The Frank Wells Building on the Disney lot (viewed above) still houses parts of Disney Toons and Disney TVA (animation divisions which report to two different hierarchical executive structures within the House of Mouse). I visited the Toons and TVA employees working on two different floors Friday morning...
A small animation crew is working on "Tinkerbell," the CGI feature which is moving forward in Burbank and India (where the bulk of the animation is being done). A story crew is working on the first of three "fairy features" (a fairy trilogy, if you will) to which "Tinkerbell" serves as a kind of bridge.
Two TV series are also in work at Frank Wells: "My Friends Tigger and Pooh," is wrapping up the tail end of the production board work (but continuing direction, color models and designs). "Phineas and Ferb," is farther back in its production cycle, is in full story/production board mode. Per Wikipedia:
("Phineas and Ferb") is The Disney Channel's first "unscripted" animated show, an innovation originally developed by Walt Disney himself, in which an animated story is written by writers and animators collaborating on a storyboard (a series of drawings) instead of working from a written script. Although a script is obviously necessary, in this process the script is the storyboard, usually includes a minimum of written dialogue, and is arguably a more visual approach to producing animated comedy for kids.
I accidentally walked in on a story meeting that seemed to be getting into full swing. I said "hi," waved cheerily, and backed right back out again, since story isn't my gig anymore. But I've long thought that board driven shows are a good way to go. It will be interesting to see how "P & F" turns out.
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Isn't it amazing that Walt Disney and his story guys made movies for decades without using a written script?
Nice to see this incredible innovation at work again. Actually, we wrote "Cow and Chicken" this way a few years ago at what use to be H-B.
Don't mean to knock my screenwriting colleagues, but this wacky technique can actually work.
It worked great for "Dexter's", "Powerpuff Girls", and "Samurai Jack", too. Doesn't "Spongebob" do like-wise? Wish more shows could take this route.
I said hi to ya, Steve, but it was a busy room.
"Nightmare Ned", which was the first show I worked on in the industry, was a Disney premise show back in 96-97.
Unfortunately, "Ned" might have turned DTV off premise shows for a long time: it ran quite a bit over budget.
One of the reasons"Ned" cost so much was classic Eisner-era executive micro-managing of story. Not only did the prez of DTV at the time see each episode pitched and give notes, he actually gave additional story notes after animation came back from Korea. He was an exec who came over from live action, and he seemed to act as if we could just call up the cartoon characters and "read through some more alternate takes".
"Ned" had some great story talent working on it early in their careers: Conrad Vernon, who went on to help re-invent the troubled "Shrek" project at Dreamworks, Paul Tibbet, who became a key premise boarder on SpongeBob, Mike Mitchell, who went on to direct "Deuce Bigelow", amongst other things, and Mike Fontanelli, whose pitches were sometimes so funny I recall people having to leave the room because they couldn't stop giggling.
In the ten years since "Ned", DTV's script-heavy output has led to losing many kids to other, more story-innovative shows, like the ones Floyd and Chris B. listed. Now there's a concerted effort at DTV to make cartoons like CN and Nick have, hence taking the risk on premise shows again.
Right now, the "premises" are still eight pages or so long on Phineas and Ferb! It's tough to wean people from scripts when they are used to them. Nevertheless, it is starting to be evident to the powers-that-be at Disney that 8 pages of script = 8 minutes of screen time, but 8 pages of premise = 20-30 minutes of screen time...
Yeah, it looked like things were going good.
A decade ago at Disney TVA, staff writers were doing 2-3 scripts in a year because of the torrent of notes from various execs that had them constantly rewriting the same 24 pages.
Not too efficient, but the Disney of that era was all about building empire, a layered, counter-productive bureaucracy and the defending of turf.
It's good that it is changing.
I had heard horror stories of pitching pilots to DTV in years past.....facing a room of 11, 12, 13 execs, all who slid their individual lists of notes across the boardroom table. This would happen in round after round of development.
I will say this:
...the exec comments I've witnessed on P&F have been like I've never seen before at Disney...for the most part light, easily-accomplished and even helpful at times. There's a good vibe. Sounds like you felt it, too.
Finally, shows without writers! If we're successful we'll purge our union of them as well.
A quick addendum: just wanted to point out that Phineas and Ferb does have writers on staff. The good news is that the writers get along very well with the boarders, and all work together when the boards go up on the wall. It's the best artist/writer relationship I've seen in 10 years in the biz.....as good as on SpongeBob or better.
And lemme tell ya, I've seen some reaaaaally bad relations between artists and writers on projects:
Once, when working on the latest round of Looney Tunes shorts, a writer (who had come from The Simpsons where writers have the power) had the gall to say in front of a conference room of boarders "Storyboarders writing dialogue? Lord help us."
But the two groups can get along.
Call me crazy, but as a longtime dues paying animation writer, I find it kind of distressing to see a union blog coming out against my continued gainful employment. I don't mind it from a fan or artists blog. From a creative position, I think you could make a decent case for some great shows being board driven. But when I'm paying part of the blogger's salary, a little respect would be nice.
Anon: Nobody's knocking the writers (Our brothers in the creative biz)... I think Headrick was just knocking the immediate and undisguised contempt for boarders by one writer. The original Wiki quote described P & F as "written by writers and animators collaborating on a storyboard." All the CN shows I worked on had awesome writers working side by side with the board artists. (Still do, i.e. FOSTER'S) RESPECT!
btw, I think the people really getting slammed by this blog wuz the execs... ;)
A quick rereading of what Steve (a former animation writer) actually wrote was "But I've long thought that board driven shows are a good way to go." That's a far cry from advocating against the employment of writers.
Call me crazy, but as a longtime dues paying animation writer, I find it kind of distressing to see a union blog coming out against my continued gainful employment. I don't mind it from a fan or artists blog.
Kevin beat me to the punch, but let's be clear: I made my living in animation as a writer from '76 to '89. I think writers are integral to animation. I think they add lots of value to the product. But what I've never liked is the attitude among some animation writers that they're the whole ball game, and that board artists, designers and directors are secondary players whose main function is to serve the writers' dazzling genius.
How about this for a rule? Every creator should be respectful of every other creator.
How about this for a rule?
Our own business rep shouldn't spew sarcastic remarks about the writers, i.e., "to serve the writer's dazzling genius."
How about this for a rule?
Artists represented by an artists guild that looks out for the interests of visual story tellers and writers represented by a writers guild that represents the interests of screenwriters?
O.K., I'll bite. Aside from a few prime time animated shows like the Simpsons, what has the WGA actually done for animation writers?
I got a foreign residual check from the WGA just last week. It was a pitifully small amount, barely enough to cover my TAG dues. Still, it's much more than I've ever gotten from TAG.
And nobody went out of their way to denigrate or malign my profession on the official blog. What a concept!
This blog isn't "official" anything; it's personal opinion of TAG officers, as stated above.
I wasn't going out of my way to denigrate anybody, least of all practicioners of a profession I worked in for a dozen years. I'm simply giving you the attitude I've picked up from some writers at some studios since I've been in this job. You might not like the attitude or my description of it (and I hereby apologize if you're offended by my choice of words), but the attitude exists.
OTHOH, there are plenty of writers -- plenty talented -- who get along perfectly well with board artists and everyone else. And are terrific professionals.
Re foreign levies, those come from taxes on blank videocassettes and dvds levied by foreign collection agencies. WGA exec director Brian Walton was asked, years ago, to negotiate with studios over a division of the money that's collected. I was told it was 80% to studios, 20% to creators. (I don't know if that's still accurate.) I wrote Walton saying that a) it would have been nice to have been informed of or included in negotiations, since -- at that time the WGA(w) represented zero animation writers, and b) the 20% cut seemed small. He took umbrage.
But you get the residuals because of laws in Europe, not because of the WGA. What it does is collect and distribute the money it receives. One other thing: The Animation Guild has supplied addresses for dozens and dozens of animation employees to the DGA and WGA so that they could get the money to them.
How about this for a rule?
Artists represented by an artists guild that looks out for the interests of visual story tellers and writers represented by a writers guild that represents the interests of screenwriters?
For this to happen, the WGA has to organize animation writers not currently under a collective bargaining agreement, then negotiata a contract that's agreed on, then represent those writers.
They've done this at Fox; they've done it on a limited basis with other studios. They will get the writers currently under TAG's jurisdiction when 1) the studios agree, and 2) the IATSE agrees. Don't look for it to happen soon.
I have nothing against execs or writers, but told stories of struggling with both to illustrate the difficulties a boarder can face on a premise show.
As I said, both the writers and execs on P&F have a good relationship with the boarders--I just jammed on instruments after work and ate dinner with our writers tonight! One of the writers stayed extra late to actually help pin up boards. That's the good vibe I was talkin' about...
The best story rooms I've been in had both word-specialists and visual-specialists in them--whatever their titles--who worked together as equals to create the storyline.
Looks like this thread is onto a wider topic, so I'll just step aside....
"A quick rereading of what Steve (a former animation writer) actually wrote was "But I've long thought that board driven shows are a good way to go." That's a far cry from advocating against the employment of writers."
Do you imagine that if the TV industry shifted to all board driven shows that would be good news for writers?
But we're not talking about the entire TV industry, are we? We're talking about animation, which we all know has long enjoyed the kind of collaboration between word smiths and picture makers (as Chris Headrick eloquently points out is happening again on at least some shows).
Advocating for that kind of collaboration in what is the most visual of mediums is not an attack on writers.
Finally, shows without writers! If we're successful we'll purge our union of them as well.
Writers are important to animation, always have been, always will be. Disney, even in its board-driven heyday, employed writers on animated product. Cartoon Network has prided itself on "board driven" shows over the years, yet it has employed plenty of writers on variou shows. Patrick Verrone, WGA Prez, story edited CN's "Class of 3000." There's no one approach.
I mentored under a former assistant animator, story artist, radio writer, WGA writer. They were all one guy, Larry Clemmons. When I worked with him professionally in the 70s, he thought of himself as a writer, but he'd been all those other things too.
Board artists are equally important to animation. The WGA has attempted to organize board artists. How can that be, when they're artists and not writers? Maybe because they are also instrumental to the creative process.
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