An even livelier back-and-forth about storyboard tests (verdict: they're abusive), uncompensated overtime (consensus: there's lots of it going on), and artists sharing information and rating various L.A. studios (which the TAG executive board will discuss at its Tuesday meeting.)
I gave a report on the guild's recent face-to-face with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers where I presented studio storyboard tests that took a week to complete, said they were way longer than they had any right to be, and informed studio reps that a lot of talented, experienced board artists were flat-out refusing to take them.
I told the assembled multitude that I need first-hand reports and samples of abusive board tests as fast as artists can report them. I said I wanted to be in the studios' grills as frequently as possible. For that that we needed board artists providing testimony (anonymous or otherwise) and examples of long tests each and every time they encountered them.
The meeting lasted until 10:30 p.m. Among the topics discussed:
* Creating an anonymous internet forum for Animation Guild members.
Forum would be a place where members can lodge complaints/grievances without fear. (Also a place where the guild can gather information from members.)
* Creating testing standards.
Can tests be eliminated? If not, how can they be limited, or monetized?
* Uncompensated Overtime and Tight Schedules
Should members report unpaid overtime violations? What is the studio blowback for doing so? **
I gave examples of departments at different studios where uncomped overtime happens a lot, and examples of departments where the employees NEVER work unpaid o.t. because they've built a culture where it's not allowed to happen.
I also talked about an I.A. production local that told me it has a policy of no free work being done by its members (i.e., no uncompensated tests) ... yet a major studio said at the AMPTP meeting that those same members work for free on a regular basis "trying out" for jobs on live-action features.
The issues above are not new. They were smacking me in the face when I started this job, and they remain problems years later. The challenge is: how to MINIMIZE them?
** Adapted from a meeting attendee's notes.
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1 comments:
Tests were allowed to take over because of the artists. Now it's up to the artists to refuse those tests to get employed.
If a producer can't figure out if an artist is somewhat capable of handling their show through presenting a portfolio and resume, then that producer is an idiot and shouldn't be trusting their own judgement on the matter. But they should depend on their directors and artists under them who can help give a yay or nay on a particular applicant.
Tests have a small place in the industry; mainly for newcomers who may not have built up a portfolio and resume. For experienced artists, it's merely a humiliating hoop that usually doesn't end up in landing the job. So why do artists still kowtow to such humiliation?
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