Animation

Cool story and I like the way you want to depict it documentary-style. My questions is, why do you want to use animation as the medium to tell this story as opposed to shooting it live action which would most likely be more affordable?

This is intense. I love it. I am very much looking forward to the final product. I love the visual storytelling and suspense.

Kevin Jackson Thanks, I really made a huge effort on this, I have writen 4 episodes so far but I'll create this animatic so far and I have some concept art too.

AI is all about the obliteration of truth and we are most certainly in ‘the end of days’. You are witnessing the perversion of all things.

The AI bubble will burst. It is going to get far too expensive. Has already started. Most people are looking at AI one dimensionally and NOT looking at the possibilities and responsibilities.

One should ask, how can I use AI in my process to make it more efficient and fun, and not how do I use AI to do my process. The problem is that the slop out there are from people using AI to solely replace the process.

There is nothing purely good or bad in this world. It is the intent behind the usage. Water is good for you and can be dangerous, Knives can be useful but also deadly depending on the usage and intent. A lion is more dangerous than a car, but a car poses more of a danger to you. When you look at lion attacks on human's vs car crash fatalities, cars have killed more people. That is because when we see a lion, we stay far, we drive in caged cars, or they are behind thick glass.

We implement safety measures for the things we deem dangerous, so that they pose less of a threat. AI is no different. We have to recognize it is a part of our society, always was going to be, from the second we watched Star Trek and Star Wars and were fascinated, our brains have been attracted to the idea.

We have to as artists and filmmakers, actually join the conversation and say here are acceptable uses of AI and here are unacceptable uses of it and make those best practices, so we stay out of the danger zone. I love that lawsuits are happening to prevent blatant copyright infringement, I am happy there are laws stating that no one can copyright AI generated content. The fact that making money in this professional is heavily anchored on copyright ownership, will AI a hard choice for commercial use. It will be restricted in how it is used.

When Ai first came out and before it was clear how bad it was on so many levels, I used it to do some Ai concept art and also paid a human artist to do concept art of the same characters. The Ai merely recycled the patterns and input it had been trained on to spit out the art equivalent of 1+1=2. Okay, but nothing special. The human artist? She brought her own creativity to the project and created exponentially better concept art. These were original, unique, gloriously creative designs. They felt genuinely alive while the ai product felt hollow and lifeless. I truly cannot stress how much this experiment showed what we stand to lose when we fail to honour and employ human artists at the concept art stage. Concept artists do not just take a prompt and spot out a product. They leverage their own skills, experiences, expertise and creativity to amplify and enhance a writer’s creativity to create something far greater than a writer prompting a machine ever could. Just like a good writer’s room often produces an exponentially better story than one writer.

If we want people to buy anything creative we make I think we need to honour every creative who contributes. And believe in the humanity of storytelling in a way that demands ai not be tolerated.

The more I learn of ai, the more I feel Miyazaki was very right in his comments on Ai.

Kevin Jackson Hi Kevin, not only is it too expensive, but it’s also really bad for the environment. Unless of course AI can figure a way to be less expensive and better for the environment? ;-)

Geoff Hall I can see it becoming more environmentally friendly, and maybe less expensive to an extent, but it will be a while for the latter. I forsee the future being like anything else. We will calculate which way is cheaper and go with the cheaper more time efficient method. So we will see animation still done by humans but some background animation done with AI or some VFX.

Hi Martineau Jeffery-West I'm a writer and animator based in Jamaica. I love your range of diverse genres. Building a slate is very important. That's why buyers and producers want to see now that we are in a volume based streaming distribution model era.

What I have learnt is to take people on your journey with you. They feel like a part of the project when you do and it builds a loyal audience, something you will need to prove the viability of your ideas.

Kevin Jackson You’re absolutely right sir and I appreciate you for that insight!! Congratulations on all your success over the years as well man that’s huge

Adrian Gipson From what I've seen, a unique world may get someone's attention, but a clear series engine is what convinces them the show can sustain multiple episodes.

Great mythology is a bonus, but decision makers often want to quickly understand: What does the protagonist do every episode? What creates conflict? Why will viewers come back next week?

The strongest pitches usually have both a compelling world and a simple, repeatable engine that naturally drives character growth over time.

With anything, I believe the same principle applies: Start with Story. Not with the world, not the context. Focus on the Who, What, and Why: Who is the main character, what are the stakes facing them, and what's their motivation?

The world is important of course, but it's the story engine and characters that will pull people in and sustain a series.

After fifteen years in animation, in a few different positions, I'd push back on the either/or: in animation the visual rules everything. Most higher-ups in animation had long careers in that genre. And they got into that world because of the visuals. How a character looked, the environments and so on. So my order of importance tends to be visuals first, then the character arc across the series, then what each episode looks like week to week story structure-wise. The reason your engine question matters so much isn't only story, it's budget. A clear episode-to-episode engine usually means characters moving through recurring locations and reusing assets. Assets meaning anything from 3D trees to chairs and tables, all those are digital assets. While a sprawling mythology often means building new ones constantly, which costs far more. So a strong engine doesn't just read as good storytelling to the people evaluating it, it also tells them the show can actually be made at a reasonable budget. I built and pitched a series with a studio co-owner to Netflix and Amazon, and the feedback that moved things forward was almost always where the world and the budget were working together.

Very nice video Tui!

I recently did the stage 32 webinar on loglines. The book recommendation from that is Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence: Advice from the Front lLnes of Hollywood by Lane Shefter Bishop

Hi, Sarah! How did you like the logline webinar? That is one of our Stage 32 favs!

the logline webinar was very helpful. The examples given and the breakdowns of each part really helped to clarify for me what parts of the story concept they actually are looking for in loglines and why they want them presented that way. Loglines are something I struggle with so it’s really good for me to hear different perspectives on how to do them to find what actually clicks best for my brain. I was able to refine my logline after watching this webinar to something that likely has a much higher chance of success.

This morning I did a 5 min Pitch with Ebony Williams from Unanimous Media through the Stage 32 pitch process. I did some pitching last year, but I wanted to come on here and say thanks to Evan's classes, this time went unbelievably better. I felt good about my presentation, my pitch deck, and what I needed to focus on. So thanks again Evan!

Something to think about for your story: What is your story engine?

Cute. Can't wait to see more.

Johnny Washington Strong premise and tone. The phrase "financial terrorists" immediately creates intrigue, and "hypercapitalist hellscape" clearly establishes the world.

My only note is that the logline leans heavily into the setting and chaos, but gives less insight into what the three friends are actually trying to accomplish week to week. Adding a clearer objective or series engine could make it even stronger.

Overall, it feels unique, marketable, and gives a good sense of the show's voice.

Financial terrorists sounds negative, but corporate monopoly also sounds negative.

If these characters are the heroes, battling evil corporations, how do they see themselves? Financial freedom fighters? Lower class rebels? Their POV might be a better way to frame the story, rather than telling us how the power structure sees them.

Mr Robot comes to mind, about a troubled hacker that struggles against capitalist authorities.

The comedy version of the premise is Office Space.

So you might want to indicate tone — is this corporate intrigue or satirical comedy?

I agree with the above, the world captures attention, but I'm not sure what exactly the main characters are aiming to achieve episode to episode, and they do seem like villains. Are they supposed to be similar to the premise of "Bad Guys" where they are intentionally bad but end up doing good? Or are they like Robinhood, intentionally good, but are misconstrued as villains by the system?

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh I love seeing your posts because they always feel authentic and unique. And honestly, you’ve got a point about animated memes, there’s a very specific kind of magic in them when they’re done well.