Question: Is there a difference marketing a script as live-action or animation?
An Open Forum question via email from Bob:
So I have a fairly simple question. I am currently working on a spec script that I am really into, and I think it has potential, but here’s my predicament: This movie, if produced, would work either animated or live action. However, I would much prefer it to be animated. So my question is this: Is there any difference in marketing my screenplay to Managers/Agents whether it be animated or live action? Or do I let the people reading the scripts decide how to shoot it?
It’s interesting how many queries I’ve gotten the last six months or so about animation screenplays. I know there are at least a couple of GITS readers who work for animation companies, so I’d love to have you weigh in as you’ve got more experience in this area than I do. But in the interim, let me offer my observations.
My short response to your question — Is there any difference in marketing my screenplay to Managers/Agents whether it be animated or live action? — is yes, there is a difference.
First off, you have to grasp the fact that while the number of full-length animated movies has increased over the last decade or so with the growth in the number studios actively producing and/or distributing them (Pixar / Disney, DreamWorks Animation / Paramount, Sony Pictures Animation, Focus Features / Universal, Warner Bros. Animation, 20th Century Fox, Summit), the percentage of animated movies compared to live action is small — about 10 major releases in 2009 compared to hundreds of live action films.
Second, the world of animated movies tends to be an insular one with almost all film projects generated in-house. I explored that in this post back in December 2009. I did a database check of DoneDealPro.com because I did remember one animation spec script selling a few years back and this is what I found:
3 spec scripts [sales] in some 13 years, one of them an in-house project. There may be more that weren’t covered by DoneDealPro.com. And there may have been live-action specs that evolved into animation projects. But clearly the odds are extremely long in selling a spec animation feature film.
So if you combine both of these factors together, simple logic would lead one to conclude that it would be more difficult to get a manager or agent excited about an animation spec script than a live-action one — because the odds against selling it are longer.
However your inquiry raises a question for me: Wouldn’t the screenplay universe of an animated movie be significantly different than the screenplay universe of a live-action film? Perhaps it’s possible to change an animated script to live-action simply by saying, “It’s a live-action script,” but if I was to go into writing an animated script — not that I have, but if I did — one of the first things I would do is figure out the ‘rules’ of my screenplay universe. It seems to me that’s one of the wonderful things of an animated world — you can stretch the possibilities of what can be done, the sheer rules of physics.
So Bob, what I guess I’m asking is if you approached this script as an animated script when you wrote it, wouldn’t that affect choices you made in terms of the story universe you created, and if so, wouldn’t you have to rewrite it to fit a live-action world?
Maybe not. Maybe the story universe is closely aligned to our ‘real’ live-action world. In which case, feel free to ignore the question.
But if you decide to send it out as a live-action script, I think it would be wise to do one final pass where you approach each scene as taking place in a live-action world.
Then again, if you really believe the story works best as an animated movie, maybe you should follow your creative instincts and send it out as precisely that. Yes, the odds will be more heavily against you, but the odds are against any of us selling anything anyhow.
Who knows? Maybe someone from Pixar will see it, love the script, and snap you up as a staff writer — and wouldn’t that be fun!
Again any GITS readers who have a background in or experience with the animated feature film world, please jump in with your insights — and thanks in advance.
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