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Sony Pictures Animation Will No Longer Animate Its Films in the US

Shaka Zulu

Shaka Zulu

Commodore
Commodore
Basically put, globalization and outsourcing have come to CGI animation, and Sony, claiming that it costs too much to animate in the USA, is building a new facility in Vancouver:

The new Vancouver studio will be located in the Pacific Centre shopping mall, directly above a Nordstrom department store. Expected to be fully operational by 2015, the studio will have the capacity to house 700 employees. There is no word on what’ll happen to the approximately 270 Imageworks employees who currently work in Los Angeles, or whether they will be invited to relocate to Canada. Sony Pictures Animation’s development and pre-production teams, which number well over 100 employees, will remain in Los Angeles.*
Click to expand...


For me, although I should be flattered as a Canadian to see this, I'm saddened by seeing jobs be destroyed in California just to support jobs in British Columbia. This kind of thing isn't good for the industry (hell, it's not good for any industry) and it only makes one wonder if one day that same thing will happen to this facility in British Columbia.

*(the link's in the quote)
 
Will it just be the animation, or will some of the voice work be done there too?
 
The thread title had me worried. I was picturing Indonesian children in sweatshops, drawing animation cells for 5¢ an hour.
 
^ Instead, it will just be Canadian children in sweatshops at $35 an hour probably.

The shift to Canada isn't really a surprise, since Hollywood jobs have been moving there for over 20 years.
 
The animation industry is growing rapidly in India. Outsourcing of animation to India is underway and there's going to be a lot more of it in the coming years. There's a story about that trend here.
 
Melakon said:
^ Instead, it will just be Canadian children in sweatshops at $35 an hour probably.

The shift to Canada isn't really a surprise, since Hollywood jobs have been moving there for over 20 years.
Click to expand...

Except that said jobs don't pay what's commiserate with how long most animators work compared to the executives that run a company like Sony Pictures Animation, as was said by one of the commenters at the article.
 
Shaka Zulu said:
Melakon said:
^ Instead, it will just be Canadian children in sweatshops at $35 an hour probably.

The shift to Canada isn't really a surprise, since Hollywood jobs have been moving there for over 20 years.
Click to expand...

Except that said jobs don't pay what's commiserate with how long most animators work compared to the executives that run a company like Sony Pictures Animation, as was said by one of the commenters at the article.
Click to expand...

The definition of corporate America.
 
Shaka Zulu said:
Basically put, globalization and outsourcing have come to CGI animation, and Sony, claiming that it costs too much to animate in the USA, is building a new facility in Vancouver:

The new Vancouver studio will be located in the Pacific Centre shopping mall, directly above a Nordstrom department store. Expected to be fully operational by 2015, the studio will have the capacity to house 700 employees. There is no word on what’ll happen to the approximately 270 Imageworks employees who currently work in Los Angeles, or whether they will be invited to relocate to Canada. Sony Pictures Animation’s development and pre-production teams, which number well over 100 employees, will remain in Los Angeles.*
Click to expand...


For me, although I should be flattered as a Canadian to see this, I'm saddened by seeing jobs be destroyed in California just to support jobs in British Columbia. This kind of thing isn't good for the industry (hell, it's not good for any industry) and it only makes one wonder if one day that same thing will happen to this facility in British Columbia.

*(the link's in the quote)
Click to expand...

But can't you use the same argument for when a film is shot in the UK or Australia? For example 5 of the 7 SW films will have been shot in the UK the other 2 in Australia is that bad for Hollywood? Doesn't the question then become what made those locations more attractive? Labour Laws, incentives etc...
 
If that's the case it's up to the other markets to compete, after all isn't this just free market economics at work.
 
This doesn't surprise me. The US has been bleeding production and manufacturing jobs for decades, eroding the middle class in the process.
 
MacLeod said:
If that's the case it's up to the other markets to compete, after all isn't this just free market economics at work.
Click to expand...


Yeah, the way it works in Canada is, they'll attract producers up here via tax credits as incentives, which in the end becomes cheaper. In certain cases, the provinces involved will also chip in. The catch is though, to receive these credits, they have to make a case for canadian content in a way that would also benefit the Canadian industry, which often means hiring local actors and production crew. In a sense, that's how co-productions end up happening. Might also be similiar in how it happens in other countries as well.
 
^Actually, Amid Amidi loves anime (IIRC), or at least some of the people who work and comment there do.
 
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