Amazon.co.uk are soon to release book for animation writers by Nancy Beiman. This book covers the first stages of a animated film from story and character development through storyboarding to pitching and animatics. The book has already received a 5 star average rating from US readers. Nancy has 20 years experience in the animation business having worked on everything from Beavis and Butthead to Disney's Hercules.
http://www.aceanim.com/Shop.php?ID=0240808207
Today I stumbled across (with some help from the Stoic Talk newsletter) a series of resources for script writers. This would have been brilliant about 2 years ago when I was evolving the script for the Flea Circus for which the review process consisted of a series of discussions down the pub or ideas thought up whilst wandering with a cigar. These were followed by a revision of the script followed by more discussions weeks later. Of course the actual reading out loud of the script was the greatest test of it's quality and Olivier who voiced the Ring Master made some on the fly changes when he did the reading.
So you don't make my mistakes, here's some links.
New Producers Alliance
Straight Curve
The Script Factory
The NPA is a charity with a series of events including the script tank, "after reading, the writer and/or producer/director are given feedback and constructive criticism aimed at helping them to redraft and market their work"
Straight Curve is a company that provides training on script writing, comedy, sound and general film making. It also has facilities available.
The Script Factory claims to be Europe's Premier Script Development Organisation and provides networking and training for script writers as well as a Script Writing Diploma course.
