Sunday, May 20, 2012

"For Suckers"

Sometimes I wonder if the right hand of Rupert M.'s empire (20th Century-Fox) knows what the left hand is doing, because there is this morsel in the Wall Street Journal's Smart Money:

... "3-D is for suckers."

So what are moviemakers doing to bring more bodies into theaters? They're revisiting an innovation of decades past: 3-D. And not everyone who tracks Hollywood is wild about the trend, saying it's a passing fad. Plus, action films don't always translate well to 3-D.

Boston Globe film writer Ty Burr recently carped about the "sins against the visual cortex" perpetrated by 3-D releases Clash of the Titans, Gulliver's Travels and Green Lantern: They "aren't just terribly written, they're terrible to look at, with actors' faces separated from the backs of their heads," he wrote.

Of course, Hollywood doesn't quite see it that way. In a 2010 interview, Clash of the Titans director Louis Leterrier praised today's 3-D, saying what viewers see on the screen is "exactly what it looked like on set." But either way, consumers are paying the price for the new-old technology: Admission to a 3-D flick is generally $3 extra.

I've seen six or eight stereoscopic productions, and I feel the same way about the 3-D now that I have over the last three or four years:

1) 3-D is occasionally entertaining, but the entertainment is usually parceled out sparingly over the length of the movie.

2) DreamWorks Animation makes the best use of the format.

3) The format isn't worth the elevated price of admission, because it's essentially Moving View-Master, and I was never crazy about View Master when I squinted at it as a kid. So why should I endure it now?
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Springtime Steeple Chase in Foreign Lands

It seems that Diz Co. is having a fine time with its comic book acquisition:

Marvel’s The Avengers is now Disney’s biggest release ever thanks largely to foreign-generated box office accumulated over the last month including the latest weekend’s No. 1 overseas tally of $56 million drawn from 54 overseas territories. ...

Aardman's The Pirates still churns through foreign waters, but is far from being a chart buster. (It's till under $100 million globally.)

The next two big animation releases are Madagascar 3 (DWA) -- a couple of clicks down -- and Brave (Pixar) -- immediately below. I'm expecting that both will do well in international venues, since both are 3-D extravaganzas, and both stories take place in lands of castles and casinos.



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Saturday, May 19, 2012

We Have Our Moneyed Elites, and the Commies Have ...

Princelings. There's a shocking surprise.

The Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation recently announced a bold move to crack China’s tightly protected film industry: a $330 million deal to create a Shanghai animation studio that might one day rival the California shops that turn out hits like “Kung Fu Panda” and “The Incredibles.”

What DreamWorks did not showcase, however, was one of its newest — and most important — Chinese partners: Jiang Mianheng, the 61-year-old son of Jiang Zemin, the former Communist Party leader and the most powerful political kingmaker of China’s last two decades. ...

The spoils system, for all the efforts to keep a lid on it, poses a fundamental challenge to the legitimacy of the Communist Party. As the state’s business has become increasingly intertwined with a class of families sometimes called the Red Nobility, analysts say the potential exists for a backlash against an increasingly entrenched elite. ...

Critics charge that powerful vested interests are now strong enough to block reforms that could benefit the larger populace. Changes in banking and financial services, for instance, could affect the interests of the family of Zhu Rongji, China’s prime minister from 1998 to 2003 and one of the architects of China’s economic system. ...

Sound anything like the moneyed elites on this side of the Pacific?

As I was reading this, I was thinking of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, CitiCorp, and the irrepressible Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan-Chase. And I thought about how a majority of Americans don't want to prop up the big banks. But let's get real. If our mega financial institutions get in trouble again, the government will ride to the rescue one more time, no matter which party is in power.

The Reds in China have their privileged, powerful, wealthy few. And we have ours.
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Mid May Derby

Now with cheese-flavored Add On.

The Pirates! clings to the bottom rung of the Top Ten:

1. Marvel’s The Avengers (Disney) Week 3 [4,349 Runs] PG13
Friday $15.3M, Weekend $54.0M, Cume $454.5M

2. Battleship (Universal) NEW [3,690 Runs] PG13
Friday $9.0M, Weekend $25.1M

3. The Dictator (Paramount) NEW-Wed [3,008 Runs] R
Friday $5.7M, Weekend $15.0M, Cume $23.0M

4. What To Expect When You’re Expecting (Lionsgate) NEW [3,021 Runs] PG13 Friday $3.8M, Weekend $11.0M

5. Dark Shadows (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,755 Runs] PG13
Friday $3.7M (-61%), Weekend $12.0M, Cume $49.6M

6. Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox Searchlight) Week 3 [354 Runs] PG13 Friday $872K, Weekend $3M, Cume $8.7M

7. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) Week 9 [2,064 Runs]
Friday $820K, Weekend $2.4M, Cume $391.0M

8. Think Like A Man (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 5 [1,722 Runs] PG13
Friday $800K, Weekend $2.4M, Cume $85.6M

9. The Lucky One (Warner Bros) Week 5 [2,055 Runs] PG13
Friday $585K, Weekend $1.8M, Cume $57.0M

10. Pirates! Band Of Misfits (Aardman/Sony) Week 4 [1,840 Runs] PG Friday $340K, Weekend $1.4M, Cume $25.7M

Worldwide, the Aardman pirate movie has collected $98.5 million against a budget of $55 million.

Add On: It appears that the unfortunate Taylor Kitsch has an unblemished record of box office flops, with two big-screen bombs under his belt. And in a single year!

Universal and Hasbro Entertainment's big-budget Battleship barely left port in its North American launch, grossing a dismal $25.3 million. ...

Fist John Carter, now Battleship, two mega-budget write-offs. Where will it end?
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Competitors in TV Animation

The Reporter reports:

Kids these days aren't like they used to be. Just ask executives at television networks that cater to children. Over the past year, a sea change in viewing habits has thrown one of the most profitable segments of Hollywood into a chaotic period of transition. Longtime leader Nickelodeon suffered a nearly 30 percent drop in ratings in February, while rivals including Cartoon Network have seen increases. At the same time, upstarts such as The Hub, PBS Kids, Sprout and even Netflix are siphoning off viewers, to say nothing of the online programming and gaming options ...

In many ways, Nick is having a mid-life crisis. A couple of years ago, it made a sizable commitment to CG animation. There were the Dreamworks shows (Penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda). There was Robots and Monsters. Then DWA sent How to Train Your Dragon, the series to APU/Wildbrain and the crew of Robot and Monster which staffers told me was one of the smoothest-running Nick series in ions, got pink-slipped before the show had its network launch.

Added to which, the hand-drawn Adventure Time, which Nick declined to greenlight and put into turnaround, is now a hit for a resurgent Cartoon Network, and CN's ratings are up, even as Nickelodeon's sag. It's enough to give a cartoon executive heart-burn ... and second thoughts about being all CGI, all the time.

... Disney Channel for the first time beat Nickelodeon in first-quarter 2012 among children 6-11 when measured around the clock. Most analysts attributed the shift in part to Nickelodeon relying on only a handful of high-performing series (SpongeBob, iCarly) while Disney, Cartoon Network and others now offer a more diverse slate of new shows.

"Our strategy has been to build a strong, consistent portfolio of content and not rely too heavily on any one series," says Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer of Disney Channels Worldwide. "If you get into that trap, the bottom can fall out on you, and I think that's what happened to Nickelodeon." ...

Snap!

Me, I think ratings and the fortunes of the kids' networks are cyclical: down today but up sixteen months from now when new product kicks in. As I write, Nickelodeon is doing serious development work, with board artists creating shorts that could, audiences willing, blossom into hit series down the road. (Sponge Bob, despite corporate wishes, will not last forever.)

Nick was not going to stay Top Dog forever. No entity does. But failure is not a death warrant. For resilient, innovative companies, it's a wake up call that says: "You had your run, now get off your backside and try some new approaches."
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Friday, May 18, 2012

The May 30th Meeting

I think we'll be getting a turnout at the next Membership meeting *.

Over the past week at every studio I've gone into, I've gotten asked about the gathering that will take place at 1105 N. Hollywood Way the Wednesday after next. (May 30th.) People know that the negotiations went less than swimmingly. ...

Members tell me:

1) What did the producers offer, exactly?

2) Why did the negotiating committee walk out?

3) What's going to happen now?

4) I plan to be at the meeting.

Today I had a roomful of people ask about the issues and the April negotiations, and I did a short symposium.

I told the group the negotiations were scheduled for three days and that I thought, on day two of the talks, that it looked like we were maybe headed to a deal, since we had addressed some side-letter issues and gotten (I believed) positive response.

Wrongo.

When the "economic package" (benefits plus wages) was presented by the producers in side bar near the end of Day Two, committee members' faces fell atop the floor. Everyone on our side went back into the caucus room and discussed the figures that had been laid out, and not in a happy way. A little while later, the producers asked for an opportunity to give their reasoning behind the proposal, and so the committee trooped into the large negotiating room and listened to various studio reps give their explanations for the low-ball numbers.

The following morning, after sixteen hours to mull over the information, the TAG negotiating committee unanimously voted to reject it. And walked out.

Most of the studio employees who heard my monologue today said they would be at the meeting on the 30th to hear from negotiating committee members. I told them it was important to attend, and important that they give their input.

*Note: This WEDNESDAY, May 30th meeting is one day later than TAG's regularly-scheduled Tuesday meeting.
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The Electric Peg-Board

There's an extra bonus to subscribing to the Guild's e-mail list ... you can choose to receive The Peg-Board by e-mail as well.


Just click "Yes" under "Online PegBoard?" on the online subscription form, and instead of the snail-mailed Peg-Board you will get an e-mail with a link to an online version, either as a online Flash flipbook or a downloadable PDF file. What's more, you'll get it a week before the print version goes in the mail. (The May issue went out by e-mail last Monday, but it won't go out by regular mail until next week.)

So, save a tree and get your Guild news a week early.


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The TAG Email List

One of the quickest ways we have to communicate with the membership is through their email addresses. TAG has made a concerted effort over the last few years to collect member's email addresses in order to send timely messages about upcoming meetings and events, Gallery 839 openings, open positions at our contracted studios (and sometimes, non-contracted studios!) among many other topics.

Even through all our efforts, we still have members who are not on the list and may not even know the list exists. In order to make it easier to request to be added, we've created an application form on the website: http://animationguild.org/email-list/

Its important to remember that this email list is reserved for Animation Guild Members ONLY. Active, suspended and members on Honorable Withdrawal are eligible to be on the list. Requests submitted through this link will be verified and non-members will not be added. Members must request to be added using their personal email addresses ONLY. Studio addresses will not be accepted. Members who have been added will be notified within one week via a welcome message.

If you haven't been receiving notification from us, visit the page and provide us your address today!
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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Cable Companies Buy (Part of) Internet Co.

Comedy distributor merges with distributor of comedy.

Turner Broadcasting is taking a minority stake in Funny or Die, the producer of online comedy videos that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy.

The investment will link up Funny or Die with two Turner brands on television: TBS, which is known for sitcoms, and Adult Swim, which shares channel space with the Cartoon Network ...

New media and older media come together ... to reinforce one another?

The Animation Guild, like every other entertainment union, has a "New Media" sideletter in its contract. This is fine as far as it goes, but with the line continually blurring between "old" media and its newer cousin, where does each begin? And end?

The question is important because guilds and unions have negotiated pension and wage breaks for new media work, which means there is a nice, neat loophole out there in the wider world that negatively impacts animation employees.

The studios continue to say that product on the internet doesn't make them much money, therefore the cost break is deserved. But what happens when the work, created at bargain rates, migrates to cable and broadcast platforms and garners higher fees? What then?
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Jokes That Work

Now with Add On!

While on the subject of DreamWorks Animation ...

Whether the new feature delivers from start to finish, I cannot say. But the clips on the far side of the link are amusing.



DreamWorks Animation isn't foolish.

It knows that the zoo animals are winners. It knows that setting features in locations other than the U.S. of A. tends to goose foreign box office. (Witness Monsters vs. Aliens, Megamind, etcetera as examples of the reverse phenomena.)

DWA also knows it is useful to hit a home run each time at bat. Therefore, tried-and-true tent poles mixed in with high concept originals is a way to keep audiences coming back ... coming back ... coming back ...

The strategy worked last year. We'll see how it performs this year.

Add On: As is the custom, DWA rolls out its latest at Cannes.

... [Chris] Rock says of the film which opens June 8 on a wide run, “I like children’s movies that have jokes for adults (as this one does). Actually my kids get fidgety at a certain point but I say, “we’re not going until I find out what happened with the bear!” ...
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Television Dragon

To catch people up: I journeyed to the production site of How to Train Your Dragon (the tv series) this morning, ostensibly for (yet another) 401(k) enrollment meeting ...

The television version of Dragon was originally produced by APU, the union subsidiary of Wildbrain Animation, but there had been -- so I'm informed by impeccable sources -- a few issues between the mother ship and its sub-contractor. Don't know what all of them were, but the scuttlebutt was that APU wasn't delivering all the bells and whistles promised in the original bid. (OhmyGod! Never heard of anything like that happening before!)

So in late April/early May the production transitioned from APU/Wildbrain to DreamWorks Animation. Same crew, and many of the same administrators, but now the staff has the option to participate in the Animation Guild's 401(k) Plan, since APU declined to sign the 401(k) Trust Agreement, much to some crew members' regret.

A show exec told me that the series will be doing a second season, which would be good news for folks near the end of their runs on Season One, I would think. Some artists have been with the production for a year.

DreamWorks Animation is edging back into television work after being away from it for some years. In the go-go nineties, the company had a television unit on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, but the original plans for producing most or all of a broadcast network's Saturday morning half-hours never came to fruition, and the syndicated market withered and died, so DWA ended its push to do lots of animated product for the small screen.

The last couple of years, however, Jeffrey's boys and girls have reversed course. Although "Kung Fu Panda" and "The Penguins of Madagascar" were shopped to Nickelodeon, "Dragon" marks the second series for which DWA has taken the helm. "Neighbors from Hell" originally done by Bento Box, was the first.

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Middle Kingdom and Greenbacks

What's a little (potential) corruption between friends?

... Hollywood’s interest in China has grown with the country’s plan to build state-of-the art theaters and upgrade its film industry, moves that would also help fuel studios’ local theme- park and live-entertainment businesses. The country is letting in more foreign films, sharing ticket sales more equitably and encouraging ties to local producers. Reports last month of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry raised the question of whether studios’ progress would be interrupted. ...

The SEC sent letters to studios seeking information about dealings with certain officials, and possibly inappropriate payments, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Studio officials decline to discuss the inquiry, some citing confidentiality rules. The letters were sent by the SEC in March, the New York Times reported earlier. ...

If there's dollars changing hands as our fine entertainment conglomerates jockey for the best spot to climb aboard the Shanghai gravy train, allow me to say that a little energetic back-scratching is what has always made America great. From the Guilded Age until today.

So here's to spreading the wealth. Especially when it's spread by the right people, for the right reasons.


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Finding Time to Live

... and breathe.

... Every twice unfinaled shot, every understaffed, underbid, over delayed project keeps us from watching our children grow and keeps us from precious moments with our loved ones. Does it really need to be that way? If the President of Production can have such a balance, can we not, as compassionate human beings who love the work we do, and love our families, come to a more equitable solution, where projects can be planned at least well enough to keep from going into crunch for a year at a time? I don’t know about you, but when my job forces me to miss out on a year of my daughter’s life or more, I think it’s plain wrong. How can I make a film for children and not spend any time with my own?

Besides this, how do I care for my family without health insurance, sick days or vacation days while working mandatory twelve hour days, six days a week for months on end? Is the value of my children or even myself less than others? ...

The reality of movie-making in the glorious twenty-first century is: everyone works until their eyes cross and their typing digits drop off, until the insane production schedules are sucked into a black hole swirling at the edge of the Ursa Major Galaxy.

When I was an unemployed house-husband staying home with a toddler, my wife was working the same kind of insane work schedule. (Seven day weeks. Thirteen-hour days.) What made it semi-palatable was she was making a lot more money on her check, and was getting a lot more hours into the union pension and health plans.

Don't misunderstand. Unionized employees can work brutal hours too. Once upon a time, the double and triple time rates served as a disincentive to work people until they dropped. But this was in the days before worldwide movie rollouts in thousands of theaters were tied to release dates set not in concrete, but high-tensile steel. Before movies were produced by hungry conglomerates with deep, deep pockets that didn't care what the costs were if it meant missing a narrow,carefully calculated window.

So what's the difference between union and non-union work? If you're union, when the brutal schedule is over and you're out on the street hustling for the next job, you aren't hunting on-line for an affordable health care policy at the same time. You are covered by health benefits that last six to fifteen months, so that is one iron weight off your back. And you're building pension credits that will insure you aren't dumpster diving in your sunset years.






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Seth MacFarlane Channels Carl Sagan

From Forbes. Cosmos is coming back because:

... MacFarlane is serious, putting his money and his clout with Fox, where his mouth is. Fox plans to air a reboot of the 1980s PBS science show Cosmos, one of the most popular and least hip programs ever made. MacFarlane is also spending his money to help get late Cosmos host Carl Sagan’s substantial collections of letters, notes and drawings into the Library of Congress. “I never met Carl Sagan, but this is my way to give something back to him for all of the things he gave to me,” says MacFarlane.

Fox might seem like a strange network to host a reboot of Cosmos. The show was one of the most popular ever on PBS, but much of its success depended on viewers buying into Sagan’s poetic vision of space as the exhilarating new frontier for exploration. Not exactly the kind of show you’d expect on a network dominated by shows like American Idol and MacFarlane’s naughty cartoons. “It’s not going to be the biggest money earner,” admits Kevin Reilly, head of entertainment at Fox Networks. “But it could have a cultural impact.”

And of course, Fox wants to keep Mr. MacFarlane happy, since his naughty cartoons make the network buckets and buckets of money.
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Help Harry's Haven

Dear Fellow Union Member:

My name is Frank Fassnacht and I am a retired member of Local 695. I currently live at the Motion Picture Home and my wife lives in their Alzheimer's & dementia care unit, Harry's Haven.

I wanted to remind you that I am walking with the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Team Harry's Haven in the San Fernando Valley Walk to End Alzheimer's on June 10th. We are reaching out to various locals to ask for your support and assistance.


There are a few ways you and your members can lend your support:

You can join us for the walk on June 10th in beautiful Woodley Avenue Park in Van Nyus. It is a great chance to get some exercise and support a wonderful cause. And, MPTF is giving a free T-shirt to everyone who comes out to walk with Team Harry's Haven! You can sign up for the walk here: www.tinyurl.com/TeamHarrysHaven

You can also show you support by donating to Team Harry's Haven -- we are aiming to raise $7,500 by the day of the walk. Follow this link to donate: www.tinyurl.com/TeamHarrysHaven

All the money we raise goes to the National Alzheimer's Association, an organization that is very close to my heart. My wife and all the other residents of Harry's Haven stand to benefit a great deal from the wonderful work they do.

Please feel free to pass this information on to your members. We would love to have an IA presence at the walk and we need all the support we can get!

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions.

Thank you for your support!

Frank Fassnacht

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Hybrid Trailer

When it's late and my frontal lobes shut down, I either mistake male Cal Arts students for females or ...



... post weird live-action/animation mashups of well-loved super heroes. (Dark Knight Rises soundtrack. Batman, the Animated Series visuals.)

Thank you Ben Price of White Plains, New York.
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At DreamWorks Animation

Today was a Lakeside walk through and the ever-popular 401(k) enrollment. And I ran across a crew member on The Croods who said:

"I thought the picture had some issues a year ago, but they've licked the problems and made things work. We're having a crew screening today at 4:30 so we'll see how it looks."

I observed that Chris Sanders is famous for making lots of tweaks along the way. Also that animated features usually get better as they go (The Black Cauldron being a notable exception.)

Another artist said he wished the picture made more money and cost less. I replied that when you have two big grossers in a year where you've only released two features, that ain't bad.

DWA's next big release is the third installment of Madagascar, this one set in Europe. The prognostication?

... The second quarter for Dreamworks will include the release of Madagascar 3 in the United States, and several other countries. Several analysts asked about the release schedule during the question and answer segment of the conference call. The big worry is that Dreamworks is delaying the release of Madagascar 3 in several European countries due to the 2012 London Summer Olympics. The movie will be released in England and Germany in the fourth quarter, which leads to worries of piracy. ...

Then, of course, comes The Guardians, still in work as we speak. Since it contains Santy Clause and other beloved figures, it's out during the holidays. And with luck, becomes another "tent pole."
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"Why don't we have a roster?"

We get this question from time to time, typically from members who are (understandably) frustrated at the tendency of some studios to hire inexperienced newcomers when veterans are unemployed.

Some union contracts restrict hiring of inexperienced workers, others don’t. Under the Taft-Hartley Act, however, no union contract can require an employer to hire a union member in preference to a non-union member. That’s been illegal since 1947.

The Animation Guild, like SAG, the Writers Guild and some other IA locals, has no roster from which employees are supposed to be hired. TAG has a seniority clause in its contract, but that clause gives employers leeway in their hiring practices. Other IATSE unions have rosters from which employers hiring in union-represented categories are supposed to give preference for hiring.

The Animation Guild has never had a roster system. When Local 839 was founded in 1952, the original contract didn’t have one, most likely because the Screen Cartoonists Guild, TAG’s rival at the time, also had no roster. A roster has to be set up with the agreement of the employer to hire from it; otherwise it gives no protection to members. At worst, history has shown that in some unions the roster can be a source of corruption, when the union officers who run the roster arbitrarily exercise the power to determine whether a member will be allowed to work or not.

The IATSE rosters are honestly run and, as they now exist, are far more open than they were twenty-plus years ago. At that time, rules were stringent for getting on union rosters, and a large non-union workforce that didn’t qualify for roster placement developed.

By the late 1980s, the numbers of disaffected “off roster” film workers became almost overwhelming. And movie production companies were happy to use them because they were less expensive. The non-union workers disliked the IA for locking them out of union work in the first place ... and were therefore almost impossible to organize. By 1990, over 40% of movie production work was non-union. And IA unions with rosters were forced to relax their rules for entry in order to survive.

So this “keep the newcomers out” thing has its downside. Younger workers are going to get into the business, union or non-union, roster or no roster. For any union to try to keep them out is not only impossible but self-defeating, since those workers will someday be the members that we rely on to keep our unions alive and thriving.

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Monday, May 14, 2012

Crayon Dragon

As we were saying, Cal Arts' animation department isn't a male* bastion the way it used to be. For instance:



Toniko Pantoja created the short directly above as her his second-year project. As Toniko says:

"A girl is commissioned to paint over an old concrete illustration, in which to her surprise, sinks into. She befriends a painted dragon who has a wing missing."

(Find Toniko's blog here.)

* Ha. Toniko Pantoja is male, now that I dig more deeply. My mistake, for which apologies.
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TAG 401(k) Factoids

I spent most of today in TAG 401(k) Trustee meetings. Some of the bullet points about what I learned:

TAG 401(k) Plan

Assets -- $153,476,900
Participants -- 2,275
Average Account Balance -- $67,462

Age breakdown of Plan participants:
21-30 yrs = 90
30-39 yrs = 548
40-49 yrs = 969
50-59 yrs = 527
60+ yrs = 141.

When people get into their 30s, and particularly their 40s, the idea that they'd better build up assets for old age starts to take hold. Twenty-somethings? They seldom have much interest in building nest eggs, as can be seen above. (Makes sense, I suppose. Many of them are single and retirement seems light years away.)

Then marriage comes along, followed by children, and suddenly the idea of saving takes on a higher priority. Happened that way for me, sadly. I only wish I had been smarter, sooner. Would have made a difference in my bank account.
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Jeffrey K. Steps Up

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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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:

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:

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.)
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IATSE Focuses on Visual Effects

FXguide talks to rep Peter Marley about the challenges of organizing visual effects artists:

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.
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The Foreign Horse Race

... offers few surprises. Superheroes rule, and Tim Burton's latest has to settle for No. 2:

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” ...

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 ...
Puss now has a worldwide total of $554,130,561, the bulk of the booty from overseas.
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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Renewal

So finally the American Dad crew can breathe a collective sigh of relief?

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.)
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Maytime Derby

Pirates! Band of Misfits doesn't appear to be breaking any records, but The Avengers does.

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:

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:
"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.

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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.
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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:

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?
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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!

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Speaks 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:
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.

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."
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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.

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Tuesday, 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.
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.
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Disney Makes Money!

The Mouse is, apparently, still profitable.
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?)
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Speaks for Itself -- Part I

The lastest statistics:

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.
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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.
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Monday, May 07, 2012

Dominatrix

Fox's Sunday night cartoons are nothing if not consistent.
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.
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Not Really

DreamWorks Animation's Gail Currey says:

... 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.
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TAG 401k Enrollment Meetings

Due to requests, here is my 401k Enrollment Meeting Schedule for the rest of the month:

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?


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Sunday, May 06, 2012

Vancouver, the Rising Hub

Tax subsidies are powerful tools.
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!
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Foreign Super Heroes

... are performing remarkably like domestic super heroes.
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.
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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.
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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:

... 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.

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Super Hero Derby

So the House of Walt is making up for John Carter with this:

... 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] PG13
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
The stop-motion Pirates saw a 50% drop in box office.

Add On: Turns out that the Mouse's Super Hero movie did better than they first thought. North of $207 million.
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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:

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.

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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:
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.


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Thursday, May 03, 2012

Overseas Subcontracting

... is ever-changing. Our friends at China Daily tell us:
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."

"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."
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Another Player in Cartoonland?

Amazon has rolled out this:
... 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.
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Circa Group @ Gallery 839, opens Friday


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Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Good Dreams

... for Dreamworks Animation.
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.

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.” ...
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The Ron Clements Interview -- Part III



Ron C. describes Aladdin as one of the toughest pictures he ever worked on ...

TAG Interview with Ron Clements

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 ...)
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Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Opposition?

Per trades, there is opposition sprouting up against the recently negotiated Basic Agreement:
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.


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Cartoon TV Ratings

Ted Turner's offspring continues to prosper:
... 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.

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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:
*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.


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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 ...

TAG Interview with Ron Clements


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.) ...
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