Kevin Geiger Talks Money

An insightful post by Kevin Geiger of Animation Options, The Animation Co-Op, etc., throws some light on the financial structure of animated films at the lower end of the market, and how it often pays to have modest targets when spending modest budgets. There’s a lot of sense in his argument. Read it here. Follow The Money!
Have a look at Kevin’s presentations from fmx08 on YouTube.

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Disney Goes To War – Updated

Disney's contribution to the war effort.

Toons At War is an excellent exposé of Walt Disney’s contributions to the Second World War effort. It shows graphics for military and civilian consumption as well as government driven civil programmes.
The U.S. government enabled the Disney studio to have “a good war”.

UPDATE: The author of the Toons at War blog has commented: -

Disney’s was the only major Hollywood Studio to have had a military unit stationed on its property during the war.

The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an anti-aircraft unit forcibly moved their men and equipment into many of the Disney Studio’s buildings, even going so far as to store several million rounds of ammunition under the sheds in the parking lot.

Disney created a lot of war-related product for various federal, state and local governments as well as many non-profit agencies like the L.A. War Chest and the United China Relief Fund. A lot of material was produced at no cost while most of the government work was billed with no mark-up for profit.

This war-related work helped the Studio survive at a time when overseas markets, which accounted for a huge amount of the Studio’s revenue, were closed as the Nazis marched across the European continent. If I recall correctly, by 1944 roughly 80% of the Studio’s revenue was being generated by just three countries: the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Animation Industry Survey by Animation Mentor

“Behind The Characters – Professional Animator Job Satisfaction, Career Outlook and Salary Survey Report” is based on the feedback of more than 3,000 respondents from over a dozen countries.

Register to download the PDF file.

Some of the highlights include:
• Animators are some of the happiest workers in America
• Motion capture and outsourcing are some of the trends changing the industry
• The earnings outlook for animators is bright and growing
• Animation is growing not just in films but in gaming, advertising and TV shows
• There’s a high sense of job satisfaction in the industry

To receive the report, all you have to do is to fill a very short form and answer the captcha. You will be sent a download link by e-mail. Here’s the link!
You can find Animation Mentor’s site here.