Standard CBA minimums going up on July 31

At the end of this month the Animation Guild’s standard collective bargaining agreement enters its third year, and the minimum rates of pay will be going up by two percent. In addition, the minimum required hours needed per six-month period to retain health coverage will increase from 300 hours to 400.

With an increasing number of people working at the CBA minimums, members need to be aware of the minimum rate of pay for their category. These are minimums; studios are not required to raise overscale pay unless the new minimum is greater than your pay rate. For all the CBA minimums, go to our website.

Studios are required to automatically raise the pay of any employee whose rate falls below the numbers listed below and in our collective bargaining agreement. Any below-scale payments must be promptly reported to the Guild, since there is a one-year statute of limitations on wage complaints.

Here’s a summary of some of the journey minimums, effective July 31, 2011:

HOURLY/WEEKLY SALARIES:

Production Board [staff] : $1,872.84 per 40-hour week

Animator, Background, Layout, Model Designer, Animation Writer, Visual Development, CGI Animator/Modeler, Production Technical Director [I]: $40.714 per hour; $1,628.56 per 40-hour week

Key Assistant Animator, Key Assistant CGI Animator/Modeler [II], Production Technical Director [II]: $39.018 per hour; $1,560 per 40-hour week

Assistant Animator, Assistant Background, Assistant Layout, Assistant Model Designer, Animation Checker, Color Key, Assistant CGI Animator/Modeler [III], Production Technical Director [III], Digital Check: $34.843 per hour; $1,393.72 per 40-hour week

SCRIPT/STORYBOARD UNIT RATES:

IMPORTANT: Minimum health and pension contribution hours for unit-rate scripts and storyboards will also increase effective July 31, to the amounts listed below.

7-15 minutes:

• Synopsis and Outline: $894.21; 47 health and pension hours

• Storyboard Only: $1,488.15; 51 health and pension hours

• Teleplay or Screenplay: $2.916.62; 153 health and pension hours

• Full Script* (outline plus screenplay): $3,810.83; 200 health and pension hours

Half-hour subjects:

• Synopsis and Outline: $1,590.76; 91 health and pension hours

• Storyboard Only: $2,825.93; 100 health and pension hours

• Teleplay or Screenplay: $5,590.08; 309 health and pension hours

• Full Script* (outline plus screenplay): $7,180.84; 400 health and pension hours

One hour or more:

• Synopsis and Outline: $2,367.35; 93 health and pension hours

• Storyboard Only: $4,215.08; 151 health and pension hours

• Teleplay or Screenplay: $8,409.12; 307 health and pension hours

• Full Script* (outline plus screenplay): $10,776.47; 400 health and pension hours

* reflects the Synopsis and Outline minimum plus the Teleplay or Screenplay minimum.

This summary only reflects the rates in our standard CBA, and it is not inclusive of all job categories or non-journey levels. Nor does it necessarily reflect the minimums in contracts covering Guild members at with Disney/TTL, Sony Pictures Animation or Nickelodeon.

Finally: If, like many members, you're paid over these minimums, that is at least in part due to knowing not only the minimum rates of pay but also the "going rates". Please help you fellow animation workers know those rates b7y filling out our wage survey questionnaire. Information on the survey, and links to the questionnaire form, are here.

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A Talk With Martha Sigall -- Part II

On July 13th, Ms. Sigall celebrated the 75th anniversary of her entry into the animation biz ...

TAG Interview with Martha Sigall

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

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So ... It's Going to Canada?

There's a new hire at Arc Productions.

... Stephanie Denton, former president of film sales for Lionsgate Films International, has been tapped by Toronto 3D animation studio Arc Productions to head up its Los Angeles office.

... Denton’s role will be enticing more Hollywood studios to bring their projects to the Canadian cartoon factory to exploit up-front cost savings from local film and digital tax credits.

Enticement is the name of the game. Plus tax credits and low-ball bids. Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment has had success outsourcing animation to Paris, France (Despicable Me). Disney Toon Studios has done okay with studios in India for its features on little silver disks. (Tinkerbells I, II, III, etc.) But the sub-continent hasn't yet produced any big, profitable theatrical features.

(On the other hand, sequences of DreamWorks Animation's Puss N Boots have been done in India, so we'll see what develops there.)

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A Talk with Martha Sigall -- Part I

Standing on right: Martha Goldman Sigall

May 1941: "Our own little Six-Day War" -- Chuck Jones (who took the picture), quoted from Duck Amuck. Responding to pressure to sign with the Screen Cartoonists Guild, Leon Schlesinger locks out his artists for six days before capitulating. Sitting outside the locked front door, left to right: animator Ben Washam (later president of Local 839), cameraman Roy Laupenberger, animator Rudy Larriva, painter Sue Gee, background artist Paul Marin, and inker Martha Goldman Sigall (standing), then in the fifth year of her career. From the Animation Guild AFL-CIO Collection, Urban Archives Center, Oviatt Library, California State University Northridge.

During the depths of the Depression, Martha Sigall was a neighborhood kid who ran errands for artists at a small animation shop who worked at light boards. Little did she know that it would lead to a half-century career creating cartoons ...

TAG Interview with Martha Sigall

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

The studio was in some small buildings in Hollywood and owned by a man named Leon Schlesinger. Martha painted her first cels before she was in high school, and took a full-time job in the business when she turned nineteen.

By then, Schlesinger and his staff were headquartered in a larger building that came to be known as "Termite Terrace."

Grinning in center: Clark Gable

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Almost there, in time

Thanks to a concerted effort last week by shop stewards and Executive Board members (thank you, Film Roman!), we are within one percentage point of beating last year's percentage return of wage survey questionnaires, ahead of this Friday's extended deadline.

It remains to be seen whether we will beat last year's 22.9% return. Tomorrow, Monday July 18, is the deadline to contact us by e-mail or phone and ask to have the survey and the postpaid return envelope mailed to you.

You can also download the form and mail, fax or e-mail it back to the attention of Jeff Massie. We will take the form and mix it with the ones we’ve received to guarantee your anonymity.

The deadline for questionnaires to be returned to us if Friday, July 22. After that, it will take approximately two weeks to tally the questionnaires and confirm the results, which will be be posted here, on the e-mail list and website, and in the August Peg-Board. It's not too late to help your fellow animation artists, writers and workers with an accurate appraisal of wage conditions in the industry.

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The Foreign Steeple Chases Of Summer

At the top of the lists, the record-setting boy wizard and giant robots are sucking up much of the oxygen, but further down there are cartoons.

... No. 3, Pixar/Disney’s Cars 2, grossed $12.4 million in its fourth weekend on the foreign circuit, down 52% from the prior round. Director John Lassiter’s animation comedy has registered a total overseas tally of $146.6 million thus far with openings in the U.K. and South Korea due this week.

Fourth was DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D, which grossed $422 million so far overseas thanks to a $9.5 million weekend at 5,192 locations in 57 territories. ...

It's good to remember that these Dreamworks and Disney disappointments have taken in $582 million and $311.9 million on a worldwide basis.

Many live-action filmmakers would sell their close relatives into slavery for disappointments like that.

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The Production Arc

Because we're all about helping our fine entertainment conglomerates sell product (although we're on the downward curve in this case), and because it's a sloow Sunday, yet always fun to show the production process, here's this:

(Sorry about the stoopid ad.)

Of course, what these videos don't show you are the sweaty-palmed story pitches, the production crunches, the studio politics and brown-nosing, and everything else that goes into the making of a big budget, animated motion picture.

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Normalcy and Investing

A couple of days ago, I got one of the usual phone calls from a member about how to invest 401(k) money. In a nutshell, I told him that investing was simple, and all he had to do was:

1) Keep investing costs low with index funds.

2) Set a broadly-diversified asset allocation that includes foreign and domestic stocks, also bonds.

3) Determine your tolerance for risk, and allocate assets accordingly. (Investing die-hards = 60-70% stocks; investing cowards = 60-70% bonds

Simple, no? But if investing is simple, why do so many investors suck at it so bad? ...

Nine days ago, investment guru Larry Swedroe gave a talk in San Francisco that pretty much explained why. (You can see Larry's lecture and Q & A here: When Will Things Get Back to Normal?)

What Mr. Swedroe says is well worth hearing and absorbing, because he's been at the game a long time and he's good at it. Some of his bullet points:

* Nobody can predict where the economy (and stock market) is going.

* There were 32 years (1926-2010) when stock returns were above 20 percent.

* There were 23 years (almost 30 percent) when returns exceeded 25 percent.

* People end up bad investors because they try to predict where the economy (and stock market) is headed via market timing. But it can't be done.

* Only a tiny percentage of stock-fund managers out-perform the market over time. And investors can only know who those few, brilliant stock-fund managers are after the fact.

* Warren Buffett and most every other gifted stock-picker who's honest says that average investors should have their money in low-cost index funds.

When stocks are going up, most everybody kids themselves that they have "a high tolerance for risk" (i.e.; owning mostly stocks.) But when the market drops 25-50%, everybody finds out that "No, they don't." And then they scurry into bonds right at the bottom of the stock slide.

Boxer Mike Tyson once put it another way: "Every fighter, when he gets into the ring, has a plan. Then he gets hit ..." This is what makes long-term investing difficult for many folks. They think they can stick with their investment strategy (whatever it is), but the first time heavy-gloved reality punches them in the face, they panic and decide otherwise.

Mr. Swedroe discusses all these things and more, including esoteric items like bond duration and diversfication into commodities and real estate. If you've got the time, I highly recommend giving it a look-see.

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Hot Summer Derby

Now with tasty Add On.

The good news is, there are two animated features in the Top Ten!

The bad news is, they're in the middle of the pack and could be making more money! The Nikkster, as per usual, has early tallies ...

1. Harry Potter/Hallows, Pt 2 - 3D (Warner Bros) NEW [4,375 Theaters] Friday $95m, Estimated Weekend $180M

2. Transformers 3 - 3D (Paramount) Week 3 [3,917 Theaters] Friday $6.8M, Estimated Weekend $21M, Estimated Cume $303M

3. Horrible Bosses (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,134 Theaters] Friday $5M (-49%), Estimated Weekend $15M, Estimated Cume $57.4M

4. Zookeeper (Sony) Week 2 [3,482 Theaters] Friday $3.6M (-51%), Estimated Weekend $11M, Estimated Cume $41M

5. Cars 2 - 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,249 Theaters] Friday $2.7M, Estimated Weekend $8.5M, Estimated Cume $165.5M

6. Winnie The Pooh (Disney) NEW [2,405 Theaters] Friday $2.6M, Estimated Weekend $8M

7. Bad Teacher (Sony) Week 4 [2,659 Theaters] Friday $1.5M, Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $87.8M

8. Larry Crowne (Vendome/Universal) Week 3 [2,287 Theaters] Friday $825K, Estimated Weekend $2.5M, Estimated Cume $31.6M

9. Super 8 (Paramount) Week 6 [1,459 Theaters] Friday $550K, Estimated Cume $1.7M, Estimated Cume $122M

10. Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 10 [819 Theaters] Friday 450K, Estimated Weekend $1.5M, Estimated Cume $41.4M

Add On: I note, sadly, that the cartoons have now shifted, and have lower estimates on Ms. Finke's site than they did when I first posted them. Not good.

Add On: B.O. Mojo tells us that that the Milne bear ended up with $8 million, while John Lasseter's return to the director's chair fetched $8,344,000. (On a per-theater average, Winnie the Pooh had the edge, but the talking cars had lots more screens.)

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The Proof's On The 'Toys-R-Us' Shelves

Heey now. Who needs big theatrical grosses?

'Cars 2' Toys Drive Higher Second-Quarter Results at Mattel

Mattel's second-quarter profit jumped 56 percent as toys tied to the Disney/Pixar movie Cars 2 helped drive the toy maker's latest financials. Quarterly profit of $80.5 million compared with $51.6 million in the year-ago period as revenue rose 14 percent to $1.16 billion. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

So even as the talking autos fade at the nation's AMCs, the toy versions are flying out the door of kiddie retailers. And the Mouse (also Mattel) get to open their own mints.

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The Unforced Error

Hard as it is to believe, from time to time mistakes are made by our fine conglomerates' far-seeing execs. For instance:

... Frederator Studios pitched an Adventure Time series to Nickelodeon, but the network passed on it twice. ...

The show is now into its third season at CN, and doing quite nicely in the ratings.

I bring this up because I happened to be visiting the crew today up at Cartoon Network. And a few years back I also attended the screening where the Adventure Time pilot debuted. At Nick. It was inside the studio's makeshift theatre in the main building that doubles as a basketball court. The development slate for "Random Cartoons" was being unveiled, and the pilot called Adventure Time got a big reaction. And favorable buzz thereafter. As a staffer told me:

"It was the short that got the most "Who hoo!" from the audience. Everybody knew it was different, fresh. And most people liked it."

This, as I recall, was pretty much my reaction. The short wasn't like anything else in that batch of Frederator cartoon. For that matter, it wasn't like most other television cartoons on the air.

So what happened? Nick passed. But Fred Seibert, the top-kick whose company developed the shorts, went off and sold the show to Cartoon Network. And lo!

... Regularly winning Monday nights among all boys demos, Cartoon Network has now added key kids demos to its #1 TV destination claim for the night in early evening (7-9 p.m.). Regularly winning Monday nights among all boys demos, Cartoon Network has now added key kids demos to its #1 TV destination claim for the night in early evening (7-9 p.m.). ... Armed with a solid line-up of original animated shows, Cartoon Network ranked #1 for the night among kids 2-11, kids 6-11, boys 2-11, boys 6-11 and boys 9-14.

Original animated comedy series punctuated Monday night—The Amazing World of Gumball (7:30 p.m.), Adventure Time (8 p.m.), Regular Show (8:15 p.m.), and MAD (8:30 p.m.)—ALL ranked #1 in their timeslots among kids 2-11, boys 6-11, boys 2-11 and boys 9-14. ...

How did this come about? It wasn't too many years ago that I would listen to Cartoon Network managers complain about the net getting crappy ratings, how the live-action shows they were trying didn't get traction, how everything seemed to be circling the drain. Which maybe goes a ways to explaining why CN was open to making AT a series in the first place. They were a bit desperate, so they were in a receptive mood for something "different." As one of the artists who's been with the show from the beginning says:

Adventure Time doesn't follow the normal cartoon story arcs. It doesn't usually go where you expect it to go, it's more like improv. The characters do things you don't expect ...

This was all pretty evident when I was watching the pilot, there on the hard wood bleachers on Nick's basketball court. Maybe it's why Nick decided it wasn't for them. The piece was just a little too odd-ball, a little too weird.

Whatever the reason, I think we can stipulate that Viacom committed an unforced error when it passed off to Time-Warner, and so one monster conglom's loss became another monster's gain. But maybe in the end, given their girth and reach, all it amounts to for these behemoths is a rounding error anyway. And Nick can maintain a stiff upper lip and move on.

After all, it will always have SpongeBob Squarepants and Fairly Odd Parents. How many cash cows does it need?

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Gentle Bear to the Savage Blade

... called Harry Potter?

... Winnie the Pooh debuts at 2,405 locations, seemingly like a lamb to the slaughter. In Box Office Mojo's polling, though, the traditionally animated movie has logged a solid 6.3 percent "opening weekend" score, similar to Mr. Popper's Penguins and slightly better than Zookeeper. ...

The Mojo isn't overly optimistic about the silly old bear's chances, predicting $11.5 million for the weekend box office.

Not great.

On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes gives the hour-long film an 89% score, so hey. It could be worse.

The optimistic TAG blog will predict a $16.5 million WtP opening.

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Is the Glorious Soviet Cartoon

It is not, after all, just about America.

... The history of Soviet animation changed dramatically in the summer of 1933, when Moscow hosted the first-ever festival of American cartoons. Walt Disney cartoons produced an enormous impression on Soviet people; even Joseph Stalin was not left indifferent to Disney's animated art. ...

The legendary Soyuzmultfilm studio was established three years later ... organized as a copy of the US-based Disney's studio, with the use of the conveyor production technology. ...

The best Soviet cartoons of the "Disney period" such as "The Golden Antelope" (1954) or "The Snow Queen" (1957) can undoubtedly be referred to as masterpieces of international animated art. ...

And sixty years on, Disney returns the compliment with the development of its own SQ. But we should always remember how Uncle Joe took Soviet animation in its own unique direction.

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Ten Years

A decade ago I was .... doing this. Also a decade ago:

... While working as editorial director for Wizard, [Matthew] Senreich interviewed [actor Seth] Green, a fan of the magazine.

"He wanted to do a little animated short using his and Conan O'Brien's action figures. He didn't know how to do that," Senreich says.

He did, and the two men hit it off and began putting together sketch-comedy shorts under the title "Sweet J Presents."

"It was on this amazing website, but that was in the early days of Internet videos, and no one could watch them because dial-up took forever," he says. "It took an hour to watch a four-minute video." ...

The younger kid thinks that Robot Chicken is one of our national treasures, as does a large segment of a key television demographic which the younger kid inhabits. This is excellent news for Mr. Green and Mr. Senreich, as it means their show will continue thriving, even as it gives them additional fame and riches. Also kudos.

... This morning, much of the applause and plaudits went to “Robot Chicken,” which was nominated for both Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Short-Form Animated Program. The Cartoon Network show also received an Outstanding Voice-Over Performance nom for Seth Green.

Makes you reflect on what you've done with your own sad and empty life over the last 3,650 days.

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Mid July Linkages

A few animation-related reading bits.

Winnie the Pooh Rescuing WDAS? ...

Our Fine Entertainment Conglomerates Chasing the BOY Demographic.

Restoring Winsor McCay's "The Flying House" (1921-2011)

Perusing Alfred Hitchcock's Animated Cookbook

Watching a Day in the Life of John Lasseter (in only 25 minutes!)

Knowing The Five Best "Batman" Episodes

Disney owes Russia Taxes.

And so on and so forth.

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Markets Prevail

... Unless you're a megabank that can get the government to give you free money when you louse up. The rest of the time markets .... soon or later ... call the tune. Witness this from the Times of New York:

... The U.A.W. tried to persuade the Ford Motor Company to build the Fiesta subcompact in the United States. But Ford chose a plant in Mexico, where the combined wages and benefits of a production worker total less than $10 an hour. By contrast, a full-wage union member in the United States costs G.M. close to $60 an hour. Even an entry-level wage employee costs about $30 an hour in wages and benefits.

While it is not the only factor in producing a profitable subcompact, lower employment costs were critical to the decision to build [General Motor's new sub-compact] Sonic in Michigan. In a groundbreaking labor agreement, the union allowed G.M. to pay 40 percent of its union workers at Orion Township an “entry-level” wage that sharply reduces overall production costs.

“The entry-level wage structure was an important enabler, because obviously the smaller the car the less the margin,” said Diana D. Tremblay, G.M.’s head of labor relations. ...

Call this the flip-side of the recent BMW warehoue closing.

In the present case, the union and the car company were motivated to reach an accord for making the Sonic plant happen, so the deal got done.

Unions, like most corporations and normal human beings, have to deal with the realities they find in the actual world. Sometimes reality can be held off for a while (see "Sachs, Goldman") but most times, the cold hands of hard facts drag the borderline delusional back from positions that no longer hold up, much as they would like those positions to prevail.

I recall, two decades ago, the angry debate inside meetings at the IATSE. The IA would present a new, albeit "concessionary" contract to the assembled business agents, many would angrily denounce the "lousy rates," the "lousy conditions" and vote the deal down.

But over time, as more work went non-union, this attitude changed. More contracts that were less than Basic Agreement ideal were approved and came into existence. As a high-placed IA official said to the assembled multitude of union reps (which included me):

"The work's out there. The cable movies are getting done, the cable shows being made. And your members are doing them. They're just doing them without getting any benefits. The question is, you want the work done under a contract, or done non-union?"

It would be nice if everybody could get maximum wages with maximum bennies. But markets, as we say, have heavy influence. Yet unlike BMW in California, here General Motors and the UAW compromised with each other (and the forces of buy and sell) to keep employees working. Kudos to them.

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Questions about the wage survey

There have been enough questions asked about the wage survey in the comments from this post to justify starting a new post to answer them.

Q: Along with the regular survey results, how about including a supplemental page that lists every individuals salary amount and perhaps even where they are employed. Now that would be interesting and helpful. Why are you saving the employment information for internal use only?

A: The #1 objection I've heard from members to filling out the wage survey is the fear of other people finding out what you make. Openly publishing the survey results in the individual format you suggest would be counter-productive at best, not to mention a de facto betrayal of the promise of anonymity we've given to the membership as a condition of their sharing he data with us.

As we've made clear every time we publish the survey results, any member can call me to ask about results broken down by employer, category and/or media. Hundreds of members over the years have called to get a better idea of wage conditions in the specific department with which they're negotiating.

Q: All I was suggesting, Jeff, is that union members have the same access to wage information as you have. I don't see how anonymity is compromised when all submissions are anonymous and members have a choice whether or not to list where they work. Maybe the apathy would diminish if we could garnish more useful info from the survey rather than what the top, bottom and middle wage earners are making and wondering if it's based on a 40, 45 or 50 hour week.

A: As I thought I made clear, the membership has the same access to survey results as we do, they just have to call me to get it.

In one of the first years of the survey, there was a seven-person department at a studio -- a well-known artist (call her June K.) and six others working under her supervision. The survey tabulation showed three results for that department, two being paid about $100 over scale and another being paid $700 over scale. The staff member looked at the spreadsheet and noted: "Now I know what June K. makes." Since then, the percentage of survey participation has declined and the number of employers has increased, making it that much easier to make these kinds of informed presumptions.

To be honest, anyone applying for a job in that department could have called me and gotten the data. But that's a lot different than publicly publishing data from which anonymity could be so easily compromised. Again, that would violate our promise of anonymity in reporting the survey results, which is the precondition of many members for giving us their information.

Q: Plus I think it would be helpful if you guys simply asked "How much do you make in a normal work week?" instead of trying to explain the differences between people who are on 40, 45, and 50 hour contracts. I think a lot of people either don't pay attention to that at all or simply miscalculate because they misunderstand the wording. So because of that, I question the accuracy of the results, which leads to apathy on my part. Just a suggestion.

A: We have to ask the question about the set length of the on-call workweek, because without that specific information the salary data is meaningless for purposes of direct comparison.

Many if not most of our members are being paid on an "on-call" basis, meaning their standard weekly salary is computed based on a week that is longer than forty hours. So for example, if you're paid on a forty-five-hour week, your salary is based on forty hours straight-time and five hours of overtime per week. That means you get five hours of OT per week even if you didn't work past forty hours, but it also means you won't get additional pay unless you work more than five hours of OT.

The length of your standard workweek affects the computation of your salary:

• A person being paid $2,500 for a 40-hour week is taking home $62.50 per hour.
• A person being paid $2,500 for a 45-hour week is taking home $52.63 per hour (40 hours straight time plus 5 hours OT, equivalent to $2,105.20 for a forty-hour week).
• A person being paid $2,500 for a 50-hour week is taking home $45.45 per hour (40 hours straight time plus 10 hours OT, $1,818.00 for a forty-hour week).

Since the Guild contract minimums are based on a forty-hour week, we use a forty-hour standard to compare the questionnaire results in computing the survey.

Anyone who doesn't know the length of their standard workweek should read the paperwork they signed when they were hired, or ask their H. R. department. Let us know if you have any questions.

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At the Diz

I spent a good part of the afternoon at the Disney Company's hat building, where there's more production happening ...

Wreck-It Ralph is well underway, with 100 staffers (if my informants have their numbers right) now working on the picture. A Chris Buck feature and King of the Elves are also moving briskly along.

Animators practicing the hand-drawn version of the craft are now doing test footage of characters in 2-D versions, although the characters will ultimately be rendered and executed as C.G. when the films are in production. An animator related:

"This is a way for directors to see how the characters move and act before the c.g. versions are built. We can get footage out faster for test purposes. ..."

I got to look at some tests. It will be interesting to see the same characters in their computer graphic mode.

And there is early work on a possible hand-drawn feature taking place, although staff said it's too early to say if it will ultimately get made or not. The most recent example of the craft gets released this weekend.

... "Winnie the Pooh" is the Walt Disney Animation Studios' first journey into the Hundred Acre Wood in more than three decades.

... "We are going to take down 'Harry Potter,' no question," said [producer Peter] Del Vecho ...

I'm sure it will be a horse race over the weekend.

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The Don Jurwich Interview -- Part II

When Don began producing television animation, he had to learn to work with the voice talent at recording sessions. His very first day in the director's booth proved interesting ....

TAG Interview with Don Jurwich

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Right out of the box, he found himself directing voice legen Mel Blanc. Mel didn't have an overly positive response when Don brought up all hte iconic voices Mr. Blanc created at Warner Bros. in the glory days of Looney Tunes ...

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Nepali Animation

Several firsts.

Alarmed by Bollywood training its lenses on the Buddha, Tulsi Ghimire is now making the first Buddha film from the Himalayan republic to bolster its claim to the founder of Buddhism. ...

“Gautam Buddha”, to be dubbed in English, Hindi, Sinhalese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and German, is going to be an animated film and the first animated feature film from Nepal.

“It would have cost far less had I chosen people to play the roles,” he says ruefully. “But I found that impossible. ..."

There haven't been a lot of animated features centering on the founders of major world religions. Christianity has Veggie Tales, but the Life of Christ mostly gets the live-action treatment.

The founder of Islam is off-limits, and has been for some time. (Who wants to go on a hit list?)

And India, where most Hindus live, hasn't taken much to animation of any stripe, religious or otherwise.

So we'll see how a long animated movie about the Buddha performs, box-office wise.

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Help level the playing field

Over this past weekend the return rate for the 2011 wage survey questionnaires topped twenty percent. We are guardedly optimistic that we can at the very least beat last year's return of 22.9%.

There are eleven days left to submit your wage survey questionnaire in advance of the July 22 extended deadline.

Remember that the information you give us is critical to an accurate view of the state of the industry, wage-wise. This is information that our employers already have, and we seek to make sure we have that information as well. It's about leveling the playing field.

If you didn't receive a questionnaire or have misplaced it, you have two simple alternatives:

1. Contact me by e-mail and ask to have the survey and the postpaid return envelope mailed to you, or
2. Download the form and mail, fax or e-mail it back to the attention of Jeff Massie. We will take the form and mix it with the ones we’ve received to guarantee your anonymity.

The wage survey results will be posted on this blog, on the e-mail list and website, and in the August Peg-Board. Don't leave yourself out of the process -- take two minutes to fill out and return your questionnaire, and do your part to help level the playing field.

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The Don Jurwich Interview -- Part I

Don Jurwich commenced his career in animation as a layout and background artist, but soon developed a yen for boarding and directing ...

TAG Interview with Don Jurwich

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

When Don graduated from art school, one of his teachers suggested that he call Disney, but Mr. Jurwich never applied to the studio for a job. After listening to the interview posted here, you'll understand why. (And kudos for the Mouse House for its honesty.)

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Sour Chronicle

Oh my.

Kidsmovies.com posted a link to ReelGirl's gallery of girls gone missing pics of 2011 movie posters. ... Curious George, Nemo, Toy Story 3, Tangled, Gnomeo and Juliet, Up, Kung Fu Panda and Horton. The only girl front and center, out of 9 movie posters is Rapunzel (typical rescue story- can you see why girls are obsessed with princesses? ...)

There's not a single poster that features multiple girls and no boys in this particular montage.

... If women were running these animation studios, you'd never hear a quote like "unpredictable" to describe the slew of Pixar/ Disney movies where girls are continually relegated to the role of sidekick or princess. Instead of a G Rating, too many Pixar/ Disney movies should get a Triple S for major stereotyping ...

Blogger/columnist Margot MaGowan goes on to belittle the top kicks at Pixar/Disney for their reactionary policies regarding women in animated features.

Frankly, this is unfair. Pixar (and/or Walt Disney Animation Studios) only seem like boys' clubs. The fact that no women have ever headed up a feature from start to finish in Burbank or Emeryville is because everyone knows that women have minimal interest in animation, are mainly interested in cooking and child-rearing, and clearly don't have the imagination or pizazz to towel-snap with the story crews of a major, Class-A animation facility.

We ask you: What is Ms. MaGowan thinking? (And if somebody brings up the name "Katzenberg," they will be immediately beaten about the shoulders and head with words like "fart jokes," "low brow humor" and "lousy sequels." Pixar never stoops to the lame sequelitis thing.

Oh wait! ...)

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Why Only Fox?

From TV By the Numbers:

Fox Wins a Slow Saturday with 'Cops' and Animation Repeats

It continues to bewilder us why Rupert and his minions are the only ones who succeed doing prime time animation. And in a major way.

Is everybody else brain dead.

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The Foreign Steeple Chase of Summer

The usual suspects are at the top of the stats: The big robots. As for cartoons:

... Holding at No. 2 on the weekend was Pixar/Disney’s Cars 2, which grossed $26.9 million from 27 territories – about 45% of the international marketplace – for an overseas cume of $121.6 million. ... Strong No. 1 openings were recorded in Spain ($5.1 million including previews) and Argentina ... No. 3 was DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda in 3D, which via Paramount pushed its overseas gross total past the $400-million mark ($404 million) ...

KFP2 has now accumulated a world gross of $563 million (and domestically stands at #6 for the year), while Cars Deux has now made $270.4 million around the globe.

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Thirty Years?

President Emeritus Sito reminds us that it's been three decades since Disney's animated dog picture came out.

1981 The Fox & The Hound released. The first film Walt Disney had no influence on. Although the film has brief screen credits, it marks the torch being passed from the Nine Old Men golden age generation to the modern generation of animators. A complete personnel roster would include Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Woolie Reitherman, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Bill & Sue Kroyer, Don Bluth, Lorna Cook, Henry Sellick, Brad Bird, Randy Cartwright, John Pomeroy, John Musker, Dan Haskett, Jerry Reese, Glen Keane and many more ....

The picture was a long time in work. Disney veterans Woolfgang Reitherman, Frank Thomas, Larry Clemmons and Ollie Johnston started the feature, but had all departed by the time of its release. TAG Vice-President Earl Kress worked on F and H's story.

Numerous speed bumps happened along the production road. There was a fight over whether to kill off the older dog "Chief" or not. Some of the younger animators and story crew wanted the character to die, believing this would strengthen character motivation and story, but this particular arc was stoutly resisted by management and some of the old-timers. ("We can't kill one of the main characters!")

Then, midway through The Fox and the Hound, directing animator Don Bluth exited to make The Secret of NIMH, taking half the animation staff with him. This put a bit of a hole in the schedule.

But there were good things that happened too. Ron Clements left the animation department to take up story work, on his way to becoming a director and writer with John Musker on a plethora of animated features over the next several decades. And Glen Keane reboarded and punched up the bear fight sequence that climaxed the film, which is one of the reasons (I think) that The Fox and the Hound ended up with the highest initial domestic gross of any Disney animated feature to that time. (Box Office Mojo shows it grossing $10 million more than The Rescuers, Disney's animated hit from 1977.)

So happy birthday to Todd, Copper, Vixie and the rest. You might not have been the topper-most of the new Disney generation's features, but you were the first.

(Mr. Sito should really be posting here, we crib so much of his stuff.)

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Mid-Month Derby

The big robots and awful supervisors appear to be in the #1 and #2 positions.

... Horrible Bosses scored ... $9.9 million on its first day and coming in second only to goliath Transformers: Dark of the Moon ....

Cars 2 now sits at #4. Friday's tally sheet:

1) Tranformers: Dark of the Moon -- $14.9 million

2) Horrible Bosses -- $9.9 million

3) Zookeeper -- $7.4 million

4) Cars 2 -- $4.8 million

5) Bad Teacher -- $3.0 million

The Pixar movie has now accumulated $138,446,000 domestically.

Add On: The big robots continue to rampage, as the animated motor vehicles take the fourth spot:

... Cars 2 [grossed] $15.2 million for a cume of $148.8 millon. Overseas, the 3D toon grossed $26.9 million for a cume of $121.6 million and worldwide total of $270.4 million. ...

The vehicles should break $300 million any day now.

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End-of-Week Studios

Today was DreamWorks Animation day. Jeffrey was out in the courtyard, intent on his Blackberry. I was on an upper floor of the Lakeside Building, doing my cubicle-to-cubicle dance.

Puss N Boots is still in work, but nearing the end of animation and production. (I don't know how Humpty Dumpty takes so may long falls and yet never cracks.) Madagascar 3 is well into work, with most of the production up at PDI but 20-30 artists working on it in Glendale. And a chunk of The Croods is still in story ...

Over the city line in beautiful Burbank, Nickelodeon Cartoon Studios has ten series going on at the present time, among them:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Fanboy and Chum Chum

SpongeBob Square Pants

Korra (Legend of)

Dora the Explorer

Fairly Odd Parents

T.U.F.F. Puppy

Robot and Monster

Kung Fu Panda

Penguins of Madagascar

Nick, if you haven't noticed, has moved heavily into C.G.I. for its animated series. (Whether this pays off is any executive's guess. A decade ago, C.G. shows didn't set the world on fire.) Kung Fu Panda with lots of completed episodes waiting for roll-out, premieres in the fall after the second feature has run its course.

And How to Train Your Dragon, the most recent DreamWorks Animation project to receive the episodic tv treatment, is being prepped by APU, a subsidiary of Wildbrain. Why Nickelodeon isn't doing it I have no idea; perhaps it has something to do with DWA's Viacom contract nearing its end. (You think?)

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What have they ever done for us?

This is a nice twist on "Life of Brian," and something we get asked here at TAG from time to time.

The corporate media (and others) have done an excellent job beating the "Unions Suck!" bass drum, and I can tell you the landscape has changed from the quaint era when I started at Walt Disney Productions as a traffic boy, fresh out of high school. Then, double and triple time were paid as a matter of course when employees worked beyond eight hours. Nobody thought it could possibly be any other way. Sadly, nothing remains the same forever.

-- Steve Hulett

Thanks to Jim Parris and Gary Trousdale for the link.

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The Latest Animated Two-Step

SO with Paramount getting into the animation game on its own, where does that leave Jeffrey K.?

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg played down a decision by Paramount Pictures to launch a rival animation division—a move by its partner that adds to other new challenges for the animation powerhouse.

In an interview Thursday, Mr. Katzenberg said that since Paramount is expected to move into the "lower end of the animation business," its new unit "isn't going to impact DreamWorks at all." ...

But of course it will impact DWA, since a move in one part of Cartoonland effects all the other parts. (Remember when Pixar thumped its chest about "All original! No sequels!" Then DreamWorks and Blue Sky made sequels pay off in major ways, and the Emeryville studio morphed its earlier stance to "No bad sequels!" As everyone knows, that's worked out fine.)

Bloomberg reports that Jeffrey -- contrary to what the Nikkster's site says -- isn't interested in selling the company. But I've always thought that J.K. would be delighted to sell ... for the right price.

The hardest business model out there is creating a hit every time you produce a film. And that's what DWA has to do to remain vibrant.

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Splashing Through the SPA

Part of yesterday afternoon was spent at Sony Pictures Animation, a stone's throw from what used to be M-G-M, (which isn't, by the way, the reason for the picture above) ...

In the course of meandering, I stopped by story artist Darrell Rooney's office -- where he -- like many others -- is working away on Hotel Transylvania. And I got an opportunity to paw through his new book about Jean Harlow.

Hell of a book. Not only is the tome filled with lots of Jean Harlow photographs you've never seen before, even if you're a major league fan of Ms. Harlow, but it's gracefully written as well.

Darrel and I fell to talking about Jean's Alpha personality mother, and the scarlet fever that wrecked her apparently kidneys years later and ended her life at the age of 26. (Jean Harlow went home from the movie-set of Saratoga on May 29th, 1937, and never came back. She dies a week later, with her part in the picture 75% complete.

M-G-M, in the finest Hollywood tradition, cobbled the balance of the picture together with a bad double for Ms. Harlow, and released the movie anyway.

On another movie front, other board SPA board artists tell me they are working furiously for an oncoming screening of Hotel Transylvania for crew and execs. I asked if Adam Sandler, recently cast to a Transylvania voice role, is chipping in with his two cents. The answer: "Oh, sure."

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Glenn Vilppu show opens tomorrow at Gallery 839

Artist and teacher GLENN VILPPU's show at Gallery 839 starts tomorrow night.

Glenn has taught drawing for forty-five years, twenty-eight of which were spent at the American Animation Institute, TAG's educational curriculum. He has also taught at virtually every art school in southern California and scores of schools across the country.

He also worked in layout and storyboard for Disney, Warner Bros., Sunbow, Rhythm and Hues, Marvel, Project X, Phil Mendez, Hanna-Barbera and Turner Feature Animation.

In over 45 years of teaching drawing my focus has been to bring to the student logic and practical application of drawing in communication. Drawing is thinking and feeling and the needs of the artist today to communicate are no different than they have been down through the ages. All artists have the same problems that they must deal with the differences are in their interests and the order of importance they give to various elements. I do not teach a style, I teach tools of communication and give direction to acquiring knowledge. Knowledge coupled with the development of skill and feeling is what creates the magic. There are no Rules, just tools.

-- Glenn Vilppu

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©reative America

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and our parent union the IATSE, along with major film and television studios, have launched ©reative America, a coalition dedicated to addressing the ongoing problem of content theft.

From the organization's website:

Right now, not everyone in the community recognizes what a grave threat content theft poses to our livelihood and creativity – that thieves are making millions of dollars trafficking in stolen film and television while our jobs, pensions and residuals continue to decline. And content theft undermines all the new, legitimate services providing movies and TV online quicker and easier than ever before.

To be successful in the fight against content theft, we must make our voice heard in Washington and in communities across America.

Creative America is supported by an unprecedented coalition of major entertainment unions, guilds, studios, and networks, including American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, CBS Corporation, the Directors Guild of America, IATSE International, NBC Universal, the Screen Actors Guild, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom, the Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Join us and help spread the word!

1. Join the movement – sign up to be a part of Creative America, and receive campaign updates.
2. Stay informed – visit CreativeAmerica.org often to learn the latest news.
3. Tell people about the threat content theft poses to our jobs and creativity.
4. Ask Congress to support legislation that fights content theft by sending letters from CreativeAmerica.org.
5. Spread the word through Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

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Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan

... is now mailing out pension reports to participants.

The pages participants get include individuals' current monthly annuities (otherwise known as "The Defined Benefit Plan," calculated to the end of 2010), the current total of The Individual Account Plan, and a new beneficiary form the Plan would like people to fill out ...

The Plan has something around $3-$4 billion in total assets. Since people often ask "How is the money invested?" here is the breakdown as of December 2010:

Defined Benefit Plan

U.S. Core Equity -- 3%

U.S. Growth Equity -- 7%

U.S. Value Equity -- 2.8%

Global Equity -- 16.1%

International Equity -- 4.9%

Emerging Market -- 4.5%

Fixed Income -- 32.2%

Alternative Investments -- 22.4%

Real Estate -- 7.1%

If you ask me, "What the hell is 'Alternative Investments'?" I'm happy to answer succinctly: I don't know.

The above is what the Plan provided participants, and it's too late at night for me to pick up the phone and start asking around. Here's the investment breakdown for the IAP:

Individual Account Plan

U.S. Core Equity -- 1.7%

U.S. Growth Equity -- 5.7%

U.S. Value Equity -- 4%

Global Equity -- 6.5%

International Equity -- 7.3%

Emerging Market -- 2.8%

Fixed Income -- 39.9%

Alternative Investments -- 27.2%

Real Estate == 4.9%

I also can't tell you the difference between "Global Equity" and "International Equity," except that the "Global" part maybe includes U.S. investments. (This is an educated guess on my part.)

You will also note that the investments for the Individual Account Plan are more conservative than the ones for the Defined Benefit Plan. Call the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan, linked up there at the top, for further details.

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Paramount Animation?

©®Paramount-Viacom

Paramount Pictures is starting an animation division, firing the opening shot at partner DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. as Hollywood studios place more bets on animated pictures.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount may be preparing for the day their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation expires.

The studio, a unit of Viacom Inc., said Paramount Animation plans to spend up to $100 million to produce each film, releasing one animated title a year starting in 2014.

The studio said that it could look to Nickelodeon, another Viacom division, for source material. The unit's first title hasn't been selected.

The decision to start an animation studio marks a shift for Paramount, which hasn't been a big producer of animated films. Instead it relied on a distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation, maker of such films as the "Shrek" series. The deal, signed in 2006, is set to expire at the end of next year.

Of all the Hollywood classic-age studios, Paramount and Fox had the least involvement with animation. The last time there was a cartoon animation unit on the Paramount lot was the George Pal Puppetoons in the late 1940s (where my father was the shop steward).

The more major players in Toonville, the better for all of us. Let's wish them luck.

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Best animated feature?

©A.M.P.A.S.®

Tom Sito asked this question on Facebook yesterday:

Okay gang, now that we are at mid-year, who is your money on for the Oscar for BEST ANIMATED FEATURE?

Is it too early to be asking? Of course it is, but that isn't stopping the trade papers and Entertainment Weekly from asking about live-action prospects.

And note that the question isn't limited to features that have been released, or even those that you've seen.

So?

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Wage survey deadline extended to July 22

To make sure everyone gets a chance to return their wage survey questionnaires, we're extending the deadline two weeks to July 22.

The rate of returns has slowed down in the last week, and we're still looking to see if we can beat last year's return percentage.

One piece of good news is that we've received more questionnaires by e-mail and fax than ever before. If you haven't yet returned the survey, or didn't receive one or or have misplaced it, you can:

1. Contact me by e-mail and ask to have the survey and the postpaid return envelope mailed to you, or
2. Download the form and mail, fax or e-mail it back to the attention of Jeff Massie. We will take the form and mix it with the ones we’ve received to guarantee your anonymity.

The wage survey results will be posted here, on the e-mail list and website, and in the August Peg-Board. You owe it to yourself and your fellow writers, artists and technicians to return the survey and help spread the word about salary conditions in our industry.

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New Tenant for Hotel

This newsworthy event has broken out all over:

After an almost 10-year hiatus from animation, ... Adam Sandler is making his return as the voice of Dracula in the upcoming 3-D film Hotel Transylvania ...

HT has had a long gestation period. The flick hasn't been in development as long as, say, Tangled, but it's been a good long stretch all the same.

There have been multiple directors on the project; I have no idea how much creative input Mr. Sandler will have, but I imagine it could be large if Mr. Sandler wills it to be so. (On the other hand, the feature is set for release September of next year. Given the time remaining, minds will have to be focused. And there's always the possibility that Adam S. signed on because he liked what Genndy Tartakovsky was coming up with, yes?)

Here's hoping that the opus ends up being a hit for everybody.

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A Chat With Jim Hillin -- Part II

And we continue our conversation about computer imaging and animation in the 21st century, also where the business has recently been ... and might be going ...

TAG Interview with Jim Hillin

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Mr. Hillin is somber about c.g.i. work that has been migrating overseas. (I'm a little more optimistic about stateside staffing; apologies in advance if you find I talk too much. These things are unedited ...)

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Relative "Failures"

Kung Fu Panda 2, according to the business press, has been a factor in depressing DreamWorks Animation's stock price, and yet it's so far pulled down $531.2 million in worldwide grosses ...

If this were 2010, this would make it the tenth highest grossing film.

Last year ... animated features accounted for five of the year's top 10 box-office attractions.

At No. 1: Pixar's Oscar-winning "Toy Story 3," which racked up a worldwide gross of more than $1 billion. Also in the Top 10 for 2010: DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek Forever After," in fifth place with more than $752.6 million in worldwide ticket sales; Disney's "Tangled," at No. 8 with a take of more than $590.7 million; Universal's "Despicable Me," at No. 9 with more than $543.1 million; and, at No. 10, DreamWorks' "How to Train Your Dragon," with more than $494.8 million.

Jeffrey K. and company can't catch a break.

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A Star-Spangled Chat With Jim Hillin -- Part I

TAG Interview with Jim Hillin

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Jim Hillin got into the nuts and bolts of computer animation in 1984, when very few people were doing it ...

He was creating computer animation for Filmation in the last half of the 1980s. Shortly thereafter, he supervised computer imaging work on Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Dinosaur. Today, Jim specializes in live-action visual effects.

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Meantime, the Overseas Derby

The big robots prevail:

Transformers: Dark of the Moon exploded on the foreign theatrical circuit over the July 4 weekend, commanding $210 million in its resounding No. 1 opening surge ...

And Tom and Julia eat it beyond our shores (just like stateside.)

Larry Crowne ... grossed a mild-mannered $3 million from some 1,220 locations in 10 overseas territories.

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Profit Margins, Layoffs, and the Whole Damn Thing ...

And then there's this from today's Los Angeles Times:

... Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, [BMW's parts distribution warehouse in Ontario] received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage. ...

As of Aug. 31, the plant [will] be outsourced to an unidentified third-party logistics company and all but three of its 71 employees laid off. ...

So it's "Please lock the door behind you, and drive safely" to the three-score and ten employees of BMW out there in Ontario, and what, after all, is new? If you don't have a job, that's your character deficiency. Because it's the reality of 21st century American life.

And of course, the counter to the sad tale above, heard often today, is "Well, what you gonna do? We're broke." And it's certainly true that state and local governments are running deficits, and that the Federal Government is running deficits. But Big Business?

Economists at Northeastern University have found that the current economic recovery in the United States has been unusually skewed in favor of corporate profits and against increased wages for workers.

In their newly released study, the Northeastern economists found that since the recovery began in June 2009 following a deep 18-month recession, “corporate profits captured 88 percent of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1 percent” of that growth. ...

(When you think about it, it makes complete sense that Bob Iger, Rupert Murdoch and the rest of the corporate chieftans pull down multi-million dollar salaries. Their side is capturing almost ninety percent of income growth, so why the hell not?)

Then there's the nice little company that doesn't make cars, but airplanes, and which is behaving in a not totally dissimilar way to BMW. You might have read about it:

Lawyers for Boeing Co. and the National Labor Relations Board clashed Tuesday at a hearing on the board's allegations that the aircraft maker illegally shifted work from union plants in Washington state to a new non-union factory in South Carolina. ...

Clearly, the nasty Federal government is beating up on Boeing. But only with one hand. The other hand is being pretty nice:

In the 10 years ending in 2010, Boeing had $29 billion in profits, and paid minus-$948 million in federal taxes. ... If you include the past 11 years, Boeing's effective tax rate was positive, but only barely.

In other words, for the decade when the government launched two wars and ran up historic red ink, one of our largest companies — one that's a major beneficiary of military spending — contributed essentially zero to the ledger. ...

When I was a starry-eyed lad, growing up in the age of Eisenhower and Kennedy, big companies paid actual taxes and gazillionaires paid a a higher percentage of income, yet remained gazillionaires. But it was a simpler time then. Unions represented 40% of America's work-force. Social Security was considered sacrosanct. Moms worked at home instead of pulling in a second income to make ends meet.

Today we live in the Second Gilded Age, (except without the high growth rates). So it's only natural that companies pay nothing and lobby congress -- which admittedly, they have bought and purchased lock, stock and barrel -- for tax subsidies.

And if BMW workers get the heave ho, that's just the way it goes. Everybody's tax burdens are crushing (except not really.) And our Left-Wing, Socialist government is overreaching and imperious in its misguided quest to protect undeserving employees (except not very much.)

So it's only natural that those employees work uncompensated overtime while worrying about impending layoffs and their work getting outsourced. This is America, goddamnit!

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The July 4th Derby

Now with candy-flavored Add On.

Late getting to this, but it appears that Cars 2 took a bit of a plunge, as a new set of c.g. characters replaces the Emeryville variety:

1. Transformers 3 (Paramount) NEW (opened Tues) [4,013 Theaters] Tuesday $5.5M (9 PM), Wednesday $37.7M, Thursday $21.4M Friday $33.5M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $100M, Four-Day Holiday $120M First Five Days $160M, First Seven Days $185M

2. Cars 2 (Disney) Week 2 [4,115 Theaters] Friday $7.7m (-70%), Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $23M, Four-Day Holiday $28M, Cume $119M

3. Bad Teacher (Sony) Week 2 [3,049 Theaters] Friday $4.3M (-63%), Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $15M, Four-Day Holiday $17.5M, Cume $63M

4. Larry Crowne (Universal) NEW [2,972 Theaters] Friday $4.1M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $13.5M, Four-Day Holiday $16.8M

5. Monte Carlo (Fox) NEW [2,472 Theaters] Friday $3M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $9M, Four-Day Holiday $10M

6. Green Lantern (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,280 Theaters] Friday $2.2M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $7.5M, Four-Day Holiday $9M, Cume $105M

7. Super 8 (Paramount) Week 4 [3,088 Theaters] Friday $1.8M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $5.5M, Four Day Holiday $6.5M, Cume $107M

8. Mr Popper's Penguins (Fox) Week 3 [2,861 Theaters] Friday $1.5M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $4.3M, Four-Day Holiday $5.5M, Cume $50.5M

9. Bridesmaids (Universal) Week 8 [1,389 Theaters] Friday $1M, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-day Weekend $3.3M, Four-Day Holiday $4M, Cume $153.4M

10. Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 7 [951 Theaters] Friday $875K, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $3.2M, Four-Day Holiday $4M, Cume $34.2M ...

Meantime, Kung Fu Panda 2 resides at #14, with a domestic accumulation of $155.6 million.

Add On: Nikki's updated accumulations:

1. Transformers 3 (Paramount) NEW (opened Tues) [4,013 Theaters] Tuesday $5.5M (9 PM), Wednesday $37.7M, Thursday $21.4M Friday $32.8M, Saturday $34M, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $97M, Four-Day Holiday $115M First Five Days $158M, First Seven Days $180M International $215M, Global Cume $400M

2. Cars 2 (Disney) Week 2 [4,115 Theaters] Friday $7.8m (-69%), Saturday $9M, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $24.7M, Four-Day Holiday $30.5M, Cume $121.4M

3. Bad Teacher (Sony) Week 2 [3,049 Theaters] Friday $4.5M (-64%), Saturday $5M, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $14M, Four-Day Holiday $17M, Cume $62.4M

4. Larry Crowne (Universal) NEW [2,972 Theaters] Friday $4M, Saturday $4.9M, Sunday, Monday Three-Day Weekend $13.5M, Four-Day Holiday $16.7M

Poor Tom Hanks and Julia appear to be still-born with the viewing public that's not middle-aged:

A full 71% of the audience for Larry Crowne was over the age of 50 and 93% over the age of 25. The film, directed by Hanks and receiving a B CinemaScore, is one of the oldest-skewing films box office observers can remember.

And as we all know, seasoned citizens don't attend the cinema in large numbers.

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Happy Twenty-Fifth, Mr. Detective

As President emeritus Tom Sito points ou elsewhere in the intertubes, today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Great Mouse Detective's release ...

The film, costing $12 million to make, the flick grossed $38.6 million domestically, and marked several firsts for Disney.

It was the first animated film greenlit by Jeffrey Katzenberg. (Already in production, the crew wondered if Eisner and Katzenberg would shut the feature ... and the entire department ... down. Happily, they did not.)

Mouse marked the first extensive use of computer animation in a Disney animated film (note the clip above.)

TGMD marked the directorial debuts of Ron Clements and John Musker, who of course went on to helm multiple Disney features afterwards, from Little Mermaid to Aladdin to The Princess and the Frog.

It was Disney veteran Burnett "Burny" Mattinson's first producing gig on an animated feature film. (He had previously produced and directed Mickey's Christmas Carol, a holiday featurette.)

So. Happy Birthday Great Mouse Detective/ Basil of Baker Street!

Add On: (Now that I have more time.) The feature was nominated for an Edgar Award, but failed to win.

Disney veteran Dave Michener was the third director on Mouse, his second directorial assignment. (The Fox and the Hound was the first.)

Lastly. Story artist Ed Gombert wrote a puckish memo under division chief Peter Schneider's name when studio management decided to change the picture's title from Basil of Baker Street to The Great Mouse Detective. The memo found its way to the L.A. Times, and ultimately onto the game show "Jeopardy," as a question.

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Assisting on Fantasia: an interview with Reg Massie

Self-portrait of Reginald Massie, circa 1945.

A couple of weeks ago, Didier Ghez sent me a partial transcript of an interview that John Culhane did in March 1971 with Reginald Massie, who worked for Disney, UPA, Screen Gems and George Pal in the 1930s and 1940s.

Today, July 2, is the centennial of my Dad's birth. With the permission of and thanks to Didier and John, here's a reading of that transcript as part of Steve Hulett's series of "oral interviews", with Steve H. as John Culhane and myself as Reg Massie.

Interview with Reg Massie

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

After the Disney strike, Massie worked briefly for Screen Gems, George Pal and UPA. After Pearl Harbor the Army commissioned him as a Staff Sergeant in charge of effects animation for the Signal Corps Photographic Center in Long Island. He worked with Frank Capra on the "Why We Fight" series and with John Huston on "The Battle of San Pietro," as well as numerous training films. In 1942 he married former Disney inker Nancy Bedell, whom he had met during the strike.

After the war he returned to George Pal, where he worked on several of the Puppetoons (his screen credit was "Backgrounds" but Gene Warren confirmed for me that he more or less designed everything but the puppets). Here's the 1947 Puppetoon of "Tubby The Tuba" (not the 1975 feature):

"Tubby" was my father's last released Puppetoon and, at the age of thirty-six, his last screen credit. After his layoff from Pal, he ended up freelancing magazine illustration work, then moved to Connecticut where I was born. He worked as the art director of The Reporter magazine and then for Gourmet. He passed away in 1989.

(Nancy Massie freelanced for Shamus Culhane and Preston Blair for years, then worked on Raggedy Ann and Andy and The Thief and the Cobbler for Richard Williams and as a color stylist for Hanna-Barbera; she passed away in 1981.)

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Layoffs and India

... or China ... or Singapore ... or Paris, even.

There have been layoffs of late at DreamWorks Animation, where one of the features has been pulled back for more story work and there is a resulting hiccup in the production pipeline. (These things happen.)

And Walt Disney Animation Studios still clings to its Sony Imageworks production model, where employees get hired when a production ramps up (currently that production is Wreck It Ralph) and laid off when the project concludes.

Animation and c.g.i. veteran Jim Hillin, who will be making an appearance here on July 4th and 5th in a TAG podcast, has voiced concerns that c.g. work is being outsourced to India and it's a tougher market for visual effects employees.

I don't disagree that the job situation is difficult for many, but I come down on the side of VFX Soldier in thinking that it isn't all going to India. Local work is certainly changing, becoming less pleasant in many instances, but I don't see strong evidence that overall employment is shrinking ...

TAG's membership numbers are near historical highs. Artists working in computer graphics tell me of long jobs and short jobs, but certainly jobs. Then there's this tear-stained article from the sub-continent (cited by Soldier):

... Did you see Kung Fu Panda 2 and wonder why the best animation we can manage is an unintended horror show in 3D called Bal Ganesh? How is it that in a cultural legacy so vibrant with children’s tales, the only stories we have to tell through animation involve rigid gods without a sense of fun?

Indian animation, which at the start of this decade was predicted to be the next big thing, is facing a crisis. ...

The crisis, of course, is one of India's own making. Bad training. Slipshod studios. When you devote yourself to being the low-rent provider for American entertainment conglomerates, you are probably not going to dazzle audiences with your output. Nor attract lots more work. As an American animator related to me:

"Their trouble is that they don't want to pay employees very much because everything is done for a price. So the work that's turned out is less than great, and the high-achievers in the studio get frustrated and quit for higher paying work someplace else, like WETA or an effects house in the states."

Which isn't to say that all animation that's originated domestically will remain stateside. As I've said before, 98% of U.S. animation was created here in the lower forty-eight, sixty years back. There were two or three thousand layout, background, storyboard and animation artists producing the television shows, commercials and theatrical features for world consumption right here. The work comprised the lion's share of the pie, but the pie -- compared to now -- was much smaller.

In 2011, there are visual effects for cable shows, theatrical features, and broadcast episodics. There are video games, news graphics, animated features, internet shorts and interstitials. The pie, in other words, is now one hell of a lot bigger than it was when Hanna-Barbera and Disney ruled the collective roost. And though Southern California owns a lot less of the whole thing, employment in raw numbers is still near historical highs.

The other items at record highs are the profits of our fine, entertainment conglomerates. And because they want to keep them that way, we'll be seeing the squeezing of wages wherever possible, the outsourcing of lower end work, the general terrorizing of individual employees. ("You know how lucky you are to be working here? ...") In the world of computer graphics, the supply of talent has caught up with demand, and surpassed it. Large companies are wise to this, and behave accordingly.

Studios won't be using artists in the United States because of any starry-eyed idealism. They'll be doing it because of perceived self-interest, for it does no good to get effects done cheap if they look like hell and aren't ready by the release date. Nor is it useful to use quirky, overseas suppliers that fail to get effects for television shows completed when turn-around is counted in days, not months.

There will always be outsourcing, but the ever-expanding demand for high-quality characters and effects built and moved inside computers, coupled with the corporate fear of missed delivery dates, will mean that lots of American artists and technicians will continue working.

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Glenn Vilppu at Gallery 839, starts July 8

Paraphrasing Vasari, the first art historian, in discussing which was better, painting or sculpture: “They are both the daughters of drawing”. Drawing is the primary form of expression and over the years it has become my creative voice. Though I still paint, drawing has become my real media of choice, personally and in teaching.

-- Glenn Vilppu

GLENN VILPPU at Gallery 839

Opens Friday, July 8, 7-10 pm
Viewings on July 15 - 22 - 29, 11 am-2 pm

1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank

vilppustudio.com * vilppustore.com * (661) 269-1736

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