David Levy’s Animation Development

I’ve just read David Levy’s new book Animation Development: From Pitch to Production and it’s a must-read for anyone who plans to create a show for television. I am a huge fan of David’s first book, Your Career In Animation: How To Survive and Thrive and I particularly love Levy’s down-to-Earth, easy-to-digest writing style, peppered with humor and loaded with truth. This time Levy focuses in on what you should expect, how you should proceed and lots of sound advice on the animation development process – using his own experiences and choice quotes from all those who have been there – development execs, creators, artists and writers. It’s illustrated with examples of actual pitch bibles and development art, and he takes you through every step in the process – from securing legal services, through pitch meetings to producing a pilot.

I’ve been there myself, on both sides of the table, as both a development exec and as a creator and producer – so I can assure you that David has nailed the process from soup to nuts (the “nuts” being certain network TV big-wigs). If you can’t make the panel at SVA in NYC (mentioned in the post below), order the book and learn about the process from the inside. Highly recommended.