It's no secret that the movie business is on an economizing kick, and the cartoon sector isn't exception to that trend. Many studios are putting the screws to employees just like its live-action cousins.
A couple of days ago, TAG held a meeting with artists from various studios to strategize how employees should push back ...
Contract proposals to counteract perceived abuses were discussed, but it was pointed out that given the problems Hollywood labor organizations have had forging new collective bargaining agreement, 2009 wasn't the most opportune year to ride into town with a saddlebag full of fresh demands to rectivy abuses.
I pointed out that there were already numerous contract rules, along with state and federal regulations, that could relieve workplace stress. Some of the resulting suggestions:
* Holding crew meetings to build consensus about not working uncompensated overtime.
* Filling out time cards accurately. (Giving friendly reminders to fellow artists to fill time cards out accurately.)
* Reporting overlong storyboard and design tests to TAG so the guild can take the issue up with studio reps.
* Building an industry culture that will move toward self-policing abuses.
What I've observed over the last several years is: artists agree among themselves they won't work extra hours for free, then two people on a crew break ranks and start taking work home gratis, then other crew members see what's happening, get paranoid and take work home too. And the whole "we're not working free o.t. anymore falls apart.
I told the group that we need to find new ways to deal with the hours of free work that artists perform week in and week out. Companies get a false impression of how much work can be created in a 40-hour week, and keep raising the bar higher.
I said that the best way to deal with unreasonable schedules is to account for work time honestly. If somebody wanders around driking coffee for an hour, then takes a two-hour lunch, then that somebody should stay late and make up the three hours. But when an honest eight hours of work has been done, make sure that time cards -- which are legal documents -- show any and all extra hours worked.
I said that tighter schedules and pressure from production managers to "help out" with free o.t. have been going on since I started as biz rep nineteen years ago. There were abuses on "Tiny Tunes" in 1990, and there are abuses now. (The industry, if nothing else, is consistent.)
One strategy to combat the latest squeeze? Transparency and information sharing, both up to management and sideways to other employees. When artists work together to show how much work can actually be done in a 40-hour week, then studios will start building production schedules which reflect that.
But if companies can build schedules around a 60-hour week while paying for 40? Then hey, they will cheerfully do it that way.
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11 comments:
The third point there is SO important that it can't be stressed enough. It really bums me out to think of not only how many people that are out of work, but of how many of them are uselessly exerting themselves over ridiculous storyboard tests in hopes of procuring one of the few studio openings available. Union members have to take a stand against this naked and useless exploitation of its members.
TAG's stance on tests:
Short tests are fine. They're needed to ascertain that portfolio art was done by the applicant.
But long tests are exploitive.
Long tests--each one different--done by multiple applicants and then used as layouts for the actual SHOW is criminal.
That's precisely what DIC used to do.
"Short tests are fine. They're needed.. "
I have always disagreed with you on this. Some producer sold you a bill of goods once and your accepting the premise that phony portfolio art was such a pervasive problem and threat to the production process that you allowed the floodgates to open until we got the situation that we are putting up with now; the world's cruelest reality show.
I'm not saying that it never happens, but the amount of job applicants that have to endure these sometimes lengthy but always stressful tests is geometrically out of proportion to amount portfolios which contain bogus art samples.
Really, what's the worst that can happen? Artist gets hired. Artist gets fired. New artist gets hired. Big deal. Is that enough of a justification to put us all through hell every time a new show gets sold?
It would be different if there was some kind of guarantee or quid pro quo involved, like a suspension of probation, for example, but no- it's a one way street. I know several artists who were fired shortly after passing their tests or never hired despite passing them. There is a reason why some of the older studios still don't test. They are pointless and useless as well as exploitive.
They test us because they can. They test us because it's currently a buyer's market for talent. They test us because they are clueless, and they test us because that little morsel of rational you are clinging to opens the door for it. As long as the door is open, it will be impossible to control the abuse. There is only one option- close it!
"A couple of days ago, TAG held a meeting with artists from various studios to strategize how employees should push back ..."=====
Great idea. This is a positive , proactive approach.
Glad to see it.
If we could do one thing to help the business it would be to push back the climate of secrecy and paranoia that rules in most studios today. This is all about (re)forming the "culture" of a studio : will it be a positive , creative, open atmosphere or the kind of place where everyone is always looking over their shoulder and forced into taking an attitude of "looking out for No. 1" ?
Just getting everyone to consistently stand together and show some backbone in honestly filling out time cards and not letting the studio management settle into a permanent mindset of planning their production schedules around "a 60 hour week while only paying for 40 hours" would be a major step. A little honesty and openness goes a long way.
(Forgive the literary allusion if you've not read the books, but if you've read the "Harry Potter" series you'll understand the comparison: it often seems as if the studio culture is formed by the Dolores Umbridges of this world. )
And that most of us feel the need to post anonymously on a blog that is probably scanned by such studio management says a lot.
I just worked on a pilot with a shoe string budget. We also started with a fraction of the time any studio production would have. We were behind the eight ball from the get go. One of the color guys we hired completely misrepresented his abilities to us and after a few weeks we had to let him go and get someone else because he wasn't up to snuff.
It hardly slowed us down. It was a slight pain in the ass sure, but it wasn't a bug hurdle at all.
Now, tell me again how much sympathy I should have for the horrible hardship an established studio endures if someone they haired has misrepresented their abilities. Help me out here Steve...
The above poster is 100% correct.There is a HUGE disparity between what artists endure by toiling away at tests(working really hard for free) and the minor, trivial, inconvenience that studios glide by. You've been sold a line - and I know from experience.
If their HR department can't figure out an artists abilities from their portfolio -then they should hire new human resource people.
Here is an idea off of the top of my head: hire some out of work artists to handle portfolio submissions instead of the dunderheads facebooking away in that department right now(Cartoon Netwrok I'm talking to you).
No one should take tests. Ever. Just walk away.
If their HR department can't figure out an artists abilities from their portfolio -then they should hire new human resource people.
Here is an idea off of the top of my head: hire some out of work artists to handle portfolio submissions instead of the dunderheads facebooking away in that department right now(Cartoon Netwrok I'm talking to you).
No one should take tests. Ever. Just walk away.Another idea...see that piece of paper on top of the artwork samples? That's called a "resume". Tear yourself away from the computer screen for five minutes, make some phone calls based on the information on that "resume" and see what the applicant's abilities are.
Another thing: I've heard the excuse from producers and directors that when they're recommending a particular artist to a studio, the HR dept. will STILL put that applicant through a test. WTF?!?! If a director/producer/whomever is willing to put THEIR reputation on the line for a potential hire, shouldn't that say something considering that if the applicant doesn't work out, that could reflect on the person who recommended them?
When will HR have to take tests to justify their jobs? SRSLY.
WildBrain San Francisco is shutting down May 1st. There's some squeezin' for ya.
Could you post a source for the WildBrain info?
Steve, I know one too many "union members" telling me they've been putting in more hours than they should ( free overtime ).
I'm frustrated beyond belief. I don't know what to say to these people because they are too afraid of losing their jobs.
My head's gonna explode. What do i tell people like this without smacking them upside the head?
On taking "tests" the Bitter Animator gets it on the nose:
The client needs to see a testthe whole article here:
Because I Have Nothing Better to Do - on taking tests
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