Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1081203
47 Q1 2019 / CINEMONTAGE the animatic, according to Bocz, is to "take these storyboards from an incredible team of artists and make sure I'm interpreting their meaning and their intention of how the scene should play out. I'm starting with zero sound, zero music. We're taking stills and have to breathe life into them, which is both challenging and rewarding." Bocz considers animation editing a very specific skill. "Editing for me is a gut feeling; it isn't that a walk cycle should be a certain number of frames," she says. "There are guidelines, of course, but more than anything to me, it's a sensibility. It's something you feel and you are either the kind of person who gets it or you don't. I visualize and know what I'll react to when I cut it. I have to mentally imagine what these stills will look like when fully animated to know how many frames each one should be on screen for. I can't say there's a science behind it; it feels more intuitive." She notes that every editor has her or his own process. "Mike works panel by panel, where I might lay them all out as a uniform number, start watching and then pace it from there," Bocz explains. "I'm not in the room with the other editors so I don't know their creative process. It's personal preference, but we all work very closely with our directors to finalize the feel of the actual animatic." She also points out that part of the freedom of editing the animatic is the ability to add to the storyboard. "If we feel like we need a close-up or a wide shot, we can decide to do that before getting back the footage," Bocz offers. "I remember when I was cutting live action, I'd wish I had a specific angle and it was too bad that I had to make do with what was shot. In animation, you can see that before money is spent on the animation." For Williamson, the show's narrative style is an adventure. "There are stakes, but it's also lighthearted," he says. "It's a balance of making sure it's funny but also ensuring that the drama is legitimately landing. It's not a goofy show just for the younger kids but one intended for the whole family to enjoy, so there are dramatic moments for the older kids. You have to make sure you respect the story, top-to-bottom, and tell it honestly." He adds that the DuckTales episodes are "pretty big," capped off by a "completely action-packed" third act. "The amount of panels we have is huge," he says. "I approach it by making sure this animated TV series plays as thrillingly as any feature film I've seen this year — to cut aggressively when it needs to be aggressive and delicate when it needs to be delicate. The animatic stage is where the lion's share of the storytelling gets shaped before the animation, which is why I cut in a way that conveys the emotions and set pieces clearly." MULTIPLE RETAKES Once the directors and executives sign off on the animatics, the actual animation is created in Korea. When the animation returns, it's the job of the editors to assist in identifying and even fixing a number of the hundreds of retakes required for every episode. How the DuckTales team handles it is different than other shows, notes Duffy. "We're a special team because we are the animatic editors and also the final picture editors," she explains. "We're one of a handful of teams at Disney TVA that's been able to do this successfully, and I don't think this is typical. But it's working really well with us, which is a pleasure. We know the animatic so well, it makes it smoother for cutting the final picture." Barbara Ann Duffy.