Applied Animation: Drafting the Script - Focusing on the Dialogue

For our animation, Katy and I have decided to present the information in a Creature Comforts sort of way by interviewing the 'animals' in such a way that their responses reveal the information we found through researching our topic in a more interesting way. For this we decided to involve Matt and Max, as we thought that they'd be the most open when acting out the parts of a Wolf and Boar and that they'd bring a touch of comedy to the animation as well.

Not ever having written a script before, I decided to create a mock interview with Matt and Max to see how they would respond naturally to the set questions Katy and I had decided to ask (these are: What do you do in your spare time?, How do you help the environment? and What do you think of the humans?). From here I was able to listen to their responses to help me put together a more refined script for them to then read from at a later date. It also helped me gain a better grasp on the amount of time we had to play with and what we could actually achieve within our time constraints. 

However, the 'free-for-all' recording session didn't help as much as I thought simply because they each spoke for too long. This left me with so much content to play with and I struggled to pin point what I wanted to use and what I could discard as irrelevant. I also felt that they didn't necessarily touch upon the points I had given them in a clear enough way. Despite this, I did manage to get a draft script written up and from here I will be able to conduct another mock interview to see how the script works and find which bits aren't needed, as I feel that the scripts are still too long for the 2 minutes that we have.

Boar script

Wolf script

Overall, I feel that I have learnt a lot in terms of story from this small, yet important, part of pre-production. It is important to make the point of the story clear from the very start and to not stray from that point throughout the animation to help keep it clear for the audience. I found that it is also important to make sure that you leave long enough pauses for a gag or joke to be taken in and understood by the audience for it have the most effect. Although I have never done this before, I think that I have managed to do a good job at making our story clear and relevant.