TAG Blog

No More Lunch Times!

2012-02-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

A Republican State Representative in New Hampshire has found a way to create a new front in the war on workers, proposing a bill that would repeal the state’s law requiring that workers get a 30-minute lunch break after five hours of labor.

State Rep. J.R. Hoell (R), a supporter of libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) for president, told a New Hampshire General Court committee this week that he believes the law is unnecessary because it is in employers’ interest to treat workers well, according to The Concord Monitor. ...

I think we should go further than that.

Let's abolish safety laws, since it's in an employer's interest to keep workers safe.

Let's abolish food safety laws because, gee whiz, it's in the food producers' interests to, you know, not have icky food.

In fact, now that I think of it, bank laws are stupid. Because it's in a bank's interest to stay solvent. (And if one overreaches and goes bankrupt, it will have to suffer the free-market consequences. Oh, wait! ...)

But now allow me a counter-argument, from personal experience.

Back in the prosperous nineties, I got into an argument with a Disney exec who took exception to my complaints about employees having a "working lunch" from twelve to noon. When I pointed out that if Feature Animation was making the merry workers attend a meeting, then it wasn't really "lunch."

Her response was: "But we're supplying food!"

(A second exec finally conceded my point that it wasn't really a "lunch break.")

So, when I run across an Ayn Rand disciple who maintains that things will be much better if we just got rid of all the rules and regulations and let our fine conglomerates (and everyone else) pursue their enlightened self-interest, my answer is always monotonously the same:

Uh ... no.

Not Rumplestiltskin

2012-02-09T11:37:00.001-08:00

They've had a project at Walt Disney Animation Studios that I haven't uttered a peep about. But Disney animator Patrick Osborne says:

We’re finishing up a rather exciting project [titled "Ppaperman"] at Disney in the next few weeks. It’s been keeping me pretty busy and away from this blog. The short, Directed by John Kahrs will be heading out there sometime next year.

We’re very proud of this one and can’t wait to show the world. ...

They should be proud. Because the look of it is terrific, and unlike anything else out there.

I've had the good fortune to be shown clips of the piece referenced above for the last several months. Nobody can tell me when it will be released, but I imagine that the Mouse won't sit on it very long.

Watch for it. (Rope of Sand references the project here.)

Brian Boylan @ Gallery 839

2012-02-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

BRIAN BOYLAN

opens Friday, February 10 * 6 pm

Gallery 839 Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank

Homeric Homage

2012-02-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

One of our entertainment trade papers celebrates the Yellow Family:

"The Simpsons came from the old world of television ... Fox was an upstart, it was just the big three networks and The Cosby Show was still dominant. And now, 23 years later, we’re living in this world of 650,000 channels and literally nine cake shows. And yet The Simpsons is still with us. It’s probably the only real bridge from the old world of media into the new world of media." ...

-- Conan O'Brien

Fox, strangely enough, is the only network that has built prime-time animated shows into franchises. Kudos to Fox.

Today I was up at Starz Media, home of The Simpsons animation staff, and an artist who's worked on three different Fox cartoon shows told me:

Working on Seth's shows are all right, but I think I like it here better. At Fox Animation, the writers are all on site, and more of the energy and attention goes to them. Here, we're in a different building from the writers and producers, and it's all artists and directors. And it feels different.

"Administration gives you more of their attention. They ask if you need something, if they can make the process better for you. That never happened to me at Fox. The artists were always several notches down in the pecking order." ...

There are staffers on The Simpsons who have been with the show from the beginning, and others who have been on board for seventeen, eighteen and nineteen years. To work on a single show for decades is unprecedented. And almost all of the long-term staffers know how lucky they are, and remark on it.

Rango Award March Continues

2012-02-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

The Annies, now Viz Effects Society awards.

"Rango" was the big winner at Tuesday night's VES Awards, winning four awards from the Visual Effects Society for its effects, character creation, created environment and virtual cinematography. ...

So Rango is a shoo-in for The Little Gold Man in the "best animated feature" category, right? How can it end any other way?

Wood Print Animation

2012-02-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

The Chinese have an entrant in the Berlin International Film Festival.

Young Chinese artist Sun Xun's latest wood-print animated film, "Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined yet in the Revolution," has been nominated for competition in the Berlinale Shorts section in the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival (BIFF). ... [I]n the past 14 years, no Chinese animation short has been screened at the festival.
"After so many years of absence, it's really exciting for Chinese animation to be entering the Berlin International Film Festival again," said ShangArt Gallery, which promotes Sun's works. ...

I searched the intertubes for a clip of the short, but didn't find one. The still frame, however, looks intriguing.

DreamWorks Animation's Animated Video Games

2012-02-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

The company is doing bit of licensing:

D3Publisher has secured the ... rights to develop and publish the video games based on the upcoming DreamWorks Animation feature films Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rise of the Guardians in 2012 and The Croods in 2013. ...

I'm so old that I can remember when DreamWorks, youthful and full of ambition (and residing on the Universal lot), had its own video game division.

The year was 1996. And the developers were up on the top floor of an office building on Lankershim Boulevard (with feature animation trainees directly below) -- just up the street from the Black Tower. Back then, DreamWorks was many things: live-action movies; live action television shows; animated television shows; animated features.

On top of which, they were making video games.

What a difference sixteen years make. Here we are in 2012 and DreamWorks as originally conceived is no more. The live-action feature division is now housed at Disney (after earlier residing at Paramount. The movie studio once envisioned to rise near the coast at Playa Vista was never built.)

Live-action television shows are no more, while animated shows -- mostly spin-offs of the features -- are farmed out to sub-contractors.

The video games? The development group on Lankershim Boulevard is long gone, and the division long since shuttered. Licensees get all the action now.

On the brighter side, the feature animation part of the business became its own corporate entity, with two separate studios in California and a satellite facility in India. And all the founders are rich.

I ... am VFX Soldier

2012-02-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight marks the 10th time the Visual Effects Society has gathered to present their awards for achievement and recognition. As I was sitting by Twitter eagerly awaiting news of results, this caught my attention:

@neonmarg
Good day for a reminder that we all need to be @VFXSoldier 's, fighting to improve conditions for #vfx artists

Most of my recent conversations regarding unionization of visual effects end up in a discussion of why organizing is important. Usually, this begins by discussions of the Hot-Button topic of the day (Health and Pension plans, job protection, globalization, etc) but always end up in a dialog about the purpose of collective action and why standing together and organizing should be important to all artists.

At the core of the work relationship between artist and employer, there is a symbiotic relationship based on need. Shop Owners *need* artists for their experience, skill and talent. Artists *need* shop owners for their ability supply employment by successfully bidding on (or creating) work. This basic relationship is mutually beneficial and co-dependent. As long as the shop owner has work, the artists will keep working .. and as long as the artists keep applying their skill, the shop owner will be recognized as successful and continue to get work.

Union contracts like ours use the collective leverage that comes from the above mentioned core relationship to establish boundaries against owners seeking profit at the expense of artists. Our contracts set standards and conditions that artists have input in drafting. Effectively this resets the artist/owner relationship back to that core where both sides stand on equal footing with regards to the items stipulated in the contract.

Artists not only have to talk about this, artists have to stand up and demand this. There are precious few shop owners I know that are willing to open their hearts to unionization. Organization has to come from within and eventually be demanded by artists.

Artists need to learn what the union is, what it can do, and why collectively they are a dominant force in the industry. While we are able to talk to that, the message spreads more effectively and is better understood when it comes from within the community. None has done a finer job of this than the anonymous artist known as VFX Soldier.

For his efforts in maintaining and contributing to his blog, and discussions across the internet, his identity is constantly sought out. Jeff Heusser's tweet tries to tell us, the identity of VFX Soldier isn't important, his message is. Jeff also understands that in order for the industry to stop using artists as a means to speed up the race to the bottom, we all have to identify with VFX Soldier and stand for the same cause.

I've been questioned countless times by artists, friends and shop owners if I am VFX Soldier. While I can not say I am the blog author, I hope you start to say with me "We are all VFX Soldier. I Am VFX Soldier."

(if you are interested in the pin pictured at the top of this post, email me and I will try to find one for you)

2012 Los Angeles Animation Festival Lineup

2012-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Animation Festival has announced their 2012 lineup in a press release today. The festival will be held on March 7-11 at the Regent Showcase theater. Ticket availability will be announced on their website and twitter feed.

Read the full press release after the break.

The beloved Los Angeles Animation Festival (LAAF) returns for its 3rd annual event with new screenings of animated feature films & shorts from around the world, exclusive panels, and parties celebrating the animation community. The Festival will run from Wednesday, March 7th through Sunday, March 11th at the historic Regent Showcase in Hollywood. LAAF announced they have enlisted longtime LAAF supporter, Sean Lennon, as Artistic Director and will honor Bill Plympton at this year’s festival.

This year’s Artistic Director, Sean Lennon, has been a supporter of LAAF from its inception. Lennon is an admirer and connoisseur of great animation, even working as an animator on his music video Would I Be The One, inspired by Fantastic Planet which was screened at the first LAAF for Lennon, as it’s a film that resonates through much of his art and music. This year, LAAF will screen the film again, with an entirely live score featuring six musicians and five actors on stage. Lennon has also hand selected several films this year which have not been screened in quite some time. Lennon will personally introduce these unique films which have impacted him and his career.

Events honoring Bill Plympton will include the West Coast premiere of Adventures in Plymptoons, a documentary on Plympton’s career by Alexia Anastasio, and a special screening of Plympton’s first animated feature film, The Tune, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Additional events include a cast and crew screening of The Iron Giant; a revival of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Team America: World Police; a screening of Shrek honoring its 10th Anniversary and it’s win of the first Oscar® for Animated Feature; a behind the scenes look at the making of web sensation Dick Figures which currently has 85 million views and counting; and MTV’s Liquid Television-sponsored event featuring classic and new material from this iconic brand.

“Beyond celebrating the world of animation, LAAF provides up and coming animators the opportunity to connect with industry professionals and showcase their work,” said John Andrews, LAAF Founder & Co-Director. “This year we’re excited to honor one of the greats of animation, Bill Plympton, whose work and independent career have inspired so many of us in the field of animation.”

“We’re so proud LAAF is celebrating its 3rd year and has developed into the biggest international Animation Festival in California,” said Miles Flanagan, LAAF Founder & Co-Director. “This has been a labor of love for us, and we’re so thrilled to have such an amazing line-up at the festival, and the vision of this year’s Artistic Director, Sean Lennon.”

FESTIVAL COMPETITION

MTV’s Liquid Television is sponsoring a competition offering a $5,000 development deal. This year’s complete contest categories include Best Short (20 minutes or less), Best Feature, Best TV episode (11-30 minutes), Best Animated Music Video and the special category, Best “Animation on the Edge”. This category is sponsored by MTV’s Liquid Television and looks to recognize an animator’s work that is on the cutting edge of humor, story-telling or technique aimed at a teen or adult audience. Selected entries will play before each of the festival programs. All category winners will receive Toonboom software packages. Details on entering can be found at www.laafest.com. All entries must be postmarked by February 14, 2012.

NOTABLE PROGRAMMING & LINE-UP

Wednesday March 7

Opening Night Party: Hosted by Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) featuring celebrities on stage, and live band Nylon Pink. Teaser reels of LAAF and cartoon contributions from Jerry Beck.

Thursday March 8

Akira: presented by Sean Lennon.

Friday March 9 The Iron Giant: Special Charity Screening with cast and crew. MTV and Titmouse present Liquid Television past and present.

Saturday March 10 Dick Figures: Six Point Harness presents the web sensation—with cast & crew LIVE recording. Cal Arts: Special current and historical screening. World Premiere of Adventures in Plymptoons: with honoree Bill Plympton and director, Alexia Anastasio. Shrek 10th Anniversary and Oscar® Celebration Event: Gala, special event and feature screening. A Monster in Paris: West Coast premiere with cast. Team America: World Police with special guests from the film.

Sunday March 11 Asifa-Hollywood presents the screening of a classic animated feature. LAAF Awards Ceremony and 20th Anniversary Screening of Honoree Bill Plympton’s The Tune: Plympton will accept award in person. Fantastic Planet: Presented by Sean Lennon with live score by Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound.

Passes to attend the festival will be available shortly to the general public. Festival passes provide access to all screenings, events, panels and receptions. For details, visit www.laafest.com. Festival passes and tickets to all individual events can also be purchased in person at the Regent Showcase beginning on Wed 7th March.

The Chris Miller Interview -- Part II

2012-02-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

Chris Miller joined PDI/DreamWorks at the tail end of the 1990s, and has been with the company ever since ...

TAG Interview with Chris Miller

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Part of the original Shrek's story team, Mr. Miller moved up to story director on Shrek II and then director for Shrek III. Recently completing Puss in Boots, he lauds the picture's story and production teams ... and points out how every feature he's worked on as been a group creation. (Puss crossed the "$500 million box office gross" threshold last week.)

This Means ... WAR

2012-02-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

Disheartening:

The Simpsons are corroding the morals of Iranian youth, an official said on Monday, as dolls based on Bart, Homer and the rest of the American cartoon family joined the shapely Barbie among Western toys targeted by a new crackdown in Tehran.

"The Simpsons dolls are merchandise from an animated series, of which some episodes are even banned in Europe and America," Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, whose agency oversees what Iranian children can play with, told the Sharq newspaper. He did not elaborate on what episodes might have been censored elsewhere. ...

Forget about the nukes. Forget the terrorist activities hither and yon. The Iranians (our new Enemy of the Month) are banning Homer, Bart and the rest of the Yellow Family. Launch the bombers! Mobilize the troops!

Wreck-It

2012-02-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

On the intertubes I spy images for a big-budget animated feature ...

Wandering around le building de hat (otherwise known as the Roy E. Disney Building), artists have been kind enough to show me some of the props and other handiwork from Ralph.

I'm not going to regale you with descriptions here, but since these images have found their way onto the web, I'll take the opportunity to say I think the picture -- based on the visuals -- is gonna be more than okay. I know they are hiring more crew to get it to your local Bijou and AMC this coming November, and we are always pleased when more people are working.

The Chris Miller Interview -- Part I

2012-02-06T00:06:00.000-08:00

Before becoming the successful feature animation director he is today, Chris Miller spent four years at Cal Arts with the likes of Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Mike Mitchell and other artists he found to be "really impressive and talented." ...

TAG Interview with Chris Miller

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Chris graduated from C.A. at the start of the nineties, and found his first job with Ralph Bakshi on the animated/live-action feature Cool World. He counts the time spent working on that film as "a tremendous learning experience." It turned out to be the first of a wide variety of film assignments that Mr. Miller had during the decade ...

Arriety From Studio Ghibli

2012-02-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

The WSJ details Diz Co's oncoming animated release:

... Disney hopes to boost Studio Ghibli's box-office punch with the English-language release of "The Secret World of Arrietty" ...

Disney will open "Arrietty" on at least 1200 screens, in what will be its largest Ghibli release in the U.S. As comparison, "Ponyo" opened on about 900 screens, and "Spirited Away" opened on 750 screens.

"I just want to do everything I can to help make sure people can go see them because they're just magnificent films that are very different than any other animated films these days," [John] Lasseter said in an interview. ...

If The Secret World of Arriety get any kind of traction at the box office, the Mouse will probably consider it a victory.

Forty million? More?

Foreign B.O. in February

2012-02-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

One of our fine trade papers tells us that Brad Bird's spy movie is prospering.

... Total foreign gross for the Tom Cruise vehicle [Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol] has flown past the $400-million mark ($422.3 million) ...

And a selection of animated features continues to generate bucks. ...

DreamWorks Animation/Paramount’s Puss In Boots, had a $5.3 million weekend for a $367.4 million total around the globe. ... Disney's Beauty and the Beast 3-D collected $1.4 million, ... and Alvin and the Chipmunks:Chipwrecked made $4.4 million for a total of $189.8 million.

Worldwide totals:

Puss in Boots -- $507.2 million

The Adventures of Tintin -- $367.1 million

Alvin and the Chipmunks -- $316.6 million

Beauty and the Beast 3D -- $49.1 million

The Annie Festivities

2012-02-04T22:33:00.001-08:00

Now with Add On!

Many awards handed out, which may or may not presage who gets the Little Gold Man a few weeks hence.

Rango was named best animated feature ... with Jennifer Yuh Nelson earning the best direction award for Kung Fu Panda 2, which won a second Annie for production design. The Adventures of Tintin also collected a pair Annies, for music and animated effects.

The Winsor McCay award went to Borge Ring, and Walt Peregoy and Ronald Searle. Peregoy did not disappoint. He provided the evening with a salty (taped) acceptance speech.

(Art Leonardi, winner of the June Foray award, can be heard telling his life story here and here.)

Add On: Gore Verbinski weighs in about animated features and the people who make them:

“It feels like I’m being let into a secret society,” Rango director Gore Verbinski told The Hollywood Reporter at his first Annie (Animation) Awards ...

“They collaborate in such a massive way that you don’t really get in live action,” he said of the makers of animated movies. “In live action, as a director you are more of a preserved voice. In animation there are people who really put their egos aside and real collaborate toward a vision that isn’t diluted or compromised by that collaboration. It is a very specific type of person (who works in animation).” ...

Pirating Oscar Hopefuls

2012-02-04T17:31:00.001-08:00

Last week I got into a conversation with a studio exec, who conceded that video piracy was a permanent reality that companies like his would have to deal with. ...

Along those lines, Waxy dot com discusses how many nominees for The Little Golden Man get filched for on-line viewing, and when:

Every year, the MPAA tries desperately to stop Oscar screeners -- the review copies sent to Academy voters -- from leaking online. And every year, teenage boys battling for street cred always seem to defeat whatever obstacles Hollywood throws at them.

... A record 37 films were nominated this year, and the studios sent out screeners for all but four of them. But, so far, only eight of those 33 screeners have leaked online ...

Whatever the reason, online movie releasing groups are taking longer to pirate movies than ever. When I first started tracking releases in the early- to mid-2000s, the median time between theatrical release to its first leak online was 1 to 2 days. Now, that number's crept up to over three weeks. ...

Which isn't to say that piracy isn't a growing problem, it is. As anyone with rudimentary knowledge of the amounts of money flowing into coffers other than the content owners' can tell you.

At last Tuesday's membership, a representative for the MPAA and the major guilds and unions made a presentation about the billions that are lost to internet pirates. He began by conceding that the current raft of internet piracy legislation is dead. Some members voiced their opinions that it's a good thing that SOPA and PIPA went belly up, and some of the shortcomings of the congressional bills were acknowledged.

But piracy is still a major threat that gnaws into profit margins ... and by extension, into the cash flows that feed union health and pension plans.

No matter how you slice it, movie companies and attendant movie guilds are taking it in the shorts as delivery pipelines change and content value is siphoned off through illegal means. Corporations will need to adapt to changing realities by working with the new internet power players and reconfiguring business models. If they stand pat, they run the risk of ending up like the larger, more powerful record companies we once knew, bought vinyl and silver disks from, and loved:

In receivership.

Watch the Annies tonight!

2012-02-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

In case you forgot, TAG is hosting a live-stream feed of the 2012 Annie awards being held tonight at 7:00pm. Make yourself comfortable and point your browser to the page linked below:

http://animationguild.org/2012-annie-awards/

Early February Steeple Chase

2012-02-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

The Nikkster provides numbers:

1. The Woman in Black (CBS Films) NEW [2,855 Theaters] Est Friday $8.8M, Est Weekend $20M

2. Chronicle (Fox) NEW [2,907 Theaters] Est Friday $8.6M, Est Weekend $20M

3. The Grey (Open Road) Week 2 [3,207 Theaters] Est Friday $3.1M (-52%), Est Weekend $9M, Est Cume $34.2M

4. Big Miracle (Universal) NEW [2,129 Theaters] Est Friday $2.3M, Est Weekend $8M

5. Underworld Awakening (Sony) Week 3 [2,636 Theaters] Est Friday $1.8M (-46%), Est Weekend $6M, Est Cume $54.7M

6. One For The Money (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,737 Theaters] Est Friday $1.7M (-58%), Est Weekend $4.7M, Est Cume $19.1M

7. Red Tails (LucasFilm/Fox) Week 3 [2,347 Theaters] Est Friday $1.5M, Est Weekend $4.6M, Est Cume $40.8M

8. Man On A Ledge (Summit) Week 2 [2,998 Theaters] Est Friiday $1.5M (-39%), Est Weekend $4.6M, Est Cume $14.8M

9. The Descendants (Fox Searchlight) Week 12 [2,038 Theaters] Est Friday $1.3M, Est Weekend $4.5M, Est Cume $65.3M)

10. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Warner Bros) Week 7 [2,505 Theaters] Est Friday $112M, Est Weekend $4M, Est Cume $26.9M

Beauty and the Beast 3-D falls out of the Top Ten, but through Thursday, the reissue has collected $42.3 million.

Totals for other animated features to Thursday? Alvin and the Chipmunks has made $127.3 million; The Adventures of Tintin is at $74.6 million; Happy Feet Two has gathered in $63.2 million and Puss in Boots $148.2 million.

Add On: The Mojo lists winners and also rans.

Per BO Mojo:

Chronicle held off The Woman in Black to take the top spot this weekend, though Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Potter outing was impressive in its own right. The weekend's other opener, Big Miracle, was a tad disappointing, but it still finished in line with modest expectations. ...

At Cartoon Network

2012-02-03T22:39:00.001-08:00

Spent part of my morning at Cartoon Network in Burbank, where a staffer told me things were quieter than normal (although I deduced that from the empty offices) ...

"There's only three shows going on right now: Ben 10, Adventure Time and The Regular Show." ...

I said it was always good to have projects in development for ... you know ... future work. I was told the company is doing a new shorts pilot program, but that higher ups aren't keen on all the production costs involved for a passel of individual shorts.

"So why not just develop new projects to the animatics stage? See what works and do series orders from those?"

I was informed that animatics was under consideration as a way to develop properties more inexpensively before greenlighting them to full series. (The making of cartoons appears to be a roller-coaster kind of business. CN was doing half a dozen series just... what? ... a year and a half ago?)

Wage Differences

2012-02-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

From El Brew:

Though they share the same name and the same owners, there is a wide starting salary gap between the two Titmouse animation studios that operate in Los Angeles and New York City. ...

[T]here is a nearly $700 weekly gap between starting wages for Los Angeles and New York artists working on the same show. ... [T]he studio's starting salary for workers in New York is only $20,800. That figure ranks below New York's average starting wage for unskilled laborers like doormen ($25,680) and sanitation workers ($27,842). ...

And so on. (If you haven't already, go read the whole piece.)

I don't begrudge Titmouse's owners for maximizing their profits. That's what companies do. And I don't begrudge New York artists for leaving New York to get better pay in California.

(I didn't quite get the Brew commenter who wrote: "They want more money but they want it the easy way." This means, I guess, if you're a New Yorker who has the gumption to pull up stakes and go where the wages are higher, you're lazy.)

I've been at this awhile now and I've learned that the way it works is, you get what you have the juice to get. In Los Angeles, sixty years of union wages have lead to higher weekly paychecks for artists working in L.A. Sixty-five years ago, New York had higher animation wages than California. Like Los Angeles, New York was unionized, with a contract that called for a four-day work week and better working conditions than L.A. But, one by one, the New York studios closed, and Southern California came to predominate. This happened for a multitude of reasons: area living costs were lower and the available pool of highly skilled artists was larger. The gravitational pull of production was on the west coast, not the east. The weather was better. Etc.

But you want to know the reasons for the wide difference in pay between the coasts now? Here they are:

1) Market conditions.

2) Union contracts.

That's why Titmouse Hollywood pays higher than Titmouse New York.

CG training grants announced for 2012-2013

2012-02-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

For the 2012-2013 grant year, the Contract Services Administration Training Trust Fund (CSATTF) has approved reimbursement grants for qualified members of the Animation Guild to take classes at four of the best schools for animation and CG training.

The grants will reimburse for two-thirds of the cost of classes taken at the following schools:

The grants are for classes that begin between February 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013. The grant application forms are available at the links above. To qualify, you must have worked at least thirty days under the Guild's jurisdiction in the two years previous to the date the class begins.

You must apply for and be accepted for the grant before the class begins, and no more than ninety days in advance. (In other words, if you are approved and subsequently postpone taking the class, you will have to re-apply.)

You will have to submit copies of paystubs and/or a letter from your current or past employers to CSATTF to prove your thirty days' employment. This is a reimbursement grant, so you will have to pay the class fee in full in advance.

Upon completing the class after grant approval, you will apply to the CSATTF to receive two-thirds reimbursement.

All questions regarding CSATTF grants should be directed to:

Kimberly Kemp, Training Programs Administrator
Contract Services Administration Training Trust Fund (CSATTF)
2800 Winona Avenue (between Hollywood Way & San Fernando)
Burbank, CA 91504
phone (818) 847-0040 ext. 1260
fax (818) 847-0048

Any questions regarding class curricula and registration should be directed to the schools at the links at the top of this post.

Any questions regarding the CSATTF grants should be directed to Kimberly Kemp.

Any other questions can be directed to Jeff Massie.

Costly Incentives

2012-02-02T23:24:00.000-08:00

A comment in the Incentive post caught my eye ..

Anonymous said...
I know we are not a union signatory but we over here at Imageworks were told last week that they are relocating animation to the Van-f'ing-couver office. The Union artists at Sony Pictures Animation will stay in Culver City but we animators are out. I'm not going to get all political here but something has to be done to stop the studios from just pulling up stakes and leaving town.

Sony Pictures Imageworks isn't union signatory, but as all are aware, Sony Pictures Animation is. So, fact checking that statement wouldn't be a terribly difficult task. Let's assume its correct and Imageworks is shipping work up to Canada to take advantage of the tax incentive opportunities. And why not? Imageworks is in a unique position to really cash in since not only are they the vfx studio, but the producing entity who will directly reap those tasty benefits.

So, it goes to the original point nicely, right? Sure, except history has shown us that sending work out for the paycheck may be more penny wise and pound foolish.

History has also taught us that setting up shop in far-away lands in order to try to make a few bucks can end up costing more than you make. All the planning in the world doesn't hide the fact that these satellite branches don't always return the best product. Then, as opening day gets closer, the work finds its way back home to Supes telling their troops:

Guys, they couldn't hack it so we have to fix it

Who knows how much extra it cost to repair what could have been done right on the first pass? Just salaries alone would be a staggering number, but add operational and logistics on top of that and it gets even worse. Its an easy argument to build that the cost of repairing could easily overtake the Loonies that were taken from hard-working native Vancouver-ites and deposited in the accounts of conglomerate coffers.

The above commenter also insinuated that had the artists of Imageworks voted for union representation some four years ago, he/she wouldn't be facing the loss of a job. While my heart goes out for their plight, I have to disagree with that statement.

As we've learned, language like that is difficult to keep in a contract and costly when forced out. Union studios have satellite locations around the world where artists are furiously working on projects without the benefits of union standards and minimums.

As for Imageworks, we've been told that artists at the time figured they had it good. Management was providing all kind of incentives for them to be happy. Not many wanted to consider the benefits of acting in solidarity to secure a contract that guarantees those benefits in a vehicle they could enforce. The artists voted and the IATSE was not appointed as their bargaining representative. And the lovely benefits and management that promised their longevity went away. And .. we're still here.

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"Rhapsody"

2012-02-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

The Brew highlights a Warner Bros. press release:

... [The animated short] "Daffy's Rhapsody" makes its theatrical debut in tandem with "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" opening nationwide Friday, February 10th. ... Featuring an original story and all-new animation, the short stars the voice of the late, legendary Mel Blanc in Daffy’s song ...

Dwayne Johnson and Daffy Duck, a marriage made in heaven ...

Matt O'Callaghan showed me this short a few months back, and I found it damn funny. Matt did a whole string of new shorts for WBA over two years. Directed and boarded in Burbank. Animated by Reel Effects in Texas.

(O'Callaghan pushed hard to keep the characters true to their classic looks, even though the new shorts were CGI and 3-D. He did a solid job in all departments.)

Around Disney Toon Studios

2012-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

I spent part of the afternoon in Glendale, next door to Disney Television Animation (Sonora Ave.) at DisneyToon Studios (Sonora Ave.) ...

One staffer, working on one of the Tinkerbell features, said:

"We've been working on Tinkerbell #4, and we're going to be making Tinkerbell #5. Words out there that will be a #6.

"I'm happy with that. I'd be happy if they do a Tinkerbell #21. It's good to have steady work." ..."

I can remember when word was out and about that eight or nine Tinkerbells were planned. The first feature sold 3.3 million copies, and the second did almost as well.

But at some point the idea of doing ten or twelve Tinkerbell features fell on hard times. I was informed that Rich Ross had gone through DisneyToons and the edict was passed down:

"We're making fewer of these."

Guess now they're maybe making more. (Or maybe the exact number was always hazy.)

I had an interesting with conversation with some other staffers about Mr. Lasseter and his management techniques:

"John was a breath of fresh air coming in here. He's an artist. He's a director. He knows the process, and how it works. When he looks at our early development boards, he gives simple, broad notes about possibilities for the story, things that could make it better. He doesn't get into nuance and detail because he knows we're not there yet."

"He doesn't get ahead of where you are in story development, and he makes positive suggestions. He doesn't hem you in. He doesn't insist that you follow everything in the notes he gives."

"This is a lot different than other executives we've worked with at Disney."

I asked if this was a reference to Mr. Lasseter's predecessors at Toons and Features.

Smiles all around. And no answers.