Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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D E PA R T M E N T 33 KEYFRAME R E S E A R C H & T A R G E T Story and idea needs shift all the time, and it's not easy to find out what a studio or network is looking for, or not looking for, at any given time—even if you work for the company! Quite often the development executives themselves don't have specific ideas about what they want to see or not see. Do research to find out which studios or production companies might be a good fit for your idea and your style and/or sensibility and try pitching them first. You may have better luck if you show that you've done your homework when you introduce yourself and your idea. G O S L O W , N O T H I N G U N S O L I C I T E D It's best not to submit anything on first contact. Simply send an email that introduces you and requests the opportunity to pitch, and maybe includes a brief, generic description of the project(s) you'd like to pitch. If you get a response inviting you to share more, evaluate your resources and use them to your advantage. A writer may pitch with only written materials, a storyboard artist or designer may include artwork, such as character sketches or vignettes of show ideas. T H E P I T C H P A C K E T Once you get permission to submit, include the following materials in your pitch packet (or be ready to present these details when you pitch in person): Format and target audience. E.g., "a half-hour action adventure show targeting boys ages 7 to 14." A logline idea. E.g., "an optimistic yellow sponge finds fun and adventure under the sea." Show/film summary. Keep it short, no more than a page. Characters. Include rough (or finished) artwork with written descriptions and details for how they relate to each other. Setting. Describe the world the characters live in (maybe include some artwork). Story ideas. If your short is designed to launch a series, include short premises for episodes or ideas for plot points in a longer-format project. TIPS TO SUBMIT: THE DO'S Submitting often involves no small amount of anxiety and uncertainty. Here's a handy primer on presenting shorts ideas to networks or studios. software, and new stylistic elements. (The Short Circuit filmmakers even borrowed from each other.) "The hope is always that the things we create will find their way down the line [to features]," says Huynh, who notes when some of Disney's feature filmmakers saw the shorts, they said, "'We did that here? That's so cool!' They're looking at this menu now to see what works for their stories." LESSONS LEARNED The shorts programs also provide a hands-on forum for artists to be trained in new tech, new software. For example, Meander animation developed for Menz's Just a Thought found its way into the traditional CG platform of Ralph Breaks the Internet via artists who had been trained in it on the short. Erekson's Marooned, about a grumpy robot trying to make it back to Earth with the help of a deactivated robot he discovers along the way, served a similar purpose. "We were testing a new pipeline at DreamWorks, different ways of doing things, trying to render faster," Erekson says. "We wanted a 2D illustration to look like it was in a 3D world, so we were testing different techniques and tools to be able to get that look of painting illustration SUMMER 2020 33