course can be focused on in isolation to eventually amount to a better story. So read your script while thinking about dialogue, then read while thinking about theme. Use Evernote and make bullet points of problems you see, then make a checklist of solutions to pursue. Once you've checked them all, read again, and when you've satisfied yourself, give it to someone you trust, have them tell you what doesn't feel right. They might point out problems that you had in the back of your head, but had ignored because of stubbornness or fatigue. Yes, that's what I'm well acquainted with. Insecure I N S E C U R E insecure. Really. Rewriting is about balancing out what you have, and that's why I procrastinate by outline. I'd rather have a great sketch and fiddle with the details, then have a shitty sketch and have to redraw everything. When the changes you're making become a menial, the script is done or it's just done because it's do either way. Eventually, you have to stop sketching and put it down and ink. 9. Letting Go: thank you again for listening to sketching with words, poster finish scripts or animation in the class project section. And if you enjoyed this class, leave a review and refer a friend, I know that learning about animation made me a better writer. Hopefully, this class has got you thinking about possibilities that weren't is obvious before. When you need a refresher, listen to the class again and always keep writing another thing, the screenwriting Buddha told me There is a difference between knowing something logically and knowing it intuitively. So keep at it through continuous exercise, you can begin to write more like an artist who inks without sketching, although I'd advise you to sketch even then.