Episode 1 Script

I just finished the script for episode one of "The Early Birds". I'm actually very pleased with it as it stands. If I tweak anything it will be the ending, I'm not sure I have the best "closing line" so to speak, but it's not bad. You won't know if I tweak it anyway since I'm not going to show you the whole thing, but I will show a part of it as an example of the scriptwriting process.

In the overall workflow, I tend to write scripts just after or near the end of my character design phase(note that the char design phase never really ends, just watch bugs bunny evolve over 50+ yrs). Anyway, I don't know if that's a necessary order, in fact I'm almost sure it's not, but for me it is, that's how my head works. I start with an initial concept, in this case it was something to do with fishing buddies. From there I start figuring what these characters will look like, and along with that, what they will act like. I don't need to know every detail of their personality just yet, just generalities at this point. But that is enough to start writing, which helps bring out more specific personality traits. I could never start storyboarding or anything else before I wrote a script. If you can, I'm really in no position to knock it, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it either.

As with everything else involved in creating a cartoon, scriptwriting is a process, it involves many revisions, however slight they may be. You may find you end up trashing the majority of your original script by the time you finish a project, even though it seems like a waste of effort, it's perfectly fine, that's the nature of the beast. A script must evolve & adapt in order to get the timing and flow that is so important to any production.

As an example I've posted one page of my first draft, and the same page, but from the 4th draft. I don't think there are too many changes except for some minor wording, but even that can make a difference. The most obvious change is from chicken-scratch to typed. Everyone works differently, and I tend to do most of my writing in the wee hours of the morning while sitting in bed. From there, as you can see, I obviously have to type it or even I wouldn't be able to read it. When I type my scripts I use (more or less) the industry standard format. I don't include everything to the letter, but I do as far as starting off with a description of the scenes establishing shot, & center justifying the dialogue. Something I do on my own is add little references for my storyboard. You'll see circled numbers on the handwritten page & highlighted text "SB #" throughout the typed version. These refer to my storyboard notes.

I don't know if storyboard notes is the proper term or if it even is a term, but what I like to do before drawing anything is to visualize & write down what I want to draw. I number these notes & the #'s correspond to my yet un-drawn storyboard sketches. I do this as soon as I write my first draft of the script & I make revisions to both, because they act as a unit. When I write all these notes out, I plug the numbers into the script, & it gives me a great feel for the timing of the action before I even draw a single sketch.







Now I have a much clearer mental picture of what to draw & I can start storyboarding. I also know how many storyboard sketches I will need (give or take a few). Sometimes I need to add more boards to really capture a certain motion or get timing just right, & when this happens I just make a new note & call it "SB#a". I find this whole process keeps my thoughts & workflow fairly logical, & so far it's been working well for me.

That's all for now, hopefully I threw a useful tip in there somewhere. I hope what you can see of the script looks promising, it's funny how tempting it is to seek opinions from everyone who will read it, but I don't want to go giving it all away now... so you're only getting a page. I'll be sure to post some storyboards once I have enough to be worth looking at.
Cheers,