Outsourcing Ain't the Problem

As Dave Rand says over at Soldier's Site:

I once was asked to bid some shots.

I replied that I don’t have a stash of funds to pay for the project when my bids were stomped on.

I proposed instead we do the work right in the middle of Hollywood. Twenty artists did a show on a cost plus basis as the director walked around amongst us like we were the set.

We rarely got passed version 3 or 4

We rarely worked long hours.

We all made 3k/week or over, trackers included.

We came in a 1/3 the lowest bid … and it was from subsidized Montreal –they were going to put 100 artists on it. That shop has since gone bankrupt twice.

We did three more projects the same way, then the director built his own facility and included the writers, editors, vfx, sound, and screening all under one roof with his office upstairs.

It’s highly profitable and all union.

Ever since then I have a hard time being a lead or any level of supervision as it all seems so foolish and frustrating. Removing the director from the real set and scattering the talent around the globe in an effort to lower costs actually raises them and lowers quality.

The emperor is not wearing any clothes.

I figured it out awhile ago: Efficient movie-making is not about "doing it at the lowest wage" or "doing it overseas." It's not about doing it non-union. All those things have some limited impact, but the BIG driver is ...

BLOATED and inefficient management.

First-hand example: When I started at Disney Feature in the seventies, the joint employed 150 artists and three production support people. There wasn't much in the way of a bureaucracy, the top kick was an animator turned director named Woolie Reitherman, and he and his staff did a feature every three or four years which cost $7 to $8 million.

Cross-dissolve to 1995. Disney Feature Animation now employed 1500 artists, 350 production support people, and 26 corporate Vice Presidents. Meetings were endless, administrative meddling was infinite, and for an artist to see his director, he had to schedule time a week in advance.

The pictures cost $60 million and were rapidly climbing to $100 million.

Historical example: Studio head Darryl Zanuck, year in and year out, oversaw a full production slate of features with four associate producers to assist him. (The '30s and '40s might have been "simpler times," but the making of movies was labor intensive even then. And Zanuck was engaged with every phase of production, from script to final edit.)

It's always been as Mr. Rand describes it: The killer isn't higher wages or health and pension benefits or civilized schedules. What drives up costs and lowers quality is disorganization, bloated bureaucracies and administrators who gum up the work with chronic second-guessing and unproductive meetings that feature flow charts for hierarchies that shouldn't exist in the first place.

Empire building didn't end with ancient Rome. It thrives in the modern age at most Hollywood studios.

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Drumbeats of Doom

The New York Post says:

Disney’s big-budget weekend release, “John Carter,” managed to ring up just $500,000 in the box office for its midnight showings — a bad sign for the studio, which spent at least $250 million on the movie.

By comparison, Paramount Pictures’ “Thor” opened last May with a midnight showing of $3.3 million, and Relativity’s fall release, “Immortals,” booked $1.4 million on its late night debut.

And the L.A. Times says:

Walt Disney Studios' Martian adventure film "John Carter" appears to be heading, in the words of one financial analyst, "to the red ink planet."

Wall Street media analysts said the studio could lose $100 million to $165 million on its big-budget epic, which opened Friday in theaters worldwide.

The prayer vigils have no doubt begun at 500 S. Buena Vista. We feel the Mouse's pain.

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The Global Animation Economy

... knows no borders.

... Asim Fida Khan, a young animator and a Pakistani success story in his own right, graduated from NCA with a degree in architecture in the 90s. From his days at NCA, Khan has come a long way. His portfolio of work as an animator boasts of Hollywood flicks such as 'I Robot,' 'The Tale of Despereaux,' 'G.I Joe,' 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' (parts I and II), and more recently - 'Snow White and the Huntsmen,' as well as the re-make of 'Total Recall'. ...

Khan advises local animators to "create their own short animation, or music video, or whatever they want to do and send it to the countless film festivals taking place all over the globe."

And to break into Pixar or Disney, for example?

"What counts is your talent and experience," he says, "If you manage to get the visa, of course." ...

I had lunch last week with a veteran animator who's worked at multiple studios in far-flung geographic locations. He said to me:

"Good animators can come from anywhere. But the good ones, the ambitious ones, don't stay in the low-pay studios in third world countries that they start in. They go to Europe. They go to the United States. They start their own studios. ..."

As the vet explained it, animation wages in China and India are rising, while salaries in Southern California have been flat (or declining) for a decade. Even so, artists like Khan go where the opportunities and best money are, which remains -- despite the negative growth -- California.

This could be why Third World studios haven't yet made animated features that blow people's socks off. Their best talents leave.

Even so, nothing remains static forever. Mac Guff and Illumination Entertainment have shown that you don't have to be an animation studio in the Golden State or Connecticut to turn out a big CG hit. (And who knows? With its generous tax breaks, Canada might be a candidate in the near future.)

As the talent pool expands worldwide, an emerging nation could one day climb atop the Golden Plateau. I still don't think it will happen anytime soon, but talent finds ways to shine on all points of the compass. The U.S. of A. doesn't have a monopoly on creativity.

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This Won't be Good ...

... for Uncle Walt's place. Or the Golden Circle in Emeryville.

'The Lorax' Poised to Beat Up 'John Carter' at the Box Office

“The Lorax,” a $70 million animated feature in its second week of release, is going to wallop Disney’s $250 million-plus “John Carter” at the box office this weekend.

And no one will be surprised. ...

Usually, studios underplay box office expectations, or at least provide conservative estimates. In “John Carter’s” case, the studio says it “aspires” to an opening in the $30 million range. ...

The trailers haven’t exactly resonated; critics have been tough on it, too. Metacritic gives “John Carter” a 53. Movie Review Intelligence gives it a 47.2. And Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 49.

“It feels very much like, ‘Been there, done that,’” a rival studio executive told TheWrap. ...

"Been there."

A sour irony if one of the high fliers from Pixar gets taken down by the lower budget animated feature from Mac Guff, wouldn't you say? Only goes to show that just because you're the Big Cheese in one venue, it doesn't necessarily translate to other areas of show biz.

Oh well. At least Brad did okay with the Tom Cruise picture ...

(The L.A. Times draws much the same conclusion as The Wrap: "JC" won't have a happy time of it this weekend. Let's pray these soothsayers are wrong.)

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Marvel Animation Rebooted

In three week, a super hero returns again.

Ultimate Spider-Man debuts on Disney XD on April 1 and kicks off the cable channel's Marvel Universe programming block that also includes the second season of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes — for those who want to get prepared for the movie The Avengers in May — as well as a series of several short-form programs. ...

I visited Marvel Animation Studios for the first time today. It's a Disney-owned facility located in Glendale, and it is only now starting to staff up. The studio will be producing two new series in the next several months, and then add two more next Fall and Winter.

Ultimate Spider Man doesn't happen to be one of them. That project is being done at Starz Media-Film Roman, and will continue to be produced there.

(The interesting thing to me about the studio is, though the Mouse owns it, the place operates as almost an independent entity. It doesn't report to the lot in Burbank but to the Marvel Studio in Manhattan Beach. We wish them all the best.)

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Negotiations

... between the AMPTP and local IATSE unions/guilds started today. The larger "Basic Agreement" talks between the International and the Alliance commence a couple of weeks hence. ...

The largest union representing Hollywood's technical workers has begun contract negotiations with the major studios amid concerns that rising healthcare costs could lead to cuts in health and pension benefits for below-the-line crew members. ...

IATSE and the Teamsters face a large deficit in their health and pension plans -- projected to be at least $300 million over the next three years. ... How to close that gap will be a major focus of the negotiations -- as it was for contract talks with talent unions that received increases in employer contributions to their plans. ...

There's been a lot of buzz about the producers' proposals -- which were delivered into union hands some days ago -- and how the negotiations will ultimately shake out. Nobody thinks this is going to be a walk through Springtime rose gardens. As one of the staffers of a large IA unions said to me last week: "Our business representative has steam coming out of his ears."

By the end of the month, we'll have some idea about the future of the health and pension plans over the next three years. I plan to attend the festivities* at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers at the end of the month. I've no doubt it will be interesting.

* The negotiations for wages and benefits under the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension Plan.

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E-mail Response

Got an e-mail recently from an artist doing a board test at an animation studio not signed to TAG. He wanted my input on testing in general and his test in particular. My response:

I have said to studios, over and over, that a 4-6 hour test with 1/2 to 1 page of script is okay. Many studios have tests of 3 or 3 1/2 pages, which I maintain is abusive. A test should be given to ascertain:

A) If an artist can draw in the style of the show ...

B) if the work in an artist’s submitted portfolio matches the drawings in the test.

Period.

All the crap about wanting to see how the artist handles action, or dialogue, or hookups? That’s what samples in the portfolio are for. Studios were fine with portfolio submissions for decades. Now everybody has to take a freaking test? Pleease.

It’s just another excuse for artist abuse. Studios do it for the same reason that dogs eat their own excrement. Because they can. ...

I've done this a long time, and I've never gotten the long test thing. A studio wants to see if somebody can handle the work, hire them. God knows, I've seen artists who have jumped through the testing hoop, gotten a job, and gotten laid off a week later because they "didn't work out."

Gee. The long test didn't screen for the problem, did it?

My optimum solution? Bring somebody into the studio for a few hours and let them work on a short test. Look at the test. Then look at their portfolio. Then decide whether you want to hire them or not.

That would work a lot better than having the artist sweat for a week at home polishing and repolishing drawings. Why the hell you want to waste an artist's time? (Oh yeah. Because you can.)

Somebody at the higher levels of authority, please get smart about this stuff.

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TAG Website is down

Our website has been taken down by the web hosting company. We are working to restore it as quickly as possible.

Feel free to call us with any concerns (818) 845-7500.
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The Tony de Rosa Interview -- Part III

The turn of the present century brought challenges to Disney's hand-drawn animation staff. After work on Home on the Range, Tony departed the feature department to work on outside projects ...

TAG Interview with Anthony de Rosa

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Tony was a lead animator on Looney Tunes: Back in Action and Curious George (where he also storyboarded), and then tried his hand bringing life to the Yellow Family's first animated feature in The Simpsons Movie.

Returning to Disney for The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh, he has just completed work on the new short Paper Man. Click here to read entire post

Shuttering Circle Seven

Writers Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir, who wrote on two abandoned Pixar sequels incubated at "Circle 7 Animation" in Glendale, recount their parts in a very short era of Disney animation:

... How did you learn Circle 7 was closing?

BH & RM: After the buyout, various scenarios began floating around. None of these scenarios were that they would close the entire Circle 7 studio. The prevailing thought was that the sequels would continue – after all, Iger and Cook were on board – and that Pixar would send down some people to get involved in the sequels! Yippee, cool!

Then came Vomit-On-Your-Shoes Day! As writers, we always came into the studio a little later than the rest of Circle 7. On this particular day, we showed up and walked into what was typically a bustling animation studio. A huge, cool place, by the way. On this day, instead of being met by the friendly faces of the executives’ assistants, we were met with dead silence. Twilight Zone silence. There may have been a tumbleweed blowing by. We walked back to our offices, which were at the far end of the building, and couldn’t find anyone. This was not good. ...

For two years before Michael Eisner departed Disney, there was a full-bore effort to create a string of new movies from the Pixar catalogue. On multiple occasions, I went over to Circle 7 (a sprawling building owned by Disney in Glendale) to visit the crews working on the sequels. Diz Co. was recruiting artists from all points on the compass, and most had been promised long-term jobs. Many had relocated families.

But Circle 7 came to a quick end when Disney purchased Pixar. The Emervyille studio was on board, and the need for an imitation on Circle 7 Drive immediately evaporated.

I totally get why the unit was shut down, why the production of Pixar features returned to Pixar. But when I walked through the facility soon afterwards, the sadness of employees suddenly displaced was palpable. (I heard the sentence "I don't know what I'm going to do," more than once.

As the article says, many employees found jobs at Feature Animation, but most of those jobs were short-lived. There were a lot of dislocations after the division's closure, and some bitterness. (At one point the L.A. Times wanted me to get some soon-to-be-former employees to talk to Times reporters, but I quickly discovered that was a bad idea and declined the assignment.)

All in all, a less-than-happy chapter in the long history of Disney cartoon features.

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The Tony de Rosa Interview -- Part II

In the early nineties, Tony swung between supervising animator assignments at the House of Mouse and non-supervisory positions.

TAG Interview with Anthony de Rosa

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

He relates this was easy to do when he was working on Glen Keane's production team, as Glen was not only a terrifically talented animator, but worked to make sure that everybody in his unit got decent scenes on which to work.

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WB Animated Feature

The trade mags tell us:

Warner Bros. has picked up Bolivar, an upcoming graphic novel from publisher Archaia Entertainment, for Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster to producer via their Weed Road banner. Archaia editor-in-chief Stephen Christy will also produce.

Bolivar comes with Irish filmmaker Kealan O’Rourke attached to write and direct the project, which is intended to be an animated feature. ...

The question I have: What production house will do the nuts and bolts animating of Bolivar, assuming that script and storyboards get a green light for full-bore work on the picture. Will it be done in Southern California? Canada? France or India?

At this point, I haven't the foggiest.

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New Media

Community changes formats.

After an extended absence from TV screens, "Community," NBC's beloved but chronically low-rated comedy series, returns March 15 to finish its third season. To drum up the biggest possible audience, NBC is releasing three animated webisodes of "Community" featuring the voices of the show's cast.

The episodes, titled "Abed's Master Key" Parts 1, 2 and 3, will debut online Wednesday, a week before the return of the (mostly) live action series to NBC. ...

TAG has the series under contract under the "New Media" portion of its contract. The first episode hits the airwaves Wednesday. Hopefully it aids in goosing the series' numbers a wee bit.

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The Tony de Rosa Interview -- Part I

Tony de Rosa grew up in New Jersey, in the town of Cherry Hill. (Eric Goldberg also hails from C.H., which is kind of amazing. Two power animators from the same city.)

Tony, like other animation professionals before him, liked to draw. (News flash!) ...

TAG Interview with Anthony de Rosa

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

And Tony knew early on that art was the way he wanted to make his living. His parents were supportive, but thaty wanted him to stay on the east coast, maybe somewhere near home. But Tony had other ideas, and he recounts them here, in Part I of the TAG interview.

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Falling Records

When they want to come and see your movie, even Lou Dobbs can't stop them.

Some of The Lorax's benchmarks:

* the biggest opening for a nonsequel since the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland ($116.1 million), exactly two years ago;

* the biggest opening for an animated feature since Toy Story 3 ($110.3 million) in June 2010;

* the biggest opening for a movie based on a Seuss book, beating Jim Carrey’s live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($55.1 million in 2000), Mike Myers’ live-action The Cat in the Hat ($38.3 million in 2003) and the animated Horton Hears a Who!, also voiced by Carrey ($45 million in 2008) — though, factoring for inflation, The Grinch would top The Lorax in real dollars; and

* the biggest opening for a nonsequel animated feature since The Simpsons Movie ($74 million) in July 2007. If you disqualify that transfer of a behemoth TV franchise as an “original,” then The Lorax‘s loot could top the first-weekend grosses of the Pixar CGI movies The Incredibles ($70.1 million), Finding Nemo ($70.3 million) and Up ($68.1 million) — though, again, not in real dollars. We’ll have a clearer view of The Lorax‘s weekend accomplishments when final figures are issued Monday afternoon. ...

The Lorax was made largely in France by Illumination Entertainment's newly purchased studio Mac Guff for a second foreign win from Chris Meladandri's shop. And CG feature animation is on a continuing roll. Consider:

DreamWorks Animation's two "underperforming" features for 2011 have grossed $1.2 billion.

Paramount Pictures first animated feature Rango gathered in a "Best Animated Feature" Oscar and a worldwide gross of $245.4 million. (Not enough to clear much -- if any profit, based on what we know of its costs, but not a bad performance, all things considered. And when all cash is counted, the movie probably edges into the black.)

Cars 2, generally acknowledged as a weak offering from Pixar, grossed $560 million and sold gazillions of toys.

So, all in all, animation continues to entice our fine entertainment conglomerates with its box office and merchandising possibilities. And when conglomerates get excited about something, they put people to work.

Which excites us.

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The Foreign Steeple Chase in Early March

At the moment, animation isn't the main deal. It's still animated dinosaurs and Dwayne Johnson.

... Journey 2: The Mysterious Island tenuously [held] onto the top box office spot for the fourth consecutive weekend, grossing $14.7 million from 6,600 screens in 52 territories. ...

Universal’s 3D animation title, Dr. Seuss’The Lorax, which opened No. 1 domestically, tested international waters on the weekend via 43 Middle Eastern dates, grossing $500,000. The distributor plans a big overseas push late this month for Easter holidays. More than 60 territories will play the adaptation of the children’s classic over the next five months. ...

And The Lorax, when it hits foreign shores, will no doubt make a bundle. ...

Among other animated contestants, foreign cume is as follows: Puss In Boots, $386.3 million (worldwide $535.6 million); Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, $204.1 million. (worldwide $334.9 million)

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A Princess Movie Rehash?

That seems to be the question:

Otaku Kun says: "Brave goes where every Disney film has gone before..."

Erik Kain responds: "Do we honestly expect Brave to be a rehashing of an old Disney plot: defiant girl casts off shackles of oppressive society so that she can pick the boy of her dreams?

I wouldn’t bet money on it. Brave will be something else. Something more than what we’ve come to expect from Disney. ...

Judging from the clips, I don't see how anyone could think that Brave is going to retrace the "feisty heroine" story arcs of the nineties films.

There's a little of the flavor of How to Train Your Dragon, yes? But that seems semi-unavoidable, given the setting and the overlapping voice actors.

All in all, the pic looks to be something different for Pixar. If nothing else, it gives us the Emeryville's studio first female protaganist.

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The March of Box Office

... with Illumination Entertainment's The Lorax well on top:

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax topped the Friday box office with a sizeable $17.3 million, putting it on course for a $60 million opening.

The 3D pic -- receiving a glowing A CinemaScore -- is playing in 3,729 theaters, including digital IMAX screens. The film's better-than-expected performance is welcome news for the animated business, which struggled last year as overall moviegoing slumped. ...

Further down the list (and out of the Top Ten), The Secret World of Arrietty has collected $15 million to date.

Add On: Whoa! Lorax beats the $50 million estimate, and the $60 million projection.

Lighting up the family marketplace, Universal and Illumination Entertainment's environmentally minded Dr. Seuss' The Lorax debuted to a staggering $70.7 million, marking the best opening ever for a non-sequel animated title if the number holds.

The 3D pic -- receiving a glowing A CinemaScore -- narrowly bested the $70.5 million earned by Pixar's The Incredibles in 2004, according to Universal estimates. ...

Animated features are back melting box office records.

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Box Office Speculation

... courtesy of the Times and others.

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" is primed to rake in lots of green at the box office this weekend.

The 3-D animated film, based on a popular 1971 book by Dr. Seuss, could debut with as much as $50 million, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys ...

Apparently the tut-tutting of Lou Dobbs won't put a damper on the weekend party.

This will mark a rebound of sorts for animated cartoons. Especially if you consider The Adventures of Tintin an animated cartoon.

Add On: The L.A. Times offers an overview of the movie's critical reception, and rotten tomatoes has it in negative territory, although that might change as the critics weigh in.

And then there is the next Illumination Entertainment property being teased on the YouTube.

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An afternoon of remembrance, tomorrow on Saturday afternoon

Master of Ceremonies Tom Sito gets the afternoon rolling.

The Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present

AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Food and refreshments, noon

Memoriams, 1 pm

Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)

2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood

A non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community...

• Pat Agnasin
• Karen Aqua
• Arland Barron
• Jordan Belson
• Robert Breer
• Vincent Cafarelli
• Don Christiansen
• Cornelius “Corny” Cole
• Del Connell
• Sherrie Cuzzort
• Ray Deter
• Ann Dvorak
• Ricky Garduno
• Norm Gottfredson
• Mark Hall
• Edith Hoffman
• Steve Jobs
• Bill Justice
• Earl Kress
• Dorse Lanpher
• Dolores LeMoyne Mills
• Claire Mantalis
• Judie Martin
• Dwayne McDuffie
• Dan Mills
• Candy Monteiro
• Jean-Maxime Perramon
• Patricia Pleman
• Barney Posner
• Rick Quiroz
• Hal Silvermintz
• Paul Sommer
• Kevyn Wallace
• Wayne Welty
• Star Wirth

The Afternoon is free of charge and is open to all; no RSVPs necessary.

Katherine Quaife, Martha Sigall, Bronwen Barry.

(I swiped a few of your pics, Bronnie ... a thousand pardons.)

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