Monday, October 20, 2008

If Art Babbitt Were Alive Today...

...he would be "blacklisted" as a troublemaker.

BUT...

it wouldn't be a blacklist by the studios.

It'd be by the animation artists.

Yes, blacklisting is around, but is it generally started by the studios when an artist rightfully complains about being taken advantage of, or is it started by their fellow artists who don't want to "rock the boat" no matter how many unpaid hours are put in to meet unreasonable schedules?

I've not talked to an artist that wasn't hired by the studios for standing up for themselves, but I've certainly met artists who don't get recommended by other artists for their loudmouths.

Read this and try to tell me that some of the parallels between then and now aren't happening.

Fast

Good

Cheap

PICK TWO OUT OF THREE

and...

DON'T PUNISH YOUR FELLOW ARTISTS WHEN THEY LIVE BY THE ABOVE.


Rolling over and being dead for the studios hasn't helped us before, why do you think it'd help now?

Where will your unpaid hours away from your family and life see you in 5,000 years? 500 years? 50 years? 5 years? 5 months? Unless you're a show creator, the most likely result you're gonna get is a lot of physical and mental anguish and the studios will keep right on going with unreasonable schedules and whispers of you "causing trouble" if you want what the law allows you to have.

If you don't stand up for what's right, it'll be GONE.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's true that artists are the ones currently responsible for the 'blacklisting' that goes on these days.
Artists are so fragile and so dogmatic about whichever animation god they worship (anime, John K, Brad Bird, Seth McFarlane, The Simpsons, Tex Avery, the Fleischers, etc. etc. etc. etc.) that if you don't happen to belong to the 'Genndy Tartofsky is the second coming of jesus h. christ' fan club then you are basically considered pure shit and these - your fellow artists - will make herculean efforts to see that you are never, ever allowed into their circles of employment no matter how qualified you may be.
There are a lot of demons in the industry... studio executives, shitty writers, unreasonable deadlines and 'tests' that don't mean anything... but those are all to be expected.
The reason our union is a joke and artists are mistreated is because there isn't the slightest bit of professionalism or courtesy among them. They'd all stab their mothers in the face if it meant getting that hot job or making themselves seem more talented than the next shlub.