How do I include animated sequences?
I’m writing something at the moment which, while it is mostly live action, has scenes of animation featuring the main cast which are also occasionally intercut with live action scenes. How would you format this?
– Nic
Essex, England
When you have entire scenes that are animated, you can handle it in the slugline.
EXT. MARTIN’S HOUSE – DAY [ANIMATED]
A big, cheerful Kellogg’s sun rises behind the house. Bluebirds flutter from the trees, TWEETING a delightful melody.
If animated characters cross into the real world à la Roger Rabbit, you’ll want to consistently label them as such.
INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY
Martin opens the front door to find Karen sweaty and half-dressed on the couch. Only when she sits back do we see she’s on top of Animated Martin, who is similarly disheveled.
A long beat.
MARTIN
So the ink on the sheets..?
KAREN
The kids weren’t coloring, no.
Your goal should always be clarity. You want the reader to follow what you’re doing without dragging down the storytelling.
Articles
January 14th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
This post is bizarrely applicable to what I’m doing right now. I’m revising a script for a college screenwriting workshop that has animated segments. It wasn’t full scenes though, it just sort of slips into animation for a few moments and then back out midscene. He wrote it like this:
Animated montage
--Something
--Something else, etc. until
Fade out
And then after that I just assumed it was back to live action, though he didn’t mark it as such at all. He wrote “animated montage” and “fade out” in all caps, but for the sake of scrippets working right, I didn’t.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
For something like that, I’d do…
CUT TO:
ANIMATION --
A GIANT-SIZED VERSION OF MRS. MURCH sits on the house, smashing it to bits.
BACK TO:
MARTIN
No, I’m sure there’s plenty of room for your mother.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I’ve been following this blog for years, even though I have no connection to the movie industry at all.
I think I just come here for your vivid script examples. Love ‘em!
January 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
True. Who’s Mrs. Murch? Haha, I love it.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Haha, great second example!
January 15th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Did John just call Walter Mursch’s mom fat?
January 15th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
@ Nic,
TANK GIRL has animated montages… you might scan thru it.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Thanks John for your answer, and to Synthian for the tip – I’ll look into it.