From the Reporter:
... Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite alone will make more than $1 billion in ad revenue this year on top of nearly $574 million in affiliate-fee revenue, according to SNL Kagan estimates. The research firm eyes $375 million worth of ads and $209 million in affiliate money for Cartoon and $111 million and $125 million for Disney XD. All tower over Discovery Kids' estimated $13 million and $49 million, respectively....
It's easy to see why money continues to be put into television animation. Substantial coin continues to be made.
Of course, studios still like to keep production budgets reined in to the greatest extent possible, but those animatics keep getting more and more elaborate. So they have to find someplace else to cut. ...
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12 comments:
The animatics get more elaborate because the producers/"writers" don't have a visually imaginative bone in their bodies (individually or collectively). Animatics are used as a crutch instead of a creative tool. Once the "writers" write, they should be off the project with no input beyond typing the words. They contribute nothing to the actual process of producing the show.
"but those animatics keep getting more and more elaborate. So they have to find someplace else to cut. ..."
Yeah, how's that for logic -- the animatic is elaborate , but the actual finished show has stiff , ugly animation because a lot of the time and money that should have been poured into the animation went into the animatic .
"But really kids, the animatic was great , you should have seen it."
This whole business is turning upside down.
Procedures are slowly but surely being changed (for the WORSE!).
Benefits, working hours, quality of life. It all seems to be changing for the worse....it certainly isn't getting any better.
A Union is only as strong as it's MEMBERS make it.
Have you even considered the fact that the Disney Channel and Disney XD are largely made up of live-action shows? Or forgotten all the angst over CN's attempt at same? Even Nick relies heavily on live-action - it's iCarly show is its only real competition against Disney; even Spongebob isn't the juggernaut it once was (thanks largely to some truly horrible scripting of late). This earnings report isn't all silver lining; there's a dark cloud behind it that you completely ignored.
And this is why I, as a writer, don't go to guild meetings. Is it like this in other unions? Do spray painters bitch and moan about sheet welders?
All the beer and pizza in the world won't get rid of this bitter taste.
Wow, that was the fastest and most bizarrely off topic writer slam I've seen yet on this board! Yes, Anonymous, I'm sure it was painful that time the hilarious fart gag you added got cut from a board, but you should probably get over it.
It's a joy to work for an industry that can generate so much ad revenue and still can intimidate its artists to work an obscene amount of free overtime.
"And this is why I, as a writer, don't go to guild meetings. Is it like this in other unions? Do spray painters bitch and moan about sheet welders?
All the beer and pizza in the world won't get rid of this bitter taste."
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Yeah, let's stop with the "slam the writers" crap, boys. The writers aren't our enemy. Scripts are important.
The issue isn't that writers and scripts are an unnecessary part of the process or that the writers are well-paid.
The issue is that the people running the shows don't treat the production artists with the same amount of respect or pay them comparable wages. The rest of the process gets short changed and so there may be brilliant scripts and elaborate animatics for those scripts, but so much time is squandered on the ever more elaborate animatics that the end result is the animation of the actual show that is broadcast looks like crap because there wasn't enough time to do a decent job on it.
But stop slamming the writers, it's not their fault that the rest of the process is so screwed up.
Writers deserve to get slammed for lousy scripts. Spongebob's have sucked lately. Take a look at that abysmal "The Clash of Triton" episode Nick hyped recently. Not a laugh anywhere. You think lousy writing doesn't impact everything else in a production? If bad writing eventually turns off audiences, and ratings fall, then doesn't that eventually affect everyone's bottom line?
Writers of toon shows seem to love hiding behind the "it's just for kids" excuse, or, on the flip side, thinking their stuff is too hip for the room, and that's why nobody laughs at it. Every cartoon starts with an idea, and it's up to the writer to express that idea imaginatively and in a funny way. Too damn many of them fail at it. And that's why junk like Flapjack and Camp Lazlo doesn't last too long...
Spongebob isn't done with scripts - writers do the outlines, then the directors and board artists write the dialogue. So, I guess your precious artists are to blame, friend. Spongebob has done a ton of seasons, and it isn't uncommon for a show to slip in quality over time (and frankly, I doubt you've watched enough episodes to really say if it has slipped - my take, it hasn't).
I don't know a single writer of "toon shows" who work consistently and don't take the work as seriously as anything else they might write. And, FYI, Flapjack was written at the board stage, too. So, I guess a lot of the writers you are saying deserve to be slammed are actually drawer/writers. I know, artists are soooooo much better than writers, so this must be shocking to your delicate, childish sensibilities.
I've watched Spongebob from the very beginning, friend, and it HAS slipped. The sponge's personality has taken a very obnoxious turn; he's not just the naive innocent anymore, he's a toxic idiot who obliviously harms others and shows no remorse for it. This change has taken the heart out of the series, and much of the humor as well; not that most of the "jokes" could be salvaged in any case.
As for the art - or animation - in Spongebob, well, nowadays, it's superb. It's the show's only salvation. But if the animators truly are in any way responsible for the writing, they'd better go back to the drawing board - and stay there.
Spongebob is not a scripted show. The writers only go up to outline, then it's handed over to story artists. I've got to think any decline in quality has to do with the sheer number of episodes, since most of the creative crew has been there forever.
There are probably more popular non-writer driven cartoons right now then, maybe ever, in TV. And yet the same anti-writer crap still gets trotted out as if nothing has changed. I don't get it. If an artist thinks they can do better (and I'm not saying they can't), there are plenty of venues to prove it.
I know that shows are always looking for story artists that can do it all. Somehow I have a feeling that the artists who take to the internet to slam don't make that cut.
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