Friday, August 18, 2006
1956: The MGM cartoon department ... plus one
The MGM cartoon department, 1956, by Ben Shenkman. Front row, left to right: Herman Cohen, Carlo Vinci, George Bannon, Joe Finck, Jerry, Tom, Scott Bradley.
Second row, left to right: Ken Southworth, Hal Elias, Bill Kirk, Bob Gentle, Jack Carr, Lovell Norman, Greg Watson, Ben Shenkman, Ken Muse, Irv Spence, Lew Marshall, O. B. Barkley.
Back row, left to right: "Nate", Mike Lah, "Max" Maxwell, Dick Bickenbach, Frank Paiker, Joe Barbera, Bill Hanna, Ed Benedict, "Lefty" Callahan, Art Goeble, Howard Hansen, Bill Schipek, and ...
... a young office boy named Jack Nicholson, better known later in his career as an actor. (Jack is in the upper right-hand corner, with crewcut. The story goes that Mr. Nicholson was offered a job as an in-betweener at MGM, but passed. Turned out to be a smart career move.)
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Of Picket Lines and Union Contracts...
Last week Earl Kress, the Animation Guild's Vice President, motored over the hill to picket with the writers of "America's Top Model." The scribes are having a dust-up with management as they try to get a WGA contract. They have hit the bricks, and welcome anyone who desires to come and hike up and down in front of the building with them. I plan on joining Earl the next time he goes, but it hasn't happened yet...
I've done my share of sidewalk-pounding with a picket sign slung over a sweaty shoulder, and it's never easy. It probably wasn't easy in 1941, and it's less easy now, because now we're fighting the headwinds of corporatist times, a management that isn't inclined to give an inch, and the deep pockets of multi-national conglomerates.
Usually, it all comes down to leverage. You either have it, or you don't have it. And you know pretty quickly if you can move the big rock with the steel bar jammed under the little rock, because management caves in relatively short order. They want to talk. They want to "work things out." But when they are sweet and reasonable, it means one of two things:
1) You have them by the short hairs and they CAN'T get the work out unless you're back in your cubicle doing it (replacements being out of the question because of the skill-sets involved and the tight deadlines), and they HAVE to get the work out. Or...
2) They've done the math and calculated they can "go union" without busting the budget. So it's a cost-benefit thing. It's less painful for them to sign a contract than take a lengthy strike from angry employees.
In the middle of my middle years, I have become a cynic. I have no patience anymore for what's "fair" or "unfair." I read and watch too much news from too many parts of the globe to believe in earthly justice. For me, there is only what's "doable." And we'll see in a fairly short period of time if what the writers want from "America's Top Model" is doable or not.
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"Positively laughable ..."
This panel appeared in Daily Variety in November 1929 with the following caption:
POSITIVELY LAUGHABLE are these impressions of Walt Disney and his gang, as sketched by Jack King, one of them.* This is, of course, the father of the Roy Disney that we've all come to know. Walt had a small crew in 1929, just one of several in Hollywood making 7-minute cartoons. Little did we know that this little band would grow into an international conglomerate sixty years later. Click here to read entire post
- Ben Sharpsteen, artist.
- Ub Iwerks, artist.
- Win Smith, artist.
- Roy Disney, business manager*.
- Wilford Jackson, artist.
- Steve Millman, artist.
- Carl Stallings, orchestra director.
- W. Norman Ferguson, artist.
- Jack Cutting, artist.
- Walt Disney, master mind.
- Charles Couch, artist.
- Johnny Cannon, artist.
- Burton Gillette, artist.
- Merle Gilson, artist.
- Bill Cottrell, artist.
- Les Clark, artist.
- Jack King, artist.
- Carlos Manriquez, artist.
- Bill Lundy, artist.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Old inbetweeners refuse to fade away
By Virgil "Vip" Partch. Left to right: Sam Cobean, Tony Rivera, Bill McIntyre, Vip Partch, Reg Massie (foreground), Dick Shaw.
This probably dates from late 1941 or 1942, after the Disney strike in which they all participated. Along with Reg Massie and Walt Kelly (later of Pogo fame), Sam Cobean was in charge of publicity for the 1941 Disney strike. He was a frequent cartoon contributor to The New Yorker, and published several books. He was killed in a car crash in 1951. Tony Rivera was Grim Natwick's assistant on Snow White. He worked for UPA, John Sutherland and DePatie-Freleng. He was one of the original Flintstones layout artists, and continued working for Hanna-Barbera until shortly before his death in 1986. Bill McIntyre was in and out of the animation business for many years; at one time he also ran a bookstore in Laguna Beach. During WWII, Reg Massie was in charge of special effects at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center in Astoria, L.I. In the late 1940s he worked for George Pal, designing several of the Puppettoons such as "John Henry and the Inky-Poo" and "Rome-Owww and Julie-Cat". He went on to be an art director for such magazines as Stage, The Reporter and Gourmet; he died in 1989. (His son, Jeff, has been the Guild's Recording Secretary and Assistant Business Rep for longer than he would care to admit.) A close friend of Vip Partch with whom he shared a love of boating, Dick Shaw is the only one of this group who returned to Disney, as a storyman on Make Mine Music and Donald Duck shorts. Later he went to UPA where he wrote dozens of Magoo shorts. None of them ever exactly faded away, but they never went back to inbetweening, either ... Click here to read entire post
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Nick's Current Productions
Nickelodeon Animation Studios -- along with Cartoon Network -- is probably one of the steadiest 'toon producers out there. I go through Nick's colorful halls, and there are always lots of artists working (different artists at different desks at different times, but most certainly working.) Here's the stuff they are doing right now...
“Go, Diego, Go” is producing 20 new episodes for its second season; “Ni Hao Kai-Lan,” a new series for the 3 to six-year-old set, is doing 20 episodes.
“Avatar” is working on 20 episodes for its 3rd season.
“Sponge Bob Square Pants” – a cartoon icon if ever there was one, has 20 episodes in work for its fifth season.
“Tak” (it's a video game! No, it's a SERIES!) is in its 1st season with 15 episodes. “El Tigre” is in its 1st season with 13 episodes, as is “Random Cartoons.”
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The WED crew, circa 1965
Below, from left to right: Herb Ryman, Ken O'Brien, Collin Campbell, Marc Davis, Al Bertino, Wathel Rogers, Mary Blair, T. Hee, Blaine Gibson, X. Atencio, Claude Coats and Yale Gracey.
This is a group photograph of Disney artists in the WED (now Disney Imagineering) parking lot in Glendale, circa 1965. They were studio veterans who had moved over from Burbank to work on Disneyland attractions... Herb Ryman had been an art director on "Fantasia" and "Dumbo." In later years, most of his artistic expertise focused on Disneyland and Disney World. Ken O'Brien had been at Disney a quarter century. Designer Collin Campbell labored on the animation side of the Disney empire for the better part of a decade before coming to WED. Marc Davis needs no intorduction to Disney buffs. Marc had a long, glorious career in feature animation before joining the WED design team. Al Bertino labored in the 'toon vineyards a long time before joining WED. (He'd been an animator, storyman and writer at Disney's and a host of other studios. A bit of trivia: Bertino was the inspiration for "Big Al" in "Country Bear Jamboree." See a resemblance, now that we mention it?) Wathel Rogers came to the Disney studio in '39, and was (in '65), a little over halfway through his 48-year Disney career. Mary Blair had worked at the studio off-and-on since the middle thirties, and had designed "Small World" for the '64 New York World's Fair and then Disneyland. Thornton Hee was a renaissance man who never stayed in one place very long (this letter from T. Hee sort of explains why). Although a director on "Pinocchio," he was in and out of Disney's for years, doing lots of other things in-between. Blaine Gibson worked in effects animation at the studio before sculpting at WED. X. Atencio came to the studio while still a teenager and remained almost fifty years. At this period, he was probably writing the songs we hear in "The Haunted Mansion" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." Johnny Dep should thank him. Claude Coats had been a long-time background artist who shifted over to design Disneyland attractions after "Lady and the Tramp," his final animated feature. Claude worked for Disney for over fifty years before his death at age 79. Yale Gracey was a Disney layout artist for over twenty years before making the jump to WED in '61 (around the same time as Marc Davis.) I think what made this group so creative and able to think outside the usual amusement park box is, they all came from other disciplines. It must have helped, since much of their work is still on display at the Magic Kingdom half a century later. Click here to read entire post
MGM, 1940: Winners and losers
As in any sporting endeavor, the 1940 MGM Golf Tournament had its losers (from left to right: Bill Littlejohn, Pete Burness, Carl Urbano and Jack Zander) ...
... and its winners (George Gordon and Sid Ising). Not surprising, perhaps, that the artist was George Gordon.
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
El Disneyo and Personal Service Contracts
Today a chunk of my eight-hour shift was at Walt Disney Feature Animation...
John Lasseter is on vacation; when he returns the studio will hone in on what short-subject it wants to be making (the short subject, I'm told, to be of the hand-drawn variety). And the features in development seem to be moving forward briskly. The "Frog Princess" story crew has had encouraging pitch meetings for Ron and John's hand-drawn project, but any official greenlighting for full production (like animators, like layout artists, like background painters?) is out quite a ways.
Several artists asked me about what happens now that Disney is ending its long-time policy of having everybody under Personal Service Contracts. I said I thought the result will be more flexibility for artists -- if they want to exit for a better job, they'll be able to. But the other result will be that wages might be a tad lower, since nobody will be focused on pushing them up during their PSC negotiations. (No more contracts to haggle over; no more automatic bump-ups year over year.)
Of course, the company has put the word out that they'll frown on people jumping ship in the middle of a production and "will remember" the treachery of the artist or technician who jumps ship, so woe to him who wants to come crawling back. There's some truth to this, I suppose, but I keep remembering Jack Warner's tirade back when one of his production execs ankled at an inopportune time:
"Never let that bastard back in here!... Unless we need him!"
More often that not, sooner or later, they need you. Especially if you have a highly-valued, in-demand skill set.
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Vip on Ollie Johnston: The good and the less good
In the late 1930s, Virgil "Vip" Partch (1916-1984) worked as Ollie Johnston's assistant. (Ollie, of course, was one of Disney's "Nine Old Men.") Above, Vip shows how Ollie felt after a director complimented him on a scene ...
And here, Ollie's reaction to a scene that maybe wasn't met with the same euphoria.
My father had several well-worn volumes of Partch cartoons around the house when I grew up. In the front of one of them was a cartoon Vip had drawn in it saying "To Roof from Vip." Above the inscription was a picture of Virgil watching my father paint palm trees on a voluptuous woman's backside. Pure Virgil Partch. I only wish I knew where the book...and that drawing...were today.
Vip left Disney after the 1941 and went on to fame and fortune as a comic artist, contributing to Collier's, True, The Saturday Evening Post, and the newspaper panel comic Big George.
More of VIP's work here.
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End O' Week at "King O' Hill"...
As I've said before, "King of the Hill" is back at its old location near Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood, up on the second floor of a cinder-block building that has a "chemical contamination" sign at the front entrance. (Reassuring.) I zipped in and out of there a few days back...
Crew spirits are good, but the crew has a different configuration than it did during the original hundred-episode run that ended last December. Everyone was laid off for four months before FOX decided (as it decided with "Family Guy") that DVDs were a wonderful, lucrative money-spigot, so more episodes were in order.
By the time that decision was made, various personnel had picked up gigs elsewhere, and so there are now new faces working alongside the old. One large change: the layout department is no more. In its stead, storyboards are now worked on in some detail by character and layout people, but Fox/IDT Entertainment has eliminated the big bullpen on the second floor that was filled with layout artists.
Now, when layouts are done, they're done within the smaller squares of the production boards. The show is doing 20 new episodes, which should last into the Spring of next year. After that? It depends, we suppose, on how ratings and DVD sales go for Hank, Peggy, Bobby and the rest.
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Monday, August 14, 2006
An Organizing Lunch
Every so often a group of us I.A. reps have lunch to discuss how we're going to
garner support, then representation cards, and finally contracts from companies of interest (that's reality shows, or animation studios, or game companies, or live action shoots.) Friday was one of those lunches...
We're agreed on various things: companies have deeper pockets and often more leverage. Unions often start from ground zero; trying to get info about who's working at a non-signator company sometimes means going through dumpsters, knocking on doors, making lots of phone calls. It usually means building support one employee at a time. And waiting for the right moment to start "a campaign" (no point in doing it when everybody is happy and content; better to wait until management does something stupid and/or greedy -- often the same thing -- which alienates employees.)
Various war stories got told: Like the group of editors who the Editors Guild thought might be kind of iffy about voting YES in an NLRB election...until management -- determined to defeat unionization -- started squeezing them hard, calling them into mandatory meetings, reading them the riot act. And the final vote? 100% for the Editors Guild, much to the surprise of management. And the Editors Guild.
Sometimes I'm surprised entertainment unions and guilds organize any company at all. I've been around long enough to remember when the I.A. repped maybe sixty percent of medium to large-budget movies, maybe twenty percent of low budget flicks, and a diminishing amount of television work. (What the IATSE repped on cable was virtually zip. A couple of producers used to write the IA President snotty letters saying they would NEVER sign an I.A. contract.)
The fact that, over a decade and a half, the I.A. clawed its way back to 90-100% representation of theatrical, cable and television work is a testament to the tenacity and creativity of I.A. organizers...and the venality of many producers. Which isn't to say unions/guilds don't make mistakes. Union and guilds fight among themselves (not always good.) And we talked about how, how a couple of weeks ago the Writers Guild pulled writers off a reality show with ten of thirteen shows already done, which probably wasn't a real swift move because when most of the shows are finished, your leverage is like, nil.
We also discussed the future. There are whole industries out there (video games, for instance) that work employees eighty hours per week as a matter of course. It's not for nothing that I get phone calls asking for information and help about "going union." The challenge, of course, is that we're starting from ground-zero in an industry that is now bigger than television and movies. So the task of getting to signed contracts is, ahm, challenging.
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Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Weekend Numbers
In what now seems like a rare occurrence, no new animated features opened this weekend, but there are still five of them in the weekend box office chart. The surprising Talladega Nights scored number one again, with 23ドル million, though it had a 51% drop from it's opening weekend. Oliver Stone's World Trade Center was a disappointing third (it was expected to do much better), and the craftily marketed Step Up took second...
Barnyard continues to surprise, beating forecasts again with a little over 10ドル million for fourth place and a smallish 36% drop from the previous weekend. That's far from Cars numbers, but it now stands at 34ドル million. Monster House took 10th in its fourth weekend, with 3ドル.3 mill and a 63ドル+ million cume.
Things went from bad to worse for The Ant Bully, slipping to 15th place after a 54% drop in its third weekend (1ドル.7 million for the weekend, and 22ドル.4 million total). Cars inched close to the 239ドル million mark, putting it in the ballpark of Toy Story 2 (245ドル.9), Monsters (255ドル.9), and Incredibles (261ドル.4). And Over the Hedge eased past the 154ドル million mark in the late stages of its domestic release.
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Saturday, August 12, 2006
The Exploding Blogosphere. And Our Teensy Little Corner of It...
When Kevin and I started this blog five months back, we knew we were jumping into a growing area of the internet. At the time, we had no clear idea of just how growing it was...
But our mission remains about as it was when we started. We're narrow-casting here, to Animation Guild members and those interested in animation. We'll continue to cover the business, the people we represent, the history.
We're sure you'll let us know when we're lousing up.
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Friday, August 11, 2006
The Academy salutes Norman McLaren
A week from today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will honor Norman McLaren with a screening of 13 of his short films (all remastered and restored) and a panel discussion with Charles Solomon and two of McLaren's former colleagues. My first exposure to McLaren was in a UCLA animation class, and I remember still thinking about the films for weeks afterwards. He was truly a groundbreaking filmmaker and artist, and at 5ドル a ticket this event shouldn't be missed...
Here's more information on the event:
A Salute to Norman McLaren
Featuring 13 short films newly remastered and restored by the National Film Board of Canada, in celebration of 65 years of animated film production at the NFB of Canada.
Hosted by animation expert and author Charles Solomon, the program will explore McLaren's life and work as well as his influence on the visual culture of Canada and animation worldwide. Among the films will be McLaren's Oscar-winning short documentary, "Neighbours" (1952), and his Oscar-nominated live action short, "A Chairy Tale."
Joining Solomon will be a panel composed of McLaren's former colleagues, including Ishu Patel and Chris Hinton, both of whom are two-time Oscar-nominated animated short film directors.
Friday, August 18, 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills (8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills). Free parking is provided in the garages located at 8920 and 9025 Wilshire Blvd. For additional information, call (310) 247-3600.
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Who knows what Fantasia means, anyway?
Here's a fun Blast from the Past...
You might be wondering what the above Disney memo is. Well, it's a "joke" Disney memo, on actual Disney memo-paper. It's twenty years old, and has had a looong half-life. Here's its story:
Back in 1986, a few months after Peter Schneider was installed as a pooh-bah at Disney Feature Animation by Eisner-Katzenberg-Disney, it was decided by the corporate chieftans to change the title of "Basil of Baker Street" (then at the tail-end of production) to "The Great Mouse Detective."
Many in the story department weren't pleased with the new name. And story artist Ed Gombert, then as now a puckish wit, grabbed some blank paper and dashed off the above. And shared same with his fellow animation employees. (Here's the text, in case the image above is hard to read):
To: Animation Department
From: Peter Schneider
Along with the new title for "Basil of Baker Street" it has been decided to rename the entire library of animated classics. The new titles are as follows...
"SEVEN LITTLE MEN HELP A GIRL"
"THE WOODEN BOY WHO BECAME REAL"
"COLOR AND MUSIC"
"THE WONDERFUL ELEPHANT WHO COULD REALLY FLY"
"THE LITTLE DEER WHO GREW UP"
"THE GIRL WITH THE SEE-THROUGH SHOES"
"THE GIRL IN THE IMAGINARY WORLD"
"THE AMAZING FLYING CHILDREN"
"TWO DOGS FALL IN LOVE"
"THE GIRL WHO SEEMED TO DIE"
"PUPPIES TAKEN AWAY"
"THE BOY WHO WOULD BE KING"
"A BOY, A BEAR AND A BIG BLACK CAT"
"ARISTOCATS"
"ROBIN HOOD WITH ANIMALS"
"TWO MICE SAVE A GIRL"
"A FOX AND A HOUND ARE FRIENDS"
"THE EVIL BONEHEAD"
And of course our latest classic destined to win the hearts of the American public...
"THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE"
Since most of the story department hated the new title, much merriment ensued. And ANOTHER animation employee (who I won't name because he hasn't given me permission), mailed a copy of the fake memo to Katzenberg. It turned out that Jeffrey K. was neither merry nor amused when he read it. In fact, he was angry. In fact, he asked new executive Schneider just what the hell was going on. Peter S., of course, had no idea, since he hadn't written the thing (even though his name was on it) and in fact knew nothing about it. There was an attempt to find out who the author of the memo was, but no culprits turned up.
And there the matter would have ended, except that an EX-Disney employee, over the objections of his wife, mailed a copy of the memo to the L.A. TIMES, which instantly published a story about it after asking various embarassing questions of Disney execs.
And there the matter would have ended, except several years after THAT, the game show JEOPARDY picked up the article about the memo and used the above for a series of questions about Disney.
When we track down the LA TIMES article from '86, we will put it up here for your amusement and edification. In the meantime, the specimen above is amusing enough, don't you think?
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UPA: Winning Awards is Fine Revenge. But It's Tough to Beat the HUAC
UPA animators in 1954, posing with their Oscar for "When Magoo Flew". Top row, left to right: Dick Shaw, Maury Fagin, Ed Friedman, Gil Turner, Barney Posner, Bob Dranko, Earl Bennett. Bottom row, left to right: Bob McIntosh, Al Wade, Pete Burness, Rudy Larriva, Bob Brown.
(Another entry from Tom Sito's Drawing the Line, this one about a little studio with a large impact...) United Productions of America was a studio formed in 1944 by renegade Disney and Warner Bros. union artists who wanted to explore new artistic styles... Through Columbia Studio, UPA distributed some brilliant cartoons. Every animator sick of cutesy cat-chases-the-rat cartoons flocked to UPA. Animators there talked about Søren Kierkegaard, the Bauhaus, and new trends in art like the work of Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. Former Looney Tunes gagman Ted Pierce would thunder at story meetings, "Are we discussing anything funny? I do funny!" Art Babbitt took a background painter's cardboard palette with random multicolor drips and drabs and framed it on a wall. He invited the "arteests" to expound on the aesthetic virtues of the new work. Despite such clowning around, the revolutionary styles and subject matter of UPA broke new ground and affected animation done around the world. Arguably, no studio since Walt Disney exerted such a great influence on world animation. Director Gene Deitch wrote, "UPA was born at a time before cynicism set into our culture. We all really believed." Small wonder Warner Bros. director Friz Freleng joked, "When I die, I don't want to go to Heaven, I want to go to UPA." Yet the blacklist reached out to the UPA happy home as well. While the studio attracted the newest styles, it encourage the same politically progressive thinking seen in much of the rest of the community. Background painter Jay Rivkin wondered during her first week if there were any other politically-minded artists among her office mates. So she walked through the hallway singing "Spanish songs," meaning Spanish civil war songs from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: "Fly higher, and higher and hy-er! Our emblem is the Soviet Star!" In no time at all, many voices joined in with her from the other offices. Because the little Los Angeles River drifted by both UPA and Disney, Walk liked to refer to UPA as "the Commies down river." On July 29, 1946, Steve Bosustow, a former assistant who had walked the Disney picket line, bought out his UPA partners, Dave Hilberman and Zack Schwartz. Columbia chief Harry Cohn, who owned 20 percent of UPA's stock and their vital distribution deal, ordered Bosustow to enforce the blacklist. The alternative would be to lose all their contracts. Union activists and other suspected Reds like Hilberman, Schwartz, Bill Scott, Armen Schaeffer and Phil Eastman were hounded out of the studio... The staff saw Academy Award-winning director John Hubley's firing on May 31, 1952, as a particularly ominous sign. Bosustow reported all his actions to HUAC and then joined the conservative Hollywood Producers Association to allay any fears about his own political views. The Producers Association had an exclusive contract deal with the IATSE, so by signing with them Bosustowdisenfranchisedd the SCG (Screen Cartoonists Guild) from UPA. Bosustow's former leftist party affiliations were successfully covered up. UPA would survive, cartoons would continue to be made, but the dynamic spirit was gone... "After that episode I think I lost heart," Bosustow later confessed. "It was never the same after that."... In 1959, UPA lost its exclusive distribution contract with Columbia. Bosustow sold UPA to a businessman named Henry Saperstein, who turned the emphasis from theatrical shorts to making television shows like "Mr. Magoo" and "The Dick Tracy Show." Animator Carl Bell recalled: "One Friday we saw Steve and Mr. Saperstein having drinks on the veranda outside the studio overlooking the L.A. River. Afterwards they called a staff meeting and told us not to worry; our jobs were in no danger. The following Monday the pink slips were handed out." ... -- Tom Sito Click here to read entire postThursday, August 10, 2006
The Mid-Week Studio Romp
Two studios, two franchises...
I continue my March through the storied San Fernando Valley. Here's what's happening at a couple of the studios there...
Universal Cartoon Studios is housed up on the 25th floor of Universal-NBC-GE's Black Tower. Today when I drove into the parking garage at the base of all the steel and glass, a studio security guy in blue shorts and shirt got a trifle agitated when I mistook him for a delivery man and failed to stop when he started gesturing at me. (Because of the problem with suspicious liquids on British planes, studios are ramping up security.)
Universal Cartoon Studios has a core staff working on a few jams and jellies. The direct-to-video feature "Land Before Time #12" is now in the can, and "Land Before Time #13" is well into work. (Is it just me, or could this title be turning into a franchise?)
The studio is also working on 26 half-hours of the new "Land Before Time" television series. (Hmm. I think it IS a franchise...) Other projects at the big U are 20 additional half-hours of "Curious George," and there's some early development work going on with "Babe."
Over at IDT Entertainment-Film Roman-Liberty (this is the studio next to the Bob Hope Airport), work continues ramp up on "The Simpsons" feature. Each week, I see more and more artists who normally work on "The Simpsons" series up on the third floor down on the first floor where "The Simpsons" feature is housed. A number of series artists anticipate spending time on the CinemaScope verion of Homer's family before production ends in late Spring of next year.
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Easing stress
Baer Animation staffers, early 1990s. From left to right: Frederick DuChau, Jay Jackson, Cal LeDuc, Dave Nethery, Tomi Yamiguchi, Sadao Miyamoto, Alejandro Reyes, Mike Polvani.
See how times change, the more they stay the same? This caricature (artist unknown) shows many of the stalwarts from Baer Animation, a nifty little animation shop that started in 1984 and closed up a half dozen years ago. (The place was a much nicer studio at which to work than this drawing would indicate. We all get frustrated here and there, don't we?) Jane and Dale Baer were two Disney veterans who met at the studio and married, and in 1984 struck out on their own by founding their own studio. The job that really put them on the map in a big way was their studio's work on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Baer Animation anchored an L.A. animation unit for that film, turning out twelve minutes of animation that supplemented the work of Richard Williams's staff in London. After "Roger Rabbit," the Baers went on to produce dozens and dozens of animated commercials, as well as a large part of the animation for the theatrical "Tom and Jerry" feature directed by Phil Roman in the early nineties. (The studio's credits are numerous and extensive, as seen in the links above). As to where some of the artists in the caricature are now? Well, animator Mike Polvani is still going strong; artist Tomi Yamaguchi remains busy with layouts and storyboards; Dave Nethery was down in Florida a few years back, working on "Brother Bear;" animator Jay Jackson is now hard at work on "The Simpsons" feature. And animator Frederick Du Chau has moved on to directing live action. Click here to read entire postUnion Milestones
Here's is a bare-bones primer on the benefits milestones that every Animation Guild member should be aware of:
1 year*: vest** in the Individual Account Plan (IAP)
5 years: vest in the Defined Benefit Plan (DBP)
10 years without a break in service***: the DBP formula improves by about 30%
15 years: qualify for retirement health benefits****
20 years: eligible for Reduced Early Retirement*****
30 years: eligible for Special Reduced Early Retirement or Unreduced Early Retirement******
There are a few other milestones, but those are the main ones that union members should have in mind as they navigate their careers. These milestones also highlight the need to keep track of how many union hours one is working in a given year, to make sure you'll have as many qualified years as possible.
*By year we mean a qualified year -- 400 hours worked in a single calendar year counts as a qualified year. For example, someone hired full-time at a union studio in early October, and laid off in late March of the next year, would get credit for two qualified years even though they'd worked less than six total months. Likewise, someone hired Jan. 1, 2005 and working full time through the Feb. 28, 2006 (i.e., 14 months of actual work) would have one qualified year (2005), but would be a little short of a qualified year for 2006. The moral here is to keep track of your hours, and try to get some overtime or have your term extended by a week or two if you're going to fall a little short.
Also, remember that qualified years can come from any union studio. Two years at say, Cartoon Network, followed by a year at Film Roman, followed by two years at Disney count the same as five years at any one studio.
**Vesting is the granting of credits toward a pension even if separated from the job before retirement. Your pension is locked in once you're vested, and will be waiting for you when you hit retirement age.
***A break in service would be 10 quarters without union work. What this means is that someone who worked 10 union years, had a break in service (e.g., they worked 3 years nonunion), then put in another 10 years at union studios, would have a slightly lower DBP monthly annuity at retirement compared to someone with 20 years with no break in service (assuming they work the same number of hours).
****It's 15 years if at least 3 years are worked after the age of 40; otherwise the threshold for retirement health benefits is 20 years. So, theoretically, one could start in the industry at age 21, work 19 straight years at union shops, and still be a year short of qualifying for retirement health benefits. Or one could start at age 25, work 15 straight years, and be three years shy, while a 15-year worker who started at age 28 would be all set. Yes, it's a little arbitrary, but it used to be 20 years across the board.
Also, realize that these are health benefits that kick in at retirement age, not from the time one earns the benefit. Therefore, if one qualifies for this benefit and leaves the industry at age 50, that person would still wait until age 65 for the retirement health benefits to kick in.
Addendum: In addition to the yearly requirements, one also needs 20,000 hours to qualify for Retiree Health coverage.
*****Reduced Early Retirement will give you 49% of your pension (DBP) started at a retirement at age 55, progressing up to 69% at age 60, and so on. The closer to age 65, the closer the percentage is to 100%.
******Special Reduced Early Retirement requires 30 qualified years and 60,000 credited hours, and will give you 71% of your pension (DBP) at age 55, progressing up to 92.8% at age 59. Unreduced Early Retirement (100% of pension benefit) can be taken at age 60 with 30 years/60,000 hours, or age 61 with 30 years/55,000 hours, or age 62 with 30 years/50,000 credited hours.
More detail (much more!) on these and other benefits topics can be found at the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan website.
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Artists, Moolah, and Retirement
Twenty-plus years ago, I attended one of the Animation Guild's Golden Awards banquet, a ceremony where TAG celebrates artists who have worked fifty years (or close to) in the cartoon biz. While I was standing in the restaurant foyer congratulating a recipient on his fifty years, Disney veteran Joe Hale walked up and said: "Fifty years? This is the only business where you have to work fifty years. To survive..."
Two decades further on, I've come to see what Joe meant...
The animation business can be cold, cruel and abrupt. You're cruising along earning a good salary, happy with your job, thinking it's going to go on forever (or at least until next March) when you get called into a group meeting and told the project's shutting down and everyone will be laid off on Friday (except for Doris the production manager, who's "family.")
And suddenly you're out of work and scrambling. Two weeks before your unemployment runs out, you land another gig at a smaller studio for three hundred less per week, but you're happy to get it. You dig in and give the job your all. And eight months later, the job ends and you're looking for work again.
This, with some variations and exceptions, is the animation industry as many of us know it. Big salaries morph to smaller salaries. Long-term staff employment is followed by a year of free-lance work, then staff work opens up again and wages creep up a bit.
Through it all, lots of artists live paycheck to paycheck. And the thing I've noticed, lots of artists live paycheck to paycheck no matter how much they're making. I knew an animator at Disney who got laid off in the Great Bloodletting of 2002, when the last of the traditional animation staff was given its walking papers. He'd worked at Disney for over twenty years, made sizable bonuses, made big money in the last nine or ten years of his tenure. And within six months of layoff, finding no work, he was forced to sell his house (which was not small.)
Now, this is crappy, no question about it. But my question is, why would somebody who made steady money for two-plus decades, and beaucoup dollars for the last ten years, have to bail out of his domicile within months? A friend of his told me: "When Bill made more bucks, he spent more bucks. He had a Lexus, he had a monster-size house, he had a collection of artwork and rare comic books and lots of pictures of his trips to Europe. What he didn't have was a bank account."
It's a story I've heard a lot in the course of doing this job. When artists are in the chips, they cash in the red ones, the white ones, the blue ones, and party hearty. And when they're shut out of a place at the table, they have nothing in their metaphorical wallets on which to live. As a supervisor at DreamWorks said five years ago: "I drive a beat-up old Buick. Most of the people in my department are driving Jags and BMWs. They think the big salaries are the normal deal, no matter what I tell them."
Five years later, some of those people are surviving on smaller weekly paychecks in smaller places. Some are out of the business altogether. And renting.
Mind you, I don't wag my wizened finger at any of these folks. Twenty years back, I was just like them. I chased rainbows, I didn't save. I assumed, thirty-year-old idiot that I was, that next week would take care of itself. Now, of course, standing in the wide, sunlit uplands of Wisdom and Total Insight, I can look back at the twisting road behind me and see with crystal clarity the choices I should have made, the investments into which I should have put disposable income.
The reasons I bring this up now is, 1) the American savings rate is below zero, 2) saving is relatively painless if you're smart about it (and we don't necessarily have to mimic the American savings rate), and 3) when you reach middle age, you are going to wish like hell you had some cushion of savings to bounce along on.
The first order of business is to start saving. Put something into a 401(k) Plan (the Feds give you a tax break now to do it), then a Roth-IRA (the Feds give you a tax break later), then a certificate of deposit (the Feds give you nothing, but put the money aside anyway). Fund your accounts automatically, on the day you get paid. Set aside a percentage. Pretend the money isn't there.
Learn something about making investments. It isn't particularly hard, and if you're smart about it, the task won't take big amounts of time. Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal there was a column touting investment books; we give you three that are quite good below (two of the three are quick reads):
"Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor ," by John Bogle (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) This book from the former Vanguard chief provides good basics on how to think about mutual fund investing. Mr. Bogle, naturally, favors the indexing strategy that made Vanguard famous, while touching on other aspects of fund investing such as long-term planning, asset allocation and proper risk taking.
The Intelligent Investor Revised Edition," by Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig. (Collins Business Essentials.) Mr. Graham is famous for his book "Security Analysis," considered the bible of value investing. This book takes a more Main Street approach and provides excellent pointers on how to approach investing. Warren Buffett is one of the many Graham admirers in the investment firmament. Mr. Zweig, a Money Magazine writer, updates this classic with modern examples that outline Mr. Graham's still salient points.
The Little Book that Beats the Market," by Joel Greenblatt (Wiley). If you are looking for a quick investing read, this is for you, since it is, in fact, little. Mr. Greenblatt, a successful hedge fund manager, provides a sharply written, anecdote rich, easy-to-understand investing strategy that any junior high-schooler would understand. While the book boasts a "magic formula," it is basically a reiteration of an age-old theme: Smart investors buy good companies cheaply...
A book that I found real useful is a volume titled The Truth About Money ," by Ric Edelman. He pretty much covers everything about the long green that you'll need to know, and he's simple, clear and direct, plus his investment tips are good. (We give you one of his investment charts to the left -- which is self-explanatory, I think. DI-VERS-IFY)
The point is, no matter where you are with your career, you need to pay attention to saving for retirement (And to what you've already got. Cases in point: In the last couple of months, I've encountered several animation artists who've worked fifteen-plus years in signator shops that were astounded to learn that they get TWO pensions automatically. Most kew about the monthly benefit check they get, but they didn't know they get a BIG retirement lump-sum payment when they retire called The Individual Account Plan. They were delighted they had sixty thousand dollars sitting in an account in their name. I was surprised they didn't know...)
Moral of the story: start saving early. Even if it's a pittance, be consistent about it. By the time you reach fifty or sixty, you won't be worrying about what you'll do for eating money when your last employer waves you out the door into the waiting arms of Social Security.
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