Sunday, March 30, 2008

Whoa whoa whoa...

Hey there.  Diving in.  

1)  I'm still on Jury Duty, so I haven't had time to connect with Stephen yet.  But...
2)  Stephen:  You can use whatever criteria you want, but two caveats:
      A)  The contest is to watch Falling Hare, and write it in script.
      B)  The winner is the script that best reflects that cartoon in a way that it could then turned into an actual cartoon.  "None of the above" can't be an option because we're looking for the best version of that.

That being said: 

Ya can't put out rules as to what you're looking for in the middle of this, as it gives an unfair advantage to people who haven't submitted yet.    If we do this again, feel free.

But the above has always been the mission statement for this... anything other than that - and especially changing how this works - wouldn't be cool.   (Note:  I moderated comments long enough to get this up here and connect via Email)

Tomorrow's the last day of jury duty, and I'm sure we'll chat after that.

    - Steve
             

6 comments:

Stephen Worth said...

A few students from the animation program at Woodbury University showed up tonight, and I went over the info with them. They might be submitting entries.

I'm going to set to work scanning tomorrow and next week so I can get all of the material up online for out of towners. I'll send you an article to post here letting everyone know what I'll be looking for in a winning entry. It will definitely be useful information on what a writer needs to provide to a storyboard artist. My recommendation would be to wait to see this before starting to work. You'll have plenty of time to complete your entry.

The archive is open Tuesday through Friday from 1pm to 9pm. You local folks set a time when you would like to come by and go over the information I've put together. You're welcome anytime during office hours, just let me know when to expect you so I can have the stuff out and ready to show you. I can't promise that the storyboard guy that was there tonight will be there when you come, but I'll try to get him to attend. I've got calls in to a few story artists to help me do the judging when the time comes.

Thanks
Steve

Anonymous said...

"Ya can't put out rules as to what you're looking for in the middle of this, as it gives an unfair advantage to people who haven't submitted yet."

The date on this posting is March 30, but due to whatever tech glitch, it seems to have first appeared online today: Friday, April 4.

From his last comment (dated April 3) on your previous blog entry, it would seem Stephen already must have had his live meeting with some contest entrants last night. Do the attendees of that meeting now have the unfair advantage you mentioned?

Steve said...

I suppose that depends on your definition of unfair advantage.

As it's always been my goal to have Stephen involved in this at this level, and Stephen is COMPLETELY honest about his opinion, I don't think it's any shock as to what he's looking for.

But the scripts come to me first, I "scrub them clean" of names and such... and then move them forward to be judged.

And know this: I'm looking for SCRIPTS. Not beat outlines, not premises... scripts. Written in final draft, or microsoft word. Nothing less detailed will cut it.

That's always been the case.

The goal is to show how Falling Hare can be turned into a document script document that could conceivably be used by a board artist to make a great, visual cartoon.

I'm not saying the process won't be flawed. But the goals here are:

1) Have "the best" one elevated as such.
2) Have a discussion as to what would be a good script for visual story telling and why.
3) Convince some of the critics of script writing in animation that it can be done, and done well, by people who can't physically pick up a pencil (or Wacom tablet) and draw.

That being said, if a story board artist sends in a script that does a better job writing that script... that person deserves the cash.

I hope everybody understands - the goals of this contest have not changed. The rules have not changed. The only thing that changed was the deadline, and that's been extended for a good reason - the person I want to be involved in the judging is involved.

It's also why it's my cash down on this. The standards are, clearly, arbitrary. But hopefully, it brings more people together than some of the other discussions about this.

More early next week. In the meantime, if you're writing, keep writing.

- Steve

Stephen Worth said...

Hi Steve

I still need to talk to you about judging criteria. I'm at the archive Tuesday through Saturday from 1pm to 9pm.

See ya
Steve

Stephen Worth said...

Hi

Still waiting to connect with you to discuss the judging criteria. I'm at the archive from 1pm to 9pm Tuesday through Friday. I'm in with the volunteers on Saturdays if you'd like to stop by then too.

I put up the first part of my article on cartoon writing on the archive blog. The third article will deal with structure and continuity and what a storyboard artist needs in the way of written material to work from. I'm still drafting it. I'm hoping to get it up on the site by early next week.

See ya
Steve

Anonymous said...

Can we expect an update soon?

I'm eagerly awaiting toonsters' guidance for my script!