There’s an article up right now on IndieGames.com articulating twenty-four Indie Game Design Dos and Don’ts, which was then picked up at Cartoon Brew as good advice for independent animators.
The two points that Cartoon Brew excerpted (and indeed almost all of the list) speak to something I’ve believed for a long time: the idea that as an indie, you can afford to take more risks because there isn’t $150 million on the line if you fail (unlike if you were doing a big budget film at a studio), and the ability to fail without huge consequences means you have the freedom to do what big studios can’t, so you should take advantage of that.
But I’m surprised no one is talking about this one, even more relevant to animation, in fact much more relevant than it is to video games:
12. Grow up.
Chances are you’re not a fucking kid anymore, so if you feel like making a more adult game, do so. When you’re indie you don’t have to answer to anyone, so stop designing games like you have to have to pass ESRB. I’m not saying everyone should make porn games, but why do all video games seem to have immature themes? People aren’t stupid: stop treating them like they are. Speak through your work like you would to your friends, design for yourself and don’t censor your ideas.
I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but this is always my number one complaint about animated films. The medium can be used to make anything, and yet so often it always comes back to family entertainment or children’s films. This is, of course, this is the safe move. It’s what everyone knows will make money. And I do understand, the studios have a need to make a profit, especially since these movies are not cheap to make, so I don’t begrudge the big studios for making what the market wants.
Independents, on the other hand, aren’t trapped by their price tag the way big studios are. So let’s please use that to our advantage and take some risks, including more animated films in different genres. Let’s please let some of them be sophisticated adult stories like the best of our live action films are. And let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that stories with real people instead of talking mice don’t “take advantage of the medium” and are automatically better suited for live action. Animation, just by being animation, already takes advantage of the medium even before we start to justify its use with things like the twelve principles.
All the best stories being made right now are done in moving photographs. All I’d like is to see them in moving illustrations.
P.S. — I understand, of course, that making a feature-length animated film as an independent is a tall order; in fact, from first-hand experience I know what an incredible undertaking it can be. I know I’m asking a lot, here. And I know there won’t be any flood of feature-length independent animated films, in any genre, coming out anytime soon. But I can still want it anyway, can’t I?
P.P.S. — Two movies from the last few years obviously already did this: Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir. These are incredible films and exactly what the medium needs. However. Let’s diversify a little bit. We don’t want the only alternative to children’s entertainment to be weighty political memoirs.
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