Career Opportunities for Writers in Animation
If you love animation, but your talents lie in the words, not the sketches, a career in animation may still await you.
Shrek 2 is the third most profitable film of all time, grossing over $436 million. Ice Age: The Meltdown” made $195 million, and Over the Hedge made $153 million. Needless to say, there are great profits in the world of 3D animation features. But those profits would be hard to come by without the energetic cheers, witty retorts, and heartwarming pledges of its characters.
Writing for Animation
Animation features, like Shrek, need good writers. Writing for animation is completely different from writing for live-action films. The characters are different, the audience is different, and the creative process is different. Animation schools now offer script-writing classes, training students to write effectively for animation, from cartoons, to commercials, to 3D animation features on the big screen.
Animation Writers Due Royalties
In a fascinating comparison by the LA Times, a huge injustice was reiterated: Animation writers often don’t get paid royalties. For writers of live-action movies, writers receive royalties depending how much their movies make. But for 3D animation features, the school of thought was always that the animators were most responsible for the creative process.
Industry experts say that building good relationships, however, can be the key to profitable careers in animation writing. And in the meantime, animation writers can receive the same benefits, pension plans, and vacation time as other salaried employees, making a career in animation writing stable and worthwhile.
Source
LA Times
About the Author
Joe Cooper is a freelance education and technology writer, and he edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor’s in American Literature from UCLA.
