Animation I COVID-19 | Freelance Copywriter Video

Animation takes you into another world without limitations (apart from your budget). As Stanley Kubrick once said, ‘If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed’. With animation, this is even more true. And with COVID-19, it’s been an obvious way forward.

Highly-technical? Character-led? Beyond the realms of fantasy? There’s no stopping you. In a nutshell ….. 2D animations can explain a service or promote a product. 3D animated films and TV ads get you to another level and even closer to reality. Explainer videos can articulate a product or service clearly, engage with customers and are successful in converting.

Back in March, Will Lion, managing partner at BBH London, wrote to CNBC clients declaring ‘We are ready to go with … animation, illustration, CGI (computer-generated images), VFX (visual effects), motion graphics, compositing, stock footage, user-generated footage and more’. He showcased the potential of thinking this way, without needing shoots with an ad campaign for Audi, produced using CGI, and ads for the Guardian using text.

Since March, our screens have been filled with ads shot by drones and ones made out of social-media videos. But it’s not just adland that’s had to think more creatively: the final episode of The Blacklist combined animation with live action so that it could be aired as coronavirus had put an end to filming. A brilliant solution that just needed the actors to record new dialogue from home.

Disney, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. have all been hard at work with shows like The Simpsons doing virtual table reads and the composer of the Family Guy getting musicians to play their instruments from home to create a score remotely.

Animators can work remotely, though the downside is having to deal with internet connections and large file sizes. It’s not just animators that have stood to benefit; there’s been a huge increase in work for voiceover artists too provided they have decent enough facilities at home (even if it means recording while being in a wardrobe in the quest for being sound-proof). I was recently on a Zoom call for a VO recording and it wasn’t easy, with sibilance and fluffs that weren’t actually there.

Upside of animation

- - - You can tell any story you want with complete control over time length.
    - Do anything. Go anywhere. Be anyone. Be simple. Be complex.

Downside of animation

- - - You need to decide on a style first and it needs to be animated well.
    - The cost can vary wildly, depending on how intricate the animation is, with a 90 second animation being anything from £10, 000 upwards.
    - You need to make sure the storyboard is fully approved before the animator starts – there are lots of stages to go through so any changes down the line will prove pricey.

Coronovirus has been bad news for the film industry. Will we run out of TV shows, films and commercials because of the impossibility of having live-action shoots? Hopefully not. One of my clients, Cavendish Health Diagnostics, put together a panel of medical experts relied on by the Government, WHO and PHE, and has been working closely with major production houses to maintain a safe and healthy environment for performers and crew so that film sets don’t turn into field hospitals.

Those blockbusters may be on our screens in the near future after all. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy my short: as a freelance copywriter, I’m all about words and ideas (and the book I’d take to a desert island has to be a Roget’s Thesaurus). I commissioned two young creatives to bring this essence to life.

Animation by Lola Skeet @lolapascale_animation
Sound by Conrad Barrington