Post 2: Visual Development

Narrative Development: The first step of an animations narrative development is the creation of a story line once this is decided it will be transferred into a film script format, the story may require further development and the script will also be improved. This may mean that several editions of the script are created in total, at the end of this process once a version is chosen the story will have an  approximate length and anymore confusion in the story line are altered (Issuu.com. 2019). An example of narrative development is in the making of the stop-motion picture 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', Tim Burton the writer of the film was employed by Disney and wrote a three-page poem drawing inspiration from other animations and titled it 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' he then intended to create a television special as well as a children's book. He therefore created concept art for the characters as well as a storyboard, after the development of the story line was completed but after being deemed "Too weird" the shows planning was halted. Later a Disney studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg decided the a full length picture of the 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' would show that "we can think outside the envelope. We can do different and unusual things." (Wikipediaorg. 2019), (Simpson, B (1993). Burton quickly created a rough story line and two-thirds of the music, he also adapted his poem into a screenplay however, this was after the filming process had begun the script was not created until part way through, then by mid to late 1991 the animators and a 120 strong crew began animation with a script. A different example of a stop-motion animations narrative development is the 2012 film 'Frankenweenie', This film "Is a remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same name and is a parody of and a homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's book of the same name" The 2012 film is a combination of a book and two films one being an adaption of the book and the other a short live action film, development started in 2005 when scripts had been written, then a different writer was approached to do a we-write in 2006 however, he was not hired until early 2009. 
(Wikipediaorg. 2019)

Story-boarding: One of the few steps that are part of the visual development process in stop-motion animation is story-boarding, this is a vital piece of planning material as it contains valuable information such as: camera angles and movement, sound effects as well as dialogue and setting. A quality storyboard will be able to clearly convey these specific details to anyone involved in the film especially in a larger production where even more people will need to interpret the storyboard, Especially on the first drafts it is best for the storyboard to be viewed on a 16 panel page due to it being easier to identify if many of the same shot types are being used and to check the pacing of the story. (Theseusfi. 2019)
In animation the storyboard is one of the most important parts of the whole process other than the idea and animation itself, as Jennifer Yuh Nelson (director and storyboard artist for Kung Fu Panda 2) says "A lot of the time in animation is spent getting the story right, that’s something you can’t rush." The use of a storyboard turns the screenplay that can be interpreted in different ways into something more visual which means everyone has the same idea of how the final product should look. (Georgiestclaircom. 2019) An example of storyboard development in the industry is during the creation of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', from the poem written by Tim Burton and the screenplay both were then developed into a storyboard with supervision from Joe Ranft a Disney storyboard artist, they did not draw every frame as there were over 100,000 once the filming had been completed, but they planned their scenes using basic pencil sketches. Henry Selick the director was not able to over see the animation of all of the filming processes due to the 20 studios being used at once at the height of production made this impossible, so a storyboard insured that the correct shots were taken. One of the storyboard ideas of 'the clown with the tearaway face' when he introduced himself he tore away his skin which was decided to be to grotesque to even shoot as it seemed to make the film a horror which is not the target genre or audience. (Hollywoodreportercom. 2019)
A second example of how storyboards are used in the stop-motion process are in the film 'Frankenweenie' Storyboards are used to plan each shot, but not every frame as that would take an obscene amount of time, a new panel in a storyboard is only drawn when a significant amount of movement has been made or the shot has changed. In an interview with 'oh my Disney' producer Allison Abbate said that "It’s not much different from making any animated film – you start from a script, you storyboard it. The difference is that anything you draw on the storyboard, someone has to make!" (Disneycom. 2012)

Treatments and Pitches: When Pitching an idea for an animation it is important to start by showing the title of the film, then the concept of the product including a log line this gives the producer you are presenting to an idea of what the presentation will be about. The target group and the length that the picture or episodes will be, this is important for the producer to be able coordinate the rest of the production. Then to describe the main character as the story will rotate around them so it is good to introduce them first. Next describe the world where the narrative will take place and some of the most important locations without giving away any plot points, next show the variety of side characters and a brief description of them lead into the story line or lines as the case may be. Including information about the budget is also useful as an estimate will give the production company an idea of how popular the production will need to be and if they can finance it. An example of a real world film that was pitched is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' Tim Burton pitched his idea to Disney, even though they accepted his idea they later decided that it would not fit with their image and would not resonate well with the company's target audience. However later on a Disney chairman revisited the idea of a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday film but under Disney's more mature film distributor Touchstone Pictures. (Cartoonbrewcom. 2018)
Another example of a pitch for a real stop-motion animation is the pitch for 'Frankenweenie' Tim Burton was hired by Disney to make a full-length remake of the original 30 minute version of 'Frankenweenie' using stop-motion animation, this was more targeted towards Walt Disney studios target audience than the first one, after the original 1984 release date Burton was fired as the film wasn't suitable for younger audiences. Another part of the pre-production process is a treatment, this is a document that gives an outline of the film and often comes just before the full script is written to insure that the production company wants to being production, this document could be anywhere between three and thirty pages. (Johnaugustcom. 2003)

Post-production Editing: The final part of the visual development process is the editing of the frames captured on set, after storyboard completion shooting begins these photos are then given to the editing department to be put in order so they can be viewed as if they were filmed.