An SA Pixar?

Problem is that animators here are treated like crap, often they will work 16 hour days with no overtime pay, in fact they often dont get paid at all. It happens way to often. Most talent ends up leaving for greener pastures overseas.
I am lucky to have a decent job in the game industry but many artists will get burned working for companies like A*" "*O*M*I*C, one person worked there for 18 months and when she left found out that they had not registered her for tax, they were taking that money for themselves. She works in London now.
Here is a quote from one of her posts on a local cg forum, "I earn almost the same amount in a single day now as I used to earn in a entire month when I worked at one of SA's "top" studios five years ago.

Here is a cold hard fact for you to consider: one studio I worked at charged their clients R4000 per day for each of us that were working on the project (one of the tarts in the office left a quote sheet lying around which we found). That was more than any of us made in a month. And that was quite a few years back so you can imagine how much they're charging now.

People need to stop bull*hitting and backstabbing because the SA industry is rife with petty, unprofessional politics and the exploitation I mentioned earlier.

One Cape Town studio that I worked at for some time still owes me money - I had to take them to court when I resigned, and even though they were ordered by the Dept Of Labour to pay up, they never did. They told the Labour Dept that I was a "spoiled brat" (their exact words) after I slaved away for them for 18 months, often until 4am, 7 days a week, on a ****ty salary without a cent of overtime pay or compensation. I am not the only person they owe money to, and I am one of many people who has taken them to court. They lie to people, they backstab people, and they badmouth you the moment you leave. They also gave me fraudulent tax documents - I had no proof of the tax that had been deducted off my salary for the entire time I'd worked there because I discovered that I was not registered at the Receiver of Revenue. Hmmm... I guess that tax went to buying the owners new cars instead. "

These same people own a few companies between them and their girlfriends, if one gets liquidated they just open another. It is sick.
 
That sounds like the "proudly south african" MO. Thanks for posting your experiences, it was an interesting read.
 
@dam: please submit this to carte blanche and/or special assignment. An expose will do the industry a world of good and it's a good start
 
There is lots of talent in SA, but sadly animators is most slavery pay sucks totally, "they"talk about the brain drain leaving the country pay better and people might stay hey?
 
You guys seen wickedpixel.com? Some really great local talent there.
 
BobbyMac said:
@dam: please submit this to carte blanche and/or special assignment. An expose will do the industry a world of good and it's a good start
Click to expand...

Yeah, that could help but remember these people have exposed over and over but the law protects them a lot more than the artists. They just keep opening new companies under different names.
The CG comunity is warning people not to work for them but there are always desperate artists who need the work experience and believe the promises of, "we'll start paying you once you have proved yourself", only to get dismissed after six months once the project is finished, this did happen to another artist working for the previously mentioned company.
They also degrade their artists, constantly telling them they are lucky to be hired at all because their work is not good enough, funny that these same artists end up working for studios like Dream Works and Pixar.
 
It's a free market (for both labour and studios), sounds like an opportunity for someone (like yourself and some talented colleagues - have you considered it?) to start a business in that market that "does things right" instead, and crushes the rubbishy competitors. (The fact that you have colleagues leaving for foreign studios suggests the free market is already partially 'solving' the problem ... better companies to work for that are willing to pay better wages attract top talent and succeed - as a better studio gets a better name, you'll probably in turn find more people knocking at the door to work there because of the name, giving you better choice of labour, and likewise the name allows better choice of top (higher-paying) clients to in turn pay the higher wages for the talent.)
 
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I know it's a lot of work, but why not get a collaborative feature going - I believe Toy Story was done like this before it was further produced and distributed by Disney - it's what made Pixar (this is what I was told, not sure if it's true)

Many of us here on the forum have got ties with people in the film industry, and I am sure that a good, collaborative effort can get a good foot in the door to start a world class studio with the multitude of talent in SA?
 
@BobbyMac - you are almost right about Pixar and Disney, Pixar produces the films and Disney just does the marketing and distribution for them. Pixar had a deal to do a certain number of films (I think it was 5 in total) through Disney but actually went to court to try and get out of it but failed.

Unfortunately I have no business skills at all so I am doomed to work under someone forever more, or perhaps a partnership one day but not anytime soon. There is so much potential, that you guys are right about. Luckily there are some good studios here, like Wickedpixel for example, where artists can work and get treated with respect.
 
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