Inside the Magic: How James Cameron and Disney Are Revolutionizing Animation—Secrets Revealed by Pietro Schito
Pietro Schito
It’s a great question because there are so many misconceptions with animation, especially if you come from screenwriting and you’ve written for live action, then you focus a lot on the script. You know, the script needs to be very good, perfect, and then now I have it, you know? This is my script, I’m going to knock at doors and I’ll find someone to put a team together or a studio that wants it or trying to sell the script itself. First of all, it’s very, very hard to sell an original script to any animation studio because usually in animation, ideas come, they come from within and this is not to discourage anyone. For example, when I was studying in LA, all my teachers would tell me, why are you writing? You know, we had to write two feature films in one year, so it was very intense and the teachers would tell me, what are you writing? Animation. I mean, no one will ever pick up a studio, a script, like an animated script from the outside. And I was like, I don’t care. I mean, I want to, you know, these are the kind of stories I want to create and I don’t regret at all. You know, it’s not like the script needs to be sold, it’s just to be involved in the medium. And then that script will open other opportunities. But it’s true that trying to sell a script, especially in a feature film, just to a studio. It’s not usually how those projects happen. They usually are developed from within, especially for the big studios, the Disney picks of Netflix, DreamWorks. It’s almost it’s very, very unlikely. Usually once when an original idea starts from within, from the outside, it’s already someone that has a deep connection within the studio or they’re working in a different department. And even that is not very likely. That said, Hollywood is not the only route there. Even within Hollywood and the international market, you see a lot of independent productions. And even then there, it’s unlikely that you just, you know, show with your script and it gets bought. Usually what allows a project to happen is. more the entirety of the project, and that’s why having a solid pitch deck with killer art, something, concept art, and character designs that you can really see as a producer, you can see the full picture. And so usually, you know, you have an idea, you have a script, as you know, you know, it’s hard for people to read a script in general. So the advantage of animation, it’s, is that it’s a little more normalized that you present something more in a pitch deck form, which allows many more people to read it. And especially if it has, you know, the art, it’s an easy read compared to another live action drama that these people have to read.
