The scripts have translated into boards which, when assembled into their animatics, come in around 7:30. That's pretty accurate writing! That's pretty clear boarding!
However, There was a moment which I remember where I sort of lost focus on scripts. I believe it was around the time the animation department started up. There may have also been a bit of script fatigue. I use this term to describe losing touch with my own rules on what is necessary for the story. (There are 39 of them you know.)
Anyway, by not concentrating as hard as I should have I had a few animatics come in at a whopping 9:40!
9:40 on a 7:00 show is quite significant. (Please note the page count in the scripts were still 10-11 pages which has been standard throughout the season.) But thankfully it only took a couple of days to get the animatic cut back down to time without sacrificing the story. This was with very minimal re-boarding and only a few additional pick ups. How was this possible you may ask?
I asked myself that same question and have come to the conclusion that because our stories follow a strict 3 act structure everything I needed to tell the story was there. Mr. King has his like that leads to his Big Think. His Big Think leads to a few mishaps as a result. His Thoughtful Think where his reflection leads to his resolution. It's there in every script. So what I ended up cutting was some funny dialogue, some business with secondary characters which was fun but didn't significantly advance the story.
Animatics in both of these cases were sent out for notes at our standard rough cut time. Notes from the group were minimal and not unlike any other episode I've sent out.
*Though Mr. King is an internally produced series I believe that by having a good story structure with clear characters in place you will be able to solve many challenges whether dealing with internal or external clients.
