Gatekeeping Indie animation: “Must Meet Standards” | Indie Animation with Pan

In my previous blog post, I talked about gatekeeping in indie animation because ‘someone who worked in the industry can’t be indie’. It’s kind of a toxic position held by the Twitter Animator type, and in some cases, it’s clearly just envy.

But… there’s another side to this. The gatekeeping that’s coming from, well, largely the same people, funnily enough.

There’s this expectation beginning to brew that, for an indie series to be ‘worth funding/watching’, it must meet a certain standard. And that standard may as well be ‘animation produced for cable television’ at this point. And honestly, that’s not fair. Industry professionals, big budgets, and a star-studded cast are slowly becoming an unrealistic expectation from the audience.

It breeds this gap, divide, between indie creators. At the top there’s a handful of super successful indies, because they kicked the whole thing off. They get the lion’s share of the attention, because they were first to the table. And then we go lower, to the seasoned creators, those with the expendable income, with connections, all the way down to the budding creator with none of those things.

Of course any industry is like that… and there’s still more than those resources I just mentioned, because a show does need to catch a broad enough audience’s interest to blow up like that. Don’t think I’m undervaluing that.

But since 2019, with the release of that one pilot, it seems something’s shifted. It set a new standard with the audience.

Frankly, a standard that newcomers to the game – whether they be industry professionals or hopeful dummies like me – cannot adhere to.

Back in the Newgrounds days, there were zero expectations. People thought it was super cool you could manage to produce something that moved from your home computer in general. Of course, the internet, advancement in tech, and the fact that the tools for creation are becoming more accessible to non-industry people, has led to an increased level of “professionality” too – we’ve seen this before. Independent films, indie games… hell, even YouTubers have upped the production value game tenfold. “Monetize every single one of your hobbies or die trying” is the new standard because jobs don’t pay enough to survive anymore.

It’s just the way it is, I suppose. But there’s still… this air of dismissiveness towards indie animation that I haven’t noticed in any other creative scene, and trust me, I’ve been around.

This desire to have cable-tv quality animation… for free.

It’s encouraged people to set up entirely volunteer crews. Like a pirate ship, full of… college and probably high school students who have no idea how to sail, and their captain knows… well, most captains of these ships know about as much as the crew.

There’s exceptions, but very few.

Hopeful youngsters come runnin’ to these captains, thinking they’re going to sail off to richness and fame.

And then the ship ends up on the rocks and sinks. It’s happened countless times already.

And why? All because they’re trying to aim for that standard. They want to be the next big thing, buuuut without none of the risk that comes with investing in a new business.

…Because that’s how you end up like me, completely burnt out after finishing a whole pilot episode by yourself and realizing that putting all of your savings into an animation project no one really cares about yet isn’t the best way to go about it. My ship’s currently on the rocks, too, whilst the dumbass captain catches his breath and recovers from his idiot endeavour. But at least my crew got paid.

So whilst it’s great that indie animation, the bigguns, has inspired so many youngsters to get into animation, it’s set the wrong expectation. I wish there were more shows like Eddsworld. Short. Simple. Sweet. And hugely popular, but… not… as huge as… well, ya know. Them.

Still, it gets millions of views per episode and has been running (on and off) for 21 years.

Of course I found myself in this trap, too – I insisted on making Swift Spark a ‘proper action show’. That’s because the comic’s always been story-driven as well. Its original run was 700+ pages long.

I’ve stepped back from Swift Spark for the time being as I focus on other things – because I need to make more money than I currently do if I want to move forward in life – but if I eventually do come back to an animated iteration, I want to take a look at what I can do differently.

I could definitely benefit from learning to write shorter material. Making animated shorts is a talent all on its own, because 2-3 minutes to tell a compelling story isn’t much. Props to writers that can.

I’m happy to see that creators are shifting. Shorter content, animatics instead of fully animated episodes (putting all of those funds at risk or having volunteers slave over it) – we need to turn this ‘trend’ indie animation’s got going for it in the small creator’s favour if we want to have it grow, so that they too can have a shot.

Like indie games and webcomics. A somewhat unpolished indie game can still blow up because it’s fun to play. Why can’t an unpolished indie series?

I’ve seen creators mocked because their work wasn’t as good as ‘the golden standard’, always being one of those series. And I say ‘piss off’ to those folks. How do you expect a series from a budding creator or a small team with limited funds to match that?

 Stop telling aspiring animators that the only way to be seen is to make basically TV-quality animation for free. And animators, stop thinking that the only way your work deserves to be seen is if it meets that standard.

That’s gatekeeping too. Indie animation should be a place to tell the stories the industry is afraid to because their old white investors won’t part with their money.

Who the hell cares if it’s stick figures. Tell your story. And even if no one listens…

You can still say, ‘I made that.’

And then you make something else. And something else. And something else.

A couple years down the line, you may look back, and realize you now have the funds to bring that original vision you had come to life.

But you never will if you never try.

And new creators will never ‘grow to meet that standard’ that some folks seem to have set for indie animation if they’re never given the chance to. So…

Let them. Indie animation doesn’t have to have professionals. It doesn’t mean they’re not welcome in our space, but there should be just as much room for the hobbyist, the beginner, the newcomer.

Give your story time. It doesn’t have to come out tomorrow. You don’t need a 200-volunteer-crew to slave on it all day and night.

Just do the best you can do, in the way only you can. And fuck what anyone else has to say about it.