Giving It Away

Actors audition for free, and animation studios often ask industry artists to do a test of 2-6 days in length. The reason studios give is "to see if the artist's style fits the show."
So this:



One of the major (and constant) complaints of storyboard and design artists is animation studios wanting lots of drawing done before hiring "to see if they are right" for the demands of the offered show. There have been gripes about this practice for more than a dozen years.

The practice goes back far longer than that. In the early thirties Disney made potential new-hires work gratis and in-house for a couple of weeks to see if they had the chops to do Mickey and Silly Symphony cartoons. This practice faded after studios unionized, but has long-since come back.

The Animation Guild pushed multiple proposals during the last two negotiation cycles to limit the complexity and length of tests. Four years ago the negotiation committee worked until the small hours of the morning trying to get the producers to agree to new contract language that would limit storyboard, layout and design tests. (In the end, no agreement on tests was reached.)

As we begin the first year of a new collective bargaining agreement, the issue of free testing has diminished due to the tight job market for experienced professionals. Still, the subject remains contentious, and TAG's executive board continues to ask members to report excessive testing. A majority of the board thinks that the issue can be handled internally; few directors or supervisors want to use precious time to review long tests. Most believe it's a waste of their time.

We don't think they're wrong.

H/t Trevor Tamboline.