Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Craft Meeting #4 -- CG Artists, Tech Directors

The latest TAG craft meeting happened Tuesday night, with a lower turnout than has been usual. The topics discussed:

* The disappearance of VFX jobs; one CG artist noted that he used to move back and forth between union animation work and non-union visual effects work. He said the non-union work has decreased drastically.

* Speculation about Canadian how long the expansion of CG work in Canada and London would last. The business rep thought as long as the big tax subsidies are in place, CG work would continue to thrive north of the border, and that there are two ways the subsidies could end: 1) If Canadian voters tire of the tax rebates, deciding that the cost-benefit ratios are not there and so vote to end them. 2) If counter-failing U.S. tariffs are put in place and end the usefulness of the subsidies.

It was pointed out that countervailing tariffs against foreign subsidies would not prevent otter states in the U.S.A. from instituting tax subsidies of their own. ...

Comments from survey forms:

Overtime is needed and authorized. I rarely to never work unpaid overtime. If schedules are inadequate, I'm usually vocal about it.

The biggest issue with the Guild contract is is skewed heavily toward traditional issues; there's apathy among too many tiers per category.

One 3D category is insufficient to describe or reflect various titles. ... A layout or texture painter shouldn't be rate compared to a character animator with current multiple tiers. It is possible for "leads" in departments to not be the highest union ranking. Essentially you can have a higher-paid journey person being lead by a lower tier.

The union needs to promote itself to its 3-D members. It's crazy there are [so few] people at this meeting.

I work unpaid overtime twice a week. There aren't enough studios under TAG jurisdiction.

Find a summary of all other craft meetings here.

2 comments:

slip said...

Are these meetings "closed meetings"? i.e. could a union member invite / encourage non-union members who might be interested in learning more about TAG to attend?

Steve Hulett said...

We've had non-union industry people at several of the meetings. Not a big problem.

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