A Comparative Study and Analysis of the Operational Management Factors between Animation and Live-action Films (From a Director's Standpoint)

The movie directors can be considered as the key creators, as well as the main bodies accountable for movies. Therefore, having a deep knowledge and grasp of the fundamental expressive elements of cinema, becomes a crucial requirement for the directors. The directors of live-action movies or the animations can add to the expressive possibilities of both media if they deeply understand the specific potentials of these two and combine them with their artistic creativity and imagination. From the film production perspective, the main role of the director is to provide the necessary conditions in which all the production team can utilize the best of their professional skills and creativities to materialize and substantiate the goals of the project. So it can be concluded that the more extensive the role of the directors in their films or the more they can bring the production team to their thoughts, the more they can approach their mentality and concepts. The ternary stages of production are Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. One of the differences between directing Animation films and live action ones concerns the difference in the ternary stages of production. Complications of the stages of production in Animation compared with live action films are due to the presence of many production factors and artists who play different key roles. In the ternary stages of production and making an Animation film, many persons who shall be referred to later perform many different processes and those with more importance shall be investigated. Pre-production Stages such as selecting the production factors, scheduling for the production stage and provisions are carried out in the pre-production-stage, but the most important stage is creating the scenario. Writing this includes literary scenario or “screen play”, directing scenario or “script”, and making illustrative scenario “story board”. The production stage starts after the storyboard/ Leica reel (Pre-visualization) is prepared. Directing live action films after the preliminary stages, during the pre-production stage, in the production stage starts with these questions: Where should I put the camera? What should I tell the actors? What is the scene about? and etc. These are the most important questions that the directors have to answer. But in Animation films, the questions like these would be thought in advance, and in the storyboard. The aim of this research is to ‘locate’ the position of the directors in managing various stages and aspects of the production process and the ways they may supervise primary and secondary axis of the production project in a comparative study between animation and live-action films. The outcomes of this paper include: 1) Identifying and comparing the three stages of film production in animations and live-action movies; 2) Locating and categorizing the main production factors in animation and live-action films; 3) Comparing and analyzing the roles and duties of the responsible in various stages of film production and the pros-and-cons of their interaction with the director; and 4) A comparative investigation and analysis of the director’s role in supervising primary and secondary axis of production inanimation and live-action films.