Their 15 Minutes: Animation Screenwriters See Shrinkage

BY Patricia Bailey

The 15-minute animation episode is the Haiku of scriptwriting, observes veteran screenwriter Terry McGurrin.
 
“They are harder to write (than 30-minute ones). All the same elements must be present but you have far less room to accomplish what needs to be done,” says the story editor on Scaredy Squirrel and the writer behind Total Drama Musical, Stoked and 6teen.

Conceiving of a 15-minute animation segment is intense and demanding work. And while writers will often get paid less for shorter episodes, penning a 15-minute story is as complex as a 30-minute one.

“Most half-hour shows request scripts to come in around 31 pages. Fifteen-minute shows seem to want around 22 pages,” says McGurrin. “I feel pretty comfortable saying that given the choice, every writer would rather work on a 30-minute show than a 15-minute one. Double the money for eight or nine extra pages. Hell ya.”

Yet in the last couple of years, the 15-minute episode is what most screenwriters working in animation are being asked to write.

According to Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) statistics, in 2009 roughly 74 per cent of all animation full-script contracts were for 15-minute episodes, up from 61 per cent in 2008. Producers save money commissioning 15-minute segments: the median fee for a half-hour script is $7,500, but for a 15-minute one it's $3,500. Do the math and it's pretty clear writing a half hour of material in two segments nets the writer $7,000 compared to $7,500 for a 30-minute contract.

Not only do writers get paid less for writing shorter segments, they sweat bullets trying to fit a fully developed character and story into such a short time frame. “It can certainly make our job twice as hard, each segment has to have an arc,” says Gemini Award winning writer Robert Pincombe, who has written preschool shows such as Caillou and frenetic comedies such as Jimmy Two Shoes, Atomic Betty and Jacob Two-Two. “Once you are past 40 episodes, you have to light a little shrine to the creativity gods.”

“On all the shows I’ve worked on the broadcasters have always insisted on focusing on “What is the story?” and “Who are the characters?” even in a 15-minute format. If anything, I’m usually asked to include more material than this shorter format can reasonably carry,” says the executive story editor on Jimmy Two-Shoes Alex Galatis. “In a shorter format, less is definitely more… and everyone always wants more.”

Fifteen-minute segments are laborious because they are action packed, explains McGurrin. “The character must clearly state his or her goal for the episode, encounter an obstacle that prevents him or her from accomplishing that goal, make one or more failed attempts to overcome it, figure out how to succeed, overcome the obstacle and then win (or comically lose),” says the writer.  “When you only have 11 minutes to fit those beats in, there's no time to goof around. If you're writing preschool stuff maybe you can get away with a fairly straightforward story but anything aimed at an older audience also has to be really funny, character driven and provide a few surprises along the way.”

The typical TV animation series is 26 half-hour episodes. If the segments are 15 minutes long the writer has to deliver a massive amount of material, starting with pitches for 52 half episodes. Each of these pitches must be approved at the outline, first draft, second draft and polish stage. “That's five approvals per script, 260 approvals per season, double if you have two broadcasters. In the half-hour format, you only have 130 approvals,” says Galatis.

What's behind the increase in fifteen minute episodes? Are broadcasters, traumatized by the shock of the recession and the looming demands of the third screen, tightening their belts?

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