I can’t tell you how many times I have had this debate with people. No matter what studio you work at; we all know there are always those artists who will work insane hours through the entirety of a production to meet unrealistic expectations. If you work in the animation industry and are reading this, that artist is probably you, or else it WAS you at some point in your career. All I can say it: Whoever you are, if you are working past the hours that any production is asking you to do – STOP. PLEASE.
I mean that across the board; whether you are working in VFX, 2D, Television, Feature, whatever. Every minute that you work beyond the hours you are paid is not only devaluing the labour of everyone else in the industry; it is devaluing your own. When people complain art is too often paid for with “exposure” and “recognition”; this is why that happens. Because inevitably artists are always willing to put in the extra hours to create a product they’re proud to put their name to. To present something that they’re proud of aesthetically… only to have it picked apart by the “client” and transformed into something completely different. But there’s always the hope… that maybe this one… this one time…
I understand why a lot of artists do it. Your reel and/or portfolio are your calling card; you want your reels to represent your best work, all of your skill, all that you’re capable of. The reality of a production schedule is that you’re normally not able to fit your “best” work inside the ‘x’ day turnaround you’ve been given and “oh by the way can you also fix these 5 things from the last shot/sequence/episode/prop/BG and still hit quota?”
Unlogged hours means you can work around that. They mean you can work a little harder on this shot/sequence/episode etc and MAYBE get less notes in the next pass. It means you can hone in your skills a little, push a little further, and get better and faster for the next show/movie/gig. They mean you can make things a little smoother moving forward for your team, or the artists down the line. After all, you’re the one willing to put in the work, it’s not hurting anybody, right?
It gets even worse for leads and Supervisors who are expected to make any type of quota. So much of your day is divided between helping different members of your team that there’s almost no time for you to meet your actual quota yourself, even at half. Or else you’re so concerned about hitting that quota that you’re only giving your team half the attention they really need and it’s keeping you, and them, for really pulling up their game, improving in a meaningful sense.
The truth is, as well meaning as your intentions and your actions might be; you are not helping. In fact you’re hurting everyone down the line way more than you think. I couldn’t tell you how many conversations I have had with people where they mentioned what kind of quota they were able to achieve on the last show, and why should this show be any different? As a production staff member, it’s really hard to argue against those numbers.
Yes, you can always take into account the complexity of a show vs. another, or a couple of added factors. Smart people can see into the multiple variables that go into any show and pull them apart to prove why a certain deadline or quota is or isn’t attainable. But as artists or supervisors, when you’re complaining about why schedules aren’t feasible or attainable – Your unlogged hours of overtime are what is setting that bar. Every. Single. Time.
Budgets are built based on an average amount of quota that’s achieved based off of previously comparable shows, films, etc. If you know anything about averages, you are well aware of how outliers can pull and average well up or down. So here’s the wake up call: your unlogged hours are what is creating those outliers. Every time you produce a much higher quota than the rest of your team because you’ve worked more than a 40 hour work week, you’re contributing to the next show/movie etc. having that much tighter of a schedule than the last one, because producers will (justifiably) use that average to consider how much an “average artist” is able to output a week or a day.
This isn’t to knock down overachievers. If you can truly fit an obscene amount of work into a 40 hour work week; more power to you! There are rare cases of people who really are just that good, but those rare cases are just that: RARE. Impostor syndrome is a real thing, it’s not uncommon for a lot of artists to feel like they are under-performing, and so, those “harmless” extra hours are really just their way of “catching up to everyone else”. Except that when everyone else is just “catching up” what standards are we ACTUALLY trying to catch up to?
The same goes for the production staff enforcing these schedules. Our jobs are hard and demanding, there are a lot of things we CAN’T fix or control, but if an artist says they need overtime or extra time to complete a task, it’s up to us to stand up for them. We need to figure out how we can work together to achieve it or we need to be willing to talk to people above us and give them a wake up call as to what they’re really asking for. We have all heard it a thousand times before, and we HAVE to be willing to let go of either quality, time, or money to make these schedules work. As a whole crew we need to talk to each other, push and pull and negotiate to where we can meet in the middle and find that ugly compromise where we’re all equally unhappy. Or even better; the pretty one where we’re all equally happy!
I love my job. I love this industry. In all its nightmarish hellish madness. But there are so many things that need to come together and fit just right in order for a production to work. This is a big one. It’s a little part that every single one of us can do to stop feeding the “unrealistic schedule” monster.
I know plenty of people might disagree with me on this one. So let’s chat. What have I missed?
Upside Down Flight 