New business models? Part 1.

It appears that LA Times published an article about the Sony Imageworks relocation. Or partial relocation, whatever the case may be. It provides a little more information regarding where the studio would go and how many people would end up there initially. Anyone that comes here regularly knows that I hate outsourcing. When a US based business ships their stuff overseas to get it done on the cheap, it really ruffles my feathers. However, just for the record, I'm okay with this New Mexico move.

It doesn't thrill me that work is moving out of LA, but, I would much rather see it move somewhere else in the States than out of the country. Sorry my Canadian brothers. I'm okay with your homebrew productions, that's cool, but that is where I draw the line (not that I can't blame you for taking advantage of the situation).

So, how long until California starts offering tax incentives to keep productions here? It will probably not happen for a while, but if they wish to keep one of the biggest industries in Southern California producing income for the area, they are going to have to do something. Let's face it, the cost of doing work here is expensive. The only reason to keep it (feature animation production) locally is because of the talent pool (in numbers and experience) exceeds every other part of the world (extreme bias here) except for maybe San Francisco. And even that is going to shift if something isn't done.

Part 2 will be focused on "that new studio" that I keep barking about. I'm editing and re-editing it in order to say something without saying anything.

Imageworks toying with moving?

First off, everyone here knows about Sony flirting with the idea of opening shop in New Mexico. The tax incentives make it attractive to the company and since the studio seems to be hemorrhaging money they are thinking of possible solutions. Some of the comments in my last post seem to suggest "if you build it, they will come". Seriously though, does that always work? If Sony opens a studio in NM, will many people really pack up their lives and move to a one pony town? I realize the cost of living is lower there (and you can be assured your income will drop too), but is it worth the gamble? If Sony goes through with it, I guess we will find out.

The above isn't really news. Now that I think about it, neither is this. However, I've heard that Sony is also flirting with a satellite NorCal studio. I'm not sure what they would do there, maybe just a way to steal talent local to the area. This btw, is unrelated to another move to the San Francisco area - the Zemeckis thing.

Meanwhile, back in Culver City, I've been told that they are down to a pretty small crew working on a couple of shows. If you believe the people I talked to, they don't have much lined up right now. Surf's Up is done, their next SPA film is a ways off and they don't have many pure Imageworks fx jobs.

I don't know what any of this means or how true any of it is. Perhaps I am just spreading rumors. Whatever the case, I'd like to see Imageworks and SPA succeed. I enjoyed Open Season and Surf's Up looks pretty good too.

The majority of LA Animators don't live on the west side.

So where do the majority of LA based CG animators live? The obvious thought is that most reside around the Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena area (or atleast within a relatively easy commute of). However, there are a ton of smaller to mid sized shops on the West Side. Could that possibly add up to more?

Why would I even care? I guess I really don't, but the conversation came up with someone and it is extremely important to him. And since I can't think of anything better to blog about...

He is going on the impression that most of the experienced feature talent live closer to Disney and DreamWorks than the West Side. I question if that is true. If so, I wonder how easy it was for SPA to get the creative talent to jump over the hill to Culver City. Some of the people I know over here (Burbank) would rather live on the street with nothing more than a shopping cart to their name than deal with the commute.

So I ask you, my loyal group of 2 readers. If you were to start a studio in LA, where would you put it to take advantage of the people?

Wow! Happy Feet sucked.

Has it really been almost two months since I posted to this blog? Apparently so! I'm sure there is no one reading this anymore, so I suppose I'm free to say whatever I want.

First off, during my blog hiatus, I saw Happy Feet. What an utter piece of crap that movie was. Completely ignoring the motion capture, the story was just ridiculously beating the audience over the head with that environmental message. I'm just as much for saving the planet as anyone else, but this was not entertaining at all. Taking out the messages, the story was uninteresting and boring. If I weren't in this business, I would of walked out of the theater (or in my case, shut the DVD off). The character designs were also horrendous -- down right ugly and unappealing.

I'm not exactly sure how it won the Oscar. Were the other animated films that bad (or maybe my conspiracy theory isn't so crazy after all)?! This wasn't exactly a banner year for our business, but Happy Feet shouldn't of come anywhere near even being nominated.

What a piece of crap that was.

Conspiracy Theories

The posts seem to be coming weeks or even months apart. I guess that's what happens when you lose interest in your own blog. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing when I find the time. Finding that time is the hard part.

It's a first! I made a point of avoiding the Academy Award show and all the hoopla surrounding it. I feel so much better for it. I've been so successful, I don't even know who was hosting! How is that for commitment?

Regardless, I still know who won in the animation categories. First off, congrats to the person who made The Danish Poet. She won in the short film category and I can't express how nice it is to see an independant win. Goes to show that the studios can't flex their muscle everywhere.

Happy Feet won for the best animated film. There are plenty of people arguing that the film shouldn't even be considered animated. I'm going to surprise a lot of people here and say that I disagree with that. Maybe they did use motion capture, but the end result is comes across as animated.

Don't worry. My feelings about motion capture haven't changed. I still think a film like Happy Feet is a terrible place to use the technology. Keep it to animated/live action films on human characters. Not cartoons. I have a couple of very dedicated motion capture defendants that constantly email me trying to prove their point that mocap is the future and that I should accept it. I do accept it. Just not in cartoon projects.

To my friends that love to send in that pro-mocap email BS, I'll stir things up in your focused little brain once again. Real animators dont work on motion capture projects by choice. They would rather the whole performance comes from them, not some guy on a stage. If someone choses to work on a mocap project and considers themself an animator... I would argue that it is A) They think it is just a stepping stone for them, B) they cant get a job elsewhere, C) their animation skills wouldn't cut it on a purely animated film. Stick to games, stunt doubles, and animation for live action movies.


Now back to my conspiracy theories. First, I really don't take this seriously or believe it myself, but I want to throw it out there to just start a rumor.

A) The reason Pixar didn't win either the feature or short film categories is because they are now owned by Disney. Everyone knows that the Academy has it against Disney animated projects these days. It has nothing to do with Cars being a boring movie that offered very little beyond eye candy.

B) The reason Happy Feet won is because the Academy in general hates animated films. They chose to pick something that was as close to a live action (mocrap) film as possible. If it has to be animated, they want to see real actors, directors, talent employed. Not just lowly animators or animation directors. (If you haven't noticed, in Hollywood, the animation community is considered the ugly red headed step child of the industry). (Please, no hate mail from ugly red headed people. It is just a saying.)