Regular readers of this web-based journal are familiar with the political grenades our most prolific author can throw. In his lobbing of discussion bombs, he regularly points out that conservative forces have been long at work eroding the very tenants of President Rosevelt's Second New Deal porgrams.
In what can be called the latest effort to beat back those forces, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of signator studio DreamWorks Animation, has donated $2 Million to the superPAC supporting the re-election of President Obama.
Congratulations and thanks are due to Mr. Katzenberg. While his representatives in negotiations certainly weren't the pro-labor liberal advocates Jeffrey has shown himself to be, we respect his on-going commitment to liberal politics as well as his support of President Obama.
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Monday, May 14, 2012
Ten Investment Commandments
I'm wrapping up the springtime 401(k) enrollment meetings this week, so here is one more post about salting money away for retirement.
I get asked from time to time, "What's the best way to invest?" My short answer is "keep costs low and diversify. The longer answer (which is only slightly more complex,) is:
All of the above sounds simple in concept, and it is. (The dirty little secret about long-term investing is, it's really not complicated. Despite what commissioned financial advisors tell you.)
What's tough is actually doing it over long periods of time and sticking with the plan. Most people chase the hot market segment of the moment. Or pull money out of under-performing investments at exactly the wrong time (usually the market bottom.) Or never put money into long-term investments in the first place.
The other secret is: The earlier you start putting money into 401(k)s, IRA accounts and investment accounts, the easier you'll breathe when you hit sixty and realize you have a cushion to see you through retirement. Sadly, many aren't starting at all:
If you missed an early start, you can still climb on board now and tuck something away. If you're over fifty, the Feds allow you to save up to $22,500 per year in a 401(k) account, and you can also fund a ROTH IRA with after-tax dollars that will earn interest and income tax free.
And if you're one of those animation professionals who finds work, then gets laid off four months later, then finds work again, you can still put away 2% of your paycheck into a 401(k). It might not be a lot, but it's the equivalent of a couple of lunches ... and saving something is better than saving nothing.
Click here to read entire post
I get asked from time to time, "What's the best way to invest?" My short answer is "keep costs low and diversify. The longer answer (which is only slightly more complex,) is:
1 Develop a workable plan
2 Invest early and often
3 Never bear too much or too little risk
4 Diversify
5 Never try to time the market
6 Use index funds when possible
7 Keep Costs Low
8 Minimize taxes
9 Invest with simplicity
10 Stay the course
All of the above sounds simple in concept, and it is. (The dirty little secret about long-term investing is, it's really not complicated. Despite what commissioned financial advisors tell you.)
What's tough is actually doing it over long periods of time and sticking with the plan. Most people chase the hot market segment of the moment. Or pull money out of under-performing investments at exactly the wrong time (usually the market bottom.) Or never put money into long-term investments in the first place.
The other secret is: The earlier you start putting money into 401(k)s, IRA accounts and investment accounts, the easier you'll breathe when you hit sixty and realize you have a cushion to see you through retirement. Sadly, many aren't starting at all:
... About 49% of Americans say they aren't contributing to any retirement plan, according to a new survey conducted by LIMRA, a trade association for the financial services industry.
"The findings from this survey were disturbing, given that people will increasingly need to rely on their personal savings to make ends meet in retirement," said Matthew Drinkwater, associate managing director at LIMRA's retirement research division.
...
If you missed an early start, you can still climb on board now and tuck something away. If you're over fifty, the Feds allow you to save up to $22,500 per year in a 401(k) account, and you can also fund a ROTH IRA with after-tax dollars that will earn interest and income tax free.
And if you're one of those animation professionals who finds work, then gets laid off four months later, then finds work again, you can still put away 2% of your paycheck into a 401(k). It might not be a lot, but it's the equivalent of a couple of lunches ... and saving something is better than saving nothing.
Hulett's Last 401(k) Meetings
DreamWorks Animation -- Tues., May 15th, 2 p.m. Dining Rms B & C
Cartoon Network -- Wed. May 16th, 1 p.m., Main conference rm
DWA (Ventura Blvd. "How to Train Your Dragon") -- Thurs. May 17th, 10:30 p.m.
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Sunday, May 13, 2012
Talking the Remake
Tim Burton discusses breathing new life into an old property:
I remember when Tim was making the original FW back in the early eighties.
He was generally seen as a big talent by the younger artists inside Disney's feature animation department, but a frustrated talent. He did some very Burtonesque designs for The Black Cauldron. The Cauldron's producer raved about them ... and then didn't use them, as many of the Disney old guard through they were way further out than the studio should go.
Tom Wilhite, the head of production before Ron Miller was overthrown and Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg rode into town, championed Tim's work, but there was a lot of bureaucratic opposition inside the animation department. Tim made Vincent, some low-budget films for the brand-new Disney Channel, and lastly Frankenweenie. When it was completed, Disney didn't know what to do with it and Mr. Burton moved on to bigger, more satisfying projects.
Tim has always been smart ... and talented. But I always thought the "weird kid on the block" persona that he liked to display was a bit of a pose. He had an office across from mine for a few months, and weird he was not. Focused and smart was more like it.
But Hollywood's about marketing first, last, and always. Tim was a good marketer.
(Rick Heinrichs, the production designer of "Frankenweenie" talks about the pic's art direction here.)
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On Corpse Bride, our puppets were so sophisticated that people thought they were [animated] in the computer. It sort of undermined the beauty of the stop-motion technique. So, with Frankenweenie, we have a smaller budget and decided that the puppets are going to have to be a bit cruder. But that’s okay, because that’s part of the charm of stop-motion. I wouldn’t go back to the original King Kong and smooth down the fur. ...
I remember when Tim was making the original FW back in the early eighties.
He was generally seen as a big talent by the younger artists inside Disney's feature animation department, but a frustrated talent. He did some very Burtonesque designs for The Black Cauldron. The Cauldron's producer raved about them ... and then didn't use them, as many of the Disney old guard through they were way further out than the studio should go.
Tom Wilhite, the head of production before Ron Miller was overthrown and Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg rode into town, championed Tim's work, but there was a lot of bureaucratic opposition inside the animation department. Tim made Vincent, some low-budget films for the brand-new Disney Channel, and lastly Frankenweenie. When it was completed, Disney didn't know what to do with it and Mr. Burton moved on to bigger, more satisfying projects.
Tim has always been smart ... and talented. But I always thought the "weird kid on the block" persona that he liked to display was a bit of a pose. He had an office across from mine for a few months, and weird he was not. Focused and smart was more like it.
But Hollywood's about marketing first, last, and always. Tim was a good marketer.
(Rick Heinrichs, the production designer of "Frankenweenie" talks about the pic's art direction here.)
Click here to read entire post
IATSE Focuses on Visual Effects
FXguide talks to rep Peter Marley about the challenges of organizing visual effects artists:
Digital visual effects is a huge and growing part of live-action features.
The old analog variety of viz effx -- models and mattes, film-on-film process shots, hanging miniatures -- was often used sparingly because of the clunky (and limited) technology. But the people who did that type of work were mostly unionized.
Not so today. Now that the sky's the limit, most everybody is working without benefit of collective bargaining agreement. And so the IA kicks up its efforts to provide visual effects employees with contractual rights and a seamless cloak of benefits.
Click here to read entire post
The IA announced their intention to organize visual effects artists in an open letter to the Visual Effects Society on November 11, 2010, but until now have refused all requests for interviews and did not even have a web site.
In this exclusive interview with fxguide Peter Marley, International Representative for the IA discusses why the IA feels the time is right for a Visual Effects Guild. We discuss portable benefits, pension, residuals, the process of organizing and take a look at efforts going on now to organize. ...
Digital visual effects is a huge and growing part of live-action features.
The old analog variety of viz effx -- models and mattes, film-on-film process shots, hanging miniatures -- was often used sparingly because of the clunky (and limited) technology. But the people who did that type of work were mostly unionized.
Not so today. Now that the sky's the limit, most everybody is working without benefit of collective bargaining agreement. And so the IA kicks up its efforts to provide visual effects employees with contractual rights and a seamless cloak of benefits.
Click here to read entire post
The Foreign Horse Race
... offers few surprises. Superheroes rule, and Tim Burton's latest has to settle for No. 2:
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The Avengers played like a vacuum cleaner on the foreign theatrical circuit for the third consecutive round, sucking up a weekend tally of $95.4 million from 54 territories ... [Dark Shadows], the eighth collaboration of Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, drew 93% of what 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the fourth Depp-Burton combination) grossed in the same markets at “the same point in release” ...Puss now has a worldwide total of $554,130,561, the bulk of the booty from overseas.
Sony’s animation title The Pirates! Band of Misfits played at 3,328 venues in 50 markets and drew $2.2 million. Offshore cume stands at $74.5 million. ... DreamWorks Animation/Paramount’s Puss in Boots, $405.5 million ...
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Saturday, May 12, 2012
Renewal
So finally the American Dad crew can breathe a collective sigh of relief?
I was over at Fox Animation late last week, and people were still sweating bullets over the show getting picked up. People were telling me their end dates with sighs of resignation and looks of foreboding.
(TV By the Numbers and TheWrap confirm the happy news.)
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After what seemed like an eternity of agonizing suspense, the “American Dad” crew, along with their friends on “Family Guy” and “The Cleveland Show,” were relieved to hear of the renewal of the series for the 2013-2014 television season. The news was a long time coming, so long that people were beginning to worry that the jig was up for the second animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane ...
I was over at Fox Animation late last week, and people were still sweating bullets over the show getting picked up. People were telling me their end dates with sighs of resignation and looks of foreboding.
(TV By the Numbers and TheWrap confirm the happy news.)
Click here to read entire post
Maytime Derby
Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn't appear to be breaking any records, but The Avengers does.
Worldwide, Pirates has grossed $91 million, not as robust an accumulation of cash as Sony and Aardman were hoping for, I'm sure.
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1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) Week 2 [4,349 Theaters] PG13
Friday $29M (-64%), Weekend $100.0M, Cume $368.0M
2. Dark Shadows (Warner Bros) NEW [3,755 Theaters] PG13
Friday $10.5M, Weekend $28.0M
3. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 4 [2,052 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.5M, Weekend $6.5M, Cume $82.0M
4. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 4 [2,839 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.3M, Weekend $4.1M, Cume $54.0M
5. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 8 [2,531 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.2M, Weekend $4.3M, Cume $387.0M
6. Five-Year Engagement (Universal) Week 3 [2,569 Theaters] R
Friday $955K, Weekend $3.2M, Cume $24.5M
7. Pirates! Band of Misfits (Aardman/Sony) Week 3 [3,079 Theaters] PG
Friday $740K, Weekend $3.2M, Cume $23.2M
8. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 2 (178 Theaters] PG13
Friday $665K, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $4.0M
9. Girl In Progress (Lionsgate) NEW [322 Theaters] G
Friday $408K, Weekend $1.5M
10. The Raven (Relativity) Week 3 [1,888 Theaters] R
Friday $405K, Weekend $1.2M, Cume $15.5M
Worldwide, Pirates has grossed $91 million, not as robust an accumulation of cash as Sony and Aardman were hoping for, I'm sure.
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Whole Lotta Options
Robert Iger is cashing in a few chips shares of stock:
Years ago, long before Mr. Iger's time, the Disney animation staff regularly got stock options from the company. (As I've noted here before, Woolfgang Reitherman once told me: "We didn't get rich from the salaries the company paid. We got rich from the stock.")
This practice was ended by Michael Eisner in the middle 1980s; thereafter, some animation employees got generous stock options, while others received none.
Good for Mr. Iger that Diz Co. has showered him with abundant stock options. It would be even better if employees on lower rungs of the corporate ladder were accorded similar treatment.
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Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger sold $81.6 million in stock after the record-setting box-office performance of “Marvel’s The Avengers” powered the shares to new highs.
The sale of 1.8 million shares took place on May 10 at an average price of $45.36, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. Disney closed at a record on May 9, after the company outlined plans for an “Avengers” sequel on its second-quarter earnings call, and set subsequent marks on May 10 and May 11. ...
Years ago, long before Mr. Iger's time, the Disney animation staff regularly got stock options from the company. (As I've noted here before, Woolfgang Reitherman once told me: "We didn't get rich from the salaries the company paid. We got rich from the stock.")
This practice was ended by Michael Eisner in the middle 1980s; thereafter, some animation employees got generous stock options, while others received none.
Good for Mr. Iger that Diz Co. has showered him with abundant stock options. It would be even better if employees on lower rungs of the corporate ladder were accorded similar treatment.
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Friday, May 11, 2012
Digital D in Florida
John Textor goes for a more upbeat impression in yesterday's CNN interview:
And there is no cliche too overused when you're striving to put your best foot forward. Especially after the deep hole you dug with an earlier performance.
Free labor or not, Digital Domain Media Group has its work cut out for it, diving into the deep end of the pool with feature animation. A handful of studios have been successful, and a lot more have crashed and burned trying to replicate the successes of John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Chris Meledandri. DD Florida's elephant feature might just be the ticket to the animation big time, but since the era of elephant features begin and end with Dumbo, and since Dumbo II and Tusker both ended up still-born twice (a neat trick when you consider the amount of time and effort that was put into them), Digital Domain's elephant movie has its work cut out for it. (You don't have a good story crew, you'll have challenging mountains to climb.)
So here's to DD's success with the pachyderm. And its lack of success using college interns for production.
Click here to read entire post
"We like to think that if a film maker can dream it, we can put it on screen," said Chief Executive Officer John Textor. "There is no scenario that's too big for us to imagine or too complicated for us to deliver."
And there is no cliche too overused when you're striving to put your best foot forward. Especially after the deep hole you dug with an earlier performance.
"Free labor is much better than cheap labor."
Free labor or not, Digital Domain Media Group has its work cut out for it, diving into the deep end of the pool with feature animation. A handful of studios have been successful, and a lot more have crashed and burned trying to replicate the successes of John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Chris Meledandri. DD Florida's elephant feature might just be the ticket to the animation big time, but since the era of elephant features begin and end with Dumbo, and since Dumbo II and Tusker both ended up still-born twice (a neat trick when you consider the amount of time and effort that was put into them), Digital Domain's elephant movie has its work cut out for it. (You don't have a good story crew, you'll have challenging mountains to climb.)
So here's to DD's success with the pachyderm. And its lack of success using college interns for production.
Click here to read entire post
Negotiations Past and Present
As you've probably deduced by now, this year's contract negotiations have been ... painful.
But that's nothing new. The first union negotiation I chaired, a bit over two decades ago, was no picnic either. I was full of piss and vinegar at the time, brimming with tall ambitions. The union put together a negotiating committee with different skill sets in it and a sizable list of proposals. The first thing that happened was ....
The then West Coast IA representative (now long departed) yelled at me for fifteen minutes in the TAG caucus room for having so many damn proposals. ("What do you think you're doing?!") But I was young then, and resilient, and I only cried myself to sleep for a couple of nights afterwards. (If memory serves. And maybe it doesn't.)
The thing I have always told members about contract negotiations is, they are a somewhat like dinner theater in Glendale: lots of words, lots of attitude, but the acting often leaves something to be desired. (And the sneering condescension too often wrapped around the words doesn't help the performances go down easy.)
This year's go-round has been similar to festivities in the past. The studios are shocked, SHOCKED, that you are making proposals to equalize pay or to boost wages that catch us up to where other labor organizations have been over the past three years, and tell you that of course those things are out of the question.
And then they roll out their proposals, which they inform you are just, fair and altogether right, each one of the numbered paragraphs accompanied by the unspoken assumption that they are as inevitable as death.
I get asked all the time: "Does the Animation Guild have leverage?" "Do we have the power to get a better deal?" I always answer that we do, because the studios need a new, ratifiable collective bargaining agreement as much or more than the Guild does. Which isn't to say it will be easy or simple to reach agreement. Since the economic meltdown of 2008, no entertainment labor union has had an "easy" contract negotiation, even though profits for our fine international conglomerates have been robust. The studios keep saying "times are tough" like a mantra, even when the only entities struggling are corporate employees, not the corporations themselves.
I don't know where we finally end up after the smoke and cannon fire fades away, but it will be a different place than where we are now. The next thing that happens before we go back to the table is, the membership gets to have its say at the special meeting on May 30th. (Please note that this is one day later than TAG's normally scheduled meeting, the better to get away from Memorial day.)
It's important that members come, find out what went down over the three days we met with the animation producers, and give their input. (The committee has ideas about where we need to go, but we need to hear member voices.)
At the end, we will get the deal we have the leverage to get. All the threats and posturing will be a memory and there will be a tentative contract on which people can vote "yes" or "no." Our overarching goal is to achieve a fair outcome that doesn't leave animators and assistants, tech directors and writers, board artists and everyone else in the Los Angeles animation community as second-class citizens.
With members' support, we'll get there.
Click here to read entire post
But that's nothing new. The first union negotiation I chaired, a bit over two decades ago, was no picnic either. I was full of piss and vinegar at the time, brimming with tall ambitions. The union put together a negotiating committee with different skill sets in it and a sizable list of proposals. The first thing that happened was ....
The then West Coast IA representative (now long departed) yelled at me for fifteen minutes in the TAG caucus room for having so many damn proposals. ("What do you think you're doing?!") But I was young then, and resilient, and I only cried myself to sleep for a couple of nights afterwards. (If memory serves. And maybe it doesn't.)
The thing I have always told members about contract negotiations is, they are a somewhat like dinner theater in Glendale: lots of words, lots of attitude, but the acting often leaves something to be desired. (And the sneering condescension too often wrapped around the words doesn't help the performances go down easy.)
This year's go-round has been similar to festivities in the past. The studios are shocked, SHOCKED, that you are making proposals to equalize pay or to boost wages that catch us up to where other labor organizations have been over the past three years, and tell you that of course those things are out of the question.
And then they roll out their proposals, which they inform you are just, fair and altogether right, each one of the numbered paragraphs accompanied by the unspoken assumption that they are as inevitable as death.
I get asked all the time: "Does the Animation Guild have leverage?" "Do we have the power to get a better deal?" I always answer that we do, because the studios need a new, ratifiable collective bargaining agreement as much or more than the Guild does. Which isn't to say it will be easy or simple to reach agreement. Since the economic meltdown of 2008, no entertainment labor union has had an "easy" contract negotiation, even though profits for our fine international conglomerates have been robust. The studios keep saying "times are tough" like a mantra, even when the only entities struggling are corporate employees, not the corporations themselves.
I don't know where we finally end up after the smoke and cannon fire fades away, but it will be a different place than where we are now. The next thing that happens before we go back to the table is, the membership gets to have its say at the special meeting on May 30th. (Please note that this is one day later than TAG's normally scheduled meeting, the better to get away from Memorial day.)
It's important that members come, find out what went down over the three days we met with the animation producers, and give their input. (The committee has ideas about where we need to go, but we need to hear member voices.)
At the end, we will get the deal we have the leverage to get. All the threats and posturing will be a memory and there will be a tentative contract on which people can vote "yes" or "no." Our overarching goal is to achieve a fair outcome that doesn't leave animators and assistants, tech directors and writers, board artists and everyone else in the Los Angeles animation community as second-class citizens.
With members' support, we'll get there.
Click here to read entire post
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Journey to the SPA
Spent the morning at Sony Pictures Animation, where I had yet another 401(k) enrollment meeting ...
Setting up for the meet, I got a call from Sony corporate. They wanted to know if I was running around proselytizing for unionism. (Sony Imageworks, you see, is in the same building. And not blessed with a union contract.)
Apparently I got the call due to this:
I told corporate:
"No, I'm just here to talk about union pension benefits and the Animation Guild's 401(k). I'm not responsible for what Imageworks employees put up on the internet. And no, I'm not proselytizing for unionism [not inside the Imageworks facility, anyway.] And I'm not handing out rep cards."
Happily, nobody threw me off the campus.
After the meeting, I talked to artists under IA jurisdiction. There's several projects in various stages of work. Hotel Transylvania is in the last couple of months of animation. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Deux is moving forward with story work. The Familiars,, a fantasy book series, is in early development. Popeye is moving forward.
And there is the the small, blue people franchise:
So SPA has a bit of work going on, even as the mother ship takes a financial hit.
Animation giveth, and animation taketh away. But we all soldier on, don't we?
Click here to read entire post
Setting up for the meet, I got a call from Sony corporate. They wanted to know if I was running around proselytizing for unionism. (Sony Imageworks, you see, is in the same building. And not blessed with a union contract.)
Apparently I got the call due to this:
Because of our odd multi-tiered benefit system ay Imageworks, we have a unique opportunity on Thursday 5/10.
Steve Hulett from the Animation Guild will be live in the North building at 10am in room 2000 to talk about the SPA 401k plan.
I told corporate:
"No, I'm just here to talk about union pension benefits and the Animation Guild's 401(k). I'm not responsible for what Imageworks employees put up on the internet. And no, I'm not proselytizing for unionism [not inside the Imageworks facility, anyway.] And I'm not handing out rep cards."
Happily, nobody threw me off the campus.
After the meeting, I talked to artists under IA jurisdiction. There's several projects in various stages of work. Hotel Transylvania is in the last couple of months of animation. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Deux is moving forward with story work. The Familiars,, a fantasy book series, is in early development. Popeye is moving forward.
And there is the the small, blue people franchise:
Sony Pictures hasn't even finalized a sequel to "The Smurfs", but it already plans a threequel to the 2011 hit animated film. Sources revealed to Variety that the studio has moved forward to develop "The Smurfs 3" and that the script is already in the works.
So SPA has a bit of work going on, even as the mother ship takes a financial hit.
Sony Pictures Entertainment May 10 reported fourth-quarter (ended march 31) operating income of $104 million, down nearly 76% from operating income of $432 million during the previous-year period. ... It said the results reflected in part the strong theatrical performance of The Smurfs and Bad Teacher, offset by the theatrical underperformance of Arthur Christmas.
Animation giveth, and animation taketh away. But we all soldier on, don't we?
Click here to read entire post
Cartoonists needed for City Of Hope
The City Of Hope is holding its 15th Annual Pediatric Picnic on Saturday, June 2 and the good folks in charge need me to assemble up to 30 professional cartoonists to volunteer to draw for the kids and their families. The event is from 10 am to 4 pm and will be located in the Griffith Park area.
Art supplies, food and drink will be furnished. We need folks who can draw characters from comic books, comic strips and animated cartoons. We also need people who can draw in an anime/manga style. We need caricaturists. But mostly, we need artists who can work this gig with a smile on their face; we have a lot of fun, but unlike comic cons, this is a charity event for the sick kids and their families and we not only have to produce quickly but also be versatile to meet the requests. And you can't bring your family along; we're there to do an important job.
If you can help the City Of Hope, please contact me at shawcartoons@gmail.com. Thanks!
Aloha,
Scott Shaw!
Click here to read entire postSpeaks For Itself -- Part 3
And finally, a job category breakdown of men who make up 82% of the working membership.
In the fall of 2006 the TAG Blog had a spirited discussion of gender stereotypes and hiring in animation, leading to our co-sponsoring a panel discussion with See Jane, an advocacy group founded by Geena Davis. Here are some employment statistics we put together for the panel.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Fox's Pins and Needles
Spent part of the afternoon at Fox Animation walking around and doing a 401k enrollment meeting. Visited with the Family Guy crew, then the American Dad staff ...
And I'll tell you, morale is kind of low at AD. First person I met said: We still don't know if the show is getting canceled or picked up."
This has got to be frustrating because:
So you can believe how some of American Dad's crew members are contemplating slitting their wrists over corporate's blank silence. People are looking at end dates of May 30th and mid-June, and are acutely aware that The Flintstones (a potential life raft) has been delayed indefinitely. An artist who's been with the show for years told me:
And I'll tell you, morale is kind of low at AD. First person I met said: We still don't know if the show is getting canceled or picked up."
This has got to be frustrating because:
May 8, 2012 -- 8 of the Top 20 programs among Adults 18-34: FAMILY GUY (No. 3), AMERICAN IDOL-Wed (No. 4), AMERICAN DAD (No. 7 tie) ...
10 of the Top 20 programs among Teens: AMERICAN IDOL-Thurs (No. 1 tie), FAMILY GUY (No. 1 tie), AMERICAN IDOL-Wed (No. 3), GLEE (No. 4), AMERICAN DAD (No. 5) ...
AMERICAN DAD at 9:30 pm did 2.3/6, up 15% from five weeks ago (4/1/12, 2.0/5). AMERICAN DAD was the second-highest rated program of the night in Adults 18-34, Teens and key male demos (behind FAMILY GUY) and won its half hour in those same demos. ...
So you can believe how some of American Dad's crew members are contemplating slitting their wrists over corporate's blank silence. People are looking at end dates of May 30th and mid-June, and are acutely aware that The Flintstones (a potential life raft) has been delayed indefinitely. An artist who's been with the show for years told me:
"I don't know why they haven't told us yes or no. I've got some money saved, and when my end date comes I'm going to take some time off and sleep. Because it's been non-stop around here.Click here to read entire post
But a lot of people have mortgages and family and can't afford to do that. And they're going to have to go look for other jobs.
"And I think that's crappy, because if Fox picks up Dad for one, or two more seasons, they won't be able to get a lot of the artists back because many will have taken other jobs to keep their heads above water. And that's a shame, because we've got a good crew on this show. Everybody knows what they're doing. And that will be gone."
Speaks For Itself -- Part 2
This chart shows the spread of jobs held by the 492 women members currently employed in animation.
The numbers of members employed are in square brackets. The "design" category includes layout, background, model design, color styling and art direction.
Click here to read entire postTuesday, May 08, 2012
Hiring for Animation
Mr. Kaplan and I circled around these data points today. They represent animation hiring nationwide, but they track local trends we've observed here at the Animation Guild.
The thing of it is, animation takes in a wide sweep of territory in 2012. It ain't hole-punched paper and painted cels anymore. Now it's broadcast and internet graphics, online games, commercials, visual effects, hand-drawn and cgi television animation. And if you don't know the requisite software packages, you better go learn them.
There's more people working in animation (and related disciplines) than ever before, but the idea that the gigs are all high-paying is a happy fiction. There are jobs going for ten bucks an hour, and jobs paying a hundred. Demand for talent, geographical location, and the size, budgets and schedules of projects determine what the wages will be.
I don't see demand for animated product slackening off anytime soon. I also don't see the pools of talent growing smaller. Lots of colleges have animation curriculums, and they're all turning out eager recruits who want to get into the cartoon business.
Click here to read entire post
During the past 90 days, recruiters posted more than 4,000 online job ads for animation skills, increasing 25% year-over-year, according to WANTED Analytics™. ...
The five metropolitan areas with the highest volume of job ads for animation skills were Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington (DC), and Seattle. Although Recruiters in Los Angeles posted the most ads of any city, hiring demand over the last 90 days actually declined about 2% ... In comparison, Recruiters in Washington, DC saw the most year-over-year growth over the past 90 days, with 77% more job ads than were seen online during 2011. ...
The thing of it is, animation takes in a wide sweep of territory in 2012. It ain't hole-punched paper and painted cels anymore. Now it's broadcast and internet graphics, online games, commercials, visual effects, hand-drawn and cgi television animation. And if you don't know the requisite software packages, you better go learn them.
There's more people working in animation (and related disciplines) than ever before, but the idea that the gigs are all high-paying is a happy fiction. There are jobs going for ten bucks an hour, and jobs paying a hundred. Demand for talent, geographical location, and the size, budgets and schedules of projects determine what the wages will be.
I don't see demand for animated product slackening off anytime soon. I also don't see the pools of talent growing smaller. Lots of colleges have animation curriculums, and they're all turning out eager recruits who want to get into the cartoon business.
Click here to read entire post
Disney Makes Money!
The Mouse is, apparently, still profitable.
The movie studio part of the company didn't do very well, dragged down by John Carter. (It lost $84 million.) But that's old news. Top-kick Robert Iger focused on The Avengers' opening weekend. (Why dwell on the disasters of a month ago when there are brand new victories to crow about?)
Click here to read entire post
Overcoming its disastrous film flop "John Carter," Walt Disney Co. reported strong quarterly earnings, helped by robust television and theme park income, and forecast a rosy future with plans for a sequel to its current hit, "The Avengers."
Disney posted quarterly net income of $1.14 billion, or 63 cents a share, a 21% increase from a profit of $942 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $9.6 billion for the second quarter ended March 31 compared with the same quarter last year. ...
The movie studio part of the company didn't do very well, dragged down by John Carter. (It lost $84 million.) But that's old news. Top-kick Robert Iger focused on The Avengers' opening weekend. (Why dwell on the disasters of a month ago when there are brand new victories to crow about?)
Click here to read entire post
Speaks for Itself -- Part I
The lastest statistics:
The chart above only tells a small part of the story.
On the morrow, we'll put up what job categories fill that 18% pie slice occupied by women. Is it storyboard? Animation? Visual Development? Others?
We'll soon find out.
Click here to read entire post
I think women have always been well represented in the specifics of the painting and drawing and even the storytelling piece, but we're seeing more on the technology side ...
The chart above only tells a small part of the story.
On the morrow, we'll put up what job categories fill that 18% pie slice occupied by women. Is it storyboard? Animation? Visual Development? Others?
We'll soon find out.
Click here to read entire post
Maurice Sendak, RIP
A towering artist moves on.
Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn.
The cause was complications from a recent stroke, said Michael di Capua, his longtime editor. ...
It's hard to overstate the impact he had on Kid Lit. And numerous other things in modern culture.
Click here to read entire post
Monday, May 07, 2012
Dominatrix
Fox's Sunday night cartoons are nothing if not consistent.
The fact that AD came back with a roar bodes well for another season's pickup. Or maybe it's true that Seth is less interested in the show than previously, doesn't want to do Mr. Smith's voice anymore, and that a new Fox exec is pushing to get the series off the air so that another cartoon can replace it.
I bop over to the studio later this week, so maybe I'll find out what's going on. Hopefully the staff of American Dad is no longer on pins and needles wondering if employment will be ongoing.
Had lunch with a former Family Guy staffer who said: "The problem with the business now is that everyone's scrambling to keep work going. Nobody's relaxed. It's not like it was in the nineties when everyone was making more money and not worried about their next job."
The only consistency in the cartoon biz is change.
Click here to read entire post
A repeat of The Simpsons led into a relatively even showing from Fox's animation block. The Cleveland Show was down a tenth a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49, with Simpsons down to a 2.1. Bob's Burgers and Family Guy also slipped a tenth of a point, for a respective 1.8 and 2.7, while American Dad returned with a 15 percent jump for a 2.3 in the demo. Fox nabbed a 1.9 adults rating for the night and 4.1 million viewers. ...
The fact that AD came back with a roar bodes well for another season's pickup. Or maybe it's true that Seth is less interested in the show than previously, doesn't want to do Mr. Smith's voice anymore, and that a new Fox exec is pushing to get the series off the air so that another cartoon can replace it.
I bop over to the studio later this week, so maybe I'll find out what's going on. Hopefully the staff of American Dad is no longer on pins and needles wondering if employment will be ongoing.
Had lunch with a former Family Guy staffer who said: "The problem with the business now is that everyone's scrambling to keep work going. Nobody's relaxed. It's not like it was in the nineties when everyone was making more money and not worried about their next job."
The only consistency in the cartoon biz is change.
Click here to read entire post
Not Really
DreamWorks Animation's Gail Currey says:
Well, it's pretty to think so. But I've got news. Three years ago TAG's employment data was as follows:
Sorry, Ms. Currey. Women are under-represented. With the exception of ink-and-paint and checking positions, women have been a tiny fraction of the cartoon work-force for decades.
(A few additional bits of data here, here, and here.)
Besides the union stats, I walk around studios on a daily basis and I can tell you, there are way more men doing art than women. It's the way animation is ... and has been. (Happily, women are coming into positions from which they were previously absent or chronically under-represented.)
Ms. Currey's quote above is upbeat but, sadly, incorrect.
Click here to read entire post
... We are seeing more women enter the field of animation with the technological foundation you need. I think women have always been well represented in the specifics of the painting and drawing and even the storytelling piece, but we're seeing more on the technology side. ...
Well, it's pretty to think so. But I've got news. Three years ago TAG's employment data was as follows:
Women in Animation (2009)
directors - 15%
layout - 17.8%
model designers - 15.4%
storyboard - 13.3%
visual development - 9.4%
Sorry, Ms. Currey. Women are under-represented. With the exception of ink-and-paint and checking positions, women have been a tiny fraction of the cartoon work-force for decades.
(A few additional bits of data here, here, and here.)
Besides the union stats, I walk around studios on a daily basis and I can tell you, there are way more men doing art than women. It's the way animation is ... and has been. (Happily, women are coming into positions from which they were previously absent or chronically under-represented.)
Ms. Currey's quote above is upbeat but, sadly, incorrect.
Click here to read entire post
TAG 401k Enrollment Meetings
Due to requests, here is my 401k Enrollment Meeting Schedule for the rest of the month:
And now for my enrollment meeting mini-spiel! In writing on the blog! Just for youuu ...!!
If you're under 50 (fifty) this year, you can put up to $17,000 worth of pre-tax moolah into the Plan. ($22,500 if you are fifty or older.)
The Plan has a plethora of actively managed funds and index funds. In my opinion, the best option available is to plunk all or most of the contributions into the Vanguard Target Retirement Funds option*.
Mass Mutual, the Plan Administrator, sends out paper statements quarterly. You can access your accounts online by setting up a PIN number and going to MassMutual.com, clicking through to "The Retirement Center" and typing in your Social Security Number and Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the appropriate rectangular white box.
You can deduct from 2% to 40% of your weekly wages into the TAG 401(k) Plan (and more if you're over fifty.) Your take-home pay will not drop by 100% but by 80% ... 70% ... 60% depending on your state and federal income tax brackets.
You'll need to fill out the enrollment form and the beneficiary form, and you'll be good to go. Enrollment deadlines are the first of each month. (May 1st, June 1st, and so on ...)
* Isn't this what I ALWAYS say?
Click here to read entire post
Film Roman -- Tuesday, May 8th, 10 a.m. 3rd Floor Conference Room
Fox TV Animation -- Wednesday, May 9th, 2 p.m. Main Conference Room
Sony Pictures Animation -- Thurs. May 10th 10 a.m. North 2000
Dreamworks Animation -- Tuesday May 15th, 2 p.m. Dining Room B & C
Cartoon Network -- Wed. May 16th, 1 p.m. Main Conference Room ...
And now for my enrollment meeting mini-spiel! In writing on the blog! Just for youuu ...!!
If you're under 50 (fifty) this year, you can put up to $17,000 worth of pre-tax moolah into the Plan. ($22,500 if you are fifty or older.)
The Plan has a plethora of actively managed funds and index funds. In my opinion, the best option available is to plunk all or most of the contributions into the Vanguard Target Retirement Funds option*.
Mass Mutual, the Plan Administrator, sends out paper statements quarterly. You can access your accounts online by setting up a PIN number and going to MassMutual.com, clicking through to "The Retirement Center" and typing in your Social Security Number and Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the appropriate rectangular white box.
You can deduct from 2% to 40% of your weekly wages into the TAG 401(k) Plan (and more if you're over fifty.) Your take-home pay will not drop by 100% but by 80% ... 70% ... 60% depending on your state and federal income tax brackets.
You'll need to fill out the enrollment form and the beneficiary form, and you'll be good to go. Enrollment deadlines are the first of each month. (May 1st, June 1st, and so on ...)
* Isn't this what I ALWAYS say?
Click here to read entire post
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Vancouver, the Rising Hub
Tax subsidies are powerful tools.
As studios have chased tax breaks in and out of the U.S., Vancouver has prospered. It's got an educated talent pool, it's got infrastructure, it's got a decades long tradition of being "Hollywood North."
Pixar has an outpost in Vancouver, and Disney Toons used to. (Diz Co. had a studio in place for a few years during the 1990s.) But the cost-of-living, as VFX Soldier points out, is the highest in North America. Which might indicate that the city, absent the tax goodies, could have challenges down the road attracting all the work it would like to bring into town.
It's always useful to remember that our fine entertainment conglomerates are unendingly interested in getting more bang for their buck, and always on the lookout for bigger, better government handouts.
Long live free enterprise!
Click here to read entire post
Vancouver has been invited to host its own showcase day at a digital effects conference in Germany this week that brings together industry leaders from around the globe ...
“The world is taking notice and everyone is talking about Vancouver as a rising star and we’re joining London and Los Angeles as a global leader in digital media,” said [Vancouver Mayor Gregor] Robertson. “I think there is a lot of growth ahead of us.” ...
When MPC [Moving Picture Company] Vancouver first opened its doors in Yaletown at the end of 2007, it had 30 employees. Last week it moved into its new facilities on Hamilton Street with space for 300 people. ...
As studios have chased tax breaks in and out of the U.S., Vancouver has prospered. It's got an educated talent pool, it's got infrastructure, it's got a decades long tradition of being "Hollywood North."
Pixar has an outpost in Vancouver, and Disney Toons used to. (Diz Co. had a studio in place for a few years during the 1990s.) But the cost-of-living, as VFX Soldier points out, is the highest in North America. Which might indicate that the city, absent the tax goodies, could have challenges down the road attracting all the work it would like to bring into town.
It's always useful to remember that our fine entertainment conglomerates are unendingly interested in getting more bang for their buck, and always on the lookout for bigger, better government handouts.
Long live free enterprise!
Click here to read entire post
Foreign Super Heroes
... are performing remarkably like domestic super heroes.
Visual effects movies consume more and more box office dollars. The old favorite Battleship has now gobbled up $200.1 million in foreign lands, and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax continues to ruck along:
Click here to read entire post
A muscular opening in Russia plus extraordinarily strong holdovers in key overseas markets propelled Marvel’s The Avengers to a commanding No. 1 weekend perch on the foreign theatrical circuit with $151.5 million grossed in 52 territories, hoisting the film’s 12-day offshore box office total to $441.5 million. ...
Visual effects movies consume more and more box office dollars. The old favorite Battleship has now gobbled up $200.1 million in foreign lands, and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax continues to ruck along:
... Lorax is just $7.6 million shy of the $100-million overseas gross mark after registering $2.7 million – of which $1.3 million came from a Korea opening at 249 venues ...Which give DSL a worldwide total of $301.4 million.
Click here to read entire post
George Lindsey, Rest in Peace
Actor George Lindsey, best-known for on-camera work on The Andry Griffith Show, Mayberry, RFD, and Hee Haw has died at age 83. ...
Lindsey also did voice work in a trio of Disney animated features, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers.
Click here to read entire post
Lindsey also did voice work in a trio of Disney animated features, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers.
Click here to read entire post
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Deep Immersion Triggers Deep Thought
So you've got Peter Jackson doing The Hobbit at 48 frames per second, and James Cameron gearing up to do Avatar the second at 60 fps. And Doug Trumbull saying this:
Why stop at 60 fps if 120 is better?
But this raises a question, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The higher frame rates kind of kick hell out of the idea of doing hand-drawn features, don't you think? Unless, of course, computers do the lion's share of the inbetweening and breakdowns.
I'm assuming here that rendering speeds continue to increase and technology keeps moving forward. Even so, the bean counters at our fine entertainment conglomerates will be pushing back against the higher frame counts because ... one way of the other ... it will mean higher costs.
Click here to read entire post
... Jim Cameron’s idea of doing Avatar 2 and 3 at 60 frames is a stellar, excellent idea because Avatar is kind of a flying dream adventure.
... The movie I’m developing is a science-fiction space movie; I’m trying to pick up where I think 2001 left off. I’ve actually built a stage where I’m experimenting with 3-D at 120 frames a second projected on a deeply curved hemispheric screen that is silver, so it reflects the light back to the audience. It’s three times the brightness of a normal movie. I want to make something that goes as far into this very intense immersive experience for the audience that I possibly can. ...
Why stop at 60 fps if 120 is better?
But this raises a question, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The higher frame rates kind of kick hell out of the idea of doing hand-drawn features, don't you think? Unless, of course, computers do the lion's share of the inbetweening and breakdowns.
I'm assuming here that rendering speeds continue to increase and technology keeps moving forward. Even so, the bean counters at our fine entertainment conglomerates will be pushing back against the higher frame counts because ... one way of the other ... it will mean higher costs.
Click here to read entire post
Super Hero Derby
So the House of Walt is making up for John Carter with this:
Naturally enough, it's sucked most of the oxygen from the rest of U.S.-Canadian box office.
Add On: Turns out that the Mouse's Super Hero movie did better than they first thought. North of $207 million.
Click here to read entire post
... Disney is reporting stronger North American box office for Marvel’s The Avengers in Digital 3D, RealD and IMAX 3D than it dared to hope and even Avengers Box Office Predictionsrival studios thought possible. The Friday opening number is now $80.5 ...
Naturally enough, it's sucked most of the oxygen from the rest of U.S.-Canadian box office.
1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) NEW [4,349 Theaters] PG13The stop-motion Pirates saw a 50% drop in box office.
Friday $80.5M, Weekend $175M
2. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,010 Theaters] PG13 Friday $2.6M, Weekend $8.0M, Cume $76.1M
3. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 7 [2,794 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.9M, Weekend $6.7M, Cume $381.7M
4. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,005 Theaters] PG13
Friday $1.8M, Weekend $5.5M, Cume $47.9M
5. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) Week 2 [2,941 Theaters] R
Friday $1.8M (-47%), Weekend $5.8M, Cume $19.7M
6. Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D (Aardman/Sony) Week 2 [3,358 Theaters] PG Friday $1.3M (-50%), Weekend $5.9M, Cume $19.1M
7. The Raven (Relativity) Week 2 [2,209 Theaters] R
Friday $950K (-62%), Weekend $2.8M, Cume $12.3M
8. Safe (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,271 Theaters] R
Friday $900K (-66%), Weekend $2.7M, Cume $13.1M
9. Chimpanzee (Disneynature) Week 3 [1,531 Theaters] PG
Friday $707K, Weekend $2.2M, Cume $22.8M
10. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 4 [2,174 Theaters] PG
Friday $480K, Weekend $1.8M, Cume $39.6M
Add On: Turns out that the Mouse's Super Hero movie did better than they first thought. North of $207 million.
Click here to read entire post
Friday, May 04, 2012
Disney Afternoon
My work hours after lunch were whiled away inside the Hat Building on fabled Riverside Drive (The Burbank version, not the one in New York) ...
Work is going on with Frozen, with characters being modelled and production slowly ramping up. (One of the modelers showed me work in progress. The characters are going to have their own distinct looks.)
The annual caricature show was still up, and I dawdled over the drawings pinned up on over-sized storyboards on the second floor. A caricature of Walt Peregoy caught my eye; Walt was caricatured right down to the velocity of his rants (captured in pungent dialogue balloons on the drawing; captured in audio form here.)
There was also a witty depiction of David Stainton, referencing his quick exit from Paramount Animation a few months back. (Something to do with "karma.")
I had wondered why Mr. Stainton exited the Viacom company so quickly; a former animation exec cleared up the mystery* earlier this week:
And so a blossoming animation career (or should I say RE-blossoming?) was nipped in the bud.
* I assume here that my informant is correct.
Click here to read entire post
Work is going on with Frozen, with characters being modelled and production slowly ramping up. (One of the modelers showed me work in progress. The characters are going to have their own distinct looks.)
The annual caricature show was still up, and I dawdled over the drawings pinned up on over-sized storyboards on the second floor. A caricature of Walt Peregoy caught my eye; Walt was caricatured right down to the velocity of his rants (captured in pungent dialogue balloons on the drawing; captured in audio form here.)
There was also a witty depiction of David Stainton, referencing his quick exit from Paramount Animation a few months back. (Something to do with "karma.")
I had wondered why Mr. Stainton exited the Viacom company so quickly; a former animation exec cleared up the mystery* earlier this week:
Paramount hired David Stainton expecting him to make deals with different live-action directors. Like they did with Gore Verbinksi.
Only Stainton didn't know any live-action directors. When Paramount figured this out, they let him go.
And so a blossoming animation career (or should I say RE-blossoming?) was nipped in the bud.
* I assume here that my informant is correct.
Click here to read entire post
Special Meeting, May 30
On Tuesday night, the Animation Guild's Executive Board, still angry about the state of the latest round of negotiations for a new contract, put out an e-mail to membership which goes something like this:
Speaking for myself, I found the overall package offered by the producers on April 18 amazing ... and insulting. We had worked through some side issues, and I had thought we were making some progress.
Wrongo.
This, I guess, shouldn't be hugely surprising. Sitting through the Basic Agreement negotiations, I had an opportunity to talk to various locals, and none of them had an easy time of it in their individual negotiations. The IATSE leadership didn't have an easy time of it hammering out an agreement for the larger contract. So we should have expected lollipops and rainbows? Still, the TAG negotiations were a large splash of chilled water.
In the relatively near future, we will be going back for more contract talks. Any members reading this, I urge you to come to the meeting on May 30th. It's important for you to know what's going on and to give your input.
Click here to read entire post
On April 19, after two days of negotiations for a new contract with the major studios, your negotiating team (made up of regular members just like you) felt compelled to walk out.
The studios were not willing to consider most of our proposals, and we were far apart on wage issues.
Animated features and television series are the engine that drives the Hollywood gravy train, yet our workplace and salary concerns were mostly ignored.
TAG's Executive Board has voted to hold a special membership meeting on Wednesday, May 30, to discuss the contract negotiations. It is imperative that we have a full turnout to receive your input regarding our next moves in the battle for a fair contract.
In the meantime, we urge you to discuss these issues with your fellow members. Your livelihood, and that of your fellow workers in animation, is at stake. We have been disrespected for far too long. Do you want our Union to stand up for itself? Then YOU need to stand up for your Union. Attend the special meeting.
The special membership meeting will be held Wednesday, May 30, at the Guild's offices at 1105 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank. A reception starts at 6 PM with beer, wine, and refreshments, followed by the meeting at 7 PM. ...
Speaking for myself, I found the overall package offered by the producers on April 18 amazing ... and insulting. We had worked through some side issues, and I had thought we were making some progress.
Wrongo.
This, I guess, shouldn't be hugely surprising. Sitting through the Basic Agreement negotiations, I had an opportunity to talk to various locals, and none of them had an easy time of it in their individual negotiations. The IATSE leadership didn't have an easy time of it hammering out an agreement for the larger contract. So we should have expected lollipops and rainbows? Still, the TAG negotiations were a large splash of chilled water.
In the relatively near future, we will be going back for more contract talks. Any members reading this, I urge you to come to the meeting on May 30th. It's important for you to know what's going on and to give your input.
Click here to read entire post
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Overseas Subcontracting
... is ever-changing. Our friends at China Daily tell us:
As professionals often tell us, India and China are still behind the artistic levels of California, New Zealand, Australia, France and the land to our north. At the same time, salary levels in these emerging countries are rising steadily, while salaries in the U.S. and Europe are stagnant or falling.
So the cost savings are dwindling, even as the quality of work lags behind the best of the West. Like The Wise Old CG Animator told me two months ago:
Shrinking creative talent base a major concern for Chinese animation industry, experts say ...
In the last two years, the animation industry has seen a sea change with the focus increasingly turning toward originality and creativity, rather than outsourcing for global studios.
Not surprisingly, it is television programs that account for more than 45 percent of the business for most animation studios, figures provided by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences show. ...
"Most of the animation companies in China are still surviving on outsourcing orders from overseas companies. There is still a huge gap between China and Western countries in core and sophisticated techniques," says [Song Yuefeng, director of Shanghai Paladin Max studio.] "It would be better for Chinese animation companies to consider purchasing technologies from Singapore, Thailand, or Europe, or look at more ways to bring overseas professionals to work in China." ...
As professionals often tell us, India and China are still behind the artistic levels of California, New Zealand, Australia, France and the land to our north. At the same time, salary levels in these emerging countries are rising steadily, while salaries in the U.S. and Europe are stagnant or falling.
So the cost savings are dwindling, even as the quality of work lags behind the best of the West. Like The Wise Old CG Animator told me two months ago:
You can go get inexpensive labor a lot of places. I mean, you can go get people waiting for work in front of Home Depot and bring them back to the studio and plunk them down in front of a computer. But if they can't do the work, what good is it to pay them eight dollars an hour? They still can't do the work."Click here to read entire post
"Same thing applies to a lot of the sub-contracting facilities overseas. Some studios are good, but many are terrible. And it doesn't help the art form (or box office) if you get crappy product you can't use or make money with, no matter how cheap the product is."
Another Player in Cartoonland?
Amazon has rolled out this:
This isn't precisely correct. We're in the process of signing with ... a subsidiary of Amazon. (Not quite done yet.)
But we think it's find and dandy that there is another player in the mix. The more outlets that writers and story artists have for their work, the better it is for people working in the biz.
Click here to read entire post
... Online retailing giant and e-book market leader Amazon is getting into the original video programming business. Starting today, Amazon is inviting anyone with a good idea for a primetime comedy or children’s television series to submit a pitch. Amazon promises to option one promising project a month for possible development, with an eye towards creating a stable of original programming ...
Amazon plans to bypass the industry pecking order. The company is inviting anyone to submit their ideas for a comedy or children’s programming series. Writers need to supply a five-page description and a completed pilot script — comedy series have a 22-minute format, children’s shows run 11 minutes. Once a pitch is submitted, Amazon Studios promises it’ll make a decision on whether to buy an option for the series within 45 days ...
Amazon Studios is signatory to both the Writers’ Guild and the Animation Guild ...
This isn't precisely correct. We're in the process of signing with ... a subsidiary of Amazon. (Not quite done yet.)
But we think it's find and dandy that there is another player in the mix. The more outlets that writers and story artists have for their work, the better it is for people working in the biz.
Click here to read entire post
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Good Dreams
... for Dreamworks Animation.
DWA has an interesting business model: make a hit ... make another hit ... make another hit.
When that formula doesn't work out, things get dicey. Last year, the company had two unqualified hits (PnB, KFP2.) This year, it will go for two more. There are also t.v. shows and merchandising, but Jeffrey is doing a moist-palm high wire act. When you don't have the big hit, earnings get thin and you get in trouble.
So here's hoping for two more hits.
Add On: Re the DWA "upcoming hits" department, the Nikkster says this:
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc posted quarterly results ahead of analysts' estimates, helped primarily by the international box office performance and domestic home video release of "Puss In Boots."
"Puss In Boots", which grossed about $554 million in worldwide box office, contributed $73.6 million to the total revenue for the first quarter. ...
DWA has an interesting business model: make a hit ... make another hit ... make another hit.
When that formula doesn't work out, things get dicey. Last year, the company had two unqualified hits (PnB, KFP2.) This year, it will go for two more. There are also t.v. shows and merchandising, but Jeffrey is doing a moist-palm high wire act. When you don't have the big hit, earnings get thin and you get in trouble.
So here's hoping for two more hits.
Add On: Re the DWA "upcoming hits" department, the Nikkster says this:
... DreamWorks told analysts that the Madagascar sequel and Rise Of The Guardians, due in November, will cost about $145M apiece to produce, higher than most previous DreamWorks Animation films. But there won’t be as much competition as there was last year. Although consumer spending on animation and family films “expanded, and expanded decently,” Katzenberg says it was “split among a number of films.” Animation is “the single most mainstream, most successful genre in movies today.” But “it looks easier than it is. People come in, they try it and then they go away.” This year “feels like more of a normalized market” — although still competitive as movies such as Hangover 2 become seen as family films.Click here to read entire post
Katzenberg says that the new Madagascar is the best of the three in the series, and will be “the first time audiences will get to experience this franchise in 3D.” ...
The Ron Clements Interview -- Part III
Ron C. describes Aladdin as one of the toughest pictures he ever worked on ...
Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link
The problem was, the Disney animation crew working on Beauty and the Beast was nearing the end of its assignment. And Jeffrey Katzenberg was unhappy with the storyline of the next feature, a project called Aladdin.
Mr. Katzenberg reportedly said:
"The Mom in this picture is a big zero! Deep six the mom!
At the time, Ron and John had developed a storyline where Aladdin's mother was a major character, and Howard Ashman had written songs for the mother. Only Jeffrey didn't like the way Mom was coming across on storyboards or story reels, and so wanted big changes and wanted them fast.
Mr. Clements describes the months of story remodeling that followed as among the most stressful of his career, and that they were constantly on the dead run, trying to provide enough "locked" material so they could feed work to the animation, layout and background departments.
(He also talks about the multitidue of features that followed Aladdin ...)
Click here to read entire post
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Opposition?
Per trades, there is opposition sprouting up against the recently negotiated Basic Agreement:
There's no agreement that somebody somewhere wouldn't find wanting.
For decades, the normal wage bumps inside labor contracts was 3%, 3%, 3%. But during the last three years? Not so much. Every union and guild has settled for 2% wage increases that barely keep up with inflation.
There are other issues at play, however. Over the last three years the funding levels of the pension and health funds of entertainment unions have suffered. Deficits became the norm; pushing back the red ink became a top priority for labor. (The health and pension plans go down, everybody is in big trouble.)
This was particularly true for the IATSE during the negotiation of the latest Basic Agreement. Faced with a projected $350 million funding gap inside the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan, the producers insisted on premium payments from Plan participants. The fact that the premiums ultimately agreed to were $0 for singles, $25 for married couples and $50 for families is an achievement, any way you slice it.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was also after a lot of concessions from local unions: staffing changes, interchangeability, wage breaks. For the most part, the producers' wish list was beaten back, and the I.A.'s main goal was accomplished. Closing the $350 million funding gap got done, and participants still have a comprehensive health plan that costs them very little.*
* The Animation Guild is still arm wrestling with the cartoon producers over a new agreement.
Click here to read entire post
Public opposition is emerging to the tentative deal reached between IATSE and the AMPTP two weeks ago – which was unanimously endorsed by the union’s negotiating committee – but it’s impossible to gauge how widespread that position is. The unanimous endorsement, coupled with the union’s local by local, winner take all voting system, is likely to make defeating the deal an uphill slog for opponents.
In an email to The Hollywood Reporter, opponents of the deal asserted that “many within the IA Membership . . . are VERY unhappy with the Tentative Agreement.” However, in response to a question from THR, the email’s author acknowledged that “as to an actual number, we don't have that data.”
Another email, citing comments on an opposition Facebook group, described the anti-deal constituency as “an overwhelming majority.” A third email referred to “unbridled anger.” Comments on the Facebook group, which has over 3,200 members, reflect both opposition and support for the deal. ...
There's no agreement that somebody somewhere wouldn't find wanting.
For decades, the normal wage bumps inside labor contracts was 3%, 3%, 3%. But during the last three years? Not so much. Every union and guild has settled for 2% wage increases that barely keep up with inflation.
There are other issues at play, however. Over the last three years the funding levels of the pension and health funds of entertainment unions have suffered. Deficits became the norm; pushing back the red ink became a top priority for labor. (The health and pension plans go down, everybody is in big trouble.)
This was particularly true for the IATSE during the negotiation of the latest Basic Agreement. Faced with a projected $350 million funding gap inside the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan, the producers insisted on premium payments from Plan participants. The fact that the premiums ultimately agreed to were $0 for singles, $25 for married couples and $50 for families is an achievement, any way you slice it.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was also after a lot of concessions from local unions: staffing changes, interchangeability, wage breaks. For the most part, the producers' wish list was beaten back, and the I.A.'s main goal was accomplished. Closing the $350 million funding gap got done, and participants still have a comprehensive health plan that costs them very little.*
* The Animation Guild is still arm wrestling with the cartoon producers over a new agreement.
Click here to read entire post
Cartoon TV Ratings
Ted Turner's offspring continues to prosper:
The cable network has been on a roll for over the past eighteen months. This is a nice turnaround from the doldroms the net was in several years back.
The Regular Show continues at the top of the heap in its Monday time slot. Click here to read entire post
... For the entire month of April 2012, Adult Swim ranked as basic cable’s #1 network for Total Day Delivery of young adult and young men demos—adults 18-34, 18-49 & 18-24, as well as men 18-34, 18-49 & 18-24. The network also ranked #3 for the month in Prime Time (behind TBS & ESPN)for delivery of targeted adults 18-34. ...
Across April 2012, Cartoon Network stood out as television’s #1 network for early evening prime (7-9 p.m.) delivery of boys 2-11, 6-11 & 9-14. Compared to last year, average prime delivery gains among all kid demos increased by strong double digits—kids 6-11 (685,000) by 31%, kids 2-11 (952,000) by 19% and kids 9-14 (555,000) by 45%. ...
The cable network has been on a roll for over the past eighteen months. This is a nice turnaround from the doldroms the net was in several years back.
The Regular Show continues at the top of the heap in its Monday time slot. Click here to read entire post
The Costs of VFX
One of the most heavily used arguments that a union organizer faces when speaking to visual effects artists about the reasons for unionizing visual effects work is costs. Most artists believe the costs to unionizing visual effects will be a deciding factor in a plethora of Gloom and Doom consequences:
While I've become quite adept at countering these arguments, an article in this morning's LA Times has added some ammunition to my arsenal. It points out something that we've been telling vfx artists since I started my career as a Union-Man: the biggest driver of movie ticket sales is the work they contribute to the final product.
The Producing Studios are also well aware of this. While examples of this abound, these quotes from today's article highlight the point perfectly:
Amy Pascal, Co-Chair at Sony Pictures
Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Picture Group
Visual effects is the highest cost budget item for a production for a good reason. Visual effects is the reason the general public will see a movie. While the studios are raking in record profits for their successful films, they are struggling to keep costs down by forcing vfx studios to accept an unrealistic price for their work. (That IS what a good corporation does, right?) This ends up in the laps of visual effects artists who then have to bear the brunt of the producers pursuit for profit.
What's a VFX artist to do? Exercise the inherent leverage that comes with producing the key factor in movie profits by banding together to stand on equal footing with the vfx studios and production companies. Work to establish boundaries to protect themselves against the profit seekers using a vfx artist livelihood for their gain. Work with vfx studios to establish a trade organization and together bargain with the producers to get profits flowing back into the industry. All six entertainment companies are willing to pay to get the work done. Its time they do.
It falls on the artists to start this process. Get answers to common questions. Sign a RepCard. Contact me to set a time to meet. Make a stand and support the effort to make visual effects a better industry.
Click here to read entire post
*If we go union, the studio will send all the work overseas!
*The added costs of a union contract will put this studio out of business!
*There is no way we'll be able to compete if we have to raise our prices!
While I've become quite adept at countering these arguments, an article in this morning's LA Times has added some ammunition to my arsenal. It points out something that we've been telling vfx artists since I started my career as a Union-Man: the biggest driver of movie ticket sales is the work they contribute to the final product.
The Producing Studios are also well aware of this. While examples of this abound, these quotes from today's article highlight the point perfectly:
Amy Pascal, Co-Chair at Sony Pictures
"In the current business climate you want to be as cost-efficient as possible, but there's no avoiding the fact that to produce a summer tent-pole on the scale necessary to succeed globally, you've got to spend to be competitive,"
Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Picture Group
The biggest part of the budget for tent-pole movies is the special effects and it's very difficult to bring down those costs, particularly when you are continually trying to raise the bar and often working on a tight schedule,
Visual effects is the highest cost budget item for a production for a good reason. Visual effects is the reason the general public will see a movie. While the studios are raking in record profits for their successful films, they are struggling to keep costs down by forcing vfx studios to accept an unrealistic price for their work. (That IS what a good corporation does, right?) This ends up in the laps of visual effects artists who then have to bear the brunt of the producers pursuit for profit.
What's a VFX artist to do? Exercise the inherent leverage that comes with producing the key factor in movie profits by banding together to stand on equal footing with the vfx studios and production companies. Work to establish boundaries to protect themselves against the profit seekers using a vfx artist livelihood for their gain. Work with vfx studios to establish a trade organization and together bargain with the producers to get profits flowing back into the industry. All six entertainment companies are willing to pay to get the work done. Its time they do.
It falls on the artists to start this process. Get answers to common questions. Sign a RepCard. Contact me to set a time to meet. Make a stand and support the effort to make visual effects a better industry.
Click here to read entire post
The Ron Clements Interview -- Part II
When Ron Clements started his directorial career, he was filling a slot on The Great Mouse Detective that opened up when original director Burny Mattinson got promoted to producer ...
Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link
Although he and John Musker were co-directors on TGMD, Disney veteran Dave Michener was also a sequence director. It wasn't until The Little Mermaid that Ron and John became "Ron and John" (that is, creators of a cluster of Disney features that have earned the titles of "classics" over the last couple of decades.)
Ron goes into all of that (and more) in this second installment of the TAG interview, where you can listen or view a generous section of the talk we had last Friday afternoon. (You will also get to hear how a stuffy British crab named "Clarence" became a Calypsonian songster named "Sebastian.) ...
Click here to read entire post
Monday, April 30, 2012
Disney TVA's Sci Fi Entrant
Tron. (Based on the movies of the same name.)
A stylish-looking show, which will hopefully perform in a more robust way than its live-action forbears. (It looks like Bruce Timm was involved with the piece. But I'm betting not. But Diz Co. does have have Bruce Boxleitner supplying the voice of the title character.)
Click here to read entire post
A stylish-looking show, which will hopefully perform in a more robust way than its live-action forbears. (It looks like Bruce Timm was involved with the piece. But I'm betting not. But Diz Co. does have have Bruce Boxleitner supplying the voice of the title character.)
Click here to read entire post
Fox Sweeps Up Princes
From the Reporter:
Where will this get produced? My first hunch would have been Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios in Connecticut, but with Chernin Entertainment -- a company owned by former Fox topkick Peter Chernin -- producing, maybe it goes to Weta Digital in New Zealand, maybe to a shop in Canada, maybe to some production house in Southern California.
(Chernin Entertainment has been involved in various types of animation. Rise of Planet of the Apes, most obviously, but also in television cartoons. Allen Gregory, a not overly successful prime-time animated half-hour, was in Chernin Entertainment's wheelhouse.)
Click here to read entire post
... Fox Animation has acquired the movie rights to children’s book "The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom" by first-time author Christopher Healy.
Chernin Entertainment, which produced Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is attached to produce. ...
Where will this get produced? My first hunch would have been Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios in Connecticut, but with Chernin Entertainment -- a company owned by former Fox topkick Peter Chernin -- producing, maybe it goes to Weta Digital in New Zealand, maybe to a shop in Canada, maybe to some production house in Southern California.
(Chernin Entertainment has been involved in various types of animation. Rise of Planet of the Apes, most obviously, but also in television cartoons. Allen Gregory, a not overly successful prime-time animated half-hour, was in Chernin Entertainment's wheelhouse.)
Click here to read entire post
The Ron Clements Interview -- Part I
Sioux City in Iowa would seem a less than ideal launching pad for a long and successful animation career, but Ron Clements made that starting point work for him ...
TAG Interview with Ron Clements
Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link
Working as the resident artist at a local Sioux City television station, teenaged Ron created his own animated short and got it on the Iowa airwaves. Soon after, a broadcast executive from Los Angeles saw his work, and told Mr. Clements that he could put him in touch with Hanna-Barbera. (Ron had communicated that he wanted to move into animation full-time.)
And Mr. Clements flew to Southern California, and what turned out to be the start of a new life.
After a four-month stint at H-B, Ron found his way into the animation training program at Walt Disney Productions. Disney veteran Frank Thomas became Ron's mentor, and Mr. Clements' advancement was rapid. A character animator on The Rescuers and Pete's Dragon, Ron was promoted to supervising animator for The Fox and the Hound ...
Click here to read entire post
Sunday, April 29, 2012
End-of-April Foreign Derby
Super heroes rule the roost:
On the animated front, Pirates! Band of Misfits collected $63.6 million. Globally, it's taken in $75 million. Meanwhile Dr. Seuss' the Lorax has a worldwide total of $296.2 million, thirty percent of which comes from abroad.
Click here to read entire post
... [T]he summer tentpole season opened offshore with a blast on the weekend as Marvel’s The Avengers opened in 39 territories on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing a jaw droppingly robust $178.4 million. ...
On the animated front, Pirates! Band of Misfits collected $63.6 million. Globally, it's taken in $75 million. Meanwhile Dr. Seuss' the Lorax has a worldwide total of $296.2 million, thirty percent of which comes from abroad.
Click here to read entire post
Focus on the "Okay." Forget About "Perfect."
The lament of New York Times columnist Joe Nocera is one I hear a lot:
Everybody has their own sob story. Twenty-four years ago, mine was: $350 a week job. No benefits. Fifty-hour weeks.
A year later I landed a union gig under a TAG contract that almost tripled my salary. Nine months later, the studio went out of business and I was unemployed again. Nine months after that, I ran for union business representative (over my wife's bitter opposition) and finally started to save a bit of money.
I was forty years old.
The Mrs. and I have been saving ever since. We've made good moves and bad moves, but the one thing we've learned as we've grown older is to avoid concentrating bets (no stocks, but lots diversified mutual funds), and to keep things conservative (lots of bonds.) When you're on the cusp of geezerhood and have built up a stash, it's a good idea to preserve capital.
The biggest mistakes investors make is A) chasing hot investments, and B) freaking out and bailing when investments go south. As Tim McAleenan at Seeking Alpha observes:
Not being the smartest investor west of the Mississippi isn't what will bring you down. It's making stupid moves, over and over again. If you can avoid the dumb mistakes, and stick to a sensible investment plan, you'll end up fine.
And if you don't start putting money away? Then Dr. William J. Bernstein has a think-piece for you. It's called "A Nation of Wal-Mart Greeters." Yeowch.
Click here to read entire post
" "... "The bull market ended with the bursting of that bubble in 2000. My tech-laden portfolio was cut in half. A half-dozen years later, I got divorced, cutting my 401(k) in half again. A few years after that, I bought a house that needed some costly renovations. Since my retirement account was now hopelessly inadequate for actual retirement, I reasoned that I might as well get some use out of the money while I could. So I threw another chunk of my 401(k) at the renovation. That's where I stand today." ...
Everybody has their own sob story. Twenty-four years ago, mine was: $350 a week job. No benefits. Fifty-hour weeks.
A year later I landed a union gig under a TAG contract that almost tripled my salary. Nine months later, the studio went out of business and I was unemployed again. Nine months after that, I ran for union business representative (over my wife's bitter opposition) and finally started to save a bit of money.
I was forty years old.
The Mrs. and I have been saving ever since. We've made good moves and bad moves, but the one thing we've learned as we've grown older is to avoid concentrating bets (no stocks, but lots diversified mutual funds), and to keep things conservative (lots of bonds.) When you're on the cusp of geezerhood and have built up a stash, it's a good idea to preserve capital.
The biggest mistakes investors make is A) chasing hot investments, and B) freaking out and bailing when investments go south. As Tim McAleenan at Seeking Alpha observes:
Nocera's certainly not the only person who owned too many tech stocks in the late 1990s and got burned, ... But what caught my attention was this: Since my retirement account was now hopelessly inadequate for actual retirement, I reasoned that I might as well get some use out of the money while I could. So I threw another chunk of my 401(k) at the renovation. That is the kind of logic that I want to go to great lengths to avoid....
Not being the smartest investor west of the Mississippi isn't what will bring you down. It's making stupid moves, over and over again. If you can avoid the dumb mistakes, and stick to a sensible investment plan, you'll end up fine.
And if you don't start putting money away? Then Dr. William J. Bernstein has a think-piece for you. It's called "A Nation of Wal-Mart Greeters." Yeowch.
Click here to read entire post
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Organizing
Last week, TAG and the IA held another meet in Culver City with visual effects artists. I didn't attend but I'm informed it went well ...
But I had occasion to talk to a visual effects staffer who told me:
As we've noted before: It's not enough to be a lower cost foreign animation studio. You also need to be a low cost facility with a crew that knows what it's doing. This is often harder to do than many execs imagine.
Click here to read entire post
But I had occasion to talk to a visual effects staffer who told me:
Sony's working to move more animators and lighters to Vancouver. They've been offering cg techs and artists the same wages on a fifty-hour week in Canada. This was all going on before the IA's organizing drive.
Vancouver's a pricey city and people who're going up there are being asked to take a pay cut. Which, I'm sorry, is what the fifty-hour week at the same L.A. weekly rate is. There's talk between artists about going union. Unionization isn't viewed by most as a bad thing, like it was before the union election years ago. Now people are looking at it, fewer employees are dismissing it, like before. Some supervisors are against, but the overall atmosphere is different this time.
Salaries are going up in China and India, especially for people who know what they're doing. Here, wages have been flat or declining. So the gap is narrowing between artists in foreign studios who are good at what they do and artists here in California. ...
As we've noted before: It's not enough to be a lower cost foreign animation studio. You also need to be a low cost facility with a crew that knows what it's doing. This is often harder to do than many execs imagine.
Click here to read entire post
Hand Drawn
Last week I had a lengthy sit-down with director/animator/writer Ron Clements. (The interview gets posted next week. Consider it a companion piece to the John Musker interview.) ...
Ron talks about his start in animation in Sioux City, Iowa, his brief flirtation with the School of Visual Arts in New York, his decision to come out to California and try to break in to the animation business, starting at the bottom.
And it was "the bottom," as defined in the early 1970s. Ron's first job was as an in-betweener for Hanna-Barbera. (Seasonal work. Thirty-nine years later, it's non-existent work.)
Mr. Clements goes into detail about his early years at the House of Mouse, developing (and executing) the various features that he and John directed, and he talks about the state of animation today.
He laments that hand-drawn animation is in decline, since he really loves the art form. He says that he and Mr. Musker are working on a new project with hand-drawn animation in it. When it gets made, he doesn't know, since he reveals it's in early development.
He lists his two favorite Disney animated features as Pinocchio and 101 Dalmations.
Click here to read entire post
Ron talks about his start in animation in Sioux City, Iowa, his brief flirtation with the School of Visual Arts in New York, his decision to come out to California and try to break in to the animation business, starting at the bottom.
And it was "the bottom," as defined in the early 1970s. Ron's first job was as an in-betweener for Hanna-Barbera. (Seasonal work. Thirty-nine years later, it's non-existent work.)
Mr. Clements goes into detail about his early years at the House of Mouse, developing (and executing) the various features that he and John directed, and he talks about the state of animation today.
He laments that hand-drawn animation is in decline, since he really loves the art form. He says that he and Mr. Musker are working on a new project with hand-drawn animation in it. When it gets made, he doesn't know, since he reveals it's in early development.
He lists his two favorite Disney animated features as Pinocchio and 101 Dalmations.
Click here to read entire post
Fifth Place Pirates
Not the ball club, mates and comrades. The movie.
The weekend derby saw box-office holdovers at the head of the pack, and new-comers -- including Aardman's new entry -- back several lengths ...
The speculation that Pirates would hit $15 million opening weekend doesn't appear to be panning out.
Add On: Box Office Mojo has Pirates coming in #2 for the weekend, but loser to the Nikkster's earlier totals -- $11.4 million. (Mojo compares Pirates to other stop motion epics here.)
Click here to read entire post
The weekend derby saw box-office holdovers at the head of the pack, and new-comers -- including Aardman's new entry -- back several lengths ...
1. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [2,015 Theaters] PG13
Friday $5.5M (-55%), Weekend $17.5M, Cume $60.7M
2. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,175 Theaters] PG13
Friday $3.9M (-57%), Weekend $12.0M, Cume $40.6M
3. The Five-Year Engagement (Universal) NEW [2,936 Theaters] R
Friday $3.5M, Weekend $10.5M
4. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 6 [3,572 Theaters] PG13
Friday $2.9M, Weekend $10.6M, Cume $372.0M
5. Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony) NEW [3,358 Theaters] PG
Friday $2.7M, Weekend $10.9M
6. Safe (Lionsgate) NEW [2,266 Theaters] R
Friday $2.6M, Weekend $6.9M,
7. The Raven (Intrepid/Relativity) NEW [2,203 Theaters] R
Friday $2.5M, Weekend $6.8M,
8. Chimpanzee (Disney) Week 2 [1,567 Theaters] G
Friday $1.6M, Weekend $5.2M, Cume $18.6M
9. Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,639 Theaters] R
Friday $1.4M, Weekend $4.4M, Cume $34.6M
10. The Three Stooges (Fox) Week 3 [3,105 Theaters] PG
Friday $1.3M, Weekend $5.4M, Cume $37.5M
The speculation that Pirates would hit $15 million opening weekend doesn't appear to be panning out.
Add On: Box Office Mojo has Pirates coming in #2 for the weekend, but loser to the Nikkster's earlier totals -- $11.4 million. (Mojo compares Pirates to other stop motion epics here.)
Click here to read entire post
Friday, April 27, 2012
Fifteen Million
It appears that the Brit stop-motion studio can't catch a break.
AC was well-reviewed but badly attended. Thus far, Pirates! is collecting equally strong reviews. Why this doesn't translate into higher box office, God only knows.
Maybe the globe just doesn't glom onto Brit humor.
Click here to read entire post
[Aardman's] films hit mild degrees of performance the whole way through, and Pirates! isn't going to be the movie to break that lackluster stride. ... The widest new release title won't help it much, either. At just over 3300 screens, Pirates! has roughly the same count as 2011's Arthur Christmas, a film that opened to $12m. ...
Weekend Projection: $15.6m (#3 on The Chart)
AC was well-reviewed but badly attended. Thus far, Pirates! is collecting equally strong reviews. Why this doesn't translate into higher box office, God only knows.
Maybe the globe just doesn't glom onto Brit humor.
Click here to read entire post
Investigation Time?
The Securities and Exchange Commission, it asks questions.
Could there be ... palms being greased? I get the vapors just thinking about it. How could our fine Entertainment companies even think of doing such a thing?
I'm sick.
Click here to read entire post
U.S. regulators are investigating major U.S. movie studios' dealings with China as the entertainment companies try to get a greater foothold in one of the fastest-growing movie markets in the world.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters of inquiry to at least five movie studios in the past two months, including News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Disney, and DreamWorks Animation, a person familiar with the matter said.
The letters ask for information about potential inappropriate payments and how the companies dealt with certain government officials in China, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the letters.
Could there be ... palms being greased? I get the vapors just thinking about it. How could our fine Entertainment companies even think of doing such a thing?
I'm sick.
Click here to read entire post
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Hand Drawn?
Ain't It Cool Nooz quotes Diz Co.'s animation research library:
... Ron [Clements] and John [Musker] are currently working to develop the next hand-drawn feature at Disney Animation. (Sorry, we can’t tell you what that is.) ...
Hand-drawn? The way Princess and the Frog is hand-drawn?
Uuuhhhhhh ....
Fred Moore's Reluctant Dragon
... [On Reluctant Dragon] Fred’s work began to look crude.
Now that’s a hell of a thing to say, but I’m talking relatively speaking. I noticed it on Dragon. Fred was given the knight with the little boy, and what had been the acceptable way on The Three Little Pigs and in some cases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, there were parts, even though they were drawn well, that were crude, timing-wise.
Fred would hit a pose and just freeze there and while we were already loosening those things up and putting in the subtle things that would keep [the animation] alive a long time. That’s what I meant, that at that time Fred was drinking heavily, and I was secretly going in with his exposure sheets and adding these other little drawings that would make them work with the rest of the animation that was being done on the picture. ...
First half of RD:
And the second half:
Click here to read entire post
Jim Hiltz, 1927-2012
Eddy Houchins writes us:
I just got word from a friend in Montreal that Jim Hiltz has just passed away. He would have been about 85, as he is approximately the same age as my own Dad. Jim was a great director, animator and teacher. Jim worked at Terrytoons, animating "Heckle and Jekyll" and went on to various commercial and tv houses including Film Fair and Bill Melendez Studios.
He was probably best known for his work on much of the Jay Ward product, including directing some of the "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Super Chicken" and "Tom Slick." Sometime in the 1970's Jim emigrated to Canada where he worked as the lead animator and director at Michael Mills Studios helping create animated commercials and award winning short films, including the 1980 Oscar nominated "History of the World in Three Minutes Flat."
As a young animator I got my first "real" job at Michael Mills' place in 1980 and immediately met Jim who took me and all the other young animators under his wing. In those days we had not just respect, but downright AWE for the older guys who had "been there." We hung on his every word and studied his pencil tests frame by frame, soaking up his drawing skills and timing finesse. At night, after he'd go home, we'd slip into his office and sit and flip his drawings on a light table just to study "the real thing." I learned more about animation from my three years working under Jim as my director than I ever learned in school or on any other job.
After his stint at Mills, he freelanced and taught at Concordia University for awhile, and I suppose eventually retired. After I left Canada in 1991 I lost touch with him, but got the word today from my old friend, Normand Rompre, a former cameraman from Mills' studio that Jim had passed.
I remember I was at the Ottawa Festival with him in 1983 and June Foray and Bill Scott were there and performed a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" script live to our delight. Afterwards, I was standing with Jim in the lobby and when June walked out, he said to me, "hang on, I have to say hello to an old friend." He walked up to June, said, "Remember me?" and she screamed, "JIM!!!" and practically jumped into his arms. Maybe you guys can break the news to her. I sure can't.
Click here to read entire post
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Long(er) Trailer
The animation for HT will be wrapped by summer. ...
The movie comes out in early Fall, so it has to be tied up with a bow by June or July.
One of the staffers told me that Genddy is bringing a lot of visual flair to the picture (obvious from the trailer) and that the animation crew is doing superior work.
Whether or not that translates into big box office remains to be seen. (It also needs to be fresh and funny, no?) But Hotel Transylvania will be the first animated feature out of the gate during autumn time, so it could well attract solid box office.
(Some critics are skeptical, but first weekend grosses will either reinforce the naysayers ... or silence them.)
Click here to read entire post
How Strong Is The Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan?
Completing our trifecta regarding TAG pension and health plans ...
Animation Guild veterans often ask us:
For the fretful, here are some answers, courtesy of the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan.
What I've done here is truncate a longer document. (No point in having eyes glaze over.)
It's important to note that federal law requires retirement plans to be above 80% for the funding of liabilities to be in what's called "the green zone." The MPIPP has been in that zone for the past two years. (There are other, less desirable zones in the federal color chart. These usually spell T.R.O.U.B.L.E.) Click here to read entire post
Animation Guild veterans often ask us:
"So ... Will I ever get a pension? Will the pension plan even be around when I'm ready to hang it up? ...
For the fretful, here are some answers, courtesy of the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan.
The Plan must report how well it is funded by using a measure called the "funded percentage. This percentage is determined by dividing the Plan's assets by its liabilities. ... [T]he higher the percentage, the better funded the plan.
Funded percentage (2011) -- 83.2%
Value of assets -- $3,088,722,000
Value of liabilities -- $3,714,500,000
Total Participants -- 71,742
Plan Investments
Cash - 2%
Government bonds -- 17%
Corporate bonds -- 14%
Equities -- 17%
Real estate -- 6%
Interest bearing accounts -- 42%
Other -- 2%
What I've done here is truncate a longer document. (No point in having eyes glaze over.)
It's important to note that federal law requires retirement plans to be above 80% for the funding of liabilities to be in what's called "the green zone." The MPIPP has been in that zone for the past two years. (There are other, less desirable zones in the federal color chart. These usually spell T.R.O.U.B.L.E.) Click here to read entire post
Health plans: comparing apples to apples
Here's an interesting chart breaking down the differences among the health plans offered under the AFTRA, DGA, SAG and WGAw contracts, versus the IATSE's proposed benefits for the contract effective August 1, 2012 (listed as the MPI Health Plan).
Mike Miller, the IA's Hollywood vice-president, notes:
It is important to note that the only changes in this summary related to the MPIPHP benefits from the current MPIPHP benefits is the inclusion of the premiums for dependents of members which will be effective January 1, 2013. All of the other benefits remain unchanged.
All in all, this gives a bit of perspective ...
Click here to read entire postSocking it Away
The older I get, the more I believe that keeping things simple is almost always the best way to go. Here's a few simple economic things:
1) You don't live below your means and put money away for later, you'll live to regret it.
2) When you're working, you should fund every jam and jelly jar that federal and state governments offer. This means funding ROTH IRAs, 401(k) Plans, SEP IRAs (where applicable) and anything else that gives you a tax or economic break.
3) When you're funding these things, you should stay away from high-cost, actively managed funds that charge you up the ying-yang. Over time, most of them under-perform index funds and stick you with the bill.
4) In the TAG 401(k) Plan, we have lots of investment options, almost all of them good. But here are the best options: ...
* Walt Disney Animation Studios (Southside Building) -- Wednesday, April 25th, 2p.m. Room 1300
* Warner Bros. Animation -- Thursday, April 26th, 2 p.m. Building 34R -- Main Conference Room
* Disney Television Animation (Sonora Building) -- Tuesday, May 1st, 2 p.m., Room 1172
* Disney Television Animation (Empire Center) -- Thursday May 3rd, 2 p.m. Room 5223
* Fox TV Animation -- Wednesday, May 9th 2 p.m., Main Conference Room
Click here to read entire post
1) You don't live below your means and put money away for later, you'll live to regret it.
2) When you're working, you should fund every jam and jelly jar that federal and state governments offer. This means funding ROTH IRAs, 401(k) Plans, SEP IRAs (where applicable) and anything else that gives you a tax or economic break.
3) When you're funding these things, you should stay away from high-cost, actively managed funds that charge you up the ying-yang. Over time, most of them under-perform index funds and stick you with the bill.
4) In the TAG 401(k) Plan, we have lots of investment options, almost all of them good. But here are the best options: ...
The Vanguard Target Retirement (TR) Funds are lifecycle offerings, providing investors with a variety of highly diversified all-in-one portfolios. The products are structured as funds-of-funds, charging only weighted averages of the expense ratios associated with the underlying holdings, which are primarily indexed.Why the personal investing post? You can guess, can't you? It's time again for 401(k) enrollment meetings:
While the Funds are ostensibly designed for investors retiring in a given year (approximately), they may be used for other goals or for markedly different retirement dates, depending on a particular shareholder's objectives and risk tolerance. ...
Each of the Funds, except the Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund (TR "Income"), has a date specified in its name. They become more conservative over time, shifting their asset allocations from equities toward fixed income.
The Funds' prospectus indicates that within seven years of the stated date, a given offering's asset allocation will come to resemble TR Income's. Vanguard's TR Income Fund has a static allocation, intended primarily for the needs of retired persons. As of 2/2011, the twelve Target Retirement funds hold a total of about $120 billion in assets; (for comparison, Vanguard 500 index holds $105 billion).
* Walt Disney Animation Studios (Southside Building) -- Wednesday, April 25th, 2p.m. Room 1300
* Warner Bros. Animation -- Thursday, April 26th, 2 p.m. Building 34R -- Main Conference Room
* Disney Television Animation (Sonora Building) -- Tuesday, May 1st, 2 p.m., Room 1172
* Disney Television Animation (Empire Center) -- Thursday May 3rd, 2 p.m. Room 5223
* Fox TV Animation -- Wednesday, May 9th 2 p.m., Main Conference Room
Click here to read entire post
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Interesting Day
Did a 401(k) meeting and walk-through at a signator studio today, like I've done a jillion times before.
I finish the meeting, then go to offices and cubicles to see if there's someone who might have missed the Hulett financial tutorial and wants to fill out paperwork. ...
And a production person comes up to me in a hallway and says:
I smile and say I hear what she's saying, but I always wander around afterward and I'm not going to stop now. I tell the production person I'm happy to talk to the exec, but there's a clause in the contract that gives me the right to be in the studio. The production person replies that the exec is out for the day, and she's relaying the message.
I tell her I'm not leaving until I finish my walk about. The production person nods and goes away, (no frowning disapproval ... or attitude ... at all.) And I continue going cubicle to office, handing out my handy 401(k) enrollment books and answering the usual questions.
I found the whole thing odd. But then, we live in odd times.
Click here to read entire post
I finish the meeting, then go to offices and cubicles to see if there's someone who might have missed the Hulett financial tutorial and wants to fill out paperwork. ...
And a production person comes up to me in a hallway and says:
"X [a company exec] is happy to give you a place for the meeting, but doesn't want you to be wandering through the studio afterward."
I smile and say I hear what she's saying, but I always wander around afterward and I'm not going to stop now. I tell the production person I'm happy to talk to the exec, but there's a clause in the contract that gives me the right to be in the studio. The production person replies that the exec is out for the day, and she's relaying the message.
I tell her I'm not leaving until I finish my walk about. The production person nods and goes away, (no frowning disapproval ... or attitude ... at all.) And I continue going cubicle to office, handing out my handy 401(k) enrollment books and answering the usual questions.
I found the whole thing odd. But then, we live in odd times.
Click here to read entire post
Animation Expansion
While other broadcast networks shrink from the task, one corporate entity has decided it knows where the gold is.
Rupert and his minions are (I think) going after some of the Saturday Night Live and Cartoon Network crowds with new animation. Not a stupid thing to do, if the price is right.
And if some of the product is a little more expensive that they'd like, so what? Animated hits have a long shelf life. So, for that matter, do semi-hits. Know any other fifty-year-old situation comedies making as much money in the 21st century as The Flintstone?
Why only Fox has figured this "half hour cartoon on the teevee" thing out, I have no idea. But they've made a lot of money with it.
Click here to read entire post
Fox found its first property for its Saturday night animation block.
The network announced Tuesday that it will adapt Axe Cop, a web comic created by a then-5-year-old and his 29-year-old brother.
Fox earlier this year announced that it would launch a 90-minute late-night animation block on Saturdays, tapping former Adult Swim executives Nick Weidenfeld and Hend Baghdady to oversee the effort. ...
Rupert and his minions are (I think) going after some of the Saturday Night Live and Cartoon Network crowds with new animation. Not a stupid thing to do, if the price is right.
And if some of the product is a little more expensive that they'd like, so what? Animated hits have a long shelf life. So, for that matter, do semi-hits. Know any other fifty-year-old situation comedies making as much money in the 21st century as The Flintstone?
Why only Fox has figured this "half hour cartoon on the teevee" thing out, I have no idea. But they've made a lot of money with it.
Click here to read entire post
Monday, April 23, 2012
Cloudy With a Chance of Legos
The industry media tells us:
When Miller and Lord took over Cloudy at Sony Pictures Animation, they grabbed the reins from a long procession of directors who had preceded them.
I remember at the time, a lot of the veteran story artists at SPA, conditioned to revolving managers and less than optimum executive decisions, were a wee bit skeptical whether two comedy writers who'd never directed animation would make a credible feature when so many others had failed.
At the time, the expectation was that the two would perform a matched set of face plants ... and still other directors would replace them. The directors' own assessment?
And whattayaknow? They did.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller created Sony's first animated hit, and the team then moved on to direct a live-action moneymaker. And now they're back with a feature that will be produced by Animal Logic in Australia.
Click here to read entire post
Warner Bros. announced today that directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) are in production on an untitled, 3-D computer animated LEGO movie, set for release on Feb. 28, 2014. Based on the LEGO Construction Toys, Lord and Miller also penned the script, with Dan and Kevin Hageman, writers on the Cartoon Network’s LEGO series Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, getting “story by” credit.
When Miller and Lord took over Cloudy at Sony Pictures Animation, they grabbed the reins from a long procession of directors who had preceded them.
I remember at the time, a lot of the veteran story artists at SPA, conditioned to revolving managers and less than optimum executive decisions, were a wee bit skeptical whether two comedy writers who'd never directed animation would make a credible feature when so many others had failed.
At the time, the expectation was that the two would perform a matched set of face plants ... and still other directors would replace them. The directors' own assessment?
Lord: ... On Cloudy, there was a cut that was like-
Miller: It was like Airplane.
Lord: Every 20 minutes was like the funniest 20 minutes you’d ever seen, and the entire movie was incredibly boring. People fell asleep.
Miller: That was in the animatic stage. And so then we were like, oh, all right, we’ll have to make you care, I guess. ...
And whattayaknow? They did.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller created Sony's first animated hit, and the team then moved on to direct a live-action moneymaker. And now they're back with a feature that will be produced by Animal Logic in Australia.
Click here to read entire post
Cameron Jumps In
... to the Middle Kingdom?
So of course the inevitable questions: "Will Cameron start doing visual effects in China?" "Will Cameron shift production to China?"
The gossip I heard from visual effects artists on Friday was that Mr. Cameron wanted to do visual effects for Avatar 2 in Southern California. (Of course, I've also heard that everything is going to Canada, what with their spiffy tax rebates and all. And James C. is Canadian, so maybe that makes sense?)
But rebates come and rebates go, and it's still necessary to have pipelines that work and pools of talent who can get the jobs done. China must first ramp up the domestic CG workforce to where it can handle the quantity and quality of outside productions. It kind of defeats the purpose of "cost savings" to have shots that are created in Shanghai then shipped back to Los Angeles for repairs.
Click here to read entire post
“Avatar” and “Titanic” film director James Cameron said on Sunday that he was looking at co-production of films in China, but would have to weigh issues like censorship and other restrictions before making any decisions.
So of course the inevitable questions: "Will Cameron start doing visual effects in China?" "Will Cameron shift production to China?"
The gossip I heard from visual effects artists on Friday was that Mr. Cameron wanted to do visual effects for Avatar 2 in Southern California. (Of course, I've also heard that everything is going to Canada, what with their spiffy tax rebates and all. And James C. is Canadian, so maybe that makes sense?)
But rebates come and rebates go, and it's still necessary to have pipelines that work and pools of talent who can get the jobs done. China must first ramp up the domestic CG workforce to where it can handle the quantity and quality of outside productions. It kind of defeats the purpose of "cost savings" to have shots that are created in Shanghai then shipped back to Los Angeles for repairs.
Click here to read entire post
Bye Bye Anonymous
New Rule.
As of now, you want to post a comment, you register. ...
You want to be anonymous, you're now out of luck.
Probably should have done this awhile ago, but better late than never. Have a fabulous day.
Click here to read entire post
As of now, you want to post a comment, you register. ...
You want to be anonymous, you're now out of luck.
Probably should have done this awhile ago, but better late than never. Have a fabulous day.
Click here to read entire post
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