ASIFA San Francisco, Newsletter March 1997

LOCAL MEETINGS The San Francisco chapter of SIGGRAPH presented a program with ILM staff members in Feb. on the making of Mars Attacks! Jim Mitchell and David Andrews were the presenters. For info. (415) 273-1105.
The North Bay Multimedia Association presented on Feb. 20 "Internet, Intranet, HTML and an Acrobat" with Richard Capone of Adobe. For info. (415) 721-1780.

SFPG ANNOUNCES SUSAN DETRIE NAMED SENIOR DESIGNER She is a Flame artist who had previously been with DesignEFX - Crawford Communications in Atlanta, GA. She also worked for Editel in Chicago as a Harry artist on national spots.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL OF SAN FRANCISCO DOES A SURVEY ON COMPUTER ANIMATORS IN THE BAY AREA The information is a bit vague but may be of interest to some of our members. For example they find "Employers reported some difficulty finding inexperienced applicants" as well as "some difficulty finding experienced applicants." 87% of companies offered paid vacation, medical insurance and sick leave, but only 53% offered dental and vision insurance, 27% offered a retirement plan and 13% offered life insurance. Hourly wages ranged from $8 to $15 for new hires with no experience, to $11.50 to $20 for new hires with experience. People with the 15 firms surveyed who had been with them 3 years made from $19.25 to $28.75 an hour.
The top 5 technical skills needed for job entry (on a list of 11 items) are "hand drawing, composition, and design skills; knowledge of color theory, understanding of art principles of weight, ballance, texture, form and physical motion; a 'good' demo reel and knowledge of traditional animation principles." The skills further down the list are knowlege of various computer techniques.

3D DESIGN CONFERENCE & EXHIBIT COMING TO SF JUNE 2-5, CANADIAN ANIMATOR WILL GIVE THE KEYNOTE ADDRESS Chris Landreth, who was nominated for an Oscar for the computer generated The End in 1996, will present the keynote address. For details about the conference call (617) 821-9224. To exhibit call Debra Barstad at (415) 278-5224. Or visit their web site at www.3Dshow.com Call either number for a free conference catalog. Registration fees range from $0 for an exhibit pass if ordered before 4/25 to $1195 for the VIP pass. There is a special unit on VRML.

SF STATE UNIVERSITY MULTIMEDIAL STUDIES PROGRAM OFFERS ONLINE COURSES AND TUTORIALS WORLDWIDE The press release is so confusing and hard to read that I'm not sure it even says what classes are offered. It does say there is live online access to an assistant 12 hours a day, technical support, a chat forum, private e-mail and other services available for students. For details call (415) 904-7700 or Robert Todd at 904-6969.

WONDERING WHY PIXAR STOCK WENT DOWN TO AROUND $14 A SHARE? NOW THE STOCK IS BACK UP Everybody knows Toy Story made lots of money. By the fall of the year it had grossed around $350 million. About $100 million of that sum is profit. It has also done well in terms of merchandise, video sales, etc.
According the The Economist the first Pixar annual stock report showed Pixar's share of the enormous profit was only $16 million for the first 9 months that the film was in release. While the profits from the merchandise may reach $400 million, "Pixar may get around $40 million." Guess who gets 90% of the profit?
The exisiting deal with Disney for the next two features didn't make the company look profitable for short term stock investors, so that is why the price of the stock fell according to the Economist.
On Feb. 25 the SF Chronicle reported Pixar and Disney had signed a new agreement that voided the agreement for the next two features. The next 5 features will be made by Pixar for Disney with Pixar getting a healthy 50% of the profits. The paper said they will be "equal partners in the films as well as in highly lucrative derivative products such as home videos, merchandise interactive media products and made-for-home-video sequels." When this news was announced the value of Pixar stock moved back to $21 a share. Disney also announced it would eventually own 5% of the company and that the 5 picture deal was for 5 pictures in 10 years.
There are other reasons why Pixar stock would have gone back up in value in the near future. There are hints that Pixar is working on secret projects for Disney. Pixar isn't talking about them, but they have said the company has doubled the size of its floorspace, is working on a second feature called Bugs and is just getting started on a third unnamed feature for Disney. At the same time they ended production on TV commercials, saying they needed the staff for other projects. If you see Animation Magazine you have probably noticed that for the last 3 or 4 issues the back page has been an ad for Pixar trying to find new employees. If they are expanding their staff and are not working on more TV commercials what are they doing with all that space?

The obvious possible projects are for Disney TV and/or the theme parks. As for Disney TV, Pixar's fabulous interstitials for ABC-TV are already on TV. I don't think a company would double in size to do them. That leaves three strong posibilities as to what Pixar might be doing. Since TV is limited to only a few basic formats they could be working on a series, a single TV special, a direct to TV feature, or a direct to home video feature like Aladdin Parts 2 & 3. Lasseter has said there will not be a second Toy Story theatrical feature. The Chronicle story on Feb. 25 said the sequel to Toy Story "is likely to be released directly into the home video market without going first to theaters." There is a rumor that the names of the voices artists will be announced soon.
Nothings is being discussed in public about Pixar doing work for the theme parks, but a Toy Story attraction would be a big hit. Since Lasseter loves stereo 3-D images that you view with glasses, perhaps a computer generated film to replace the Michael Jackson film in 3-D might happen. A Toy Story film that can only be seen in Disney theme parks would be a major new attraction. Mind you, this is only a speculation and it is not based on any tips or inside information. The project may not exist or it might be something totally different including CD-ROM stuff.
Whatever Pixar is doing I expect it will be exceptional.
Thanks Don Roberts for sending the news item about Pixar from the Economist. KC

MORE DISNEY'S TOP SECRET PROJECTS IN THE BAY AREA I recently asked a public relations person at a local production house about a contract they have with Disney to develop ideas for children's shows. When they got the contract it was a big deal. Now they can't talk about it because they now have a secret project in development. The contract between xxxxxxxx and Disney was a news item in our April, 1996 newsletter on p. 4 and the information came from a press release from the local studio. The item said Disney asked them to pitch ideas for both live action and animated series. Congratulations to you know who for working on a you know what for the mouse empire.
A few months ago I talked with a local animator who had been hired to work for Disney. When I asked him if I could run something about his leaving for LA he got up-tight. He had just signed a contract saying he couldn't talk about what he was going to be doing, etc. so I never ran a note saying congratulation to x on his new job.
A few years ago a Disney executive sent ASIFA-SF a company check for a membership along with an official contract giving Disney all rights to material provided them, total control of the content, etc. I sent the check and contract back saying they were nuts. A few days later another check was sent without a contract.
Disney has turned their animation empire into an uptight security conscious world run by Big Brother. Disney has become Orwell's worst fear. There is something very wrong when animators can't talk about what they are working on. If Disney was at war with Fox or MGM, I could understand the need for security on some projects. What does Disney have to fear - spies from Universal City? Is Woody Woodpecker trying to steal jokes from Mickey Mouse? Disney doesn't have any real competition. They are the best. Trying to figure out Disney is like trying to understand the mentally ill Nixon knowning he is on top, but still ordering his staff to spy on his enemies.

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