Digital Domain files for bankruptcy

[robcat2075]

Not making much money at the CG thing? You've got some famous company...

 

Digital Domain Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

[Roger]

Didn't they do the effects for Armageddon? They must have been doing pretty badly if they are filing bankruptcy.

[robcat2075]

Didn't they do the effects for Armageddon? They must have been doing pretty badly if they are filing bankruptcy.

 

And "Titanic" and a whole bunch of other A-list films; they've been around since 1993.

 

Bad reputation as a place to work, however.

 

Their real problem is not that they didn't do fine work but that no-name independent and foreign VFX companies could/would do the same work for less money.

[Roger]

Isn't that the problem every industry is having, these days? Us Americans are just too expensive with our 40 hour weeks and not wanting to live in company housing and whatnot. Even if your salary was just $10,000 a year, you can't compete with someone working for 1/10 to 1/5 of that.

[robcat2075]

Basically, yes.

 

DD already had a bad reputation as a sweatshop with long hours, but there's only 24 hours in a day, i guess.

[robcat2075]

The essential problem for VFX studios is that, unlike feature animation studios such as Pixar or Dreamworks, they don't own the work they do, they are just paid to provide some part of a movie.

[Rodney]

I like the way you put that Robert.

The profits (and royalties) keep going up for the animation houses but keep dropping (or are non-existent) for the FX studios.

 

but there's only 24 hours in a day, i guess.

 

Interesting that you say that. While a considerably more minor element than salaries this is yet another reason that work will keep getting shipped overseas. Companies can stretch the 24 hour day considerably by having international crews. This use to be more of matter of working days and nights but when today is tomorrow night in another part of the world that gives you a leg up on the competition that non-internationals don't have.

 

The down side for US companies is that there is less incentive for Asian companies to ship to U.S. studios. In the process they lose at least what... 19 hours???

 

(we'll round that for easy math purposes)

 

Let's say we can save 20 hours x 200 animators/staffers at $10 an hour?

That's $40K salvaged in salaries alone.

But that doesn't account for the spread going the other way that shows the whole disadvantage/advantage on the low side vs the high side.

$40K saved against $40K lost spread out a net of 80K that could be gained or lost.

No wonder feature films cost so much.

 

Then... then... we factor in differences in salaries.

[robcat2075]

I read of one VFX studio that was making people work a 20 hour shift, then come back after four hours to work another 20 hour shift.

 

Probably the easiest way to cut costs is to just not pay the animators. There are several cases in Canada where a studio closed without warning having not paid anyone for weeks or months and eventually settling for a fraction of what they really owed.

 

And then Aja Bogdanoff, the 11 sec moderator, tells of having to work 100 hour weeks at Blue Sky for only 60 hours pay. I like to say about that "If it were a meat packing plant, criminal charges would be filed"

 

But it's show business...

[Rodney]

Looks like the taxpayers get to eat the cost of this debacle:

 

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/201...-employees.html

[fae_alba]

I read of one VFX studio that was making people work a 20 hour shift, then come back after four hours to work another 20 hour shift.

 

My daughter and son-in-law worked hours like that as a matter of course in the Disney Parks (Orlando), and for min wage.

 

 

And then Aja Bogdanoff, the 11 sec moderator, tells of having to work 100 hour weeks at Blue Sky for only 60 hours pay. I like to say about that "If it were a meat packing plant, criminal charges would be filed"

 

But it's show business...

 

That's working for a salary, and is not just show business. I work "free hours" all the time. It sucks, believe me!

[robcat2075]

And then Aja Bogdanoff, the 11 sec moderator, tells of having to work 100 hour weeks at Blue Sky for only 60 hours pay. I like to say about that "If it were a meat packing plant, criminal charges would be filed"

 

But it's show business...

 

That's working for a salary, and is not just show business. I work "free hours" all the time. It sucks, believe me!

 

The wrinkle in this is that, by law, animators are not in the "exempt" category that overtime rules do not apply to. It's one of the jobs explicitly defined as "non-exempt".

 

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/200...ertime-box.html

[fae_alba]

And then Aja Bogdanoff, the 11 sec moderator, tells of having to work 100 hour weeks at Blue Sky for only 60 hours pay. I like to say about that "If it were a meat packing plant, criminal charges would be filed"

 

But it's show business...

 

That's working for a salary, and is not just show business. I work "free hours" all the time. It sucks, believe me!

 

The wrinkle in this is that, by law, animators are not in the "exempt" category that overtime rules do not apply to. It's one of the jobs explicitly defined as "non-exempt".

 

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/200...ertime-box.html

 

That's interesting, never knew there was a distinction. BUT...if you read further down in the comments it seems that the labor laws were changed and the specific exclusion for animators was removed, leaving it more up to the employer to apply the exempt/non-exempt status.

[robcat2075]

That's interesting, never knew there was a distinction. BUT...if you read further down in the comments it seems that the labor laws were changed and the specific exclusion for animators was removed, leaving it more up to the employer to apply the exempt/non-exempt status.

 

Yup, I hadn't seen that. In the Blue Sky case they still seemed to be paying the employees as hourly employees not "salaried" but I suppose no one would win a case on that distinction in the current environment.

[fae_alba]

That's interesting, never knew there was a distinction. BUT...if you read further down in the comments it seems that the labor laws were changed and the specific exclusion for animators was removed, leaving it more up to the employer to apply the exempt/non-exempt status.

 

Yup, I hadn't seen that. In the Blue Sky case they still seemed to be paying the employees as hourly employees not "salaried" but I suppose no one would win a case on that distinction in the current environment.

 

My last boss kept saying "hey you've got a job, quit complaining." Fancy the choice words I had when he left, taking two others with him, to start another consulting agency to compete to the company he was working for.

 

Seems animation is one of those jobs you really have to love doing in order to survive the actual job. It's a wonder anyone actually aspires to working in the industry at all.