Sweetwater tells you the difference between Live Action and Animation Script Writing
When Sweetwater wrote her Native American lesbian novel The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler many years ago, she had in mind animated film. When you read the novel, it should be understandable that it was formatted for an easy adaptation for a full-length animated feature film. Just the way she designed the characters and the settings are proof enough that animation is clearly represented and why the idea of an animated screenplay scripted by Sweetwater in the book-to-film adaptation easily fits into this fascinating new age category of cinema.
Animation stories are developed pretty much the same as in live action. It’s the differences that are important to understand. Animation is a much more uniquely visual medium than live action. Most live-action scripts require no special description for what’s taking place on the screen, although Sweetwater's live-action scripts are hugely and accurately descriptive packed in detailed, artistic value. In fact, all of Sweetwater's scripts are so descriptive, that it makes her high-budget Hollywood films stand out as unique and one-of-a-kind. In animation where the visuals are very often something we’ve never seen before, so they can’t be described in a few words. Animation scenes are like eight times as many words, but it gives you a complete visual image with little need for interpretation. By its very nature, animation requires more description to effectively communicate the visual. So the key difference between an animated and live-action script is that an animation script usually contains more detailed scene description.
What this means is that if an animation writer doesn’t describe it—and describe it precisely—the chances are it won’t appear on the screen, at least not the way she/he imagined it. This is because unlike in live action, there’s an animation director, but deals more with visual continuity and less with story continuity. The descriptions need to be precise enough to survive translation. And the rest is up to the voice actors.
The time is right for Sweetwater to adapt The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler for an animated story on screen. It's just something she's always wanted to do, and The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler is one of those rare stories that lends itself to animation. Sweetwater says "it's all about thinking ahead when writing your stories. Think film."
The Buckskin Skirt Oar Traveler will translate well animated in film. Sweetwater is looking forward to it with both of her oars in the water.
—Sage Sweetwater
