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Sunday, April 30, 2006
The Largest Animation Studio (in 1985)
Twenty-one years ago, the largest 'toon studio in Los Angeles -- and probably anywhere -- wasn't Disney, wasn't Hanna-Barbera. Care to guess what it was?
Filmation
Through most of the eighties, Filmation Associates was headquartered in Reseda, but when I went to work there in mid-1988, Filmation was out in the far western end of the San Fernando Valley, housed in a large brick building at the corner of Victory and Canoga.
There was no pretense about Filmation. Lou Scheimer was the chief. Arthur Nadel, who had been a live-action television director and also helmed the Elvis Presly feature "Clambake," was the creative Vice-President and story editor. Tom Tataranowicz was the lead director. Production was straight-forward and without frills. You wrote the script, you got it boarded, you put the result into production. And production, because Lou wanted it that way, was done entirely in Los Angeles.
I was assigned an office up on the third floor, down the hall from Arthur Nadel, turning out scripts for a series entitled "Bugzburg." Filmation was kind of a cultural shock after Disney, but I found the work invigorating.
I would pitch a story to Arthur, he'd grunt "Fine, go do it," and I'd pad off down the hall to my small quarters to pound out a draft. (No endless story meetings like at Diz Feature Animation. Speed was of the essence.) Four days into the script, Arthur would enter my office and the following conversation would take place:
Nadel: So. How far through this thing are you?
Hulett: (Short pause). Oh, two-thirds of the way.
This was a lie. We both knew it was a lie. I was actually at the forty-percent-of-the-way mark. Arthur would then frown.
Hulett: (continuing nervously) When do you need the script done?
Nadel: Yesterday.
Hulett: Oh. Well, I should have it finished, ahm, Monday?
Nadel: (sighing) Then I guess that's when I'll get it...
I wrote five "Bugzburg" scripts like boomity-boomity-boom, and Arthur and I had five variations of the above scene. Filmation did not like staff writers to linger over animation scenarios. Time was money. If you spent three weeks on a half-hour screenplay, you were a laggard. And that included the freelance script Arthur would invariably drop on your desk to cut, rewrite or otherwise punch up while you were laboring over your own little masterpiece.
In January of 1989, another writer and I were assigned the tasks of developing new series ideas. Don Heckman, the other writer, exulted to me, "This is going to be great. There'll at least a year of development work for both of us. I've heard that the new corporate owner wants a lot of new product..."
That turned out to be 180 degrees from reality. What the new corporate owner -- the French company L'Oreal -- wanted was to get its hands on the library of Filmation's OLD product and shut the studio down. In early February dark rumors started circulating that the company was on thin ice; two days later Lou Scheimer called the staff into the projection room and tearfully announced that after twenty-six years of production, Filmation was closing. The end of the week.
The final forty-eight hours of Filmation's corporate life was funereal. Studio employees went out for gloomy lunches that were, for the first time, longer than an hour. Employees clustered in hallways, talking softly. On that last Friday, I filled a cardboard box with personal possessions and took it down to my car. In the next parking slot, my boss Arthur Nadel was putting his own cardboard box into the trunk of his Jag. He looked at me.
"Steve. Any plans about what you're going to be doing next?"
I told him I had a teaching credential and would probably teach high school for awhile. (Which turned out to be true.) I asked him what he intended to do. He shrugged and sighed.
"Just go home and quietly starve." (Which turned out not to be true.)
And so ended Filmation's quarter century of active life. I learned a great deal working there, not least of which was that nothing is permanent. When a company goes from the largest animation studio to non-existence in four years, that lesson is driven home.
But I still had a hell of a good time working there.
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Saturday, April 29, 2006
The Weekend Box Office Track -- Films with Fuzzy Animals
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Friday, April 28, 2006
Disney Animation's FIRST Sub-Contracted Cartoon*
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Thursday, April 27, 2006
At Warner Bros. Animation
The studio still has two dvd feature projects and two television series in work, with perhaps another Super Hero opus for DVD coming into production mid-summer.
But the bigger news around WBA is that the studio should be pulling up roots from Sherman Oaks the latter part of the year...and moving to a building at the Warner Bros. ranch (formerly the Columbia ranch) in Beautiful Burbank.
Warner Bros. Animation has been in Sherman Oaks (the middle of the San Fernando Valley) for seventeen years. So this would be a a major move, yes? The East Valley is, heck, seven or eight miles away.
Click here to read entire post
Great Moments In Animation -- Employer-Employee Relations (Part II)
While we're on the subject of shaftings (and we are -- see below), here is another alleged misuse of animation artists.
A few days ago we received complaints from employees at Fat Cat Animation in Arizona (this group was initially composed of former Fox Animation employees out of Phoenix). Allegedly, some or all of the employees down there haven't been paid wages in some weeks. And some or all of the employees are apparently starting to get steamed about it.
The reports from workers on site are that the company is using the"you want to get paid, you better stay loyal and stick around" ploy, so people to keep their noses to the grindstones in hope that cash will eventually be received.
We've tried to contact the company both by phone and e-mail, trying to find out if these representations are true. Thus far, all we've received is blank silence.
We think that, if indeed employees aren't getting paid, they should put down their pencils and computer mouses NOW, and walk off the premises NOW.
Just our opinion, of course. We're old fashioned that way.
Click here to read entire post
Great Moments In Animation -- Employer-Employee Relations (Part I)
This has been a rare couple of days. Not one amazing ream job courtesy of an animation studio, but two...into the backsides of a few chosen animation artists...
Specimen Number One: We give you Curious Pictures in New York. This company has the following on its web site:
"March 2006 - Curious Pictures ranks as one of the "Ten Best Companies to Freelance for in NYC," according to a survey released by The Freelances Union. Other top 10 companies include Conde Nast, Time Warner, BBC..."
Etcetera and etcetera. Remarkably enough, this "Top 10 Company" sent the following message to a California freelance employee, who represents to us that he hasn't been paid by Curious Pictures for work performed for the better part of, oh, two months. A few days back she e-mailed politely: "So, when am I going to get paid?" Their response:
Hello _____,
We are also trying to collect alot of receivable(sic) from our client. As
soon as we receive the payments, I will have it approved for payment,
and will contact you. Or for your convenience, you can contact me. We
apologize for the inconvenience.
Regards,
Khaleda
In other words, they (allegedly) squeeze work from freelancers, then(allegedly) fail to pay them using the lame excuse "hey, we haven't been paid, so you ain't gonna get paid..."
A fine way to run a company, no? But at least they're "one of the 10 best companies to freelance for in NYC."
We'd hate to see the worst.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Hollywood Bows Down to Feature Animation
Since I'm going on about what's in the news, please note this Hollywood Reporter article that was on the front page of yesterday's HR...
The "Ice Age" grosses are getting noticed, wouldn't you say? It's probably why the trade press puts animation front and center on Page Uno.
It's probably why there will be around a half dozen digital animated features rolling down the box office pike over the next seven months. At a time when a lot of live action features are faltering, the fact that Feature Animation continues to make heavy coin perks entertainment conglomerates' interest.
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Electronic Arts Coughs Up Money For Overtime
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Age of Personal Service Contracts
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The Studio Trifecta
I galloped around to various studios yesterday and today, spreading the word about Monday's contract ratification. Not much of moment is going on at Cartoon Network, Nick, or Disney Feature, but there are a few things...
Patrick Verrone -- the Prez of the WGA(w) -- is writing on "Class of 3000"...
Nick has wrapped two series and has others in development....
Work on "Meet the Robinsons" slows down as story changes ripple through the production. Half of the Circle 7 crew -- which was set to work on "Toy Story III" has been placed in jobs on other shows. This is a good thing; hopefully the rest will be reassigned soon.
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SAG Board Approves Animation Contract - Three Cheers
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Monday, April 24, 2006
Time Cards
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Animation Guild Contract (2006-2009 Edition) Ratified
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Sunday, April 23, 2006
"Ice Age" Keeps on Giving
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Saturday, April 22, 2006
Knowing What Your Peers Make
Some years back, when hand-drawn animation was peaking, an animator called me and said: "I met with two execs yesterday about getting a raise. They told me I was making as much as anyone here. Any way you can tell me if that's true?"
I said that there was, and pulled out a fat printout of all animation employees salaries sent to the Guild by the Motion Picture Pension and Health Plan each quarter. Scanning rows of figures, I informed him that he wasn't even in the top 50% of wages for his classification.
After some heavy breathing, he muttered thanks and hung up. Two days later he called again, this time informing me:
"I told the executives what you told me. They got agitated, asked where I got the info. I said that you gave it to me."
"Oh great."
"They got really angry. Said you shouldn't have given it to me. Said it was unethical."
"Fine. Did you point out to them that they lied about how much everybody else is making compared to you?"
"Ahm, no. I got kind of flustered, they were beating me up so bad about getting wage information from you."
"They give you a raise?"
Long pause. "No."
A couple of years before this conversation, I got into a beef with a Vice President at a large animation studio. The beef was that the studio's many personal service contracts (then around 70% of the entire staff) required employees holding the contracts to keep everything in the contract confidential. And the ONLY thing different in each contract was...(drum roll)...individual salaries. This triggered the following dialogue between me and the Veep:
Me: You like, know that the reason the confidentiality clause is in there is to keep people from telling other people what they make, right?
Veep: (After hemming and hawing) Yeah, pretty much.
Me: You know there's a state law prohibiting a company from stopping an employee from sharing wage information?
Veep: Hm hm. But the lawyers tell me as long as nobody takes us to court about it, we're okay.
Me: (thoughtful pause) So why don't we just agree that, regarding salaries, the company will take the confidentiality clause out?
Veep: I don't think we want to do that.
Eventually the company DID take the clause out (after more whining about it from me); soon thereafter we published the following item in the Guild's newsletter:
Section 232(a) of the California Labor Code prohibits an employer from requiring as a condition of employment that any employee refrain from disclosing the amount of their wages.
Section 232(b) prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to sign a waiver of their right to disclose their wages.
Section 232(c) prohibits an employer from discharging, formally
disciplining, or otherwise discriminating against an employee who
discloses the amount of their wages.
When young, most people are taught that it's impolite to ask or tell other people what you make. Maybe that's dandy etiquette, but think a minute. If everyone is ignorant about what the guy in the next cubicle or office is making, the only entity that's helped by that ignorance is your employer, who knows what everyone is making.
The language of the state code can be found here.
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Diz in the 70's -- Picking Voice Tracks With Woolie
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Friday, April 21, 2006
My Afternoon at IDT Entertainment
The third floor of 2950 N. Hollywood Way houses DPS-Film Roman (formerly Film Roman) and IDT Entertainment (formerly IDT Entertainment) and a whale of a lot of animation artists. IDTE and DPS-FR combined make up one of the busier animation studios in L.A. County...
...what with work for Stan Lee, work for Fred Seibert (former head of Hanna-Barbera and current major player over at Nickelodeon on Olive Avenue), various feature film projects and direct-to-video projects, new episodes of "The Simpsons" and a "Simpsons" feature scheduled for July 2007 release, also new episodes of "King of the Hill," (after an earlier cancellation) the studios' plates are full.
I've said much of the above previously. What's new is, IDTE is prepping several CGI features, one of which revolves around some edgy computer generated animals and an edgier premise. (Former staffers from Disney Feature and Disney Toons are among those working on it, but since IDTE doesn't appear to have announced the flick to the public, I'll keep my beak shut about specifics.)
The company looks to be ramping up to compete with Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, Fox and Sony in the red-hot CGI feature market. It's got a distribution deal with Twentieth-Century Fox, a Canadian CGI production studio, and story and pre-production departments in Burbank. What more does an up-and-comer need?
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IDT and Animation Guild Reach Agreement
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Thursday, April 20, 2006
Fyn Stec Benefit Art Auction at Cartoon Network
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Palm Springs Quarterly Meetings -- The IATSE Hobnobs WIth the AMPTP
Once or twice a year, our Mother International has a "quarterly meeting" with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to "discuss items of mutual interest." What this means is: the Producers try to pry something out of us (the International's unions and guilds), and we push back...
The meeting, was held as per usual at the Riviera Hotel, which I think has a nice ambience but has, sadly, grown seedy with age (it closes for good next month).
I motored out in the early morning. The union caucus started at 10:30. President Short made it clear that he didn't want the substance of what was discussed there to show up in the trades Friday or Monday, so I won't blog about it here. (Few reading this would care anyway; it was mostly live action stuff. And who cares about that?
In the afternoon, the main topics in the Big Room -- our meeting with all the studio reps -- centered around how the health and pension plans were doing, and what the future holds for them. Since we've blogged about this before, I'll recap but briefly:
* The Plans are in strong shape. The health plan for Actives now has a 16-month reserve (that means if NO money comes in for the next year and four months, the Plan can still keep going.) The retirees' plan has a 20-month reserve.
* There are an estimated 110,00 recpipients of Health Plan benefits (including families of participants, of which there are 40,000.)
* There were $347 million in residuals in 2005. 92% of this money went to the health plan; 8% went to the pension plan.
* There is $2.3 billion in the Defined Benefit Plan (this is the pension where you get a monthly check). $1.9 billion in the Individual Account Plan (Fun fact: 2500 participants have more than $100,000 in their Individual Account Plans).
* Health Plan outlays totalled $400 million in 2005. It's expected to double in eight years. (One More Fun Fact: Average Annual cost per eligible participant: $7,920 - in 2005.)
There were brief discussions about how lengthy industry strikes next year (WGA? SAG?) could impact the Plans. Happily, the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans are in better shape than just about any other multi-employer plan to weather a cash flow problem.
It was a lovely drive out to the desert and back. I'm glad I've got CDs to listen to.
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DPS-Film Roman Agreement Finalized
Yes, the new Animation Guild Collective Bargaining Agreement was negotiated last month. And yes, the ratification vote ends April 24th, but that was for studios that were in what's known as "The Animation Bargaining Unit." Film Roman isn't -- yet -- a member of that select group...
But as of yesterday, the studio agreed to the August 1, 2006 Memorandum of Agreement. Which means that the DPS-FR contract becomes part of the same ratification process.
Which means that most studios in L.A. County will be parties to the ratification occuring next Monday. (Disney Feature Animation, Disney Toons, and Sony Pictures are represented by the Animation Guild under separate IATSE contracts.)
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Walkaround at James Baxter Animation
I popped in to James Baxter Animation today in Pasadena and heard multiple complaints from the folks there . . .
One said the donuts were stale. Another complained they didn't have Aeron chairs. The suffering was unimaginable.
Seriously, it wasn't a walkaround at all, but a visit with old friends. The place is buzzing with focused activity, and it was fantastic to just stand there and enjoy the sound of flipping paper. Much as I enjoy CG animation, there is nothing like standing there watching someone skilled create animation on paper as you watch. The environment was invigorating.
And I learned the secret to why Seward Street went silent. Tragic, but I'll leave that for Jim to tell.
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Whither Cartoon Network?
Cartoon Brew has been discussing Cartoon Network's move into live action programming. . .
CN has been a mainstay of original animation programming, and the source of some of the best TV animation of the last few decades. Some of my favorites have been Dexter's Lab, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and my all-time favorite Samurai Jack. A Variety article has CN execs emphasizing that cartoons will remain their mainstay, but they are clearly looking to move into both live-action TV series and even features.
I suppose being third behind Disney and Nick is forcing them to these extreme measures, but it would be a real shame if they became Cartoon Network in name only. There's an online petition here if you want to voice your feelings on this. You can also tell CN directly.
There's also some interesting discussion about the possible fate of Adult Swim here. Thanks to posters on Animation Nation for those last two links.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2006
El Disney Toons at Sonora
There's a half acre of empty cubicles on the second floor of Disney's Sonora Building...
Because there's not a lot of productions going on at the present time. A board artist I encountered pinning up story boards said: "They're probably only ten board people up here now..."
"Mermaid III" has some people working on it. Also "Disney's Princess Stories" (this is a direct-to-video with a compilation of new half-hour featurettes starring Mulan and other Disney heroines.)
The crews wondered aloud what Toons Prez Sharon Morril's future was -- since there are many rumors but no hard info -- and what shows were going to be going into work next (etc.) I was pleased to answer promptly: I told them I didn't know.
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What we're doing, what we're not...
Now that we've been up for almost two months, we have a pretty good idea of what we're trying to do here...
We're striving to foster discussion and communication.
We're working to have fun with the foibles of the industry, do some water cooler stuff.
We're doing history at various studios, profiles of animation veterans, old pictures, old cartoons.
We're posting about the shape and direction of the animation industry from a business and labor perspective, as well as what's happening in a general way at different studios.
What we're NOT doing:
Detailing the ups and downs of every project at every studio. We'll put stuff we see going on in a context and occasionally comment on it, but jabbering about what character has been eliminated from what feature-length cartoon this week bores us.
Talking about proprietary information (we'll leave that to "Ain't It Cool News" and its various cousins).
trafficking in falsehoods. (If we write something that's incorrect, we'll correct it.)
This is an evolving effort, and we'll rely on your feedback, both positive and negative, to keep this useful and interesting.
Your hosts, Steve and Kevin
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Digital Age of Storyboards
A year ago, story artist Mark Zoeller noted in the Peg-Board that digital storyboards seemed to be catching on slowly in the animation biz...
Of late, however, I see more and more pixelated boards across toonland. The digital storyboard package Mirage is used at Cartoon Network, Photoshop at DreamWorks. Today at DW, I got a look at Photoshop combined with After Effex. Coupled together, the two pieces of software created a vivid scene of insects moving through a forest of cattails -- sort of a Technicolor multiplane camera in a box.
A board artist can now create elaborate computerized boards at her desk, then with a few mouse clicks edit the result into a story reel. Editorial departments aren't happy, but hey. Technology marches on.
Click here to read entire post
At the Studio Next to Circle Seven Animation...
Meanwhile at DreamWorks...
Animation is well under way on "Bees," (two sequences in work) with Mr. Seinfeld reviewing dailies...
Hopes are positive for the oncoming release of "Over the Hedge." (As one animator said to me, "one of the best pictures we've done...")
The "Flushed Away" crew poised to plunge back into animating the rest of the feature. An animtor on it remarked: "We still have an August deadline on the picture. We're going to have to moooove."
Click here to read entire post
Want to know what your boss makes?
If so, the Security and Exchanges Commission is trying to help. The SEC has proposed new rules that will require companies to disclose the pay of division heads and even top stars...
The SEC proposal would require that companies disclose the pay packages of some top employees (only the pay of corporate officers is required to be disclosed now). Not surprisingly, the entertainment companies are against it. Variety has a summary, and Defamer has the down and dirty version. Both quote from Jeffrey Katzenberg's comments to the SEC:
"It is inevitable that some employees will take issue with their respective rankings and create unnecessary and counterproductive strife with their fellow employees and the company."
Now, I have an idea. If somebody is so underpaid that they won't be able to effectively do their job, maybe they deserve a raise. Conversely, if you've so overpaid somebody that the rest of your top people will freak out, then maybe that somebody needs an adjustment down.
Personally, I'm all for transparency. If I'm going to buy the stocks of some of these companies (not to mention as someone working at these places), I'd like to have a little better idea about what's going on at the top.
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Monday, April 17, 2006
April 17th Disney TVA Walkaround
Disney Television Animation, under the command of the Disney Channel and not Disney Feature (Ed Catmull & John Lasseter) has a considerable amount of projects bubbling in the pot...
Work on is ongoing on “The Replacements,” a new series headquartered in the Frank G. Wells Building on the main lot. (Disney TVA has staff split between Frank Wells and a large building on Sonora Street in Glendale.)
“My Friends Tigger and Pooh” (56 11-minute episodes) recently launched, is also housed in the Frank G. Wells Building. Word is that many of the artists -- transferees from "Mickey's Club House" -- look back wistfully at the relaxed work environment and review process on "Mick", when Rob LaDouca went over boards and handed out the changes and eveyone got on with it. On "T and P," by contrast, supervisors check the work way more frequently and "redos" are the order of the day. So the "T & P" working conditions, with all the extra hoops artists have to jump through, are not...ah...quite as conducive to a jolly good time.
Other series going on? “Ying Yang Yo,” (about which I know almost nothing); also perennial favorite “Kim Possible,” which is finishing up its new order of 26 ½ hours. (A "Kim" long-form may be in the offing.) “Mickey’s Clubhouse's” 1st season is in post-production. “Emperor’s New School,” -- the tv spinoff from "Emperor's New Groove" (with most voice talent returning) is also in post. (I caught a little of it at home over my younger son's shoulder and it looks pretty good.)
And “American Dragon” is most of the way through its new order of 33 ½ hours. The show has been redesigned and is now much more “American Anime,” which the crew likes.
There's probably other items that I've overlooked, but that's the beauty of a blog. You can go back and amend the post later...
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The Wild tames
The weekend estimates for The Wild indicate a fourth place finish and less than $10 million (half of what Ice Age 2 made in it's third weekend). This is well below the forecasts I saw, and likely indicates a final domestic tally in the $30-40 million range...
What does that mean for us in the animation industry? First, a digression.
I divide feature animation into three production categories. There are the high-end domestic productions (mostly in California, but Blue Sky fits here, too), the super-cheap, primarily outsourced productions (Hoodwinked is the prototype), and the films in no-mans-land trying to straddle those two realms. We all know the films in the first category (by Pixar, DreamWorks/PDI, Disney Feature, Blue Sky, and soon Sony Pictures Animation) have a near-perfect record of success. No matter how films by smaller studios perform, these major players are going to stay the course.
The second category is relatively new, and might have some promise, but clearly has tremendous risk. If you want to make a feature very, very cheaply, you'll need a lot of up-front time, energy, talent, and luck. And even then you'll need some decent financing to get to the point of attracting a distributor.
The Wild falls into the third category. It was initiated as part of Eisner's shotgun approach to try to find a replacement for Disney's Pixar deal. Films in this category have fairly substantial budgets, and attract some good talent, but they clearly aren't in the big leagues (examples include Valiant, Jimmy Neutron, the upcoming Everyone's Hero, The Barnyard, The Ant Bully). The Wild falls in this category. I don't mean this to be insulting to these films or the people who make them -- I just think it's undeniable that these films don't have the same resources available.
And I think this is the category that's going to suffer the most from the market shakeout that we're all expecting. The public won't say, "Hey this film only cost $40-60 million, not the $80-100+ million the majors spend, so let's give it a chance." They will simply continue to go to films that look really appealing, and ignore films that aren't. And making animated features is so labor intensive, and fraught with difficulty, that it's hard to cut the budget by tens of millions and not end up with something that looks bargain basement.
So I think we're coming into a feature market that's close to all or nothing. Either make a film for a song, so your risk is minimal, or commit to spending a fortune on your infrastructure and your talent, so you can get every element right. The bar has been set too high, and these productions are just too expensive, to go part way and have a chance with an audience.
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Sunday, April 16, 2006
Happy Income Tax Deadline!
Okay, it's got nothing to do with animation or labor unions, but today (assuming your reading this April 17) is the deadline for filing income taxes. Both state and federal...
Our taxes -- particularly Federal -- are lower than they have been in a bunch of years. However, the lowness is an optical illusion. The Feds are collecting taxes at 16% of GDP, and spending at 22% of GDP, which means that we are "tax shifting," not actually tax cutting.
Somewhere, somehow, some way, we...or our grandkids...will pay. Trust me on this.
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New Disney Logo
I'm told there is a new Disney Features logo...
created by Mike Gabriel. Those who've claimed to see it, claim it's terrific.
I think that a good logo is a joy forever. I've always been partial to the old WB shield, also the 20th Century-Fox block letters, searchlights, and fanfare.
But leave us to face it. A logo is only half of what a film studio needs at the front of a film. The other fifty percent is music that knocks you out of your theatre seat.
Where's Max Steiner or Alfred Newman when you need them?
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Saturday, April 15, 2006
Six Years Ago NOW -- the KCET picket
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Friday, April 14, 2006
Collective Bargaining Agreements: Not Always UP
The general feeling of many Hollywood workers is that, when union contracts are negotiated, wages and benefits always go up. But it ain't always so...
Take this snippet from tomorrow's Wall Street Journal:
DELTA REACHED a tentative contract agreement with its pilots union that averts a strike and could accelerate the airline's bankruptcy restructuring. Pilots agreed to roughly $280 million to $290 million in annual concessions, including a 14% pay cut.
The airline pilots made a billion dollars worth of concessions in 2004. And now more concessions in '06. When an entire industry is in a tail spin (which, let's be clear, the entertainment business clearly isn't), the unions in that industry twirl down with it.
Market forces -- both good and bad -- always prevail.
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Who Owns "Superboy"?
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Disney's "The Wild" Launches Today...
And Kevin and I will track it here through the weekend....
This is the Mouse House's second sub-contract job in feature animation (the first being the ill-fated "Valiant") "TW" was produced in Toronto, not London, and it will be interesting to see how it performs.
The LA TIMES sends it off with a solid review, so we'll soon see how much it cuts in to "Ice Age 2's" reign at the top of the charts. Animation Magazine thinks its propsects might be kind of "iffy."
Addendum One: Box Office Mojo now has its Friday Estimates up. "Ice Age 2" clocks in with over $8 million, while "The Wild rakes in $4,140,000. "Wild's" got a smaller number of screens, also a smaller per screen average. Of course, "Scary Movie 4" blows both animated features away by collecting over $19 million in b.s. receipts.
Addendum Two: Box Office Mojo now has its weekend estimates up, and "The Wild" sets no box office fires -- coming in 4th for the weekend at $9,559,000 (less than half of "IA2's" third weekend gross.
"The Wild" and "Valiant" were two projects initated by Michael Eisner. We doubt that Robert Iger has any huge desire to see either succeed, since he just bet the farm by purchasing Pixar. And it doesn't look as though either entry will be a big performer.
Our prediction: outsourcing of theatrical feature animation is dead at Disney for the foreseeable future.
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Gnomio and Juliet live again
A few weeks ago Steve broke the news that Disney was canning the Elton John-driven Gnomio and Juliet. Comingsoon.net now reports that the project will be done by Miramax . . .
The project will now be done in London, with Baker Bloodworth (a name familiar to many of you long-time Disney folks) producing. I'd heard that, because it was Elton John's baby, many people didn't expect it to ever be nixed in the first place. I guess those people were correct in a sense.
My question is, given the lack of success of the last animation project Sir Elton was involved in, and the feeling that animated musicals are still a trifle passe, who is the intended audience?
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Thursday, April 13, 2006
The April 13 Cartoon Network Walk-around
Today's studio visit by Yours Truly was at Cartoon Network, high in the sunlit uplands of Burbank, California...
CN has enjoyed a red-hot run of late. After a stretch where the studio was relying on a lot of old stalwarts ("Power Puff Girls", "Johnny Bravo," etc.), the Network is on a tear.
Shows currently in production include "Squirrel Boy," "Ben 10" (#1 in its time slot), "My Gym Partner's a Monkey," "Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy," "Camp Lazlo," "Class of 3000," "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends," and "The Life & Times of Juniper Lee."
"Juniper Lee" is wrapping its third season, but its prospects for a fourth are currently up in the air. "Lee's" creator Judd Winick recently returned from Atlanta headquarters and told the crew that the execs in Georgia want to wait and look at rating numbers before ordering a new batch of shows -- which means that the board artists, designers, layout and background artists will most likely be looking for new work as they roll off the final episodes. "Nobody," one of the artists told me, "can hang around and wait until the big boys decide. They won't okay new shows before August, and I don't think many of us can wait that long..."
Elsewhere in the CN universe, a shorts program is being launched under the watchful eye of Craig McCracken. The plan is to do theatrical shorts and pieces for cell phones (isn't everybody?). Some of the shorts on tap are "Korgoth the Barbarian," "Flapjack," and "Life in Wackamo." If the results are slam-bang, some or all of it will likely end up as CN series.
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Dismissal pay for Toy Story 3 folks
Today Steve and I had another new-member lunch, this time with a group of Disney recent hires, all from Circle 7. When Toy Story 3 was canned, most were given two-month's notice, during which time they hope to find permanent positions at the company. Talking to them reminded me that the dismissal pay provisions of our contract differs for most people at Disney . . .
For anyone under the "TSL" contract at Disney (which is pretty much everyone recently hired at Feature or Circle Seven), the dismissal pay provisions differ from the standard TAG local 839 collective bargaining agreement (which might still apply for people who have been at Disney long-term, or at DTS or DTV). So the first thing is to know what contract you're under. Any new union member at Circle 7 will almost certainly be under the TSL contract.
The dismissal provisions for TSL are as follows: once you've been laid off for 90 days and you had been with the company for at least three months, you're entitled to 1 1/4 days pay. If you'd been there at least six months and less than a year, you get a weeks pay. After working a year or more, you're entitled to two weeks pay. You're entitled to the dismissal pay even if you get a job at another studio during that 90 days (union or non-union). The key with the TSL contract is that you must request your dismissal pay in writing when the 90 days is up.
If during that 90 days Disney offers you a new contract, and you decline it, then no dismissal pay. Same if you're fired "for cause." But simply having your contract run out is the same as a lay off or dismissal, and in that case you're entitled to the pay. Further, for the TSL contract, you're entitled to your full pay (i.e., what you negotiated in your personal service agreement), not union minimum.
The reason I'm emphasizing this is because in the TAG 839 contract (and in the Sony Pictures Animation* contract), the dismissal pay provisions are different. In the regular 839 contract, dismissal pay is now automatic (i.e., you should not have to request it), but the waiting period is 110 days, and the rate is capped at 150% of scale (so someone who had been paid at, say, 200% of scale for a year with their company wouldn't receive a full two weeks of their regular salary, but two weeks of 150% of scale).
Dismissal pay is one of the few ways the TSL and 839 contracts differ. In either case, I always encourage people to mark a calendar when they leave a union studio, and follow up at the appropriate time. I have heard of cases at TAG studios where dismissal pay wasn't paid automatically as it should have been, and the studio had to be prodded to pay their obligation. Call the office if this may have happened to you.
*At SPA, it's called severance pay (probably a more accurate term), and one isn't entitled to it until two years of work. On the other hand, the amount of severance pay keeps going up until one is entitled to five weeks pay after 10 years.
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President Emeritus Sito's New Book
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006
The Day I REALLY Hated Piecework
Animation paid by the foot, or storyboards, backgrounds and layouts paid by the piece have been with us since Disney was doing "Oswald the Rabbit." But there are days when it gets way out of hand...
Something around a year and a half ago, I got tipped off that Disney Television Animation was having cleanup artists (who were desperate for work) do production board cleanups for five dollars a panel.
Now, that doesn't sound too awful, right? If you have a passing familiarity with production boards, then you know that the drawings in those three little squares on the storyboard sheet are pretty small. And how long would it actually take to redraw the lines and tighten those little pictures inside the squares up, anway?
Welll, for some of the drawings, it took artists most of an hour, because the drawings were detailed and complex, the producer was picky, and some of the drawing required multiple levels. Which meant multiple drawings on one panel.
But ALL of the above is irrelevant, because The Animation Guild's contract requires that artists doing this kind of work get $28 per hour (plus benefits.) And that wasn't happening. Artists were making five bucks, ten bucks, twenty-five bucks an hour, depending on how many cleanup drawings they produced in sixty minutes.
But that is ALSO irrelevant, because Federal labor regulations require that for this kind of "non-exempt" work, employees (and these were employees) must be "hourly." And if they work more than eight hours in a day, they go to time-and-a-half.
Disney lawyers knew all this, but Disney production managers did what they damn well pleased. When I walked in on this small, sweet racket at Disney TV Animation's studio in Glendale, I had already gotten a production manager to confirm that the studio was indeed paying five bucks a panel. The artists I found doing it also confirmed the practice, but they pleaded with me to "let it go" because the production manager was "nice."
For once in my demented little life I didn't let it go. I filed a grievance, bullied the artists into corroborating what was going on, and got Disney labor relations to cough up extra money and benefit hours.
But it didn't happen without a struggle. Disney first denied they were paying "piece work." I told them it would be an interesting stance to cling to when we got to arbitration, since I would call multiple witnesses -- including the Disney production manager who had confessed to me in a weak moment -- that they WERE paying five bucks a panel.
After a little more half-hearted stone-walling, a Disney rep took me to lunch and asked "what will it take to settle this?" I told him. Three weeks later, I handed the piece work artists extra checks for $500 to $3500. Mickey Mouse was printed up in the left-hand corner of each one.
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What's Happening at Film Roman (IDT Entertainment)
I spent a large chunk of the afternoon at IDT Entertainment (aka Film Roman), cruising through their new studio in Burbank. Lots of things are popping...
There are a bunch of old Disney hands who've been hired for "Simpsons: the Movie" (or whatever it's being called.) We talking animators. Layout artists. Background painters. I'm informed that the crew will be animating some scenes here, and doing more posing than is usually done on the television show. To that end, the staff will have several traditional animators cranking footage.
One Disney vet -- who departed the Mouse House during the 2001-2002 bloodletting of traditional artists -- said he's happy to be back at the light board flipping animation paper; he's been doing production boards the last few years but hand-drawn animation is his first love.
Other projects at IDTE include two direct-to-video features of Hellboy, the feature "El Super Beasto," a PG-13 feature which looks like it could be a hoot, plus a lot of t.v. series that includes two additional seasons of "The Simpsons," and twenty new episodes of "King of the Hill" produced off-site at the old building in North Hollywood.
There's also non prime-time series in work and several other features in development. In terms of total number of projects, IDT might be the busiest shop in town.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006
"Ice Age 2" - The Overseas Boodle
While "Ice Age - The Meltdown" has climbed well above 100 million dollars during its second weekend of release, it hasn't done too shabbily overseas, either...
To date, it's reaked in over $157 million in foreign territories.
Don't anticipate a slow-down in the production of cgi animated features anytime soon...
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The April 11 Walkaround at Disney Feature
I cruised around Feature Animation late this morning. At the moment, things are pretty quiet. "Meet the Robinsons" continues to occupy the work hours of a lot of folks, but those folks tell me they know "a lot of changes in the second act" are rolling down the pike...
Word is that Ed Catmull has been less than thrilled by the "leaks" from Disney employees about recent personnel hirings and firings. Good luck plugging them up, Ed. There are lots of flapping mouths at the feature animation building...
(Re Bob Bacon's recent departure: Management pointed out that Bacon wasn't "let go," but chose to leave. This is, technically, true. Bacon was offered a low-level accounting job and turned it down. I mean, anyone really expect the man to stay for a terrific offer like that after being a Disney Veep?)
Although the Local 839 agreement is now in the process of being ratified, Disney Feature Animation's IA agreement is coming up for renegotiation within the next few months. Employees are starting to come forward with ideas for proposals...
Like I said, mostly a quiet day at the Mouse House.
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How to Organize the Video Game Industry
Damned if I know. But some of us who work for the IATSE gathered for lunch with a video game veteran to kick around ideas...
If you don't have children or have been sleeping through big chunks of the last few years, you might have missed that video games (X-box, Sony Play Station, computers, i-pods, cell phones...) have become a monster big business. Way bigger than the movie industry.
And unlike the movie industry, pretty much non-union. Which explains the lesser benefits at many video game studios, as well as the uncompensated over-time hours.
I and my union brethren picked the brains of the vid game person, learning about staffing and job categories. The game vet is pretty sure that portable health and pension benefits would be an attractive benefit for most artists and tech heads working at Electronic Arts and other game places in and around Los Angeles.
The problem is, the honchos at the top of the game studio hierarchy aren't much interested in better working conditions and benefits that travel with employees from game studio to game studio. Costs money, you know. Plus, the added problem for unions like the IA is that organized labor swims against a culture that is ignorant of and often hostile to, unions. Even Hollywood unions.
Nevertheless, The Animation Guild and other labor organizations in the IATSE are working on it. Slooowly.
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Monday, April 10, 2006
Uncompensated Overtime
The close blood relative of "unreasonable amounts of o.t." in animation is "uncompensated overtime." I ran across some of it today...
I was at a large, high-profile studio that's part of a large entertainment conglomerate. I was going cubicle to cubicle in a production unit that turns out one of America's best-loved animated shows. A supervisor gestured me into his office. I knew from his expression he wanted to talk about something he didn't want broadcast, so I shut the door.
"They've cut the schedule for the new season," he said, "and I'm working sixty to eighty hours a week to keep up. The studio told me I'm on salary and won't get any overtime. Can they do that?"
I told him he had to be either "on-call" or "hourly" under the Guild contract, and that I assumed he was working "on-call." He said he didn't know, but I explained on-call ato him anyway.
"You're far enough over contract minimums that they can put you in that category," I said, "and I'm guessing that they did. It means they can work you extra hours Monday through Friday without paying you extra money. But if you work on Saturday or Sunday, you get time and a half."
He squinted his eyes, shook his head. "No overtime."
"So they're cheating on the contract," I replied. "Want me to file a grievance?"
I got another head shake. "Not really. I don't want to rock the boat."
"Okay. Let me know if you change your mind."
I departed his office and went on about my rounds. I have this type of encounter more often than I like. Studios have employees falsify time cards, or not report time spent working at home, or remove hours worked from an invoice.
I first rubbed up against this phenomena at Warner Bros. A decade and a half ago. I've seen it lots of other places since. Most times, employees refuse to file a grievance because of fears of retribution.
But I always offer to file grievances. Once in a while, somebody takes me up on it.
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Sunday, April 09, 2006
"Ice Age 2" - The Second Weekend
We now have "Ice Age: The Meltdown's" second weekend grosses, and they remain buoyant...
"IC2" remained at the top of the box office heap with $33.8 million. Although that's a 50% drop in box office, the flick still had the highest per-screen average of any wide release with $8,522.
What this portends, IMO, is that production and employment in CGI feature animation is going to stay robust and continue to expand. I mean, "Cars" is going to have a strong opening, what with all of Lasseter's skill and Disney's marketing muscle. "Over the Hedge" from DreamWorks is testing well. And "Open Season" -- Sony Picture Animation's debut feature slated to open next Fall -- is getting good buzz.
All in all -- to steal a line from Claude Raines in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" -- "there are golden days ahead..."
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Saturday, April 08, 2006
And Then There Was Ken...
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More on animation writing jurisdiction
Mark Evanier has posted some thoughts on the LA Times article about the "turf battle" between the IA and the WGA on his excellent blog, news from me. I enjoy reading Mark because, besides being a bright, clear thinker, he gives good reasons for his views. Unfortunately, in this case I think he's a little mistaken . . .
Referring to the Animation Guild having writers under its jurisdiction, Mark writes that "I couldn't see that the Screen Cartoonists Guild (as 839 was then called) wanted us for any reasons other than we paid the most dues and that when you threaten a strike, having the writers walk out is the first step in halting production." This is wrong on several counts.
First, writers are in the same dues category as animation, layout, story art, backgrounds, production boards, model design, and the technical director positions (modeling, lighting, rigging, etc.). Our top dues are just under $400 a year. The idea that we maintain jurisdiction over writers because we profit off their backs is, well, silly. As for striking, if we did call a strike, having the writers strike would only affect those productions not yet in production. If you want a real strike, you have everyone in every job category strike. The writers would be no more, or less, crucial in an animation strike than any of the dozens of other job categories we cover.
The piece also perpetuates a couple of other ideas that are, I think, off base. It is not some "fluke" that TAG represents animation writers. It's true that, when local 839 was first formed, there were few people in animation doing only writing, since most stories were created through outlines, story sketches, and storyboards. But for decades animation productions have used scripts, and until about 8 years ago the WGA didn't attempt to cover any of it. I have yet to see any evidence that writers of animation scripts in the '60's, '70's, or '80's had the slightest notice of the WGA. Animation has long been the bastard step-child of the entertainment world (at least until very recently), and for most of our 50+ year history we've been the only union that gave a damn.
The other idea, which is only implied in Mark's piece, is that if TAG 839 would just get out of the way, and "release" animation writers from their jurisdiction, that everything would suddenly be roses and honey. I've had several writers insist that if the IA, our patent union, disavowed the writer jurisdiction, then the WGA would quickly take over that jurisdiction, and they'd be treated on a par with live-action and some prime-time animation writers. Oh really?
There are two major problems with this fantasy. First, it's not up to TAG or the IA to give up the jurisdiction. We cannot make a unilateral decision to no longer cover writers. At our next Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation in three years, we could propose exactly that. But the rub is that the producers would have to agree. These are the same producers who haven't given an inch to the WGA in years and years, and somehow they're going to go along with this plan?
Secondly, let's imagine an alternate universe, just like ours, but where animation writers are suddenly out of the jurisdiction of TAG 839. What would then happen? Of course, membership in the WGA wouldn't be automatic, would it? No, the writers would have to sign cards, the WGA would have to get the studios to recognize those cards, and then the WGA have to negotiate the contracts. Simple, right? But if it's so simple, then why is it that the WGA reportedly has over a thousand rep cards from reality show writers and editors, and to my knowledge they haven't got any studios to recognize them or sign contracts? Why is it that the WGA had rep cards from writers and board artists at Nick and, after making a big show of things, walked away without ever even getting the cards officially recognized?
Perhaps here's the reason: I understand that in the past DIC writers tried to organize under the WGA. To avoid the possibility that the writers would unionize, DIC simply made all the writers freelance. The case went to the National Labor Relations Board, and DIC prevailed. So the NLRB has already ruled that writers can be treated as independent contractors, which means that if a studio chooses to hire writers in that way, those writers have no right to organize. We've been told by a Warner's exec that, if the day ever came that WB no longer had a TAG contract that covered animation writers, they would do exactly the same thing.
Which, given the budgets of most animation productions these days, sounds pretty realistic. There's a well known principle in labor contract negotiations that you can get too much from management. I was reading an article that SAG went though that not so long ago with animation voice work. They got a contract that was a little too sweet, and suddenly massive amounts of voice work was going to Canada.
So this really isn't a battle between the WGA and TAG at all. It is not an "either/or" situation regarding two unions. It's actually a choice of having minimums/pensions/health, or not having them. This focus on "TAG v. WGA" is a straw-man argument that ultimately distracts from the real work of organizing the unorganized. That real work involves negotiating contracts that get people decent pay and benefits without driving work underground or out of town. That is where we have decided to focus our efforts.
Oh, one last quibble with Mark's post. Referring to TAG, he says that "...the writers seem to not get much attention and too many of their needs go unaddressed." Two CBA negotiations ago our negotiating committee was made up primarily of writers, and they set the agenda for those negotiations. At the next negotiations, we had two writers on the committee, and we put forth more writer-specific proposals than any other job category. In the last negotiations, our vice president Earl Kress championed, very successfully, several writer's issues, resulting in major bump-ups for writer's pay and benefits. In those last three contracts, while our overall contract got nice gains, the writers got the biggest gains.
Ours is a "polyglot" union. The idea that we represent two mutually exclusive groups, artists and writers, is nonsense. Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of animation production knows that the needs and skillsets vary dramatically among the many job categories we represent. We cover theatrical, cable TV, and network TV, and shorts. We cover CG, hand-drawn, and Flash. Look through a list of our job classifications, and the only real commonality you will see is that each group is creative in their own way, and together we all create animation. I'm proud of TAG's contribution to the field. If there are things we are doing, or not doing, that could be improved, then get involved and help make things better. But lets keep those efforts rooted in reality, and not in fantasy.
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Disney's "Nine Old Men" -- The Last Hurrah That Wasn't
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Friday, April 07, 2006
Turf battle with the WGA?
Today's LA Times has an article by Richard Verrier for which I was interviewed about a week ago. I think it's a solid, straightforward article, and there isn't much I'll quibble with (I do think it's a stretch to call us "blue collar workers"). But as with all such articles, only a fraction of what I have to say on the subject ended up being printed. . .
My major point (which I think pretty much does come through) is that, from our standpoint, there is no battle. We think everyone working in animation deserves representation and benefits, and we wish the WGAw every success in organizing animation writers who are currently not working under any labor contract. In fact, in the past Steve and I met with organizers for the WGAw, and for a time we coordinated efforts and shared some information. Since then the Writers Guild took a more aggressive approach towards animation, and chose to end that cooperation.
The article reports that TAG and the WGAw "clashed" over organizing Nickelodeon. In fact, when Nick was still nonunion and the Writers Guild made a run at organizing Nick's writers and story artists, the WGA called for an informational picket in front of the studio. We encouraged our members to march in their support, and Steve and I were among the TAG members who carried WGA signs that day. For whatever reason, the WGA never took their case to the National Labor Relations Board, never called for an official vote of the Nick unit, and later walked away from the organizing effort. TAG later got rep cards from Nick employees, took the cards to the NLRB, and negotiated a contract. The employees at Nick spoke, and we listened.
The article also mentions a clash over organizing writers on DreamWorks' "Father of the Pride." Again, not really much of a clash. The Animation Guild has had a contract with DreamWorks pretty much from the start of that studio, a contract that covers writers and story artists, so we were surprised when the WGAw leadership at the time tried (unsuccessfully) to steal some of that jurisdiction. There was never any doubt who really had the jurisdiction, so it was really more of a tempest in a teapot.
Last year the WGAw elected more activist officers, and their new president (Patric Verrone, a writer who has done extensive work in animation) has made organizing animation writers a top priority. So I guess in some quarters, based on pronouncements by WGAw leaders, it sounds like we're at war with them. Or, rather, that they're at war with us. Whatever. All I can say is that we continue to do the best we can to take care of everyone we represent, that we'll continue to try to organize studios that aren't organized, and we wish our sister unions the best in their efforts.
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