Here's everything I know about writing shorts in one short paragraph!A funny cartoon is always built around a funny sketch and a funny sketch is always built around a funny situation. When I say funny I mean something that cracks you up just thinking about it and which makes other people crack up too, especially when they imagine your character doing it. You and your friends keep adding to the original funny situation until you've worked it up into a sketch. After that you're only problem is to figure out a story reason to justify the sketch and a quick way of getting out of it. The funny sketch is the core of the cartoon. That's it. Believe me, if you know that, you know a lot!
Are there exceptions? Of course there are, especially when you factor music in. Your music man is one of your most important people and no story should be finalized (or voices recorded) before you've integrated good opportunities for music & SFX into the story.
There's probably a lot more to say on this subject but this is the best I can do with my mind swimming from meds. I have no idea how people stretch stuff like this out into whole books. Short cartoon writing is the easiest kind of writing there is. If you draw, if you're funny (cartoon funny, not stand-up) and if you have a knack for structure then you're ready to hang your shingle out. Hmmm... Maybe there is one more subject to cover....6
OK, here's something on the subject of taste. If you want to cultivate taste then ask yourself this fudamental question: What is the purpose of a story? I mean any story, whether it's told by Shakespeare or indians sitting around a campfire. The purpose of a story is simple: it is to entertain by blowing people's minds. I don't know about you but I never go into a music store with the intention of finding something mildly interesting to listen to. I go with the hope that something I stumble on will change me forever. I go with the hope that I'll make contact with greatness in some way or be shown a truth that I didn't know before. I think everybody's like that. Don't deliberately disappoint.
22 comments:
Hmmm....informative, Eddie...imformative. I shall write this down, especially since I'm hoping to go into an animation business (or at least a comic-strip business).
This is OT, but when you worked on "Tiny Toons", do you remember Art Leonardi? I've been exchanging emails with him, so I thought I ask.
Great post Eddie, that's how I went about writing a short that I'm working on. I had one or two funny sketches (at least funny to me) and then built around that. Every scene was also built around what music would be playing, I think that's the what helped me come up with more ideas.
That's some great info. =)
So by sketch, do you mean one single drawing?
I thought Eddie meant like an SNL sketch. I'm sure the SNL or even MADtv writers develop their stuff in a similar way only they don't have to draw or animate it afterwards. They instaed get on the stage and do it.
Eddie, your advice is simplicity itself and it is something that many many people NEEEEEEEED to learn.
Gee. Funny plot, funny situations, funny characters; It seems like it should be obvious, doesn't it? And yet...
But (and perhaps this goes without saying), wouldn't you agree that all the funny in the world can't save a cartoon if it doesn't have great soulful, funny characters, too? It's like people have said over and over: great characters write themselves. They write their stories, too, no? Which really makes my job easier.
John K's blog vanished?
It's a blank white page.
Sorry to leave a message about this on your blog eddie, but both blogs are connected.
Your blog is freaking sweet as well, and I read both regularly.
But yeah, anyone know anything about that?
For the love of god, don't let this subject end on this post. Talk more about that. Maybe you could pick an example cartoon, and point out those elements. Here's the situation, here's the reason for it to happen, here's the way to solve it quickly, etc...
The thing about always expecting or requring that your "mind be blown", though, is that of course it so seldom is. On the other hand, perhaps very simple things blow it too? That's what I'm a-suspectin'(sorry--just watched "Sgt. York" again).
It's funny....I always thought that that sort of credo was the domain of the eternally jaded, the bored, callow "impress me!" teenager, or Louis Jordan in "Gigi": his uncle rattles off all kinds of terrific earthly pleasures: Paris in the spring, the racetrack, a bullfight, wine, song, and finally girls--and all Louis can reply is(vis a vis girls)"If it's "no" or if it's "yes" it simply couldn't matter less". The song's called "It's a bore!" ; )
It's great that your tastes are so super-charged. But-doesn't that mean in mind-blowing terms (where cartoons are concerned) that you have a choice of either watching all the old Clampetts over again or hoping John will make something new soon? Other than that I guess you're facing daily disappointment where animation is concerned, aren't you?
That said--great observations well-put. I wait, baited like a mouse in a trap for each new post. Yippee!
This is very informative, Uncle Eddie! What's really unusual about your theory is it can apply to situation comedy episodes as well. Wow, with your blog, John's blog and the AFISA blog, future animators are getting so much priceless information for free! What a treat!
To anonymous re: John's blog - I was able to bring up his blog. If you are still having trouble, your computer or the network that your computer is running on may have some censoring/parental control software on it.
Thanks for the advise Eddie. I took a fundamentals of animation course last quarter and our final project was to complete a 1 minute (non digital) animation.. Well, sometimes when you have complete creative control over a project, you dont know what to do.. I wanted to come up with a story but just ended up doing a long sort of trippy morph project. It seems like being a great writer is almost as important as being a great artist.. Though writing is not stressed in art school.. Thanks Eddie
Eddie, this is of particular interest to me. I hope you feel better, and have more to say on the subject of cartoon shorts. I know you did your short for Cartoon Network. Perhaps you could talk on the pitching process and all of that stuff after you've made your toon, too!
I hate to be disagreeable, but THIS is the proper way to create cartoon magic:
1.Buy the rights to an existing market-driven property.
2.Assemble a blue-ribbon panel of educators, doctors, dietitians, civil engineers and anyone else you can find that doesn't like cartoons.
3.Establish a life-affirming "theme" for this cartoon (or whatever it is you call it) and think of the simplest, driest, least entertaining way to drive home the message. "Sharing" should always be the subtext.
4.Comb the brush for the right kind of bi-lingual voice talent that half union scale can buy. Trick them into recording the voice track by telling them it's part of the audition process.
5.Tape record your music cues from a hospital elevator's sound system.
6.Send the 48th draft of the script and the voice track to another country. At least Canada. Better if they don't even use the English alphabet, though.
7.Supply the product on-time, on-budget to NickelToons or FamilyOdeon.
8.Clean up on ancilary merchandising. Happy Kid Toy Meals and the like.
9.Tool up for next season's spin-off.
I don't mean to embarrass you on your own blog. We're all guilty of over-simplification at one time or another...
I hate to say it Eddie, but you are SO wrong, and Cartooncrank is SO right about this one.
GOOD cartoons are not about making something that is FUN and entertaining, they’re really about creating that special type of "magic", the type that can only occur when a young man is emasculated by his peers because of his affection for a cute stuffed animal with a large emotionally specific icon printed on its chest.
Only by sucking the marrow out of the bones of our children, can we ever hope to have them grow up as the weak minded, docile individuals that will continue to watch anything that we tell them to…
Another thing, the times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand, is when I carried you.
I hope that we can agree to disagree.
James.
Now that we've peed all over everything that is good and just in this world, lets lay in bed at night and worry about THIS
See ya
Steve
Now see Steve, had that been 'boarded here in the U.S. we'd have a much much more enjoyable sequence on our hands. Where were the funny expressions, the snappy sidekick characters, the 'business'? The Japanese always blow their wad on effects. Hopefully there's still time to do an American version of a meteorite collision with snappy dialogue and a crowd-pleasing song or two.
Hi Eddie
I remember you saying something about when your doing a funny, gag filed cartoon make sure it dosen't have a theme. You need to make a much looser story for a gag filed cartoon. That makes sence. I useully draw a comic strip of a gag and then I save it for a future story I might come up with. Heres a question for ya. Did you come up with any of the gags for the Ren & Stimpy cartoon "Fire Dogs 2"? Because I saw your name in the opening credits under Story and Storieboard. That is a really funny cartoon. I still can't wait for the Lost Episodes DVD!
your pal,
Jesse
There's so much more to say on this subject but I'm too blasted to write. I'll try to answer a couple these letters as soon as I can.
Eddie
Lovely entry...though I would have changed the last line to
"don't inadvertently disappoint".,...whaddya think?
I hope very much that you're feeling 100% soon! Seriously...considering all you've been through these last weeks, perhaps a rumination on illness? I mean, that sounds like the worst sort of drag but I suspect you could make something great out of it. It sure as hell gives one a different view of the world, to be in any intense pain or disoriented, even for a short time. This is the sort of thing I can't write about on my blog, as I keep it animation specific(at least I try to)--but yours is a Blog Of The World! : )
Take care of yourself.
wow. best couple of paragraphs on story and entertainment ever written. you write amazing stuff on meds sir.
I have a storyboard to a cartoon that we created nearly 3 years ago... and it has yet to be animated! But I think it's gonna be a great short --- it's the end result of what you get when you watch endless hours of Clampett & Avery cartoons from childhood to now!
And what's funny is we got it all storyboarded out with little difficulty (because our brains were boiling over with funny ideas and gags!). The bottom line is, it's a cartoon that I would want to see over and over again - and I have expectations when it comes to funny cartoons!
As for the music, we had many classical tunes picked out, but not necessarily placed with specific gags throughout the story.
The only hard part is that we're but 2 men in a studio, running bare bones, have no money, have sub-par equipment, all the while we want to do it RIGHT (hand-drawn, hand-painted backgrounds, animated the real way, blah blah blah - I wouldn't touch Flash to make a cartoon if my life depended on it)! But it shall be completed! I'd share the story with you guys on here, but I've kept it a secret for 3 years, I think I can keep it private until I start full-force production on it.
I know this isn't exactly related to this particular post, Uncle Eddie, but how in the world can a guy with big dreams of animating his own cartoon (again, the RIGHT way) - a FUNNY cartoon, a cartoon that doesn't look like crap - actually get it done on his own? Anyway that's probably a topic for another day!
I love this post! I have a question about it. Will you please email me at perrylmadison@gmail.com when you get a chance? Thank you in advance.
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