Forum - View topicI wanna be an anime director... but I'm American.
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Watashi wa Ryuzaki
 Posts: 184 Location: Florida, USA |
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Well thats life. You have to spend money to make money. I just feel that if you truly have talent and dedication for something like film making/anime directiing; that alone should be enough to carry you to a noteworthy position.
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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What? No he wasn't ... he was only involved in the English dub. That has nothing to do with the kind of work being an anime director would involve. This is not to dis the English-language actors and directors; they can and do achieve high-quality work. But they're not the ones turning story ideas into animation, which is what the original post in this thread was about. |
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Watashi wa Ryuzaki
Posts: 184 Location: Florida, USA |
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Karl Willems was he anime director for the Death Note English dub, as was Chris Sabat for DBZ. It DOES have much to do with being an anime director. Granted it's easier since the animation is done; but the director must guide the voice actors and must have every line in sync, to perfection.
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Steventheeunuch
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Again, you're missing the point. Foreign language voice direction does not make you an "Anime director" much the same as being an interior decorator does not make you an Architect. What is being discussed here is the actual direction OF animation, which really, you cannot do when the animation is 'done'. |
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Watashi wa Ryuzaki
Posts: 184 Location: Florida, USA |
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No reason to justify what your saying, I get it. I still say a degree in Film-Making is an obvious first step.
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BrentNewhall
 Posts: 31 |
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I don't suppose you have any evidence of this? Please name some anime directors who went to film school. I don't know of any. Off the top of my head, I know Hayao Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, and Akitaro Daichi didn't go to film school. |
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Watashi wa Ryuzaki
Posts: 184 Location: Florida, USA |
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I'm saying if your AMERICAN that is a viable option. No I don't keep track of anime directors, but I myself am knowledgable in the film indistry; and know that attedning film school is a good start to a career in ANY type of directing.
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MrVince
Posts: 67 |
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(comments deleted by author)
Last edited by MrVince on Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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sailornyanko
 Posts: 134 Location: Mexico City |
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I'm not studying a career related in any way to film animation (I'm in med school to be exact and very close to starting internship); but it's really a flip of the coin whether or not going to film school is worth it or not.
Notable mexican director Guillermo del Toro dropped out of film school (I highly reccomend anyone to see Pan's Labyrinth which is one of the most awesomenest movies I've ever seen). Guillermo was just really damn lucky; someone asked him to direct a commercial while he was in the career. He did a very good job even though he stated that wasn't his thing and got better offers. He ultimately never finished the degree but he's now so successful he doesn't need to anymore. Like a lot of people in this kind of industry, he had to do jobs he wasn't particularly fond of to gain curriculum and recognition. I believe he wasn't personally interested in directing Hellboy, but he would have never directed Pan's Labyrinth (which is based on a original story of his) without the $$$. A director could very well fund their own projects at least a few tens of thousands of dollars to spare, but you'd ultimately need someone to promote you; either a person, company or even a country's government (which is the most common way to finance mexican cinema these days). However, film direction and animation direction are probably different (I'm no expert on this because I've never taken art courses even as a university student); but if a person wishes to get into an industry like filmmaking, at least partial completion of the career is needed. Japan requires non citizens to have a finished university degree to have serious chances of getting employment there even as an eikawa. Even if you never really learn anything useful, just having the degree in your hands helps and even the years being in a university grants a person the chance to meet people and to become known. Hrm.. I've heard very poor remarks about seriously learning Japanese using Rosetta Stone on several japanese learning forums on the net; there's far better books out there. Minna wa Nihongo seems to be a very popular series and I've also heard good reviews of the Kanken books (haven't tried them yet though). I'm currently memorizing the kanji using the Heisig method which I personally like. Just look up for forums that focus on the JLPT exams and they are filled with people who will reccomend you good books and methods to go on hand with classroom courses. It's nice to have a teenager's dream but to not end up dying of starvation or moving back with mom & pop and working at a Starbucks after college, you need a real plan now (I assume the original poster is still in high school or something). The OP has better chances if he studies filmmaking in the US, works in many jobs gaining respect (and saving $$$) and eventually partially self funds his anime style show ideas or tries to convince an American studio that a pilot might work. Learning Japanese would be then more of an optional thing (though knowing the language would gain respect and make you seem very serious in your ideals). Learning how much money is seriously needed to make the idea real. Sadly schools waste too much time teaching calculus which is nice for bragging rights, but it isn't useful outside of a few science fields (Medicine not included I assure you; at least I've never needed to know that stuff). On the other hand, schools don't teach students business administration, yet it's well-known that tons of young adults with lots of dreams open independant businesses just to have their dreams crushed and all of their cash in the drain because they didn't know how to manage it. I know someone who knew a guy who spent over 10,000-20,000 US dollars on some fancy music mixing instruments to make an independant electronic music label and ended up selling the machines for only about 20% of the original value in desesperation because the business crashed only a few years later. Now imagine putting a lot of cash to make a few 20 minute episodes of a series along with the cash of a group of other people, mismanage everything and then lose it all. You need to know how many people are needed for each role, their minimum salaries, health insurance, a place to work, materials, etc etc etc. It doesn't sound all colorful but it's the other side of working in animation. In fact, Spirited Away has a very nice extra in the dvd featuring a 20 minute special about the life of the animators while making the film. Very long hours, they still had to pay electricity, gas, phone & water bills in the studio while working on the film and animators had to take turns cooking meals for everyone. All of those expenses have to be carefully calculated times the expected amount of time the animation project will take (months, years???) in the initial budget. As for a Dragon Ball esque plot with mecha, like half of all shounen manga/anime have that plot. The plot in order to stand out would have to be really detailled and interesting (like the anime Fafner which takes a more overly dramatic and human approach to the mecha pilot hero plot that's so common in anime). That isn't to say that the story will necesairly fail in the US; shounen anime sells far better than even the best shoujo series in the US for some reason. But still, the story would have to be very well developed and planned to even waste the time of the producers of an American animation company. It's their money too that is in risk. I'm quite frankly surprised that a company even gave Avatar the green light (but thankful they did because it's a good show). However, look at the show Megas XLR which was an Americanized spoof series on mecha hero anime and while the series has a lot of fans in the US, the studio cancelled it. As for "having" to make your plot animated and made in Japan. Unless you wrote a really big book or comic series of Harry Potter esque fame, I doubt a Japanese studio would give the green light. Too much of a financial risk unless the work is hugely popular in Japan. -- I almost forgot, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was mostly produced in the US. The director was still Japanese, but it's a highly unusual case in which the production was done outside of Japan (and it's really a cool film, I loved it). Just to show that not all anime is fully made in Asia. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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And you would be completely wrong. Guillermo Del Toro is a big Hellboy fan who spent years trying to get the movie made. It was Blade II that helped him land the deal. |
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BrentNewhall
Posts: 31 |
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Okay, lemme clarify my point. In this thread, I see the following general statements:
1. You need a film degree to get into the film industry 2. Okay, some people have made it into the film industry without a film degree. But they're just lucky. Or they don't live here. Or whatever. If it is possible to get into the film industry without a degree, then you don't need a degree to get into the film industry. And if that's true, it's worth investigating the value of that degree. Think of how much practical experience you could get making movies during the years you would spend getting that film degree. I mean no offense to anyone here; I just don't want anyone to think that a film degree is the absolute only way that anyone can ever get into the film industry. For example: If you want to talk anime, I don't know of any anime directors who went to film school. If you want to talk American film, then from what I've researched Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, and Guillermo Del Toro didn't go to film school. (Tarantino's degree in acting and Burton's degree in animation are related to film degrees, though.) Might film school help? Sure! Want to go to film school? Great! Go for it. Just understand that there's more than one path. I'm living proof. |
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komodomitsu
Posts: 7 |
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Yeah, Im also trying hard to get into the anime business, currently writing out the story and creating the art. Been developing out my story for about 7 years now, and I've been drawing since I was about 5, pretty diligent with it I might say since then.
I've actually moved away from the idea of trying to get to Japan and all that Jazz, because I just feel that learning Japanese is kinda a waste of time and too much time when I could be developing my story and art. What I've decided to do is like what some others here said, bring the U.S. animations up to par with Japans. To me its like U.S. has been relying on Japan for this medium of entertainment for a while now and I seek to change all that. What I would like to do basically is make an anime, with all the aspects and styles and feels of the franchise but, just in english first, but also adding that special Hollywood feel to it keeping it very much entertaining for the Americans. Then Hopefully, Japan will recognize the and agree on the quality of its story and ask to take it and dub it in Japanese. Although its not my goal for Japan to take it up, but I hope they will be impressed. My real goal is to tell the world that it is possible for the west to make something better than the Japanese could. And yes my aim is to make a anime even better than they could, even better than say, Code Geass R2. (For those who know what anime is, Naruto is no where near as good) So yeah, all I really want to know is what is the best place to start here in America, and is there any American studios that can produce on their level? |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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But what would make it anime? Anime is not a 'franchise.' Anime is not a genre. Anime is not limited by aspects, styles or feels. Anime is not even a medium. Animation is a medium. Anime is animation that just happens to be produced in Japan (note: produced; not necessarily animated in Japan). |
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BrentNewhall
Posts: 31 |
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First off, komodomitsu, good for you! You demonstrate an admirable tenacity that will take you far.
I think you've got a great plan, if I understand it properly: Produce an anime-style animation here, see if you can interest Japanese companies in it, then use that animation as a gateway into the Japanese animation industry. To answer your question, I don't know of any American animation studios that produce anime-style animation. That said, most American animation production companies outsource all their actual animation work to Japan and Korea anyway. I suspect that, if you started with anime-style character designs and got to work with a good American animation production company, you could subcontract with a Japanese company and tell them to use the Japanese style. This is what Harmony Gold did with the failed Robotech II. Most American animation production companies--as far as I know; I could be wrong--are in California. Do you live there? Check around for animation companies in your area, and see what you can arrange. |
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komodomitsu
Posts: 7 |
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I have to disagree, anime is a style, even there are styles of anime art inside the style of anime itself. Also they act in a certain way and show emotion in a certain way, which would be a style. But your right about how animation in general is a medium and how its not a genre, I guess its just lack of better words.
Really appreciate that man. I am quite confident in my story, alot that I've talked to so far said that I should make into a live action trilogy, because it be long like Lord of the Rings, but I want to use anime to tell the story, for reasons I stated. The plan is to really raise the American animation, giving some hope to people who dream of creating their own story in the anime style. But the quality has to be undoutbably and unignorably (If those are words) amazing for the Japanese to give it a chance, because I do sense just a little bit of discrimination as just a 6th sense, I think there would be some resentment on their half. I know for sure that these animation studios would be in California but are they as good? thats the question right now. I would rather use all American animators because technically Im still relying on the japanese, but being picky is unrealistic. I know that Avatar was made here but you can tell its not quite anime, not because of the voice acting but its style of animation doesnt quite reach it, not quite. I think even some of the animators were Korean. I need a good budget too, I wanna pull all the stops. I know that you could borrow but I think Ill get my own means of financing. |
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