The Simplicity of Accumulation

Regarding (yet again) how an animation employee -- or most anybody else -- should save:

Take 10% of whatever you make and tuck it into savings/investments. Pay yourself first. Pretend that slice of the paycheck isn't there and live on what's left.

And here's what you should put the money into (and I think the investment reporter writing this is dead on) ...

... Mutual funds reporters lead a secret investing life. By day we write 'Six Funds to Buy NOW!' We seem to delight in dangerous sectors like technology. We appear fascinated with one-week returns. By night, however, we invest in sensible index funds. ....

After months of interviewing managers and studying statistics and strategies, I made only one move in my own retirement portfolio--into my fund family's more diversified index fund. The fund reporters I knew came secretly to favor low-cost index funds. ...

Unfortunately, rational, pro-index-fund stories don't sell magazines, cause hits on Websites, or boost Nielsen ratings. ...

The above was published in 1999, at the peak of the tech fund craze, a time when Animation Guild members were stopping me on the street to exult in their huge runups in the TAG 401(k) Plan's tech stock index fund. (What can I say? It was a simpler, more optimistic time. Of late, nobody has bragged about the huge profits they're making. Draw your own conclusions.)

Here's the distilled wisdom: Keep your investing costs as low as possible. Be broadly diversified with both stocks and bonds. Add more bonds to the mix as you get older.

That's it in a nutshell. (And the shell is simple, is it not?) But here are the two rules that are more difficult, and make the points above tougher to execute.

1) Don't chase returns in the latest "hot sector" (even though all your best buds are doing it.)

2) Don't bail out of your allocation of stocks and bonds when it's tanking. (And at some point it will tank.)

I encounter people at 401(k) meetings who tell me they have no interest in investing. I (sort of) understand their position, but let's get realistic here. This is your money we're talking about. And if you haven't got the gumption to read a couple of books on where to put the moolah and take a few hours to educate yourself, you're as foolish as somebody who declares they have zero concern about their health. ("I'm going to go right on drinking six packs of Colt .45 and gnoshing on Big Macs. I like it!")

I'm not advocating becoming some kind of obsessive expert on stock market trends, just arming yourself with rudimentary facts. If you do no more than putting your extra cash in a one-stop target retirement fund or asset allocation fund, you'll be ahead of ninety percent of the population.

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The Box Office Race In Winter

Now with warm, buttery Add On.

Slow time of year for movies. No holidays, no kids out of school. But animation hangs in there.

1. No Strings Attached (Paramount) NEW [3,018 Theaters] -- Friday $7.3M, Estimated Weekend $20M

2. The Green Hornet 3D (Sony) Week 2 [3,584 Theaters] -- Friday $5.2M (-53%), Estimated Weekend $17M, Estimated Cume $62.3M

3. Dilemma (Universal) Week 2 [2,943 Theaters] -- Friday $3M, (-51%), Estimated Weekend $10M, Estimated Cume $33.5M

4. The King's Speech (Weinstein Co) Week 9 [1,680 Theaters] -- Friday $2M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $56.5M

5. True Grit (Paramount) Week 5 [3,464 Theaters] -- Friday $2M, Estimated Weekend $6.7M, Estimated Cume $137.3M

6. Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Week 8 [2,407 Theaters] -- Friday $1.7M, Estimated Weekend $5.7M, Estimated Cume $83M

7. Little Fockers (Universal) Week 5 [2,979 Theaters] -- Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $140.8M

8. The Fighter (Relativity/Paramount) Week 6 [2,275 Theaters] -- Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $72.5M

9. Tron: The Legacy 3D (Disney) Week 7 [2,018 Theaters] -- Friday $975K, Estimated Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $163M

10. Yogi Bear 3D (Warner Bros) Week 6 [2,510 Theaters] -- Friday $750K, Estimated Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $88.3M

As of Thursday, Tangled was tracking at #12 with a grand total of $183,274,499.

Add On: Mojo gives us the (almost) weekend finals:

9) Yogi Bear -- $4,060,000 -- $88,890,000

11) Tangled -- $3,006,000 --- $186,281,000

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Fairy Tales = Westerns (?)

NPR does its take on the future of animated fairy tales.

The Fairy Tale Struggles To Live Happily Ever After ...

(NPR is somewhat late to the party, but what's new? ...)

The article linked above marches through the usual litany: Disney is backing away from the genre, fairy tales are old-fashioned and sexist, the public is too hip for princess stories, blah-blah-blah.

Stripped to the essence, the fairy tale is now enduring all the arguments thrown against the Western for the past thirty-five years. But whatever the argument, it's really just bullcrap-colored wrapping paper that surrounds the real reason:

"Every time we make one of these things we lose our ass. So let's not make any more of these things."

If you don't have the strait-jacketed brain of a production exec, you know that genre doesn't matter. Content does. An audience doesn't walk to the front of their neighborhood AMC, stare at the electric signs and say "A fairy tale. Ewww." or "A space opera. Yaay." It reacts to stories and characters that it wants to see. (Might be a long-haired blonde with a frying pan ... or a gray-haired marshal with one eye, who knows?)

This is why conventional wisdom so often turns out to be wrong. The studio development executive with a death-grip on his seven-figure salary isn't going to greenlight a genre that isn't "safe," but a creator with clout -- be it John Lasseter or the Coen brothers or James Cameron -- will. And when the resulting feature makes half a billion dollars, then Conventional Wisdom begins to change. Slowly.

But the supposed bias against fairy tales is bogus anyway. What is Avatar if not a fairy tale? It's got the princess in the beautiful and mythical kingdom, the out-of-sorts hero, the black-hearted villain, the heroic final battle and uplifting ending. It might be dressed up as sci fi, but it's little different than Snow White, The Little Mermaid or Aladdin in many of its story beats.

Disney might not be making another Tangled anytime soon, but 20th Century Fox will be making as many sequels to Avatar as it can. And Paramount? I have no doubt that the Viacom company is delighted it greenlit that remake of an old John Wayne picture.

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Ratification at the SPA

Yesterday there was a vote at Sony Pictures Animation on a new three-year SPA-IATSE contract ...

With a 65-70% turnout of the crew, the tally for ratification was:

92.6% - Yes

7.4% - No

The Sony Pictures Contract had wage bumps that followed the current industry norm (2%), and there were some title changes for a couple of classifications. Other than that, nothing in the contract changed.

(The SPA-IA contract has been in effect a bit over seven years, and covers writers, board artists, designers and pre-visualization artists on animated features at Sony. The contract is held and negotiated by the Mother International. The last two cycles, the Animation GUild has helped out with getting the contract ratified.)

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Pattern Bargaining

The Directors Guild of America, true to its nature, has negotiated its latest contract early and ratified its contract early.

The DGA membership on Tuesday ratified a new motion picture and television deal with the AMPTP. ... The tentative deal was reached last month and endorsed by the union’s board. ...

This follows the recent SAG and AFTRA deal that saw annual wage-minimum increases of 2%, bigger company kick-ins to the pension and health plans (an agenda item that is high on every guild's wish list), and the usual give and take in other corners of the contracts.

But also true to its nature, the Writers Guild of America is getting aggressive about its oncoming contract.

... [T]he WGA may not schedule negotiations until March and engage in a brinksmanship strategy in order to seek improvements in areas that SAG/AFTRA did not, such as certain new media and basic cable provisions. ... An ambitious “Pattern of Demands” – an outline of negotiating priorities – is out to WGA members ...

The WGA is working to break through the hardening concrete that SAG-AFTRA and DGA deals have set up. Good luck with that. Come Springtime, the writers will negotiate into the dark hours of the morning and likely come away with ... the same package every other union has achieved. Because the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers isn't in the habit of giving more jams and jellies to one labor organization than it hands to another. There will be minor differences from deal to deal, but the pattern will remain pretty much the same:

* 2% wage bumps.

* More money into pension and health plans.

* Horse trading on smaller contract points.

The IATSE, with a basic agreement that ends the summer of 2012, will be the last entertainment union sitting down at the long, Alliance table. And the odds are good it will get the same rice pudding that has been spooned out to everyone else. ("Please sir, may I have some more?" will not meet with a positive response.)

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Dreamworks is the 10th best ...

... company to work for -- or so says Fortune magazine.

It reported the studio was voted the 10th best company to work for in this article, explaining some of the reasons for the company's popularity:

Employees get star treatment when they work at the film studios, which include a full breakfast and lunch for free. On top of that, workers can also go to free movie screenings, company parties, yoga and art classes.

Film students looking to work at DreamWorks Animation Studio are sure to find an amazing career experience and according to Yahoo, everyone is given the opportunity to pitch movie ideas to studio executives. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the studio by providing the strength of the collective voice to the artists and keeping the seamless cloak of health and pension benefits over their corner of Glendale.

As a bonus, CEO Jefferey Katzenberg will call up candidates and encourage them to stop by. ...

It's kinda nice that Dreamworks reaches those accolades while delivering entertaining and profitable cinematic experiences. And they work under a bunch of labor agreements, too. (How is that possible?)

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Here Today ...

... and a memory tomorrow.

Disney Interactive Studios has closed its Vancouver, Canada-based game development studio Propaganda Games ... The Canadian studio had been hit with a round of layoffs last October, after Disney cancelled Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned ... Disney has sold only 190,755 copies [of "Tron: Legacy."] ...

And so it goes.

In the 1990s, the Mouse opened two television animation studios in Canada -- one in Vancouver and another in Toronto. They employed talented, hard-working artists, they did good work. And they didn't last. Canadian-based Disney studios spring up and disappear like mushrooms.

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The McEntee Interview -- Part II

The second half of our interview with Brian McEntee ....

TAG Interview with Brian McEntee

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

In addition to working on a wide variety of animated features and shorts, Brian is also a novelist. (His first book, "Eve", is shown above.)

Brian still returns to animation from time to time, but his first love is writing. He has just completed a second novel, "GENeration eXtraTERrestrial", coming out right around now. (And yes, he has a pen name: "Aurelio O'Brien.")

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Kevin Lima: Still One Foot in Animation

Kevin Lima cut his eye teeth in feature animation, then branched out into live-action (as did other animators before him.) Although he mostly lives in the live-action universe these days, he's still keeping his drawing hand in:

"Enchanted" director Kevin Lima and scribe David Sussman have sold an untitled pitch to Sony Pictures Animation.

Described as a hybrid live-action and CGI feature in the vein of "Alice in Wonderland," the project was originated by art director Michael Kurinsky and in development before Lima and Sussman were brought aboard.

Sussman on to pen the script and Lima to helm and produce. ...

Hope it gets green-lit for production. We can always use more animation.

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The Brian McEntee Interview -- Part I

TAG Interview with Brian McEntee

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

What do you do to top being Art Director on Beauty and the Beast? ....

You art direct the first Ice Age.

Brian McEntee, layout artist, art director, color stylist and writer, talks about leaving Cal Arts to start an animation career at Disney, riding the cresting wave of feature animation in the early nineties, then moving to Blue Sky Animation to work on the first hit CGI feature from Twentieth Century Fox.

As per always, the interview is in two parts: one listenable fragment today, and one tomorrow. Click here to read entire post

January Linkage

Now with Add Ons.

A linked reading list of animation topics, beginning with:

Disney/DreamWorks writer goes to Canada to script Canadian-Korean feature The Nut Job ...

Frances McDormand signs on for voice work on Madagascar 3. ...

L.A Times' Plot Spoiler:

"... most of the original [Cars] centered on Radiator Springs and its motley, motorized population; ... the sequel Lightning ventures to Europe and Japan to compete in the first World Grand Prix. ... "Mater has never been out of Radiator Springs," says [supervising animator Shawn] Krause. "We thought of him like Woody from 'Cheers.' He's not stupid, he's simple, sincere and childlike."

Steve Jobs announced to his employees:

That he will take an indefinite leave of absence from the company to focus on his health. ... While Jobs did not address specific health reasons, many experts say it's likely that his leave is related to his ongoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Two Singapore animation studios -- Storm Lion and Egg Story Creative Production -- close down. (Happens to the best of them.)

DWA's Tim Johnson gives details on How to Train Your Dragon's sequel and upcoming series:

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a much bigger movie. Everyone is already terrified of pulling off the movie. [Director Dean DeBlois] had a big pitch two weeks ago and now we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to pull off that story.

You're to the middle of the workweek. Press on.

Add On: Don Rickles talks Potato Head:

John Lasseter came to me, down in our home at the beach, Malibu, and said, you’re going to be Mr. Potato Head. It was that simple. I said, oh come on, I don’t do cartoons ...

Add On Again: LeBron James and his Alter Egos Star in an Internet Animated Series -- The cartoon series, called “The LeBrons” and planned for a spring debut on its own YouTube channel and Mr. James’s Web site, lebronjames.com, will revive the characters from a popular series of Nike commercials ...

You're now past the middle of the workweek. Rejoice.

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Descendants of Jay Ward

DreamWorks always has an eclectic mix of projects. Same goes for voice actors.

Actor Robert Downey Jr is to star in the new Dreamworks movie Peabody and Sherman.

Downey Jr, 45, will voice the role of the genius dog Mr. Peabody in the film ...

Rob Minkoff, a talented animator who became a wildly successful feature animation director and has directed a number of live-action flicks, is helming S & P. A nice guy. And here's hoping that his c.g. movie at DreamWorks Animation does well when it rolls out three years hence.

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TeeVee Toons

Cartoons, as we jump into 2011, are well-represented in what is still called Prime Time:

Top Prime Time Shows -- January 3-9

2) The Simpsons -- 12.55 million

5) Family Guy -- 9.33 million

7) Bob'S Burgers -- 9.38 million*

15) The Cleveland Show -- 7.39 million

...

Fox has clearly cornered the market in nighttime animation. All the scripting is done under the WGAw while the boarding, designing and directing is performed under an Animation Guild contract.

At the time the WGA finally got around to organizing the Simpsons' writers back in 1997, the complaints from other studios were audible. Corporate types said to me over lunch: "Oooh. Disney, Sony, Warner Bros? They aren't happy with what Fox is doing."

I'm sure they weren't, but in my experience big fat conglomerates act in their own perceived self-interest, not according to the wishes of fellow congloms. And in '97, Fox's interest was in keeping the Yellow Family franchise operating smoothly. So when The Simpsons writers got rambunctious and demanded a contract (threatening the flow of News Corp.'s high-rated shows), Rupert's minions did a deal with the Guild. (Leverage = power.)

Obviously the deal has long-since paid off. Being #2 after twenty years on the air ain't shabby.

* Why does a lower-rated show have a bigger audience than a higher-rated show? Because the viewer numbers on the far right represent total audience, and the ratings ranks are determined by the 18-49 demographic. We're dealing with different numbers.

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Best Animated Golden Globe

... Turns out to be Toy Story 3.

What a relief. The suspense was killing me.

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The Foreign Movie Races

Nothing new in the overseas markets. Animation continues to rake in sizable coin.

"Tangled," last round's No. 1 box office winner, finished a close second this weekend with $15.6 million generated from 4,723 screens in 33 territories for a foreign box office total of $212.5 million so far. ...

"Megamind" ... pushed its foreign gross total to $158 million due to a $7 million weekend from 4,262 venues in 60 territories. ... "Yogi Bear" opened No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand, and collected $5.7 million on the weekend from a dozen overseas markets, pushing its cume to $13.3 million. ...

For those of you keeping score at home or work cubicle, worldwide totals from the movies above are now as follows:

Tangled -- $393.5 million

Yogi Bear -- $95.4 million

Megamind -- $303.4 million

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Image Movers Moving On

... to their own company.

Former ImageMovers Employees Launch Atomic Fiction

The new full-service VFX business will aim to cut costs for clients without sacrificing quality.

Three VFX veterans let go from Robert Zemeckis’ recently shuttered ImageMovers Digital have launched a new facility in Emeryville, Calif.

Named Atomic Fiction, the business was co-founded by Kevin Baillie, who serves as president and VFX supervisor; Ryan Tudhope, creative director and VFX supervisor; and Jenn Emberly, performance and animation supervisor.

Atomic Fiction is opening in Emeryville ... as a full-service business, with art direction and concept design. It is focusing on high-end character work and digital environments as well as fire and water effects and compositing. ...

A long while back, c.g.i. supe Jim Hillin and I discussed the ongoing phenomenon of effects houses spawning the next generation of effects houses when employees went off and formed their own companies. This regenerative thing has been happening since the 1990s, the horse-and-buggy era of computer graphics.

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January 2011 Derby

Now with life-affirming Add On.

No animation in the Top Ten, but Tangled and the Yogster hover just below the upper slots ...

1) The Green Hornet -- $11.1 million

2) The Dilemma -- $6.1 million

3) True Grit -- $3.2 million ...

11) Yogi Bear -- $1 million

12) Tangled -- $825,000

Interesting/amusing Rumour Factoid: A good friend of mine recently attended a screening where he overhead a big-time Hollywood director saying:

"Lots of weather and shooting problems on 'True Grit' ... Paramount didn't like the version the Coen brothers turned in and recut the picture. Coens didn't like what the studio did, but Paramount released it anyway and the movie's a hit ..."

Add On: The Reporter and B.O. Mojo give us the weekend numbers:

Sony's 3D The Green Hornet grossed an estimated $34 million from 3,584 theaters over the weekend to nab the second-best opening ever for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. ...

Ron Howard's new comedy had an under-powered opening, but the animation's hung in there real good. The Yogster dropped a measly 19.5% percent and grossed $5,345,000, and Tangled did almost as well, dropping 22.7% while raking in almost $4 million.

Yogi Bear -- $82,095,000

Tangled -- $180,977,000

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Signups for AAI classes begin Monday

Signups begin on Monday, January 17 for the Spring 2011 semester of the American Animation Institute, the program of art and craft classes sponsored by the Animation Guild. This semester features a master class by BOB KURTZ.

The Spring 2011 AAI catalog can be found here on our website.

To sign up, call (818) 845-7000 between 8:30 am and 5 pm. You must sign up by phone; signups are not accepted online. It’s not unusual for classes to fill up very quickly, so we recommend you call during office hours to make sure your signup is received and accepted, rather than leaving after-hours voicemails.

After signing up by phone, registration can be completed by sending a check to our offices made out to the American Animation Institute. Registration is complete when payment is received. Do not wait until the first class session to pay for the class; if the class is full you may be turned away even if you previously signed up by phone.

---

Among the classes offered in the spring is Film Sense and Nonsense: The Bob Kurtz Master Class in Comedic Film Staging, Timing and Storytelling, taught by master animation artist BOB KURTZ.

Kurtz has championed the composition, film story and design principles of T. Hee, Don Graham, Marc Davis and Bill Moore for more than thirty years and has successfully utilized those principles in his own career. As founder of Kurtz and Friends, Bob is the recipient of over two hundred and fifty international awards for animation including an Emmy, a Peabody and an Annie Award for lifetime achievement. His wealth of expertise and information will inspire students and professionals alike.

This is a must-do class for anyone who wants to learn or re-experience the fundamentals of the creative process and the basic principles of composition, staging, timing and storytelling for film, storyboarding and animation. By breaking down classic film clips and analyzing their staging, timing and structure, you'll see what works, what doesn't work and why. Through a series of assignments and follow-up critiques, you'll learn how these principles can be applied to your own work and see results right away. Demonstrations, lectures and film analysis will inspire you to apply the principles to your work as soon as possible.

The class runs for four Monday evenings from March 21 to April 11, from 7 to 10 pm. Enrollment is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. This class is likely to fill up, so sign up and pay for the class promptly.

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Wisdom With a Bullet

I first noticed Paul Giamatti in Sideways. And noticed him again in John Adams (and other things.) Hell of an actor. And not dumb, either.

[Giamatti] entered Yale as an English major, concentrating on 19th-century American literature. (“Although I had a friend who was taking film, and I remember saying, ‘Wait, you’re going off to see ‘The Searchers’ and I’m sitting here reading ‘Typee’?”) ...

“After graduation, I moved to Seattle thinking I would — oh, I don’t know what in hell I was thinking, ... Get into animation, I guess — although, wow, just put a bullet in your head, there’s a really hard way to make a living. ...

Obviously Paul knows something about the business.

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Splashing Around the SPA

Part of the afternoon -- after an hour on the 101 and 405 Freeways -- was whiled away in Culver City at Sony Pictures Animation ...

First thing, I ran into a director I know who is developing a new feature. He said:

I developed this at another studio but they put it in turn-around and I've worked on it here for several months. Doesn't have a title, but we're hoping to get it made. When we finish the script revisions, we hope to get approval for storyboards and then story reels ..."

I won't tell you more about the project becasue A) I have no clue about what it is and (assuming I did) B) I've got no interest in getting reprimanded*.

Meanwhile, a lot of SPA staffers were preparing for Hotel Transylvania meeting (Yes, Virginia, HT is still in pre-production.) And a long teaser for the upcoming Smurfs was being worked on. Look for it in a theater or on a Sony DVD next Fall.)

* Reprimands for reckless blogging that Steve Hulett has received:

1) Reprimand from "Simpsons Movie" producer for revealing the feature was in Cinemascope. (But Fox lawyer said: "Uh, no. Screen shape is not proprietary information.")

2) Reprimand for revealing that a character model sheet had changed slightly.

3) Reprimand for putting up proprietary artwork from unreleased animated Sony feature Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on blog. (One small problem: artwork had nothing to do with movie; was actually a screen grab of a doughnut advertisement.)

4) Received reprimand from Disney publicist for revealing title "Lion King 1 1/2." (Hulett's response: You're sh*tting me.")

5) Reprimand for revealing Disney employees were being laid off. (Not recklees blogging in this case, but reckless talking to energetic reporter.)

Hulett's conclusion: Steve Hulett is reckless. And some studio people have overtight sphincters and too much time on their hands.

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Fox Reshuffles the Executive Deck

Twentieth Century Fox (part of Rupert's sprawling empire) has not had a great year, and the bloodletting has commenced.

Fox Marketing Shuffle Signals Management Turmoil

... When a major studio suffers a bad run at the box office and then lets go of a top marketing exec, it’s considered a scapegoat maneuver. ... Take out Fox’s 2009 carryover grosses on Avatar ($408.4 million in 2010) and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 ($63.7 million in 2010), which boosted the studio’s domestic total to a fourth-place market share on $1.39 billion (down 4% from 2009), and the studio’s domestic gross was $918 million. ...

What's interesting to me is that Fox's two hits are animation hybrids. And what are they expecting big things from in 2011?

... Blue Sky’s animated Rio should perform, as well as the sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules. ...

Funny how studios keep counting on animation to deliver.

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Not Going Up

The Reporter notes that feature animation's sister art-form has had twenty-four months of not great news:

Video Game Industry Slumps for Second Straight Year

Marking a rarity for the industry, sales of new video games, hardware and accessories in the U.S. were down for the second straight year, according to data released Thursday from NPD.

The research firm said 2010 revenue generated from purchases of new items was at $18.6 billion, off 6% from $19.7 billion the year earlier. ...

For a business that spent years shooting up like a rocket, back to back "negative growth" (as the euphemism goes) must be disconcerting. And there's a lot of people who move from games to c.g.i. features and back again. So this must be a nervous time for many of them.

Sadly, nothing goes in one direction forever.

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At the Diz

In between talking on the phone, plowing through e-mails (these days 1/3 of them are Spam) and all the other business reppy things that I do, I found my way to the Hat Building in Burbank ...

I spent most of my time in the story department. Presently, King of the Elves is in script development and board artists are waiting to see pages.

"The new take on Elves is solid, and the story is shaping up. ..."

The next installment of Prep and Landing (the half-hour version) is in work, and Reboot Ralph is bopping along.

Morale is better in and around the Hat. Having a high-grossing film can do that.

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At the Top of the Movie Marketplace

The Mouse's news division is pleased to let us know about the Mouse's latest animated feature.

International Movie Marketplace Gets All 'Tangled' ... 'Tangled' braids itself around the top of the international box office chart.

"Tangled" ascended to the top of the international box office race in its seventh weekend of release, jumping from sixth place in 21 territories to the top spot in 28 territories and earning $24.8 million as it crosses the $350 million mark in worldwide revenue.

1. "Tangled," $24,745,055, 5,129 locations, 28 territories, $350,496,102, seven weeks. ...

No doubt we'll get the comments about how Tangled costs a poopload to produce and still hasn't made money, blah blah blah. But I'm telling you, when all the cash from theaters, DVDs, network and cable licensing is factored in, when the dolls and games contribute their revenue streams, the picture will be in profits.

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At the Autry party

All photos by and © Enrique May. Not to be reproduced without permission. Click on thumbnails to connect to a larger version of each photo.

Our longtime de facto party photographer ENRIQUE MAY has come through once again with an album of pictures of our wildly successful party last Friday at the Autry Museum.

Over a hundred guests were waiting patiently in the courtyard when the museum opened its doors a few minutes before 7 pm. ABOVE: Norly and Karen Paat, Janette Hulett, Debbie Mark, Bonnie and Tim Callahan.

We estimate we had over twelve hundred guests total through the evening, making this most likely the biggest party we've ever had (not to mention the biggest private party in the Autry's history). But because the group was broken up among the various galleries and public areas over two levels, there was no sense of overcrowding or claustrophobia.

Thanks to the hard work of Cheers Catering, the food was universally praised as the best we've ever served.

Where's Stephan? Executive Board member emeritus Stephan Zupkas is towards the front in the gray sweater.

Executive Board member Bronnie Barry with Bruce Woodside.

ABOVE LEFT: Larry Eikleberry. ABOVE RIGHT: Martin Forte and Roman Arambula.

Dan Mills and Dora Yakutis.

As they left the museum, guests who had attended previous TAG parties were, at first, a little confused that they didn't have to wait for shuttles and that they could actually find their cars in a large but well-lit parking lot ;) Seriously, the feedback on this party has been more positive than any we've held in a long time.

The entire album of Enrique's 2011 party photos is online as a Photobucket album. We've made a stab at identifying some of the faces; if you recognize others and are so inclined, post the photo # and identification in comments and I'll update them in the album. And thanks for helping make our party a smash success!

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Organizer's Notes: Letters of Persuasion/Intimidation?

On the organizing front, I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't have a couple of "irons in the fire" going. At a local animation studio, TAG has been collecting representation cards, and the artists recently received a letter from the company's management. We thought it would be good to share that letter ... and our response.

Dear Employees,

We have been told that a union representative is trying to organize the artists of [company name removed]. If that is the case, I believe this is a good opportunity to explain to you what you can expect to hear from the union representatives.

First of all, in the event a union organizer (or fellow employee) hands you a union authorization card, we suggest you consider it carefully before signing it. Authorization cards are legal documents, and if you sign a card, you give the union the right to use it for two purposes:

• (1)If the union gets cards from over 50% of the employees, it may use them to try and demand to be recognized as the employees' representative without there being a free, secret ballot election.
• (2)If the union gets cards from 30% of the employees, it can petition the National Labor Relations Board for an election

If you look closely at the cards, you will see that they are the same as signing over your rights like a legal "power of attorney". We suggest you give careful thought to the importance of an authorization card before you sign one and turn over your personal rights to the union.

Union organiziers may use every trick in the book to get you to sign. They may say such things as - the Company is going union; that you are obligated to sign by contract; that everyone else has signed, so get on the bandwagon; that your signature means you have only talked to the union. They may even promise you better wages, a pension, health benefits, or a regular, full time position if you sign the card. None of these claims are true, so don't let the union organizers mislead you. Keep in mind -- the union cannot guarantee any changes in your wages, benefits or workplace policies. The union can only guarantee your handing over your money to them in monthly union dues.

In making your decision, it is important to remember what you have already without paying monthly union dues and running the risk of being ordered to strike. Also, at [the company], employees do not need a union to speak for them. We have an open door policy that gives you the ability to address your concerns one-on-one with management.

The decision you make may be the single most important decision you are asked to make concerning your employments with [the company]. We are confident that once you know the facts about unions, you will agree that unions are not in the best interest of [the company's] employees and will therefore not sign an authorization card.

If you have any questions feel free to talk with [names removed] or any member of management or your supervisor.

Sincerely,

Below the jump you can see our response ...

It's come to our attention that a [manager of the company] has distributed a letter to you regarding signing representation cards and what we'll be telling you. After reading the letter, we're surprised to find that [the manager] has accused us of using tricks when the letter [the manager] sent to you is filled with distortions and half-truths.

Representation cards are vehicles TAG uses to gauge the level of support we have in organizing studios. As we stated [previously], once we receive a majority of cards based on the amount of artists in the unit, we'll approach [the company] to negotiate a contract on your behalf without an NLRB election. However, [the company] is the deciding factor in that decision. If they don't recognize the Animation Guild as your bargaining agent, we'll approach the NLRB to be named the agent by earning a majority of your secret ballots.

Have we stated, "the Company is going union, so sign now and get on board?" Or that you have any obligation to sign a representation card? Nope. It's our hope and intention to provide the strength of a collectively bargained contract, but giving us the right to represent [the company's] employees is up to you. (That's the law) Any contract would be based on our current contract, but it could be different. That would depend on the negotiation process, as well as input from you.

[The company] is fighting against your right to make decisions about your working conditions. In our contract, we stipulate overtime hours, which days are holidays, wage minimums and more. Why would that be something they wouldn't want you to have input on?

Lastly:

• Our contract has a No-Strike / No Lockout clause that says while the contract is in place, a strike can not take place
• The union cannot order a strike, only you can. If *YOU* want to strike, *YOU* have to vote on and approve it.
• If we reach agreement with [the company] on a contract, you will pay no initiation fees, only dues ($28-36/month.) If we don't reach a contract, you will pay neither initiation fees or dues. Simple.

While the letter states that one of the benefits of employment at [the company] is the ability to have one-on-one conversations with management, we feel the strength of the collective voice to be much more effective.

While we expect animation and effects studios to push back against organization efforts, fear mongering of this nature needs to be made public. Its important for everyone to understand the lengths that some companies will go to when attempting to protect the imbalance of power they hold in the workplace.

Nobody should get the idea that management's response up there at the top is unusual.

They know they can't say: "Sign one of those g.d. cards and you're fired!" so they don't. They know they can't say: ""You vote to go union and we'll close the place down!", and they're careful not to.

But they are certainly free to imply, to elliptically threaten, to wring their hands and whine: "We just don't know HOW we'll be able to keep the doors open with all the extra UNION costs!"

The name of the game is to get employees to vote NO in a National Labor Relations Board election. Employers can't directly threaten to shut the workplace down, since that's prohibited under Federal law. But employers are certainly at liberty to use the various other tricks, one of which is on view up above.

In the unending struggle to bring non-union facilities under contract, it's all about which entity has the momentum, hearts and minds, and ultimately the juice.

-- Steve Hulett

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From India and DWA Comes ...

... a locally produced animated feature.

So DreamWorks Animation plunges into the cartoon biz on the sub-continent:

... [DreamWorks Animation] has announced ... that they have hired composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), Broadway lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Enchanted, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas) and husband-and-wife producing team Gurinder Chadha and Paul Berges (Bend It Like Beckham, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) to work on the animation studio’s first animated feature musical Monkeys of Bollywood ...

Although execs from the Glendale, California campus will be overseeing this, Monkeys is a project slated for the Indian studio used by DWA. It's based on a Hindu poem called "The Ramayana" and will be using some heavy hitters.

(By the strangest of coincidences, Disney got into the Indian market a couple of years ago with a musical called Roadside Romeo ...)

Sadly, RR didn't have the magical touch of Tangled, and failed to set the turnstiles spinning. Ah well ...

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A member needs our help

A message from Miranda Cristofani:

Franco Cristofani has been a part of the Animation community, and a member of Local 839 since the late 70's. He has been a part of the community here in LA as well as an instrumental force in development of the industry in Asia and the Pacificrim. Franco has been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma which is cancer of the blood plasma cells present in your bone marrow. He fell ill while working in Asia and he was flown to the Philippines and put into intensive care at the Makati med Hospital in Manila.

Franco is now stable but we are unable to get him the medication and care he needs due to outrageous hospital bills and medication expenses. Franco has medicare and could get the treatment he needs to survive here in the States but the Hospital is not letting him leave the country till he has paid his bill, and they are refusing to treat him further.

Although this seems inhumane and criminal, (we have called Amnesty International) it is legal in the Philippines to do so. Without treatment and medication we fear for the worst. We are pulling all our resources to pay for the bill and fly Franco to the States where he can start treatment that could save his life. Our goal is $7000. Please help us and donate whatever you can to our save Franco fundraiser, even $5 helps. All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you so much!!!

Visit this blog to donate through Paypal. Feel free to subscribe to the blog to get updates on his progress.

-- Miranda Cristofani

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A Sito Afternoon -- Part II

(Above, Tom Sito's history of the animation biz.)

We continue now with our conversation with Mr. Sito ...

TAG Interview with Tom Sito

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

In addition to his work in Cartoonland, Tom is a historian, book author, and college prof.

Teaching at the University of Southern California since 1994, he is currently a professor in the motion picture department. (Just so you know, Tom hasn't stopped his work in animation. We caught him at his desk at Warner Bros. Animation a few weeks ago, where he was boarding on the latest Coyote and Roadrunner epic.)

And did we mention that, in between everything else, Tom spent nine years being President of this organization?

Busy man, that Mr. Sito.

Copyright © 2011, Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE. All rights reserved.

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Promising Start

Good news for the folks at Bento Box.

... With the series debut of BOB'S BURGERS in its Sunday Animation Domination block, FOX won the night among Adults 18-49, Total Viewers, Adults 18-34, Teens and all key demos, and delivered its highest rated 8-10p animated comedy block in over three years ...

BURGERS at 8:30 p.m. delivered a 4.5/11 among Adults 18-49 and was the highest rated series debut on any network so far this season among Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34 and Teens. ...

And all the writers and artists there on Magnolia Boulevard can breathe a sigh of relief, since the show could well be picked up and extended.

Congratulations to everybody.

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Would you like to show at Gallery 839?

We're approaching the first anniversary of the opening of Gallery 839, our space set aside to show the artwork of our members outside of the world of animation.

We've just found out that the artist we had expected to be showing in February has had to drop out at the last minute. This leaves us with an opening for February, and so far none of the upcoming scheduled artists are available to fill it.

We've had some wonderful and popular shows at the Gallery, and a number of our members have profited by the experience. In fact, at least one piece has sold from every show we've put on. As a result, we have a number of members who have reserved monthly slots, so that much of the rest of 2011 is penciled in if not booked.

So if you're a member of the Animation Guild who's interested in showing in Gallery 839, or part of a group that would like to show, here's the deal:

To show at Gallery 839 you must be a member of the Animation Guild, either current or inactive. If you're part of a group of artists, as long as at least one member of the group is a Guild member we'll show the entire group.

If you take the February slot, the opening is set for February 4. All opening dates are set for the first Friday of the month except when there is a conflict with a holiday.

The Guild will publicize your show in the Peg-Board, on the e-mail list and the TAG Blog. You or your group are responsible for:

     * All other publicity

     * All other expenses, including the costs of an opening reception if you choose to have one

     * The Gallery will be open from 6 pm to 10 pm on opening night, and every consecutive Friday from 11 am to 2 pm. If you want the Gallery open at other times you will need to make arrangements with the office staff and be present when the Gallery is open.

There is no charge for showing at Gallery 839. You do not have to show work that is for sale; however, if you sell any artwork the Guild's commission is ten percent.

Send me an e-mail if you're interested, either in February or in a future slot. There's a short and simple contract for you to sign, and a set of guidelines, all of which can be e-mailed to you.

All bookings are on a first-come, first-served basis. The February slot has to be booked in the next few days or it will be canceled, but let me know even if you're just interested in a future opportunity.

And thanks to everyone for making Gallery 839 such a success.

-- Jeff Massie

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Local 891 invites Dave Rand to converse

Local 891 has been leading the visual effects organizing effort in the popular haven for subsidized effects, Vancouver, BC. They are inviting all artists and interested parties to attend an evening of discussion with Dave Rand.

Avid readers of this blog will recognize Mr. Rand's name as the artist and public voice of the Meteor Studio debacle which ended a couple of years ago in September. Dave has also commented on the current state of the visual effects industry in a letter we wrote about here. We are pround to say Dave is a member of the Guild through his tenure at IMD.

We encourage anyone within reach of this blog who is able to attend the meeting this Friday at the PAL Theater at 581 Cardero St in Vancouver, BC at 7:pm. Please send notice of your intention to attend to vfx@iatse.com.

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An Afternoon with Tom Sito -- Part I

Tom Sito has worked in most of the varied nooks and crannies of the animation industry -- animator, board artist, story supervisor, to name a few -- since the mid-1970s ...

TAG Interview with Tom Sito

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Born in New York City, Tom commenced his career in cartoons with Raggedy Ann and Andy, an animated feature helmed by Richard Williams, and has never looked back. He spent some years as a "roving gypsy" (his words), storyboarding and animating on features and television shows around the globe, going wherever the work was. That meant travel to London, Toronto, New York and points west.

Tom finally settled in Los Angeles, where he's worked for Disney, DreamWorks and Warner Bros. (among numerous others) and where he makes his home today. We spoke on a recent afternoon at the TAG offices in Burbank.

Copyright © 2011, Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE. All rights reserved.

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The Irrevocability of 3-D ...

The Wall Street Journal interviews Jeffrey Katzenberg.

[P]eople are willing to pay a premium for the experience, [he says], as long as studios don’t put out “crummy movies and crummy 3-D.” ...

... meaning of course, the cheap-jack retrofits of flat-screen movies that the studios can't seem to resist and hurt movie-goers' eyes.

There are 37,000 screens worldwide, and lots more 3-D movies in the pipeline, so the technology is going to be around for quite a little while, cheapie fake 3-D and all.

The format is not my cup of tea, but having seen a lot of these dimensional features over the past couple of years, I do think that Dreamworks Animation does the moving View Master thing better than anybody else.

(Watch the video interview at far end of the link. I couldn't figure out a way to embed it up above, despite the buttons.)

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Climbing to Profits

The overseas derby continues apace ... with Tangled/Rapunzel swinging high in the catbird seat:

'Tangled' Knocks 'Gulliver's' to No. 3 ...

... First place openings in 10 markets plus strong holdovers in German-speaking territories put the 3D animation retelling of the classic Rapunzel tale over the top. Foreign box office cume now stands at $179.3 million from playoff in about 55% of the international marketplace. Global cume is $355.2 million. ...

B.O. Mojo lists Tangled as owning a $260 million production cost. Unless Iger and Ross are now handing out internal company data to news organizations and internet websites (and I don't think so), I would take the production expenses found on the worldwide web with a couple of shakers of salt. Companies can ... and often do ... move accounting numbers around to suit corporate needs.

Last point: never underestimate cash flow, and note that Tangled's is now excellent, with dvd's, television and ancillary markets still to come. Other foreign accumulations for animated titles:

DreamWorks Animation's Megamind continued to be a strong draw Mexico ($1.2 million in its fourth round from 450 locations; cume $11.4 million), and grossed $7.8 million overall. ... Foreign cume is $149.3 million.

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Never Quit ...

Even when it's futile:

Disney still flogging away at its 'Toy Story 3' best picture campaign

... [S]ince Disney has been going around everywhere pronouncing the film as the best-reviewed movie of the year, couldn't it have used a more serious critic to wax eloquent on the ad than Scott Mantz from "Access Hollywood"? ...

At Oscar time, you go with the reviewers you have, not the reviewers you wish you had (who failed to mention the feature's director.)

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January Derby

Now with candy-corn Add On.

The Nikkster lays it out:

1. True Grit (Paramount) Week 3 [3,124 Theaters] -- Friday $4M, Estimated Weekend $13.5M, Estimated Cume $109M

2. Little Fockers (Universal) Week 3 [3,675 Theaters] -- Friday $3.6M, Estimated Weekend $13.2M, Estimated Cume $123.5M

3. Season Of The Witch (Relativity) NEW [2,816 Theaters] -- Friday $3.6M, Estimated Weekend $9.2M

4. Country Strong (Screen Gems/Sony) Week [1,424 Theaters] -- Friday $2.6M, Estimated Weekend $7.5M

5. Tron: Legacy 3D (Disney) Week 4 [3,013 Theaters] -- Friday $2.5M, Estimated Weekend $8M, Estimated Cume $146.1M

6. Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Week 6 [1,584 Theaters] -- Friday $2.3M, Estimated Weekend $7.5M, Estimated Cume $60.6M

7. The Fighter (Relativity/Paramount) Week 5 [2,528 Theaters] -- Friday $2M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $57.3M

8. The King's Speech (The Weinstein Co) Week 7 [758 Theaters] -- Friday $1.7M, Estimated Weekend $5.5M, Estimated Cume $32M

9. Yogi Bear 3D (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,288 Theaters] -- Friday $1.1M, Estimated Weekend $5.2M, Estimated Cume $74M

10. Chronicles Of Narnia 3D (Fox) Week 5 [2,814 Theaters] -- Friday $1M, Estimated Cume $4.7M, Estimated Cume $94.8M

Sadly, Tangled has dropped from the Top Ten, and the only animated characters now residing high in the box office lists (not counting the menagerie in Chronicles of Narnia) are Yogi and Boo-Boo.

Add On: Mojo has Tangled at #12, with $171.8 million now in the till.

Add On Too: Box Office Mojo gives us the (almost) finals:

9) Yogi Bear! -- $6.8 million -- $75.6 million -- (-45%)

10) Tangled -- $5.2 million -- $175.9 million -- (-47%)

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The Follow Up To Tangled

Obviously an action film. Obviously with sado-masochistic overtones.

And I say $200 million, domestic.

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Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1849

(Western) clothing optional*.

Come celebrate the New Year at the

ANIMATION GUILD NOT-A-HOLIDAY HOLIDAY PARTY!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Starts at 7 pm

Entire museum open until 10 pm

Party lasts 'til midnight!

Autry National Center of the American West

In Griffith Park across from the L. A. Zoo

Free food + Cash bar + Plenty of free parking

No RSVPs necessary

Open to the community of animation and the community of labor

Here is a flyer for the party

* NOTE: This is intended as a joke. Western clothing is neither required nor expected as a prerequisite for attending this party, although most of us would probably prefer that you wear something.

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Sales Prediction

The LA Times forecasts:

• DreamWorks Animation will push for a lower distribution fee with Paramount Pictures, but the Viacom-owned studio will probably resist. That could prompt DreamWorks boss Jeffrey Katzenberg to pair up with another studio or even sell the company outright. ...

I've long thought that DWA will be sold to a conglomerate sooner or later. It's the only stand-alone studio still standing. And that fact that it's stood -- and prospered -- this long is a tribute to Mr. Katzenberg.

You have to admit, it's a challenging business model (and the one Pixar used before becoming part of the Diz Co.): Produce a hit, produce another hit, then produce another hit. Rinse and repeat.

Obviously it's a tough high-wire act, and if DWA is sold in the next 24-36 months, I won't be surprised.

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You Can't Keep a Good Andy Down

Earlier today, this bit of news caught my eye:

... [S]ignaling India's growing presence in Hollywood, the visual effects and engineering division of Indian conglomerate Tata is buying a majority share in a Los Angeles-based kids' animation firm.

Tata Elxsi, which a year ago opened a visual effects studio in Santa Monica, has reached an agreement to acquire a 51% stake in A Squared Entertainment ... "We're really trying to create an animation studio of the 21st Century,''' said children's entertainment veteran Andy Heyward, co-president of A Squared Entertainment. "The advantage for us is to have the very best of the Hollywood entertainment community and be able to produce the animation in a very low-cost, skilled environment ...

"Low cost" and "skilled" don't usually go together in a single sentence, but this is Andy Heyward talking, friends and neighbors, the long-time kingpin of DIC Entertainment, which wasn't well known for tip-top quality (although it had a towering reputation for low industry wages.)

But we're thrilled that Andy H. is back in the game. We can start working to organize his newer company. (We got halfway there the last time, this time we'll go all the way to a signed contract.)

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$300 Million

Not a real good total, especially when your previous release earned $750 million.

... Foreign ticket sales for "Megamind" ... will likely surpass its domestic gross of $144 million eventually but not by much. ... That's in sharp contrast to last summer's "Shrek Forever After," which grossed $501 million overseas. ... One person familiar with foreign distribution ... noted that its main characters were humans and aliens and that many animated movies that perform well overseas feature animals. ...

I saw MM the weekend it was released, and liked it. But I don't think the "no animals" handicap was the main problem for the under-achievement. (Despicable Me managed to make-do without them.) Rather it was:

1) Having an outside producer (Ben Stiller) father the feature's premise. (The last time it was Jerry Seinfeld -- who's a terrific comedian but a less-terrific animation wonder-worker -- with the Bee Movie.)

2) Being the second "villain as protagonist" into the pool. Unfortunately Despicable Me got there first.

3) Having a movie with an American/urban setting. Monsters Vs. Aliens was the last in the DWA canon, , and it too under-performed in foreign venues.

DreamWorks Animation's other releases in 2010 had dragons, cats and pandas, all in settings far, far away. Both performed well. Happily, the next feature out of the gate will focus on a panda in China. The odds of higher grosses than Megamind are high.

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The WGA's Grabby Demand

We noted the WGA's "Pattern of Demands" back when they happened, but a few days ago I got a call from a Higher Up at our Mother International who said:

"You know, the WGA wants grab some of 839's jurisdiction again. We're not going to let that happen. They want animation writers, maybe we want live-action writers, hm?"

I've got to confess that I didn't have much reaction when I read The Reporter's original story before Christmas. The Writers Guild always asks for animation jurisdiction, it's in their DNA.

And then, after much huffing, puffing and rending of garments, the AMPTP says "No" for the seventh time and the Guild withdraws the proposal. Because WGA members aren't going to hit the bricks over animation jurisdiction, and everyone not wearing a straitjacket knows it.

So the animation proposal is tucked once more in the WGA's bulging leather satchel labeled "Hopes and Desires" until the next contract negotiation, and the parties move on to other topics.

Meantime, the IATSE would like to represent live-action writers. And why not? Fair's fair.

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Mark Kirkland Conversation -- Part II

"Back to Neverland" by Bob Rogers and Company.

More of the discussion with Mark Kirkland ...

TAG Interview with Mark Kirkland

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Prior to joining The Simpsons crew, Mark was a key player at Bob Rogers and Company, where he was involved in several Rogers' projects. Steve Moore recalls one of them:

After months and months of dead-end development [on a Disney World short about how animation was made], producer Mark Kirkland brought Jerry Rees on to take the project in a totally new direction. Thom Enriquez was hired to storyboard, and I was hired, I guess, because I was funny.

The three of us holed up for a week in a paneled conference room at Bob Rogers' Victory Blvd. offices ... Out of those sessions, came the pitch for "Back to Neverland." ... The idea was pitched to two junior mucky-mucks at Disney Feature Animation. Jerry and Bob did all of the talking. The junior-mucks did all the screaming. ... They objected to Robin Williams as being "not Disney." They objected to animating the tourist as a Lost Boy. One muck insisted the tourist be changed into an animal, preferably a skunk. ... When Jerry pointed out that there were no talking animals, especially talking skunks, in Peter Pan, the muck's head exploded. ...

Despite the explosions, the film got made, ended up a big success for years and years at the animation exhibit at Disney World, and ultimately aided Mark in getting a job on The Simpsons a few years later.

One project in animation often becomes a stepping stone to the next.

Copyright © 2011, Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE. All rights reserved.

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Around the Mouse House

I spent half the afternoon in and around the Hat Building, where I fell into conversatin with a Disney veteran.

"What we need around here is our own John Lasseter type. John Lasseter is down here once in a while, but he's mostly at Pixar. Here he just visits. We need a full-time guy who's the creative leader.

"We're riding on Tangled's success rignt now, but we have to keep it going. Get more stuff in development. Get people to step up and take charge. Management says we don't need an official green light to do that, that people can go ahead and do that. ..."

Me, I'm always a wee bit skeptical of pronouncements from management: "Oh sure! Just develop stuff on your own! See what sticks to the wall! Don't need any official ok from us guys!"

The problem with that is, it's like the new exec who tells you to come to his office if there's any problems, any problems at all. "My door is always open."

So you take him up on the offer, and three weeks later you're laid off ...

Elsewhere in the building, I came across a story artist who liked the art direction, animation and look of Tangled well enough, but didn't care for the story. He thought (among other things) that the girl, after being locked up for eighteen years, should have been more frightened out in the wide world.

I argued (politely) with him.

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Mark Kirkland Converses -- Part I

It's doubtful that Mr. Mark Kirkland envsioned himself directing episodes of the television show entitled "The Simpsons" two decades after starting, but that turns out to be what he has done ...

TAG Interview with Mark Kirkland

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Mark has helmed, as of this writing, sixty-seven half-hours featuring Springfield's yellow family. With luck, there will be sixty-seven more.

We sat down with Mark at his abode to record the latest of our oral histories spotlighting stalwarts of modern American animation.

Copyright © 2011, Animation Guild Local 839 IATSE. All rights reserved.

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The Indian Connection

After hunkering down in my office for the past week (no point in going to studios; nobody there between Christmas and New Year's) I journeyed to one of our signator facilities and dragged my bag of 401(k) books up and down various stairs.

In a second-floor hallway, I was button-holed by an artist who said:

"You know, they are sending some of our television work to India now. They used to say it was just going to be commercial work that went out. Now I hear some sequences for one of the features will get done in Mumbai. In four years, they'll probably do a whole feature in India. ..."

The "It's All Going to India" meme will be hovering over us forever, like some giant bird of prey. But outsourcing has been part of the animation landscape since Jay Ward sent Rocky and Bullwinkle work to Mexico in the 1960s, and Bill Hannah discovered the oys of Korean-Phillipine-Australian sub-contracting in the 1970s and 1980s.

And don't think it's only television. I pointed out to the concerned artist that Disney sent work on Little Mermaid to Shanghai in 1988-89, Hanna-Barbera's Once Upon a Forest was done mainly overseas, and Astro Boy and Alpha and Omega were Indian-American-Chinese co-productions, neither of which did gangbuster business at the world box office.

The days of the American "protective tariff" are long gone, and not likely to be revived anytime soon. But I'll state here what I said earlier today: Outsourcing has built-in limitations. Sub-contracting studios are about doing jobs for a price, which mostly conflicts with ambitious employees focused on doing the best work possible. ("We don't want it pristine, we want it Monday ..."). An ambitious, hard-working animator, modeler or designer on the sub-continent won't stick around to continually beat his head against frustrating glass ceilings. He or she will move on to Europe, Canada or Burbank, California.

Don't misunderstand me. Short of 1901-style importation laws, outsourcing isn't going to wither away and die anytime soon. Pixar now has one studio in Canada (where Disney Television Animation earlier opened -- and closed -- two.) DreamWorks Animation uses Mumbai facilities, and Disney's Touchstone Pictures is about to release Gnomeo and Juliet, a feature animated in Toronto. And the non-signator Illumination Entertainment created the high-grossing Despicable Me in Paris.

So what does the future hold? More animation work, but sizable pieces of it spread across the globe.

Animation studios in far-away lands, with a few doing high-level work while most grind out television-quality half-hours and low-rent, direct-to-discount-bin features.

Ultimately, animation production won't remain stateside because conglomerates have some patriotic yen to employ Americans, but because spotty foreign work and rising costs for product that is not spotty will make the employment of U.S.-based production crews not just a smart business move, but a necessary prerequisite for high theatrical grosses across the globe.

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More Collusion Fun?

Strange how the world spins. Today I got a call from a vfx employee at one of our fine, larger effects houses. (Non-union, of course, like most of them.) His project was wrapping up and he was getting laid off, so he was sniffing around for other work. And he told me the following:

"I sent my demo reels to a couple of different studios who're hiring, Studio A and Studio B. Both seemed interested. Studio A made me an offer, so I told Studio B I'd gotten an salary proposal, and told them from who."

"Studio B stopped talking to me, like instantly. I've e-mailed them and called them, but I've gotten no response. A week ago they were acting as though they wanted me. Now, nothing. But they're still advertising for people in my classification. You think they're colluding with Studio A?"

I told him I was of the opinion that they were. I also said that, sadly, there was probably no direct hard evidence to prove collusion, but there appeared to be circumstantial evidence. (On the other hand, maybe I'm an just an overly suspicious guy. Because I'm also of the opinion that bears shit in the woods, the sun rises in the east, and seasoned cement is hard when you fall on it.)

I've toiled in the studio and union vineyards for a few years now, and like I've said before, I've witnessed lying, cheating, and browbeating of employees by managers. I've read studio-drafted contracts that prohibited employees from exercising legal rights. (And when that failed, I've watched the good old standby of intimidation get practiced.) So I'm not under any illusions about the ethics of large corporations.

They don't have any.

If you've been paying attention, you've figured out that the basic rule in 21st century America is "Whatever works for us, we'll do. And if we get caught, we'll deal with it. Probably cheaper in the long run anyway." Which is why I long ago abandoned the concepts of "fair" and "unfair." Maybe those words have meaning and weight in heaven, but they're mostly parrot talk down here on the temporal plane. It really boils down to these two basic tenets:

Almost everything is arbitrary ... and everything is temporary.

You end up getting what you have the leverage to get.

I told the guy that there was no easy way to nail Studio B unless a stoolie came forward. ("Yes, your honor. We've had a 'gentlemen's agreement' against poaching with Pixar for years. Here's hard-copies of all the e-mails" ... Yeah, like that's going to happen.)

But I'm telling you, Virginia. Bears do shit in the woods.

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Miracle of Miracles!!

The doomsday stories of visual effects houses closing have been abundant with the recent closure of Cafe FX in Santa Monica. These stories generally circulate around the buzzwords "profit margin" and "globalization". In statements regarding the closure of CafeFX and Asylum, these points were used as the core reason for the studio closures.

In my post on Cafe FX closure, I postulated the following in the comments:

The global marketplace and current economic climate aren't reasons that effects shops are closing. Change is inevitable, the mettle and desire to deal with it is what wanes.

So, imagine my surprise when I read that my theory may be correct.

In a recent press release by David Cohen of Variety, Gravity Effects announced the opening of a Los Angeles visual effects office. Randall Hand commented about it on his VizWorld site. This is one of a few press releases made this year of the opening of visual effects shops in Los Angeles.

If the industry is collapsing around us and work is fleeing Los Angeles at the maximum speed possible on the 405, how in the name of good business could a company want to establish itself here in the City of Angles? The answer is simple: the work is here because the studios and the talent are here.

I'm not arguing that there aren't talented artists elsewhere in the world. When a studio has to establish a pipeline that stretches across oceans, costs increase and feasibility decreases. While subsidies help soften the blow, having the work done locally where modifications can be made quickly is always a priority that wants to be satisfied. Thus, local studios have a greater chance of succeeding in our tumultuous climate that is believed to be possible.

In the spirit of continuing to offer a counter point to the FUD arguments submitted regarding the downfall of visual effects in our fair burg, I'll be glad to keep up with such announcements and share them with you here.

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Great News for Starfish Lovers

The media announces an important happening:

"SpongeBob SquarePants" has been renewed for a ninth season.

... Nickelodeon, which airs the popular animated children's television program, has ordered 26 episodes, which also includes the series' 200th episode. ...

I congratulate the crew for the first eight seasons. There has been carping about a falloff in quality, but I think it's best to ignore the carpers. The show's artists and directors know how to turn out a program that a large number of people watch, and that is no small feat.

So salutations to the folks who've made Sponge Bob a cartoon icon. What with the renewal, pretty soon now they'll be moving into Yellow Family territory.

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Introducing our new website

We’re very proud to announce that we've completely redesigned the Animation Guild website from the ground up, and the result is now online at www.animationguild.org.

The new site was designed by OPM Design Group under the supervision of a committee of Executive Board members. It features all the information that was available on the old site: studio lists, contracts, wage minimum and survey information, Peg-Boards, benefit information and links, etc. Information is easier to find and print out. The members-only section has been eliminated and all its information is now public except for the job listing archive which is available for members through the e-mail list. There’s also a new section of Gallery 839 artwork past and present.

Take a look and let us know what you think. If you find any problems, please drop an e-mail to Steve Kaplan.

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Meanwhile, In Foreign Lands ...

... animation gallops along on the farther sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Disney Animation's "Tangled" has grossed $146.5 million overseas thanks to another $14.8 million in its sixth weekend at 3,802 venues ... DreamWorks Animation's "Megamind in 3D" pushed its international gross total to $134.5 million after an $11 million weekend at 4,938 [sites] ... "Shrek Forever After in 3D" [totals] $506 million ...

The fourth Shrek has now accumulated $744.3 million in world wide grosses, while Megamind is at $279 million. (It appears that Tangled will outperform MM by roughly the same ratio that it has domestically. The long-hared girl has now racked up $314.5 million.)

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Animation Box Office -- Weekend and Year

2010's box office is now in the history books, so let us review.

Animation for the weekend was:

6. Tangled -- $10,008,000 -- $168,027,000

14. Megamind -- $585,00 -- $144,146,000

* Despicable Me -- $169,000 -- $251,201,000

(In case you're wondering, Little Fockers and True Grit finished in the "Win" and "Place" positions, raking in $26.3 million and $24.5 million respectively. ...)

And at the domestic box office, animation had a hell of a year. Regardez vous:

1. Toy Story 3 -- $415,004,880

7. Despicable Me -- $251,201,000

8. Shrek Forever After -- $238,395,990

9. How to Train Your Dragon -- $217,581,231

11. Tangled -- $168,027,008

14. Megamind -- $144,146,000

When animated features are holding down six of the top fourteen slots, you know that the art form has not only arrived, but is throwing its weight around on a commercial level.

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The New Travelers to Animationland

To follow up on how animation has been increasingly successful (read "profitable") and pervasive over the past dozen years, the LA Times notes how the live-action community increasingly wades into the medium.

... With the extensive use of computer-generated animation, or CG, in movies such as the "Pirates" franchise, "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland," the lines are blurring between live-action and animated pictures in a way that Walt Disney himself could have scarcely imagined. That has created opportunities for directors, cinematographers and even production designers to transfer their skills from one medium to another.

"As live-action filmmaking, in terms of its process and tools, comes closer and closer to the way we've always made our animated movies, the crossover has been made much easier for filmmakers,'' said Bill Damaschke, co-president of production for Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation. "It's probably exploded over the last two or three years."

In a sign of that crossover, DreamWorks Animation recently partnered with Guillermo del Toro, director of such dark fantasy films as "Pan's Labyrinth" and such supernatural action movies as "Hellboy." Del Toro spends at least two days each week at DreamWorks, where he is writing and directing his first animated feature, "Trollhunters," a story about kids experiencing growing pains in a magical world.

"It's almost an irresistible medium to play in,'' said Del Toro. "I'm a filmmaker who is interested in truth and not reality, and I think there is great emotional truth and power to be found in animation." ...

Sure, the "lines are blurring," but it's more than that. Live-action filmmakers aren't coming to feature animation simply because many of the processes have merged. They've gotten their passports stamped and immigrated because "animated features" have become more legit in the eyes of the public. Just look at the grosses. (And yeah, there are holdouts. James Cameron heatedly maintains that Avatar is a live-action feature even though sizable chunks of it are animated.)

While it's true that live-action movies have become more like animated product, and animated features have taken on much of the visual sheen of their live-action cousins, the larger point is this: There is no longer a stigma to working in animation. Live-action writers might chafe under the fact that the scripting isn't under the WGA, but they still take the work. And live-action directors don't perceive the medium as step down in the industry pecking order, but honorable service in a co-equal branch of the business.

This wasn't the case twenty or thirty years ago. Back in the day, animation directors with lofty ambitions strove to climb to the sunlit uplands of "actual movies" shot on actual movie sets. Animation was a sleepy, backwater ghetto of the entertainment business that hard-chargers used as a stepping stone on their way to "real movie making."

By and large that's no longer the case. The times, as they say, have changed.

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The last of Ralph Hulett's Christmas (for this season)

Click on the thumbnail for a full-sized image

Obviously all the star polishing wore the mousy out, since now he's getting ready to tuck into bed.

Happy New Year!

© Estate of Ralph Hulett

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