Animation and film productions can be hugely enjoyable and even life-changing. Below are insights that we have gathered to assist visual storytelling productions. These apply to life, too!
Story and script
- Audiences are busy, so get to the point fast
- Too much info dilutes messages
- Short sentences of 5-12 words, not more than 20
- Grade 8 reading level
- Plain language is not dumb language
- Music and audio determine emotion
Accessibility, inclusion, and being a sensitive person
- Your audience members are differently-abled, but you will never know how
- Consider dyslexia, distraction, bad phones, bad internet
- Be kind: Create for all your audiences
- Busy and complex visuals distract from the script
How to be an awesome person
- Share all important info like background docs in one place in the beginning
- Filter feedback through one person on your team
- Share constructive, sorted, and timely feedback
- Spend as much thought on promotion as production
The more difficult stuff
- Nothing rescues a boring or technical script
- Some opinions worsen production
- You must tell your boss if their feedback sucks
- Insecure, unknowledgeable, and/ or insensitive people use big fancy words
- Productions are like house construction: If you try to change the concrete at the end, you will waste money and upset people
- Not even your mother will watch a 15-minute documentary about your work
A final word
You are a cool, funky person for choosing animation or film. Enjoy! The messages and visuals that you create can be reused in so many other ways, too. Your production might inspire people. It might convince them to contact you or even join your company. Make something that excites you and makes you proud. And remember: The process is healthily addictive, and it gets better as you do it more.