Saturday, November 23, 2013

Dave Rand on Green Shirts



As was discussed in an earlier post, we've been informed that members at Dreamworks Animation are being urged to wear green shirts on Tuesday during President Obama's visit to the studio. The goal is to bring awareness of the plight of visual effects artists caused by the global prevalence and market distorting effects of entertainment tax subsidies.

Tonight, the video above by TAG member Dave Rand was made available. In this video, Dave explains why he supports this effort, and what it hopes to achieve.

While TAG takes no official position on this action, we respectfully acknowledge our members acting in solidarity to bring better working conditions to the visual effects industry; an industry to which they are linked by skill, experience and training.

Members working at Dreamworks Animation interested in obtaining a shirt before President Obama's visit on Tuesday, should contact President-Elect Loofbourrow at the studio on Monday.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does it bother anyone else that the green campaign for Obama's visit to Dreamworks is overshadowing the fact that Dreamworks is one of the only major studios in the US who OUTSOURCES their animation work overseas to China and India? They themselves are the problem! Or more accurately Katzenberg's willingness to sacrifice patriotism over profit is the problem.

They shouldnt be wearing green shirts when Obama comes to visit. They should be wearing green shirts every day until Jeffrey shuts down Dreamworks India and Shanghai

Steven Kaplan said...

Way to stay informed, Anon. ALL animation studios send their work overseas. All of them, which includes our beloved signatory studio partners.

Dreamworks partnership with Technicolor in India has already been called into question by Jeffrey K, and was one of the studios hit hardest by the DW layoffs earlier in the year.

EVERYONE is running to China to dip their ladle into the taurine of money that China is offering producers. Especially now that the regulations have been relaxed in order to get Hollywood to do work out there.

Jeffrey has committed to producing work at the China studio, FOR CHINA! This will increase CHINESE viewership and revenue for DREAMWORKS as a WHOLE!

Finally, I hope its not necessary to remind you what this local and its members went through in 1979 and 1982 in order to try to keep "Runaway Production" from happening. While we can't lever the studios into keeping the work here, we can remain the most talented and effective workforce available. It certainly seems to me that while the prevalence to use off-shore artists has become the norm, it hasn't stopped TAG membership from reaching all-time highs.

Anonymous said...

Walt Disney Animation studios sends ZERO work overseas. Blue Sky Studios sends ZERO work overseas. Pixar pulled the plug on Pixar Canada, so they now send ZERO work outside of the US. So no, not ALL animation studios send work overseas. How am I uninformed?

If you want to split hairs, Disney Toons sent work overseas to make Planes, but they were not a feature animation studio, until John Lasster decided Planes was ready for the silver screen. And they are not WDAS.

I didnt write my above comment with snark, but it was met with snark, not surprisingly. Ive come to expect that from the grumpy old men of the Animation Guild.

Regardless, I'm happy JK is calling India into question. Your point about Dreamworks Shanghai is conceded.

Anonymous said...

I must comment on Dave Rands video. First off Obama IS NOT a great president. Any other president with so many scandals would of been run out of the White House. From Benghazi to the IRS scandals and now to falsifying job reports around election time. The whole you can keep your current health plan is yet another broken promise that he denies. Failure after failure yet this guild stands up for the man. Dave Rand and this guild, do you really think Obama is going to see the green shirts and ask why and actually do something about it. The fact alone he is speaking at DW to continue his lie that entertaiment jobs as an American success story shows how far out of touch Obama is and how he is willing to lie to everyone.

MARK CHRISTIANSEN said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MARK CHRISTIANSEN said...

"Dreamworks partnership with Technicolor in India has already been called into question by Jeffrey K, and was one of the studios hit hardest by the DW layoffs earlier in the year."

I discovered this job opportunity that was just posted this past September:

Senior Animator requirement at DreamWorks Dedicated Unit, Technicolor India

DreamWorks Dedicated Unit, Technicolor India (DDU) is currently looking to hire Senior Animator for the full length feature in-production ‘Penguins of Madagascar’. It promises an exciting opportunity to do some challenging & fun work and work with some of the best talent in the business.

Duration of contract: 12 months

Job Location: Bangalore, India

Requirement: 3-5 years of feature experience animating hero shots

To apply: Email applications to careers.ddu@technicolor.com

Here is the link where I found it:

http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/jobs/senior-animator-requirement-at-dreamworks-dedicated-unit/


Does anyone know how much of the "Penguins of Madagascar" will be produced in India?

Anonymous said...

The writing is on the wall and has been for years. DW is currently making the TV show Dragons overseas, yes I know the boards are done here and some other work but the majority is done in China at DreamWorks Orient. The animation is getting better on those shows. There are top animators who worked at DW Glendale that now live over there and are training the China Crew. Within 5 years take or give, Glendale will do the scripts and Visual Dev and rigging and the rest will be shipped off. You think Disney is far behind, it's not. If Planes had done a bit better domestically the studio would be making decisions to start going the same route. A few more Planes franchise films that start making some serious money and Disney will begin outsourcing their feature work as well. Pixar seems to be holding its own for now but if Disney Feature goes that route so will Pixar. Blue Sky is hanging in there for now. Also it does not help that we have like 5 or 6 online schools that make every young eyed kid believe they can be an animator even though there are no jobs to be had. Just the face that Jeffrey K. is buddy buddy with Obama should tell people that the jobs are not coming back anytime soon and Obama could care less if there is a sea of green shirts or any other color for that matter. Obama will use DW as a prop to create the appearance of success. If any media picks up on his speech at DW there will be no mention of the protest by VFX artists. The media is bias and id about protecting the man at all costs. Open your eyes people, the American public has been had.

Oswald Cox said...

This trip amounts to the Hollywood studios essentially paying off the president to look the other way as they send US jobs overseas.

And he will take their fat checks and do just that.

Celshader said...

Walt Disney Animation studios sends ZERO work overseas.

It did in the past. I remember Disney Animation France and Disney Animation Japan.

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