If you've explored animation circles on Twitter in the past four months, you've probably seen many hashtags circulate among fans and especially people in the industry. #NewDeal4Animation is the most prominent of them of course, asking for less demanding work schedules and more reasonable pay in the current economy. But others of this sort have come up as well, such as #StoryCraftUnite regarding how particularly overworked storyboard artists have become, and #EqualPay4EqualPaint with how underappreciated their line of work has always been despite their importance. But while most of you have seen those tags around, not everyone seems to know exactly what they're about, or misinterpret them to be more about how the shows themselves are treated which are valid but completely irrelevant issues. So allow me to shed some light on the context within.
The Animation Guild is Local 839 of the IATSE, the governing Union body across the entire entertainment industry, from live theater to television broadcasts. Any studio where their employees are bound by the IATSE are required to follow certain protocols to ensure they aren't completely abused by the corporate system. There has actually been major discussion on how the rise of streaming has led to the major entertainment studios (their governing body being known as the AMPTP) denying those involved in such productions of proper compensation due to it still being deemed 'new media', to the point where the entire union was a hair away from outright going on strike last year. But negotiations still needed to be held between each local, and as of this writing they have remained in a standstill since November - and many truths have come out regarding how people involved in the animation industry tend to particularly have it bad. This sparked the hashtag, NewDeal4Animation.
It's never been much of a secret that artists and other creatives within the animation industry has been treated far from ethically. How they are often overworked to the point of constant overtime thanks to overwhelming schedules all across the production pipeline. But what wasn't as well-known until fairly recently that people were very happy to shed a light on was the blatant discrepancy in pay; even though writing is the kind of work that sees little to no differences between mediums, animation writers are proven to be paid significantly less than that of your typical live-action programming, and don't even get any residuals after the fact. There's a constant mentality among corporate suits that the art form makes it free to revision at literally any point, despite the pipeline being much more complicated and more expensive by default. Also see how much this one animation writer for a major studio got paid for series bibles compared to WGA rates.
Not to mention the suits also thinking storyboard artists are capable of much more than they actually are; what started as a job more about sketching to get the basic gist of a sequence down, now is in charge of basically the entire, cleaned-up animatic process, giving them vastly more of a workload without any real means of offsetting that. This is even true for pitches and pilots, despite them being meant to be little more than a proof of concept, as what happened with Craig McCracken when he was developing "Kid Cosmic". Not too long ago, many artists talked about the unusually generous schedule and budget put into "Arcane", which allowed for more complex cinematography, much more immersive environments, and near-flawless presentation; and this is well reflected by how much other western cartoons vary vastly in technical quality. Sometimes, they're rushed out for the sake of mass-producing content or because the budget only allows the team to remain employed for so long or even limiting the size of the team itself.
Speaking of which, the rise of original streaming content within has resulted in many upsides for the players but just as many downsides, the latter of which become increasingly visible over time. I've touched upon some of these in a previous editorial, but they were largely from a consumer perspective. Sad to say, it gets a lot uglier on the other side. One that was always visible to us was the habit of splitting production seasons to two or even more when releasing, with WarnerMedia and Netflix being by far the biggest culprits on this front. Many who look deep enough knew about this for several years, but only in recent months has it come to light that this is purposely done so the companies were able to gain additional hype for themselves and acting like they did a good, all the while they're denying raises that are contractually required for additional pickups. This came to a head when a Netflix-branded account pretty much lied about renewing "The Cuphead Show" in a now-infamous tweet, which many already knew was 48 episodes split up prior to that point.
But the mere release isn't where the faults end. At first, it was looking like those in charge of these services would be much more hands-off and allow total creative freedom. And to an extent, this appeared to be the case. Netflix alone has given us masterpieces like "Bojack Horseman", "Hilda", and "Green Eggs & Ham"; even across other streaming services, they appear to have a distinctly bigger production budget than your average cable cartoon, really blurring the line between theatrical and television quality sometimes. However, as more companies jumped on the bandwagon and more competition arose, the need came for content to be more mass-produced than before - especially the kind people would want to subscribe for. While in many ways, it was great in adding work opportunities for potential artists, not only were the gigs shorter-term than before, but the increased consolidation meant there are fewer options for them and fewer ways to counteract some of the more problematic causes. Namely, the need to shift toward focus toward IP-heavy properties or based off famous names in order to get people invested.
Sure, these aren't problems that those in the industry are currently in a position to fight with a potential new deal, but they're nonetheless very relevant to corporate types skirting around unions and taking advantage of the artists who have to accept whatever work they can find.
However, people getting underpaid or the products not ending up with the best treatments are one thing, and for many like myself, this was easily enough motivation to push the tag. But as the weeks went by and as the studios refused to budge, all of a sudden the stories started to become noticeably more personal. Gene Goldstein talks at length about when he was in an incredibly troubled, problematic work environment. There was one person who was pretty much guilt-tripped into missing out on their grandmother's funeral. And of course, why it seems the vast majority of creatives have managed to put up with it (beyond the obvious livelihood reasons): those who studied to get in the field were effectively 'weeded out' thanks to art school being just as, if not, more demanding in nature. The air became much more dreary, which - along with tone-deaf announcements like the aforementioned Cuphead Show's tweet - helped bring the tag to new heights. But the fact it had to come to this is, put simply, quite depressing.
With how much people have frequently complained about this on the inside, one must ask: how does this keep going on? Why are they able to persist? Well, one big reason commonly given is the logic is simply that "it's all how it's always been" - blatantly ignoring the raised expectations and how pay rates haven't raised alongside both it and the economy in general. In addition, studios tend to not fully comprehend how budgets and scheduling tend to correlate; their attempts to save on production costs unknowingly leads to fewer artists on staff and less time for that team. And that's not even getting into how the bigwigs simply don't have much of a respect for animation in general, being a much more intricate and expensive medium by default. No matter how much it kept Hollywood alive all throughout the COVID pandemic thanks to the ability to mostly work from home, much of what we got from that seemed to be either mass-produced for the sake of getting content out there or undermarketed and screwed over in some other capacity.
But I think the biggest source of perpetuation here is simply how so much of what goes on behind-the-scenes is kept under wraps. Up until the rise of social media, the only way anyone could find out about what goes on within production is either the odd choice encounter or a special featurette on home media. Corporate exploitation would only really be shared amongst their peers and other close contacts. But now, any person logged in can say whatever they want to as large an audience as they have., although there's obviously the chance of being fired or outright blacklisted for badmouthers your employers. Needless to say, the average consumer isn't aware of the abuse going on, and the studios seem to consciously know this and use this to their advantage. But it's not the 90s anymore; they have had enough and are actively setting out to be as transparent as possible about their work and prove they aren't as expendable as the higher-ups constantly think.
So, what can we do as lowly consumers? A lot, to be honest. The most obvious actions include spreading the hashtag #NewDeal4Animation, or any other tag tossed into the mix at any time like #StoryCraftUnite, along with signing the petition that's already well over 15K participants. But that's only the tip of the surface; really listen to what they have to say about their experiences and what kind of change they're asking for. I can only do them so much justice on my own, being a lowly enthusiast. And even after everything is all said and done, pay attention to the many artists and creatives who make all your favorite shows what they are. Their individuals contributions should never be understated, and it only further validates their skillset and capabilities in the eyes of the public, possibly planting the seeds for a bright future. But above all else, know to take care of yourself and not get too wrapped up in their drama. As much as they are asking for your support, they don't want you any more stressed than them.
They make all this for our own entertainment, after all, and with a happier animation crew, comes new generations of inspired artists who are happy to bring their stories to as wide an audience as possible.
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