Again At the Studios

Another busy day in the east San Fernando Valley ...

Today I was at Bento Box, where a staffer said:

"Fox is happy with the 18-54 demographic for Bob's Burgers. We're hoping for a pickup on the back nine. Also hoping for a third season pickup for Season #3 ..."

BB's Magnolia Boulevard facility is pretty full up at the moment.

After Bento, I journeyed to Disney Television Animation's Sonora Building, where Phineas and Ferb, Kick Buttowski and Tron have now fully relocated from the Burbank lot's Frank Wells Building. (Disney has a lot of buildings.)

A week or so ago, the two-story structure was pretty chaotic, what with construction workers putting up walls and installing hardware, what with movers hauling boxes of artists' belongings into different cubes. The dust and noise have now gone away, and the gray, industrial-strength cubicles have been reinstalled on the second floor*. And work is humming along.

I was asked about a TVA move to the Golden Oaks Ranch up in Santa Clarita, and said I knew nothing in that regard. (I can't conceive of another move on the heels of the last one, but hey. Stranger things happened.) I was asked about the upcoming contract negotiations. And about tight schedules and unpaid overtime and the usual issues. I got at least one volunteer for the negotiating committee.

Oh yes. In the earlier morning hours, Mr. Kaplan and I motored to the west Valley, where we handed out leaflets to arriving staff at non-union Moonscoop Studios in the heart of Warner Center. (A union organizer's life is never dull.) A few managers asked us what we thought we were doing, so we explained the procedure to them. Happily, nobody questioned our right to stand on the sidewalk and pass out our fine union material.

* A couple of months ago, the second floor of the Sonora Building was home to DisneyToon Studio and had a laid-back atmosphere with these strange white cubicle dividers that artists complained were too low and too flimsy. Installed near the end of the Sharon Morrill regime, they began life with these strange, white hangings overhead and looked like, swear to God, Civil War tents. Most artists hated them.

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The Google

... honors Mary Blair's 100th birthday.

Many happy returns.

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China's Animation Industry

Former TAG steward Kevin Geiger, now active in the Chinese animation business, reflects on its past, present and future:

... China is currently the world’s largest TV drama and comics producer, the third largest film producer (after India and the USA), and the fastest-growing film market in the world, with a reported 2010 box office of over $1.5 billion USD (a 60% increase from 2009). ...

The history of Chinese animation dates back to 180 A.D., when inventor Ting Huan created what many consider to be the first zoetrope. ... 20th-century Chinese animation began with the pioneering work of the Wan brothers in the mid-1920s. Their animated short film, “Uproar in the Studio”, created an “uproar” among audiences on the mainland. ....

The worldwide success of DreamWork’s “Kung Fu Panda” franchise has caused a great deal of soul-searching in China. Many here have asked why the Chinese animation industry is seemingly incapable of taking such a creative turn with its own culture, and have wondered when a Chinese animated film will achieve such success in the West. ...

Kevin notes that China's protection of its film industry, with its focus on large public-private animation companies over smaller, free-wheeling operations is likely not helping Chinese animated films to be competitive in world markets ... or even with its own national audience. (Read his entire piece; my Clift Notes version doesn't do it justice.)

My take on the Chinese cartoon biz is similar to how I perceive India's: It ain't the hardware and software, nor the number of bodies staring at the flat screens inside "animation hubs." It's the talent ... and the resulting content. When you opt for quantity over quality, you end up with lots of product from which audiences, both foreign and domestic, stay away in droves.

If Chinese industrial policy frustrates ambitious Chinese animation talent, that talent will soon enough ride a work visa to Europe or the Unites States in search of wider creative horizons. It's the way its worked since film was invented, and it won't be changing in the digital age. Artists go where the artistic rewards are. (Hitchcock didn't stay in Britain, now did he?)

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Middle Pay in the U.S.A.

Not too good.

... In 2010 total wages and salaries came to $6,009,831,055,912.11.

That’s a bit more than $6 trillion. Adjusted for inflation, that is less than each of the previous four years and almost identical to 2005, when the U.S. population was 4.2 percent smaller. ...

The median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999. ...

The number of workers making $1 million or more rose to almost 94,000 from 78,000 in 2009. However, that was still below some earlier years, including 2007, when more than 110,000 workers made more than $1 million each. ...

What these figures tell us is that there was a reason voters responded in the fall of 2010 to the Republican promise that if given control of Congress they would focus on one thing: jobs. ...

In the recent past I had lunch with a Wise Old Animator who worked his ass off over a long career and invested wisely. (He is now very comfortably fixed.) Regarding the Current Troubles he said this:

"When Glass-Steagel got repealed, I told everybody I knew that we'd have a new Depression in ten years. I lived through the last one and it wasn't pretty. I wanted to avoid going through another. We had these problems a lot before 1929 ..."

The one constant about humankind is: It never learns a goddamn thing for very long. Holland (and the world) went through the Tulip Bulb Bubble centuries ago. The American economy crashed with frightening regularity all through the nineteenth century (gold standard and all.) And the U.S. congress has been methodically stripping away financial regulations for years ("This time is different!") because as we all know, markets are self-regulating and therefore nothing can go wrong in the Modern Age.

So now people are hurting. And they will continue to hurt, because we still have a ways to go before real estate fully unwinds.

But I don't hold out much hope that this type of debacle won't repeat itself, and it's not because of Barney Frank or George Bush or Barack Hussein Obama. It's because A) Greed is a basic human impulse and B) .... (repeat it with me now) People never learn a goddamn thing.

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Studios, Round and About

Disney, Cartoon Network and Robin Red Breast have all been graced by my smiling presence this week ...

The Hat Building was going over to Google's calendar and e-mail when I walke through, leaving the older company-based systems behind. And board and development artists reaffirmed that A) Development has kicked up, and B) Ron and John's picture, though not in "bright green light" phase, is still moving along ... and the development art is terrific. (It ain't about Jack the Ripper, if you're wondering.)

Cartoon Network has a variety of new shows in development (always a good thing) and seems to be working with the subsidiaries of the Mother Conglomerate in ways that always seemed obvious to me, but they never did. But hey. Now they are!

Warner Bros. Animation’s Green Lantern: The Animated Series is heading to Cartoon Network for a one-hour special event.

The CG animated special will premiere November 11 with the series ultimately debuting on Cartoon Network next year as part of the new DC Nation programming block. ...

For years I was bewildered by Time-Warner's refusal to put Warner Bros. Animation product on Cartoon Network's cable pipeline. Now, happily, T-W is practicing a little synergy and doing what they should have done ... oh ... a decade ago.

But better late than never. Just because CN reports to Turner's Atlanta headquarters, while WBA checks in with Warner Bros. in Burbank, is no reason to be stupid.

Lastly, there is Robin Red Breast, subsidiary to Titmouse, an up-and-coming cartoon studio that has branches in New York (where it originated) and Hollywood, where Titmouse/Robin Red Breast is doing two Disney shows under union contract and other work without benefit of collective bargaining agreement. The studio is a beehive of activity, and expanding. They have multiple buildings in the heart of Tinseltown. (An interview with Chris Prynowski, who co-owns the studios with his wife Shannon, is here. And yeah, we'd like to have a contractual with Chris and Shannon's whole studio.)

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Health Coverage Realities

The Nikkster shares the unfortunate news regarding SAG's Health Plan:

The Screen Actors Guild’s Pension and Health Plans just informed members that minimum earnings to qualify for health coverage are increasing 2% effective January 1, 2012. Out-of-pocket maximums for individuals and families also are increasing. ...

This points up the continuing direction of health coverage in the Land of the Free: More cost-sharing. More costs. Thinner services.

Health care inflation has continued briskly for decades, and doubled in the last nine years. And although it's come down a bit in the past twelve months --- 5.4% by recent measure -- it shows no sign of abating over time. Everybody sooner or later gets it in the shorts.

Over the past umpteen years, TAG has held New Member education forums where we have outlined the best health care cost-containment strategies people can use with the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan.

Now, however, the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan is facing budgetary issues and the IATSE is holding meetings for members about where the Health Plan will be going over the next contract cycle. (2012-2015).

If you care about your health care costs, and want to make sure your voice is heard when the IA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sit down to hammer out details regarding your health coverage over the next three years, give us a call or send us an e-mail so that you can have a seat at one of the three up-coming meetings:

Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan Forums

* Sunday, November 13 - 10am to 2pm

IATSE Local 80, 2520 W Olive Ave, Burbank

* Monday, November 14 - 7pm to 9pm

California Ballroom, Four Points Sheraton - LAX

9750 Airport Blvd. 90045

* Tuesday, November 15 - 7pm to 9pm

IATSE Local 80, 2520 W Olive Ave, Burbank

Show up and give input! It's your money, after all. You might as well have a say about where it goes.

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Nothing But Blue Sky

... all day long.

... Blue Sky Studio is receiving funding through the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development to expand its office space by 43,000 square feet and add the 70 new positions.

Once complete, the facility will total 150,000 square feet, including “seating for up to 140 artists ...

It's great that the state is subsidizing the feature animation studio, but what happens when the subsidies end? Does Blue Sky return to White Plains New York? Or does it just cut positions?

I suppose we'll wait and see.

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CAPS honors Al Jaffee

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Constants In A Changing World

Complaints through the ages:

Whichever side of the political spectrum you live on, the general thinking is if the Other Guy wins, civilization will come to an end.

But think about it. We got the minimum wage and life went on. (There's even a good argument that it improved for many.) The Wagner Act -- enshrining labor rights -- passed in the 1930s and America survived. (Prospered, even.)

The progressive income tax was installed in 1913 after the Taft Administration pushed through a Constitutional Amendment, and a century later we still have plumbing, electric lights and all-tile bathrooms. (Who would have thought?)

As I get older, I get less agitated about the predictions of imminent destruction than I did when younger. (That goes for Leftie prophecies of disasters as well. If President Romney gets rid of Medicare and Social Security, life will be crappier for wide swaths of the population, but the world will not end.)

I recall the wailing about Impending Doom when Bill Clinton pushed through a tax hike in 1993. ("The economy will implode! You can't tax the Successful!" etc.) But funny thing. Everybody survived paying a few percent more. How could that have happened?

h/t "The Big Picture."

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The Frans Vischer Interview -- Part II

Mr. Vischer has been a designer, storyboard artist, and animator on cartoon features. But he's also a published author ...

TAG Interview with Frans Vischer

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

An alumnus of Cal Arts, Mr. Vischer learned from both teachers and fellow students during his years there. His first professional animation job was on Mickey's Christmas Carol, and he's worked on a wide range of projects since. He considers his work on Turner's Cats Don't Dance as one career high point, but he's also excited about his more recent forays into book publishing.

"Fuddles," his latest work, was published by Simon and Schuster in the Spring of this year, and has appeared on Southern California best seller lists.

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Not Forced On Him

... by the House of Mouse.

John Lasseter talks to the Times and says he makes what he wants to make.

... [O]ne matter [Mr. Lasseter] addressed head-on was the assumption by some that “Cars 2” had been forced out of him by Pixar’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, as a greedy grab for sales of related merchandise, a central current of the negative reviews.

“I don’t know what to say about that,” he said. “Well, I guess I do. It’s not true. It’s people who don’t know the facts, rushing to judge. I recognize my place in the Walt Disney Company, but my job, my focus, my deepest desire is to entertain people by making great movies, and we did that with ‘Cars 2.’ ” ...

So have we got that, ladies and gents? John Lasseter loves Cars, loves the franchise, and did #2 of his own free will.

So it ain't the evil conglomerate, it's the creative head of the animation division. And the picture made half a billion dollars so who are we to judge? (Also, just so you know, I have no opinion on the matter as I've never seen the Cars features.)

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CTN Animation Expo 2011

Its almost that time of year again .. when the animation community converges on Burbank to enjoy the pageantry of the CTN Animation Expo. Mark your calendars for the weekend of November 18, 19 and 20 to attend the event at the Burbank Marriott Hotel.

Now in its third year, the CTN Animation Expo has proven to be a unique event that brings professionals, students and fans of animation together in celebration of the craft.

Be sure to use the code THANGX11 when you register to attend to receive a discount on the registration cost.

TAG will be located to the left of the entrance to the hall (see image below). Be sure to stop by and say Hi!

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The Frans Vischer Interview -- Part I

TAG Interview with Frans Vischer

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Holland is a long way from the animation business in California, but when you're a kid with a passion to draw, the distance across an ocean and continent isn't very far after all ...

The Vischer family moved to northern California when Frans was eleven. Since he knew little English and soccer was not yet a major American pasttime, young Mr. Vischer spent a lot of hours with his sketch book. This led Mr. Vischer's mother to send samples of his work to the House of Mouse ... which in turn led to a trip to the Disney Studio and later, an audience with animation legend Chuck Jones. All of which you will hear about in the first half of The Frans Vischer Interview.

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Foreign High Points for Animation

The Reporter bullet-points the box office:

* Real Steel has recorded a foreign gross total of $57.5 million, $5.8 million more than its domestic cume.

* Sony’s The Smurfs, the No. 1 film on the foreign circuit from Aug. 14 through Oct. 2, has surpassed the $400 million mark in offshore box office ($403.5 million) ...

* Rise of the Planet of the Apes held on to the No. 1 Japan spot for the second consecutive round, grossing $3.76 million from 628 locations in the market. The sequel’s total foreign gross was hoisted to $257.8 million ...

* No. 4 was The Lion King 3D reissue, which drew $5.2 million in its tenth weekend offshore from 31 territories with about half the international market yet to play ... Foreign gross total stands at $37.5 million...

What becomes clear as we move deeper into the 21st century? Audiences desire animation as a stand-alone (Tangled, Cars, Lion King, Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) And audiences expect and like animation to be stirred into their live-action offerings (Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers, and on and on.)

Speaking of on, there is this old chestnut, coming in a new 3D package later this month:

The Three Musketeers has been done up, down and sideways over the years -- 1921, 1929, 1935, 1939, 1948, 1972, 1973 just to name a few calendar dates for American versions. And of course Mickey, Donald and Goofy in 2004.

The latest incarnation has gotten minimal love from critics, and yet ...

... No. 2 on the weekend Germany’s Constantin Films’ production of Musketeers ... Foreign cume so far comes in at $49 million. ...

I don't know if this version ends up making money or not. As reviewers note, it appears to be charging after the Pirates of the Caribbean crowd. But whether it goes into the black or not, the main reason it got made was to rev up the visual effects, utilize the 3D, and have at it.

Let us face today's movie reality plainly: One of the major drivers for getting features made in the 21st century marketplace is c.g. effects.

(Box Office Mojo discusses the original release date of 3D Musketeers here. I have no idea what the epic cost. Probably somewhere around $80-$100 million. I can't imagine that the actors cost a whole lot, and they shot a lot of the feature in German locations, as producer Jeremy Bolt explains here.)

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Sunday Animation Links

When we're out of things to say, why not a Link-fest?

Tintin: The London Daily Telegragh has misgivings about the Spielberg movie.

On the other hand, The Hollywood Reporter predicts triumph at the box office. ...

Batman: Year One rolls out at the New York Comic Con.

MTV wants another Beavis and Butthead that is not BB but is, you know, edgy like the Judge original.

Estonia is victorious (cartoon-wise) in Bucharest.

Brad Neeley and Dan Weidenfeld discuss China, IL.

SIGGRAPH Asia happens in Hong Kong December 12-15.

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Rupert's Non-Fans

Apparently phone hacking inspires blow-back against our friends at News Corp.

The nation's largest public pension fund said it would vote against the reelection of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, to News Corp.'s board of directors. ... CalPERS said it would withhold voting its nearly 1.5 million shares for the reelection of James and Lachlan Murdoch, Arthur Siskind, News Corp.’s former general counsel, and Andrew Knight, the former executive chairman of News International, the company's British publishing arm. ...

This sort of thing seems to be going around. Just the other day, Institutional Shareholders Services Inc. said there should be a rejiggering because of the, you know, unpleasantness in Britain:

"The company's phone hacking scandal, which began its public denouement ... has laid bare a striking lack of stewardship and failure of independence by a board whose inability to set a strong tone at the top about unethical business practices has now resulted in enormous costs — financial, legal, regulatory, reputational and opportunity — for the shareholders the board ostensibly serves,"

Honestly, I don't know where ISS gets this "lack of stewardship" idea. There was plenty of stewardship, most of it in the grand tradition of "anything goes" for a smooth buck.

Rupert has played fast and loose with the rules for years. And the News Corp. board has gone along for years. The boards of many large corporations, you see, aren't there to oversee the excesses of the Top Dogs. They are in the room with the long table and comfy chairs to rubber stamp what the robber barons want.

I mean, hasn't anybody noticed the excesses of the last ten or twenty years? The world is turning into one big Banana Republic. And the dwindling middle classes around the globe are starting to notice.

Naturally enough, News Corp. "strongly disagrees" with ISS. News Corp. says everything is really fine now, honest. And everything should stay just as it is because Rupert and his minions have now cleaned up their act.

And I like, totally believe them. Why would they lie?

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The Mid October Steeple Chase

The animated robots drop to #2; the animated lions drop to #10 ....

And we're in the slow time of the movie box office season:

1. Footloose (Paramount) NEW [3,549 Theaters] Friday $5.6M, Estimated Weekend $16.5M

2. Real Steel (DreamWorks/Disney) Week 2 [3,440 Theaters] Friday $4.4M (-48%), Estimated Weekend $16M, Estimated Cume $51.3M

3. The Thing (Universal) NEW [2,996 Theaters] Friday $3.2M, Estimated Weekend $9M

4. The Ides Of March (Sony) Week 2 [2,199 Theaters] Friday $2.2M (-34%), Estimated Weekend $7.5M, Estimated Cume $22.1M

5. Moneyball (Sony) Week 4 [2,840 Theaters] Friday $1.7M, Estimated Weekend $5.5M, Estimated Cume $57.7M

6. The Dolphin Tale (Alcon/Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,286 Theaters] Friday $1.6M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $59M

7. 50/50 (Summit) Week 3 [2,391 Theaters] Friday $1.3M, Estimated Weekend $4.1M, Estimated Cume $24.5M

8. The Big Year (Fox) NEW [2,150 Theaters] Friday $1.1M, Estimated Weekend $3M

9. Courageous (Sony) Week 3 [1,214 Theaters] Friday $1M, Estimated Weekend $3.3M, Estimated Cume $21.3M

10. Dream House (Universal) Week 3 [2,172 Theaters] Friday $740K, Estimated Weekend $2.5M, Estimated Cume $18.4M

10. Lion King 3D (the Mojo ranking) Friday $721K, Cume $88.5 million.

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Tight Schedules and Overtime -- A Dialogue

The last few days, a veteran board artist who is quite good at what he does has been e-mailing me, and I've been e-mailing him back. We cover some well-trod ground, but I think the back-and-forth is worth sharing ....

Veteran Board Artist:

Next time the CBA negotiations come around, get in contact with me. As you probably well know, because of the rise of the Cintiq and Storyboard Pro, storyboarders are now being asked to do many, many more poses, so that their boards are basically 'rough animated'. Also, it is now becoming required on some shows that boarders begin making animatics of their acts, synching drawings to dialogue.

You may recall that, years ago, you and Kevin Koch asked for examples of boarders doing bg layout in boards, and I responded with some examples for you guys to use in negotiations. Kevin told me the examples were very helpful.

Well, the new standards of what constitutes a proper storyboard have led to increased demands that put that earlier change to shame. I'm sure you're aware of the new expectations.

When that time starts to roll around again, let me know ahead of time...I'd be the perfect guy to make a simple video (anonymous, of course) of my hands at a Cintiq showing work and demonstrating the new demands being placed on storyboarders, all without new, extended deadlines and turnaround times.

Biz Rep Hulett:

I would like you to be on the negotiation committee, when negotiations happen next year. I think it would be helpful.

... I think the biggest problem isn't rates per se, since board artists rates are as high or higher than animator rates. It's the damn schedules and the fact that many people work uncompensated overtime hours. ...

Veteran Board Artist:

Yeah, that frustrates me, too ... Problem is, it's hard to draw a hard, firm line between unreasonable deadlines and people who are simply slow. ... Maybe schedule minimum standards need to be set by the Union....say, three weeks minimum for 11 minutes, something like that. If an employer insists on a tighter schedule, overtime pay automatically kicks in.

Biz Rep Hulett:

Unpaid overtime has been a problem since I started this gig.

Sometimes o.t. violations are clear cut, sometimes they’re not. It’s nothing new by the way. My old man had quotas to hit in the background department at Disney in the 1950s. You didn’t make quota, they didn’t look kindly on you.

I’ve heard complaints about deadlines for twenty years. But artists who are fast and efficient seldom have big problems, while slower artists get crushed. There can’t be some hard, firm line about schedules because every show is different. Some shows have lots of pencil mileage and difficult characters and settings, others have less. Boards for “Huckleberry Hound” would take a fraction of the time that “Tarzan” or “Batman” boards would. So having different length schedules seems like a natural production decision.

Veteran Board Artist:

I agree about the Huckleberry Hound/Batman distinction, but would a minimum turnaround be too hard to set? I mean, take the three weeks for 11 minutes figure I pulled out of a hat below...the idea is that would be the minimum time allowed to storyboard an act. A minimum turnaround time wouldn't make a difference on Huckleberry Hound or Batman.

Sure, I imagine there'd be stuff that could be done in less than three weeks.....re-boarding of something existing, for example...or a very, very simple Southpark-type board, where the characters can basically be stamped into place in the frame...but Union guidelines/rules are already winked at on occasion,...when nobody is getting hurt, and both sides agree to some small violation.

...but the Union minimum turnaround times would be used only when an artist feels they are being treated unfairly. They could then say "but the Union minimum turnaround time for an 11-minute act is three weeks" when someone asks them to do less. Often, just saying what the Union minimum rule is in any situation is enough to scare off a production person or executive. When you made walk-throughs of studios and found people working at night, you could ask people what their schedules were..."are they at least giving your three weeks per 11-minutes?", etc.

Schedules have been shrinking in length since I arrived 25 years ago. I remember six weeks was standard for an 11-minute act before 2000. Now, three weeks--at Union minimum--has become the standard. ...

Biz Rep Hulett:

Here’s a big part of the problem: Overtime rates are there as a cattle prod to schedule intelligently ... based on time spent. When people just work for free to hit the schedule, two things happen:

1) They screw themselves out of o.t.

2) They give studio administrators a false sense of how long it takes to do a board (or layout, or whatever.)

I think the best approach here is to make a big issue of tight schedules. I’ve done it in the past and gotten some adjustments. Everybody is scared witless about getting on a blacklist, so nobody wants to complain or rock the boat. I’ve pushed against piece-work rates in the past (which is what a “three weeks for an 11-minute board” is, when you strip away the bark.)

Piece work, over time, bites artists in the fanny.

If employees honestly accounted for how long they worked in a given week, a lot of these problems would go away. Hasn’t happened in two decades, but hey. I’m ever hopeful.

So there it is, the overtime and scheduling issues, yet again. Probably still be going on when I'm dead and buried.

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The TAG Blog Interviews

Just so you know, we try to have a new interview up the start of each week, but sometimes -- work schedules being what they are -- that isn't possible. ....

However, we're now back on track with a few, so new sessions should be going up shortly.

We now return to regular posting.

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Pixar North

The new Vancouver outpost gets a public viewing.

... On Thursday [Pixar] threw back the curtain on the 30,000 square foot facility it is creating inside the brick shell of an old office building in Gastown.

It also gave a preview of the 75-person studio’s first piece of entertainment, a five-minute cartoon entry in Pixar’s Tall Tales series featuring folksy tow truck Mater from its 2006 movie Cars. ...

The computer server room ... is big enough that Pixar needed BC Hydro to install a dedicated transformer to service the power load. ...

The studio is configured to make shorts, but that can always be altered, yes? Jobs is gone and the place is there to serve Diz Co., after all. So the idea that it will remain in some kind of pristine state and not serve the conglomerate that owns it is very likely wishful thinking.

When management traipses in to proclaim: "Nothing's going to change! We love this facility and all you fine, wonderful people just the way you are! ..." things are destined to change.

Money talks.

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MORE Animated Movies!

... in the "Best Animated Movie" category!

For only the third time in the category's 10-year history, Oscar's Best Animated Feature race may have a full slate of five nominees.

... A representative for the Czech Republic's entry, "Alois Nebel," told TheWrap Wednesday that the filmmakers plan to enter the graphic-novel-based drama in the animation race as well as the foreign-language race. ...

From our perspective, this is welcome news.

More entries in the "Best Animated Movie" Oscar race means more free publicity, more box office, more sales of them little silver disks of our favorite kind of motion picture. (A few people are still buying those silvery things, aren't they?)

This means: 1) More animated movies will get made, and 2) More animation artists get employed.

In a perfect world, animated features would win the "Best Picture" Academy Award from time to time, but we are a long way from perfection. A majority of AMPAS will make a picture like Snow White, Beauty and the beast or The Incredibles the big award winner around the time the sun reaches its red star phase.

So, five entries in the "Best Animated Feature" competition? That's going to have to be our consolation prize.

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Is it time to end Family Guy?

It is, according to Seth MacFarlane in the latest Hollywood Reporter.

MacFarlane thinks there's something to be said for ending the series on a high note after ten seasons, and doing a feature every couple of years.

Of course, it doesn't particularly matter what MacFarlane thinks -- Fox calls the shots, and as long as it continues to reel in the bucks they'll keep it on the air.

(The headline reads: "Seth MacFarlane Secretly Wants 'Family Guy' To End". Something tells me the secret is out ...)

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Islamic Super Heroes

Of course they wouldn't fly:

... An animated cartoon based on "The 99" -- a popular Kuwaiti comic book series whose superheroes each represent one of Islam’s 99 attributes of God -- nearly made it in the U.S. when The Hub (a network owned by The Discovery Channel and Hasbro) bought the rights with plans to air the series last October. That ended after conservatives warned the series would indoctrinate children into Islam. ...

Muslim Caped Heroes are just a teensy bit too politically and culturally incorrect at the present time; no way will they get on the air Stateside. (Wrong Sky God. Wrong religion.)

Now, if the producers would just tweak the presentation a little, and turn them all into hymn-singing Methodists, like that nice boy from Smallville, U.S.A., then we're onto something ....

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Why The Simpsons Got Renewed

A Yellow Family top kick says what went on in Simpson negotiations.

... Even though it's been speculated that the 25th season might be The Simpsons' last, Al Jean says there's no reason to believe the show won't continue long beyond that.

Jean: The network said, either we get a deal where we're set, or we will just announce that we're going off the air. We would have prepared an ending for the show, which we still needed time to do, even though it would have been a year from now. ... The fact that we got the costs down is, in my view, a very big hope that we can continue beyond two seasons. ...

When I was up at Film Roman/Starz while The Simpsons was hanging by a thread, speculation ran all over the map about the chances for more shows. The question seemed to be: would the voice actors take a hit and do a deal? Or not?

The answer, we now know, is yes. And so the show goes for (at least) two more seasons.

I think the reason many of the key players took roll-backs in 2011 -- where they didn't in 2007 -- is that "settling for half a loaf" is the current default position* for many American employees. Lots of people are wounded economically, and everybody knows it. Companies are high-profit and aggressive about hammering costs down. So the idea of people going to the mat for the top dollar is (just now) in hibernation. Corporate America is quite willing to cut people off at the knees, and the word is pretty much out regarding that.

It just ain't 2007 ... or 2005 ... anymore.

* This default could very well be changing a little. People seem to be a wee bit frustrated about the gazillionaires among us.

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The latest vfx scam: Artists paying all the taxes

Word from the westside of town is artists working at The Mill in Santa Monica are paying their share of taxes .. as well as the employers.

The Mill has engaged Yurcor to act as the Employer of Record for the artists they employ. Officially, artists work for Yurcor and are "loaned out" to The Mill. Yurcor is therefore responsible for the reimbursement to the artists for their work time at The Mill.

The Mill explains this has allowed them to:

"meet compliance requirements and improve administrative support to [their] valued freelancers.

By using Yurcor’s services you gain W-2 status and many of the benefits and services of a full time position while keeping all the career freedom and tax savings of a 1099 freelancer."

A full-time employee keeping the "freedom" of a freelance employee sound to good to be true? It should. Its also illegal.

To give that feeling of freedom, Yurcor not only withholds the traditional payroll taxes employees are responsible to pay (Fed Income, FICA, CA Income and SDI). They also withhold the employer portions of FICA, FUTA, California state unemployment insurance (UI), and the employer workers compensation insurance.

Documents we've received show Yurcor sells this as a benefit to the artist:

Employer of Record (EOR): “Employer of Record” is the best of both worlds; you establish your rates, you determine your work schedule, you can move from client to client, you can submit pre tax business expenses to offset your gross billings in arriving at your gross payroll, and you have access to health & retirement plans!

Similar to a 1099 scenario, you are responsible for both the employer and employee portions of the payroll taxes. Employer taxes are deducted pre tax as an administrative fee against your gross billings, employee taxes are deducted through payroll, and business expenses are reimbursed to you pre tax with your payroll direct deposit!

After contacting the Employment Development Department, the California Labor Commissioner, the IRS, and our attorney, we disagree with their assessment of the situation. Based on those conversations, we believe this is illegal and there are avenues available for the artists to recover the wages that were taken as a result of this practice.

If you have worked at or are currently working at The Mill in Santa Monica, we are interested in speaking with you. Contact Steve Kaplan at the Guild at (818) 845-7500 or skaplan@animationguild.org.

With your help, we can help stop this egregious infringement on labor and tax law while working to get your rightful wages returned to you.

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What I Know About Paramount Animation

Because we inevitably get questions from artists when a company puts out press releases about a new animation division, or the newly appointed head of a division, let me tell you what information I have (thus far) acquired ...

Sadly, it isn't a whole lot.

This morning I talked to a Paramount executive-type person who said:

1) The division is in the process of becoming. (They haven't yet finalized a business plan ... or at least, aren't telling me that they've finalized a business plan. That should happen over the next several months.)

2) They're not looking to have a BIG footprint and infrastructure the way that Walt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, or Pixar has a big footprint and infrastructure.

3) The company plans to hire crew as needed, on a picture-by-picture basis.

All of the above is, no doubt, subject to change and amendment, as circumstances warrant. Here is my (semi-educated) guess about what kind of unit Viacom will be constructing:

The new division will be closer to Chris Meladandri's Illumination Entertainment than DreamWorks Animation. No big space filled with riggers, animators, lighters and finalers staring at flat screens. No big tech support group. I would project that they'll have a pre-production staff here in town that scripts, storyboards, designs and does key layout.

Probably some fine European, Canadian or South Bay c.g. studio will sub-contract the production work.

The new division will develop 2-4 projects at a time and look to release one feature every year or two. They're not looking to sink gajillions into the endeavor, but to manage costs. Their press release yesterday said the company is looking to budget features at around a $100 million. I take them at their word.

They hope to get their first production into theatres by 2014. They can do that schedule, provided everything falls into place. Illumination Entertainment did it, so it is certainly achievable. Time will tell.

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MPIPHP Benefits Online Survey

Emails have started to be received inviting IATSE members to participate in an online survey regarding the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans. These survey's are another method the IATSE is using to reach the membership and get feedback on the plans and their options.

Once you receive your invitation, please follow the link and take the 10-15 minutes to answer the approximately 25 questions. The feedback you provide will help form the strategy of the benefits negotiations in the upcoming months.

These surveys are meant to supplement the Benefits Town Hall Meetings the IATSE is holding in Los Angeles and New York. Along with feedback from focus group surveys and general membership meetings, all information gathered will be used by the bargaining committee in the upcoming negotiations with the AMPTP.

It is imperative that you take the time to be a part of this important process. The IATSE is taking unprecedented steps to reach out and involve you in the upcoming negotiations. Answer the survey and attend a town hall meeting in order to make your voice heard.

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Stainton to Paramount

Here's some news:

... Paramount Pictures has tapped veteran animation executive David Stainton to head its fledgling animation unit.

Stainton spent 17 years at Walt Disney Co., where he most recently served as president of feature animation until early 2006 ...

David Stainton worked in development at Disney Feature, then moved to the Mouse's animation unit in Paris, France, and lastly to Disney Toons and Disney Feature Animation.

Chicken Little was produced on his watch, and made a goodly amount of money. Shortly thereafter, Disney purchased Pixar and Mr. Stainton stepped aside for John Lasseter and Ed Catmull.

We wish him well in his new job with Paramount.

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Remembering Mr. Cole

There was standing room only crowd at the memorial in TAG's upstairs hall.

A large gathering of animation veterans and students assembled at the Animation Guild on Sunday to share memories of Cornelius Cole ...

The celebration began with people in Gallery 839 enjoying the display of Corny's art. At 1:pm, the formal ceremony began with a slide show featuring pictures provided by Corny's family. The rest of the afternoon was a mix of personal testimonials and memories from students, colleagues and family mixed with movie clips, audio clips and slide shows projected on the screen. TAG President Emeritus Tom Sito emceed the afternoon of fond memories and sharing that was well received by all.

Anyone who wasn't able to attend the afternoon's event is welcome to view Corny's work at Gallery 839. The gallery will be open each Friday in October from 11:am to 2:pm.

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Regained Mojo

Now including emeritish Add On.

The Beast recalls:

... Jobs would eventually sink $50 million into Pixar, as his attention was monopolized by his other startup, the foundering NeXT Inc. computer company. It was hard to tell which was the larger boondoggle. Pixar’s finances, says Pamela Kerwin, an early employee, began to resemble “an extremely overdrawn checking account.” ...

Everybody knows the happy ending to the Pixar story, but it's good to remember that Mr. Jobs was repeatedly going down in flames in the late eighties and early nineties.

But then, the last few weeks have shown there are no permanent defeats ... nor permanent victories. And that it's perhaps wise not to take the ups and downs of life too seriously.

Add On: President Emeritus Tom Sito reflects on Job's significance to animation:

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Crap Times

One more unkind marker for the era through which we now pass.

... "When they asked me to keep working even though I wasn't being paid, I did it." ...

Variety tells of visual effects freelancers in Michigan who don't get paid, but what's new?

I've encountered any number of mistreated artists over the years, artists who toiled at desks week after week with the assurance that back wages were "about to be paid." Artists who were told to be "good team players" and tough things out until payroll could be made right ... only to be stiffed when the company filed for bankruptcy.

We live, as the Chinese say, in "interesting times." And there is no 100% effective way to counteract the abuse other than to not participate in it and withhold you work when checks aren't forthcoming. While that is simple and straightforward in theory, when you have no money in the checking account and the rent money is coming due, you nurse your dwindling hopes and believe the lies. Because what other options are there?

Interesting times indeed. No wonder they reek.

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The Overseas Horse Race

In foreign lands, animation continues to punch out box office:

... Real Steel ... elbow[ed] its way to the No. 1 box office spot, grossing $22.1 million ... Rise of the Planet of the Apes gross[ed] $6.2 million at 624 locations. Foreign cume to date stands at $245.4 million. ... The Smurfs tied for fourth place, drawing $7.3 million from 4,673 venues in 68 markets. The 3D title has to date racked up a foreign gross of $393.4 million. ...

Disney’s Lion King 3D in its ninth weekend overseas at 28 markets also grossed $7.3 million for an international gross total so far of $28.1 million. ...

The success of animation, whether it's wrapped inside live-action films like Smurfs and Real Steel or standing on its own, means employment opportunities continue in the U.S. and other places.

Last Spring, the buzz around Sony Pictures Animation was that the division might close if Smurfs didn't perform. Well, hey now! The little blue people went on a box office rampage, and SPA isn't going away, but instead has multiple projects simmering on the hot plate.

With the exception of some pure Mo Cap features, a wide array of animation has been doing well. Lion King 3D out-grossed the dimensional Toy Story double feature, and so Diz Co. is hurriedly dusting off the hand-drawn Beauty and the Beast, (sitting on ice in a 3-D version before conversion work on LK3D started.)

DreamWorks Animation has positive vibes circulating for Puss in Boots and Aardman/Sony releases Arthur Christmas for the holiday season, while Warner Bros. rolls out Happy Feet 2. Walt Disney Animation Studios is well into work on Wreck It Ralph, and the Mouse has more development now in its Burbank Feature division than in several years.

I'm not saying everything is unicorns, garden sprites and sparkling rainbows, but global animation is more robust now than at any other time I can remember. It's the reason that TAG has more members working; it's the reason new studios are opening up. There's a lot of movies that need a lot of animated characters and effects.

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Occupy (The Graphic)

Since we're on the subject of "Occupy," and a lot of us are visual around here, we give you the above ...

It comes from William Banzai at the Village Voice. And it's obviously a Monopoly board.

But what you might not know is that picture in the middle of the board? It's actually Wall Street with a big crowd, but it ain't recent, and it ain't "Occupy Wall Street." The year is 1918. The guy with the megaphone is actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr., selling War Bonds.

(Here's another shot, at approximately the same time and location. Mr. Fairbanks is the guy on the bottom. Charlie Chaplin is the gent being lifted by Fairbanks -- to the delight of the crowd.)

I don't know which of these two photographs was made first.

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Occupy (This Space)

This news story seems to be receiving growing attention:

Standing amid 100 tents crammed on a small lawn on the Los Angeles City Hall grounds, Clark Davis is asked a simple question about the 200 or so people that have set up camp around him.

Are you the anti-tea party?

“I wouldn’t say that we’re the anti-tea party. I wouldn’t say we’re anti-anything. I would say we’re for things, we’re not anti-anything,” said Davis, the media director for OccupyLA, one of several protest movements around the country aimed at Wall Street and the wealthy. “We’re not really thinking about the tea party right now.” ...

Last week, amid the news reports and general hubbub, TAG got e-mails from members that ran like this ...

... I write to you today to urge that our union, The Animation Guild, lend its full support to the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA and Occupy Together movements.

The concerns that these demonstrations have expressed harmonize completely with our concerns. Declaring "We Are the 99%," these various "Occupy" movements are standing up for fairness, justice and working class values. ...

Being a due-diligence kind of guy, I sent the e-mails out to the Animation Guild Executive Board for review and comment. As you might expect, some board members agreed with the messages whole-heartedly, others did not.

Since we're getting inquiries, I wanted to put this out to let people know that the Animation Guild isn't now taking any position on the "Occupy" movement, just like it didn't take any position on the "Tea Party" movement. Our membership is diverse, and we generally don't take a lot of official stances on Political Candidates or Issues of the Day one way or the other *.

If you want to ignore the current street demonstrations, then ignore them. If you want to denounce them, you can do that. And if you want to support them and add your voice, a few key strokes on The Google should tell you where to go and what actions to take.

Since we've gotten questions and the e-board has been having internal discussions, I thought it would be useful to weigh in. Happy weekend.

* The last time we did any kind of "official" endorsement was way back when Gray Davis was running for office and the membership voted and endorsed his candidacy for the California governorship at the IATSE's request. That was like, what? One hundred and thirty years ago?

And please let's not start on what I write here, Kaplan writes here, or what TAG President Bob Foster puts up on the site. The blog is for the officers to spout off their viewpoints and positions, and states as much up there on the upper right. It doesn't necessarily reflect the position of the Animation Guild.

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October Derby

Lion King falls out of Top Five and more big robots rule.

1. Real Steel (DreamWorks/Disney) NEW [3,440 Theaters] Friday $8.7M, Estimated Weekend $27M

2. The Ides Of March (Smokehouse/Sony) NEW [2,199 Theaters] Friday $3.7M, Estimated Weekend $11M

3. Dolphin Tale (Alcon/Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,478 Theaters] Friday $2.4M, Estimated Weekend $8.5M, Estimated Cume $48.4M

4. Moneyball (Sony) Week 3 [3,018 Theaters] Friday $2.1M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $48.7M

5. 50/50 (Summit Entertainment) Week 2 [2,479 Theaters] Friday $1.7M (-40%), Estimated Weekend $5.5M, Estimated Cume $17.3M

6. Courageous (Sherwood/Sony) Week 2 [1,161 Theaters] Friday $1.3M (-56%), Estimated Weekend $4.8M, Estimated Cume $16.1M

7. Dream House (Universal) Week 2 [2,664 Theaters] Friday $1.3M (-53%), Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $14.5M

8. Lion King 3D (Disney) Week 4 [2,267 Theaters] Friday $1.1M, Estimated Weekend $5M, Estimated Cume $86.4M ...

As the Reporter notes:

... Disney 3D re-release ... is still playing in more than 2,260 theaters, even though the Diamond Blu-Ray edition of the film was released on Oct. 4. ...

Still in the theatres, making the Mouse money. Gloriaski.

If past is prologue, there will be more work for 3-D converters at the Hat Building. (The feature library is ripe for picking, yes?)

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Our National Nightmare Could Well Be OVER

Maybe.

And a relieved sigh will be heard on Hollywood Way. Maybe.

It’s high noon for The Simpsons and it appears the voice cast has blinked.

The group of lead actors is close to agreeing to a new deal to keep TV’s longest running entertainment show on the air, according to a source." ...

While the cast is ready to agree to a pay cut from the $400,000 per episode they have been making since 2008, the source said that is not as deep as the 45% reduction in salary that Fox has demanded ...

The show’s top producers, according to reports, have already agreed to reduce their current compensation, but the big difference from the cast is that several of them have “back end” deals that pay them additional amounts based on profits from all the revenue sources related to the show – such as licensing, merchandising and syndication of reruns to local TV stations. ...

The high rollers can arm wrestle over the flood of millions they've been receiving for years. Assuming this report ends up accurate, and two new seasons get green-lit, then I'm delighted for the artistic staff.

They work hard on the show, and they deserve not be get cut off at the knees because the gazillionaires can't come to a final agreement.

Add On: And the Yellow Family, it appears, is good to go for two more years.

... After tense negotiations with the voice acting cast for a renewal, Fox announced Friday afternoon that the longest running comedy in history will return for a 24th and 25th season. ...

And The Simpson artists can now breathe that sigh of relief.

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Re Upped

The Mouse adds two years to the head guy's contract.

The Walt Disney Co. has extended Robert Iger’s employment contract through June 2016, the entertainment conglomerate said Friday ... The contract calls for his retirement at the end of the term. ...

Congratulations, Bob.

Add On: CNBC asks, "Who comes after Mr. Iger?" and speculates:

... Disney, which nearly always promotes from within, seems to be grooming two executives: Tom Staggs, who was previously CFO and now runs the parks division, and Jay Rasulo, who previously ran the parks division and now is CFO. ...

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Artwork of Corny Cole at Gallery 839

This weekend The Animation Guild will be remembering the life of Corny Cole. The celebration of his life beings with the opening of a Gallery show featuring selected pieces of his art.

The opening will begin at 6:pm. Corny's art can also be seen in the gallery each friday in October from 11:am to 2:pm.

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Asbury at the SPA

Kelly Asbury, director, of Gnomeo and Juliet, has moved over to Sony Pictures Animation ...

Kelly Asbury, the director and co-writer of Gnomeo and Juliet, has been hired to write the adaptation of Pooch Café for Sony Pictures Animation. ...

Mr. Asbury has been in the biz a long time, directing two features at DreamWorks Animation and story supervising two others. Like a number of other animation directors (Rob Minkoff, Chris Sanders and Lorna Cooke come to mind) he goes where the directing gigs are.

(As animated features get produced by more and more studios, directors of animated features behave like their live-action counterparts, moving from studio to studio. The days of cartoon directors staying with one producer for their entire creative lives is, I think, drawing to a close.)

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Adding A School to CSATTF Grant Reimbursement Proposal

One of the new tasks I have at the Guild is assisting Mr. Massie in the renewal of the scholastic reimbursement grants offered through CSATTF. TAG participates with a group of locals who annually petition the Fund to provide our members with tuition reimbursement for skills training at approved institutions. This is one of many important functions the Fund is stipulated to manage through the contract between the IATSE and the AMPTP.

This year, I am working to add to the list of schools approved for the partial tuition reimbursement. fxphd is an on-line institution that offers training in cutting edge visual effects software and techniques. They provide this training through downloadable videos, assets and even VPN tunnels to access learning licenses to the latest software packages. Students interact with working industry professionals who design and proctor the courses while using the latest software packages on their own machines at their own pace. The reviews from students have been nothing but glowing.

I see the addition of this facility as a big win for our members. However, in order to get the school added, I need some assistance.

My efforts to petition the Fund Trustees for the school's addition would be greatly aided by testimonials from any IATSE member (not just TAG) who have benefited from taking courses at fxphd. If you've taken a class there, and have the time and interest in writing a glowing report of your experience, it would be an extremely useful addition to my petition.

Please give a call to the Guild (818-845-7500) and ask for Steve Kaplan, or send an email to skaplan@animationguild.org. I'll reply with a breakdown of what would be most helpful to include in your report.

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Disney Animation Leaves Disney Lot

Again.

(And let me stipulate here that I'm talking here about the original Disney lot in Burbank, the real estate that is bounded by Alameda Avenue, Buena Vista Street, Riverside Drive and Keystone Street.)

The feature animation unit cleared out of the Animation Building in 1985 and 1986. When the Frank Wells Building was constructed a decade later, Disney Television Animation occupied multiple floors ...

There are now a couple of Disney TVA shows left in the building: Tron and Phineas and Ferb. But as of Monday next, those productions will be created elsewhere, and lawyers answering to Richard Ross will be inhabitants of the Wells space. I went through the building a couple of days back and noted that half the production offices and cubicles were already empty and partially dismantled; the survivors had their cardboard boxes stacked up, ready to fill for the weekend move.

And thus, no more animation at the old stand. Kind of sad. For the second time.

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Steve Jobs, RIP

Not a major surprise, still ....

... Apple says Steve Jobs has died ...

The world thinks of him as the visionary who invented personal computers and remade the way we interface with many things technical. But he was one of the forces most responsible for remaking animation.

When Disney bought Pixar, I was in the Anaheim Convention Center stockholder meeting as John Lasseter climbed up on the stage and said:

"Pixar went a long time losing money. Boy, did it go a long time. And Steve kept funding us, writing the checks to keep us going. Boy, did he write checks ..."

All the check-writing eventually paid off for Mr. Jobs in a major way. And in the process, a new way of story-telling was invented: visualizing with pixels.

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Simpsons Tussle

This has been all over the news for the last thirty-two hours:

... The future of the The Simpsons hangs in the balance as negotiations continue between 20th Century Fox Television, which makes the animated series, and the actors who supply the characters voices. ...

So naturally, me being me, I ran up to Film Roman to get the skinny from the artists on the show ...

Everybody up there is talking about it. (Big surprise.) But everybody has a different take. Herewith a selection of viewpoints and opinions from the artists and directors who visualize The Simpsons:

"Yeah, it's a big topic of discussion around here. When the news came out yesterday it was like a tidal wave went through the place ..."

"... I talked to one of the executives and he said the news reports were a bit more dire and overblown than the actual facts on the ground ..."

"This is just everybody staking out their negotiating positions. The word that I've heard is Fox and the actors want the show to continue ..."

"Matt Groening wants the show to go for twenty-five seasons ..." [That would be two more past the current one.]

"The actors and the studio aren't that far apart, really. The actors have already agreed to take a reduction. Of course they'll do a new contract ..."

"Hey, I've been on this show for fifteen years. There are artists out there who have been on fifteen or twenty shows in that time, and are out there now, searching for work. I know I've been lucky. If The Simpsons ends tomorrow I've had a great run."

I've got no special insights into whether the actors (and/or show writers) come to terms with News Corp. regarding The Simpsons or not. Nothing lasts forever. But as was pointed out to me today by one of the designers: "The artists took a big hit three years ago, when they laid off lots of staff and nobody got much in the way of raises. Now it's time for the other side to step up."

Despite the big syndication money that occurs when the show ends, I also think there's an argument to keeping the big wheels turning: When you end original episodes, the money machine (I think) will slowly, inevitably, wind down.

And though The Simpsons has been on the air longer than any other prime-time, scripted series, it still hasn't logged more episodes than Gunsmoke. So I guess we'll see, won't we?

Add On:: Here's a time-line of earlier Yellow Family disputes.

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It's time to get your flu shot

The Motion Picture and Television Fund is now offering flu shots at their health centers in Glendale, Hollywood, Mission Hills, Santa Clarita, Toluca Lake, West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills.

If you're covered under MPIPHP health insurance and you're in a high-risk category (over 50, pregnant women, certain conditions such as lung disease or diabetes, etc.), the flu shot is free. For all others there is a $25.00 fee. The MPTF can only give shots to those age 13 or older.

Flu shots are by appointment only. For further information or an appointment call (818) 876-1698 or go to the MPTF flu shot webpage.

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Tony Benedict Interview -- Part II

Young Mr. Benedict had a hankering to write as well as draw, and after he departed Disney he got his chance ...

TAG Interview with Tony Benedict

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Tony spent time at UPA, where he wrote and boarded shorts, then it was on to a new studio called Hanna-Barbera. He was hired around the time a prime-time animated half-hour about a Modern Stone-Age Family was getting underway, and Mr. Benedict wrote for the The Flintstones from its first season to its last.

Tony describes Hanna-Barbera as a dynamic and zesty place to work in the middle sixties. He relates that the studio changed after Bill and Joe sold it, and thinks that later on, they regretted selling out when they did.

Mr. Benedict went on to direct and write features and television cartoons at other venues into the new century, but he looks back on those early years at Hanna-Barbera with particular fondness.

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The Smell of Moolah

This was bound to follow after the recent box office events.

... Disney has announced theatrical re-releases for four of its animated catalog titles in 3-D — “Beauty and the Beast,” “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters Inc.” and “The Little Mermaid.” ...

Beauty and the Beast has already been ThreeDeed, so that feature was a no-brainer.

But now that there is lots of long green in the water, I expect the library will be worked pretty hard for other titles that would produce sustenance for The Mouse.

Who knows? If this goes well, sooner or later Diz Co. will work its way to "Snow White in 3-D," "Dimensional Fantasia" (will amaze ya), and "Pinoke's Nose."

I can't wait.

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Remembering Corny Cole: A Celebration of Life

This Sunday, October 9th, TAG will host a celebration of life in commemoration of Corny Cole. The event is scheduled to take place between 12:noon and 6:pm in the meeting hall and in Gallery 839.

More info after the break ..

At 1pm Tom Sito will introduce several friends and guest speakers. Anyone who has a Corny story to share is invited to do so. Contact Sito at tom (at) tomsito (dot) com so he can add you to the list and introduce you.

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The Tony Benedict Interview -- Part I

Tony Benedict and a Man Named Barbera.

Young Tony Benedict got his discharge papers from the Marines, loaded up his car, and drove out to California and a career in animation ...

TAG Interview with Tony Benedict

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

The time was the middle 1950s, and Tony's first stop was Walt Disney Productions, where he soon found himself working onSleeping Beauty and then Disney television projects.

But Disney was only the beginning ...

Tomorrow, the second half of Tony's interview, plus a video of the entire hour.

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One Middle-Aged Peg-Board

Above, TAG's newsletter in October, 1961. So what were some issues in the animation biz in '61? ....

Remember when turning out a 90-minute theatrical feature in two years was an achievement? -- Now for television, 14 hours of animated cartoons are being turned out EACH WEEK! ... and that doesn't include commercials, theatrical shorts, industrials and 90-minute features also in work ...

(The above, of course, references the boom times at a newer studio called Hanna-Barbera.)

Then there was this nugget ...

A Fractured Fairy Tale of a "Union Contract"

...Recent promotional efforts of the interests producing "The Bullwinkle Show" are commendable in the attention they have drawn to the Animation Industry as a whole. They are, however, rather deplorable, in that they appear to have been made necessary and possible at the expense of many members of the Animation Industry.

It is a rather well known fact that the local production company concerned with the production of the show provides employment only for a few members of the SCG [Screen Cartoonists Guild, 839's rival union in 1961] in the job classifications of story and layout. The balance of membership does not now receive employment under the contract between the SCB and the production company.

... Said contract apparently sanctions the employer to obtain the major portion of the production classifications at sub-standard rates outside of the United States ...

The Peg-Board is warning against run-away production of animated cartoons, just starting to rear its head in 1961. And the "interests" doing this nefarious thing? Jay Ward Productions, signed to the remnants of the Screen Cartoonists Guild.

We like to think that the troubles of the present have never happened before, and that all our turmoils are fresh and new. Actually, the same stuff goes round and round as it circles the drain ...

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Wages Fifty Years Ago

Wandering through one of our fine, contract studios today, trying to regain my land legs, a seasoned animation veteran handed me this set of Contract Minimums from 1960 ...

It's from The Motion Picture Screen Cartonists, Local 841 IATSE (New York), so it's a trifle different than the one that existed here on the Left Coast at the same time. To begin ...

Contract Minimums

Director ... $236.25

Head Animator ... $209.48

Animators 1 ... $178.61

Animators 11 ... $138.92

Assistant Animator ... $110.25

Inbetweener ... $93.71

Layout Man ... $178.61

Assistant Layout Man ... $121.28

Story Man, Story Sketch ... $178.61

Background Artist ... $159.86

Assistant Background ... $121.28

And so on. You'll find the actual sheet with all the actual numbers directly below.

What these rates show is: 1) We've negotiated a lot of contracts with a lot of wage bump-ups over the last five decades, and 2) Inflation lives.

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DreamWorks boosts Puss In Boots

The Hollywood Reporter reports that DreamWorks Animation has pushed the opening date of Puss In Boots from November 4 to October 28.

DreamWorks's latest feature is a prequel about the origins of the character from the Shrek series voiced by Antonio Banderas. Hopefully, the earlier date will give the film a leg up on what is expected to be heavy competition over the Thanksgiving weekend.

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Animation via an Independent Route

The N.Y. Times tells the story of a shoe-string cartoon -- in actual fact a descendant of Clutch Cargo -- that is trying to find love in Mainstream Hollywood.

... Dane Boedigheimer has created an online sensation that struck a pop cultural nerve. The “Annoying Orange” Web videos that he’s been rolling out for the last two years have racked up more than 800 million views on You Tube ...

But TV channels and movie studios have yet to bite on Mr. Boedigheimer’s videos ... “The reaction is always, ‘I see why it resonates in a bite-sized way on the Web, but how is this a full-blown TV show?’ ” said Dan Weinstein, one of Mr. Boedigheimer’s managers ...

Far be it from me to second-guess what will or will not click with internet viewers, but I can understand studio execs who might be a bit shy about green-lighting a half-hour of prime-time entertainment featuring cheeky citrus fruit with a superimposed mouth. An orange on a countertop works like gangbusters for two minutes on the laptop, but aboard the fifty-inch flat-screen in half-hour chunks, the static, verbal hilarity might be a tad tougher to sell.

But Annoying Orange highlights the challenges for any independent animator or film-maker: most of the pathways into Big Time Show Biz have gates and gatekeepers and lots of watch towers (with focus groups.) If you're a creator inside one of our entertainment conglomerates, you have at least a vague inkling about the right doors to knock on ... and the executives who might be receptive to your hot idea. And every so often in Cartoonland, studios actually solicit* story pitches from staff.

However, if you don't have a pre-punched, studio ticket or an agent, then YouTube becomes the way you market yourself. And maybe it leads to something and maybe it doesn't. But at least you have a goat path to success that isn't superintended by some thirty-year-old in a necktie and shiny jacket.

* Fred Seibert did the open pitch session thingie at Hanna-Barbera, Nickelodeon and elsewhere. Cartoon Network has also pursued open pitches from time to time. Imperfect though they may be, they have provided a way to climb the ladder for a number of animation creators.

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Overseas B.O.

Avatar has nothing on the smaller Blue People who now burn up the box office tracks in foreign lands.

... [S]lowest box office weekend in more than a year on the foreign theatrical circuit ended with The Smurfs claiming – yet again -- the No. 1 spot by grossing a mere $10.7 million ... The eighth consecutive stanza that the Sony release ... topped the overseas circuit [and] lifted the film’s total offshore gross to $380.8 million. ...

Which gives The Smurfs a worldwide total of $519,272,996. Think of it. A half billion dollars for the former Hanna-Barbera staple. Sony execs are undoubtedly wearing themselves out turning handsprings.

And some of the other animated totals:

Kung Fu Panda 2 -- $496.5 million

The Lion King 3D -- $19 million

Rise of the Planet of the Apes -- $236.5 million.

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October Derby

Now with money-filled Add On.

Late to the party with this, but I'm only just back in town.

Lion king hangs in:

Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ family pic Dolphin Tale is headed for first place in its second weekend with $15 million, followed by fellow holdovers Moneyball and The Lion King ...

The tally chart, as per the Nikkster:

1. Moneyball (Sony) Week 2 [2,993 Theaters] Friday $3.8M (-43%), Estimated Weekend $13.5M, Estimated Cume $39M

2. Dolphin Tale (Alcon, Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,515 Theaters] Friday $3.4M (-33%), Estimated Weekend $15M, Estimated Cume $39M

3. Lion King 3D (Disney) Week 3 [2,340 Theaters] Friday $3.3M, Estimated Weekend $12M, Estimated Cume $80.6M

4. Courageous (Sony) NEW [1,161 Theaters] Friday $3.1M, Estimated Weekend $9M

5. Dream House (Universal) NEW [2,661 Theaters] Friday $2.9M, Estimated Weekend $7.8M

Eighty million dolars for a seventeen-year-old film isn't too bad, particularly when it's had a bit of exposure in the home video markets. ...

Add On: The Reporter points out that LK is now in the Top Ten of Up There Motion pictures.

Lion King ended Sunday with a total domestic cume of $408.2 million, besting the $403.7 million earned by Sony's Spider Man and the $402.1 million earned by Paramount's sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The re-release of Lion King itself has earned $79.7 million, beating all expectations. Overseas, where it is still rolling out, it has grossed $19 million for a worldwide total of $98.7 million.

We'll point out that Lion King earned the first big block of money seventeen years ago, when ticket prices were lower. But this new burst of turnstile twirling has no doubt inspired the Mouse to mine the vaults. We'll likely be seeing Pinocchio: The Nose in 3-D before the decade is done.

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Union Benefits Benefitting Employers

Down below, a commenter offers:

... what I was looking for is what does it cost a studio to be union. I have worked at both union and non union and have enjoyed both. I do enjoy union more for the health benefits and the IAP but have enjoyed myself at non union shops as well as far as work goes. ...

In a nutshell, it costs union employers the wage rates in the TAG collective bargaining agreement, plus the cost of benefits. (Seven bucks an hour, give or take.)

Below, I expound on what union employers get in return, but first ...

... Here's a reality you might find surprising coming from a grizzled Business Agent: In the time I've done this, I've seen (some) pretty bad union studios and (some) pretty good non-union studios. One good non-union example:

Film Roman, in the first few years Phil Roman ran it.

Back in studio's early years, Phil's cartoon factory was located in Toluca Lake and producing Garfield. It offered nice benefits, good pay, and fairly relaxed working conditions. TAG attempted to organize the facility in 1991 and failed. (Phil ran the joint much the same way his long-time boss Bill Melendez -- of Bill Melendez Productions -- ran his union shop in Hollywood.)

Over time, however, Phil's studio got bigger, Phil took the FR stock public and then lost control of the place. And working conditions, pay and benefits got crappier. Ultimately, Film Roman employees had enough of the deteriorating workplace conditions and organized the studio under an Animation Guild contract.

I've seen non-union studios that paid as well (and sometimes better) than non-union studios. Generally their benefits packages were comparable or only slightly worse than union places. Occasionally non-union shops offered a generous array of benefits to "permanent staff," while production hires got a minimalist health care package and little to no retirement benefits. (This was true of Sony Pictures Imageworks in its heyday.)

Now to answer the other part of the commenter's question, "What's the point of a union for the studio?" Here's a few:

1) Efficiencies of scale. The Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan has $5 billion and over 100,000 participants. On the Health Plan side, its size and money enable it to negotiate highly competitive health care rates for participants, something that a studio of 50 or 150 employees has no way of doing. And because it has billions in plan assets, it's able to hire the best financial advisors and legal talent available.

2) Access to a large, well-trained workforce. When Imagi set up shop in Sherman Oaks, it tried to recruit story artists from various big, union studios, but had few takers. One of their execs said to me: "We have to sign a contract with you, because we can't get the people we need without it ..." (This, frankly, is the strength of a lot of entertainment guilds. An employer wants to hire a SAG actor or WGA writer or DGA director, the need to sign a contract with the appropriate labor organization.)

3) Training programs. The Contract Services Administration Trust Fund provides block grants for training to employees of union shops, which offers skill boosts to union members in dozens of guilds every year. And a while back, TAG partnered with Disney to offer computer training to animation artists that went on for over two years. Today, the Animation Guild offers classes in various related crafts at its building in Burbank, as well as providing training DVDs from its growing library to any TAG member who needs them.

It's easy to forget in this corporatist age that the United States wasn't originally set up for the exclusive benefit of conglomerates and international corporations the size of France. The Wagner Act, also known as the Fair Labor Standards Act, was enacted seven decades ago to protect workers from corporate over-reach and give them an independent voice in the workplace. The Act has been muffled and subverted over the years, but I still think it's a commendable piece of legislation that continues to have meaning. It's also the reason TAG and other unions and guilds exist.

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Dreamworks .. Distribution?

Todays news headlines are a-buzz with speculation on the creation of a distribution arm of Dreamworks Animation. As its reported from Deadline:

DWA would market and distribute its 2-3 films per year, then offset those costs by doing the same for others in an era when digital distribution has made such a plan more cost-effective than paying off an outside output partner.

Mr. Hulett speculated that the relationship between Paramount and DWA was too lucrative for both parties to walk away from so quickly. According to the new reports, Dreamworks would distribute its features digitally and would attempt to offset the costs it incurred by offering the same for other "producers".

While this may be evidence of the lack of offers from other institutions to bring Dreamworks features to the public, or a careful ploy to make an unknown deal more appealing, we'll never know.

What is certain is Dreamworks Animation features bring movie-goers to the theaters and purchasing tickets. It would be a shame to see that brought to an end through lack of distribution.

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