On Testing

A longtime board artist gives her take on the current policy of various studios to "test" job applicants:

Job Testing: We Need to Stop the Madness

Llyn Hunter

(Direction / Storyboards / Storyboard revisions / Animation / Development - 25 years guild member.)

Testing from contracted studios has become a habit, and we need to find a way to stop it.

Sadly four years ago, Sideletter J (page 98) was inserted into the contract:

During the negotiations between the Producers and IATSE Local 839, the bargaining parties discussed the concern raised by IATSE Local839 that skill evaluations or "tests" administered by the Producers in making hiring, promotion, and/or assignment decisions were excessive.

The bargaining parties agreed that such evaluations should require only a reasonable amount of work to complete and should be related to the hiring, promotion, and/or assignment decision. Evaluations which do not meet this criteria should be discontinued or redesigned. Concerns or questions about the propriety of such tests should be directed to Labor Relations. ...

The way this insertion was worded actually allows the abuses to excel. The biggest problem with the tests is that they are not given as evaluation of skill for a position, but rather as an audition for slot.

Animation artists are not actors, musicians or dancers. This is not a performance art. Every category that the union covers requires thinking ability, accumulated skill, ability to coordinate immense amounts of information, and do it under excessive time, coordination and physical constraints along with producing an actual physical product that can be commodified.

We do work that's similar to an author, engineer, or designer; none of these professions require an unpaid test in order acquire a position, and up until sixteen years ago neither did ours. Along with this, to be a member of the union means that we are the top professionals in animation in this city, thus, UNPAID AND ABUSIVE TESTING MUST STOP.

Here is a list and detailed explanation of what we are all experiencing. (Note: I am primarily a storyboard artist, and most of my experience has been with the testing in that area; however, discussing testing with colleagues in other areas of animation like character design, background painting, layout, prop design, they are all running into the same abuses)

• Tests are unpaid labor

Currently, this is the only profession I know where you do unpaid work, that creates a physical result, without any guarantee that there will be actual employment if the example passes muster.

When was the last time you had your auto mechanic, doctor, or electrician do a sample piece of work for free to show they could do the job? You have to get a guild job before you can be a member of this guild. That's the way it works. Which means every member of this guild is a qualified person in the area of their profession already.

As it stands with many of the contracted studios now, to be even considered for a position you MUST take the test. There is no guarantee that a job will be given if you pass the test, and there is no payment for the work done.

That is in total conflict with Side Letter J.

The problem is, by the time the guild even knows the tests have been given out, the position is usually filled.

• There is no director for the tests

These tests supposedly show that the artist can create to the style of the show. It is the job of an animation artist to coordinate with the director to get a feel for cutting, taste and setup for the show style. The director acts like a conductor of an orchestra and without their input the artist can only guess at the correct show style.

• Size of the tests are insane

The size of the tests has run amok. Four years ago it was requested by the Guild that the size of the tests be kept to a minimum (i.e. one script page, one background, one character turn around.) I personally have been given a one page test once in sixteen years, and recently they have been as extensive as three and four pages.

I have had colleagues who have reported that they were to paint three backgrounds, requested to do two more and then were not hired for the job. Then another that had to come up with the full turn-arounds for three characters and two of their own creation, and again, not hired.

• Reference materials are nonexistent

When working on a TV show you need a minimum of a part of a completed storyboard, a show bible, sample backgrounds, model
sheets and props in order to create a story board correctly.

For tests I have in the past been given one to three pages of script, a few model sheets (usually a line-up or just 3/4 views) and maybe one background, and possibly a few props (the last test I received had several photographs and drawings of limousines and I was supposed to come up with the prop myself) and from these I am supposed to determine the style of the show.

Anyone who is a board artist or director knows that you need at least a piece of a completed storyboard to figure out the cutting and shot style of a show, without it you are "flying blind."

I don't know how many times I requested one and was told I couldn't have it. That alone tells me that the tests are worthless. And never have I been given a bible (also perpetually requested and never given). We are supposed to know who all the characters are and how they should interact with each other from two pages of script taken out of a show without context.

• Deadlines are ridiculous

We are usually given a week to turn around the test, but I have yet to get a test that didn't take at least 30-60 hours to complete. I have always been working when given a test, if not animation, free-lance work that was under deadline.

That means double duty, and that means no sleep. When you are working full and overtime on another job, and then add in an excessive test with a one week deadline…

You do the math.

• Who is looking at the tests?

We have no idea (at least if you are taking one - they don't tell us) who is doing the evaluation. Does anyone know a director of a show who has looked at a test? Who is making the decisions on these tests?

As a former director, and guild member for over 20 years, I can look at anyone's resume and web site portfolio and tell you if they can do the job for a specific show. I can say the same thing for just about anyone who has been a member for five years in the business. We know who can do the work.

As a matter of fact, especially for those in TV, because of the ridiculous amount of work we do, chameleon is our collective middle name. The testing itself tells me that whoever is hiring for the show won't be able to judge a test any better than they can judge a resume or portfolio.

• Is there a point to the test?

How many people have actually gotten the job from taking a test? The two times I got the job with a test, I was chosen for the job and the test was a "technicality." I had to do the test because HR was requiring it. I suspect that all this testing is to give HR people something to make them feel as if they are actually being productive.

Often there is only one or two openings for the job, and rather than make the effort to look through resumes and websites they hand out tests while someone inside becomes free from a project, and they select that person because they are already employed by the studio and are easier to fit in the slot.

So why are we even taking the tests? Because we want that union job that pays hours into a pension and will cover our healthcare, and we will literally jump through fire to get them. We all ride "coat-tails" in this industry. We make connections with directors, line producers and associate producers and hope that they will take us with them when they get their next show.

But many don't. They retire, they go into live action, they get stuck at a non-union shop or end up competing for the same job we are. I have often described animation as a game of "musical chairs." If you are lucky to have a chair when the music stops great, but if you don't have a chair, you will do anything you can to get back into the game.

Every time I take one of these insane tests I know there is no job at the end of it, but I keep doing it because the mere hope of the possibility of a job is much better than the idea of unemployment and perpetual low paying freelance work.

I've had enough of testing - have you? We're a guild gang, lets put our heads together and do something about it.

I have been told there is nothing we can do about this until the contract negotiations of 2018 - that's two years from now. I don't believe this.

The lawyers slipped in "Sideletter J" four years ago with ease, they are not going to remove it easily or without cost. If you are reading this we need your brainpower. Lets put our heads together and do something about it. The next union meeting is Tuesday, May 31at 6:30 (to get your pizza).

Please join me and others to find a way to end this insanity.

Add On: If you are the recipient of a lengthy test, e-mail a digital copy to shulett@animationguild.org. Many thanks.