Posted by Dave Brewster on June 06, 1999 at 16:20:45:
I just reread Jons last posting and something just irked me more than usual. Jon, you claim to be of the mind that you dont consider yourself *brilliant* yet you seem to have decided that YOU all of a sudden know why things are shipped overseas. You, like your other dogma spouting studio reps blame artists for *scoffing* at deadlines and blowing budgets for studios shipping things out. BS. You and I are due to have this out Jonny, so lets not wait.
A. Prove I have *scoffed* at ANY budget or deadline. Proof. You know, the evidence that backs up things you say.
B. Surviving by taking advantage of people ISNT hard, surviving and being FAIR is. Fact of life.
C. Despite the fact you claim to be doing it here in the US , what is this reference to your building a studio in India ?
D. I think you are going to have to prove to us all that it wasn’t just cheaper labour market that got the shows taken overseas. Prove to me, right here and now that ANY compensation the union would have made would have kept work here. The numbers just dont support you. Get over it, they were going to ship the work out PERIOD. It was money , pure and simple. Stuff your blame.
E. I’m really sick of your condescending attitude mister. I have only been in the US for 5 years. I’m on an O-1 visa for exceptional ability. During the time that LA was suffering the strikes I was working outside the US in one of your NONUNION studios (aka a SWEATSHOP). Dont you ever fucking try and tell me the laws of nature Jon . I lived them. I’ve seen the same smartass self important studio owners brag and swagger spouting *how they did it* when they merely added cheap labour. Jaded, I’m not jaded. I’m experienced. Is this what you tell novices coming into the business ? That anything that doesn’t agree with your rules of business is *jaded*? Now you are pissing me off.
F. Now here is MY theory. It’s you thats jaded. It’s you that are inflexible and single tracked. It’s you that thinks that people are children and must be trained by some kind of pavlovian reward system. That animation could be no better.It’s you that thinks that animation should be considered widgets and produced like factory parts. If TV is soulless it’s that because you and yours CHOOSE to make it that way. You babble how we should compete against the disadvantaged and how we are to blame for mass shipping of cheap work to other countries. Dont ever blame people for wanting a life Jon. It’s sickening. Self congratulations for working within an uncreative or exploitive system are hollow if you cant do better than just producing the widgets. Anyone can do that Jon. Anyone.The question is what YOU really want from it. You seem to love blaming , and I’ll indulge you if you want.
It brings to mind something my mother used to say to me as a child. *Eat your food because people are starving in India*. Now you have those people to help you prove how ineffective we all are at creating widgets. Good luck to you Jon.