With all the discussion of animation that goes abroad in the land, there is rarely any mention of one of the key resources of the professional animation artist, the union.
In New York animators are represented by the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 841 which was founded in the late thirties, a time when unionism was building and growing. Actually, the cartoonists of the popular characters of that period, such as Popeye and Betty Boop, were among the last of the film trades to organize.
Of all the creative groups artists were always considered the least likely to seek organization in a union, or at least that has been the popular myth. The animation field as based on the collective employment (and exploitation) of hundreds of talents in order to bring forth a product that looked as if it had been created by a single hand. The public often knew no other name than that of the producer, which served to create a brand or star name to better sell the product but furthered the betterment of the anonymous artists' working conditions nary a bit.
The myth of the sensitive independent artist was allowed to perpetuate itself because it gave many a studio owner an opportunity to exploit his help. Prior to the formation of the union, animators were required to sign contracts on an individual basis, which may have made them feel like movie stars, but like the actors kept them under the control of the studio for a period of time so that they couldn't dash off to a competitor.
The animation field has come a long way from those happy days when cartoons were only expected to be found in the neighborhood theater and possibly in educational films at schools. The use of graphics in motion can now be spotted wherever film or video is employed. No longer are the efforts of animator expected to come predominantly from the United States, but from almost any nation in the world. In the early days of the animation medium artists were trained in studios, today there are schools in various cosmopolitan centers of the globe which teach the rudiments of the trade to many young and receptive minds. Animation is no longer the province of a few studio managers or even a thousand paid professionals, animation belongs to anyone who wishes to pursue it, be it for financial gain, art or just for pleasure.
This increased interest in the obsession of making drawings move has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand it creates a pool of fresh new talent ever waiting in the wings to step in and pick up a pencil or a computer and give it a go. On the other hand it creates a state of anxiety for both producers and professional animation artists as well.
Having thousands of willing young hands ready to do battle with the daily animation grind might seem like an excellent benefit for a studio manager to use for rush assignments or to hold over the heads of dissident employees, but the reality is something else.
Turning out a superior bit of commercial animation for the satisfaction and scrutiny of clients paying increasingly higher bills requires the use of seasoned professionals. That's where the union comes in. It's not enough that someone be talented or even enthusiastic as many of the up and coming generation undoubtedly are, but studios need people who are experienced. When one is new in a field he or she may ask a lot of questions, but when a person is well versed in the many subtleties of the trade, they know the right questions to ask. By subscribing to the union a studio can be assured of obtaining talents that are ready to pick up an assignment and bring it to a finished state in the most direct and professional manner.
Still, the influx of new talent that is busily reinventing the business is a source of insecurity for animators who are normally an insecure bunch to begin with. Long associated with studios that have accepted their abilities and offered it to the public as the work of anonymous hands, they are sensitive to every stirring in the wind that might mean the loss of their livelihood. While it is not unusual for animators to have turned their talents to related fields such as illustration for magazines or writing or teaching, years learning and practicing their highly specific art has made most of them too overspecialized to simply turn around and adapt to areas that are precise and demanding in their own right.
When animation people are anxious they turn to their union, more specifically to their business agent, for advice, for help or for just someone to harangue and argue with. At Local 841 the business agent is Gerard Salvio.
"In 1974, I inherited an ailing organization," says Salvo in the cadences of someone who grew up on the streets of New York. The Screen Cartoonists union, though its name implies the animation of rabbits and ducks, also numbers among its members optical effects technicians and television graphic artists. At various times there were often more effects personnel than cartoonists, such has been the variances in the demands of the commercial field. Salvio himself came to the union through the ranks as an optical camera operator. Upon his election to the business agent job there was some disappointment among animation people who felt that the position should be held by an animator.
Much of this feeling has dissipated under the weight of day to day realities. Gerard Salvio is in there everyday doing the job which can require the combined talents of administrator, mediator, father confessor, challenger and referee.
Most animators are reticent to take on such a position, preferring the world of their lightboards as the place to express their many sided personalities. What they have come to realize, more or less, animator, inker, painter, checker or camera operator, is that Salvio is in there, day after day doing what has to be done. He is sympathetic to their interests. Working through the union office, which has a two person full time staff, to handle the union welfare plan and annuity fund; Salvio carries on union business. Top Cel, the monthly newsletter, is edited by Judy Price. At the meetings the members can have the say on the conditions and policies that affect the whole organization.
Presently Local 841 is in negotiation with the producers in the city who are well aware of the problems besetting the business. Many of those who operate animation and optical houses are former members and officers of the union and the field is young enough to contain producers who worked their way up through the ranks and are aware of the problems. Around the bargaining tables, the discussions will undoubtedly be heated. Such issues as, competition from outside the city, and concern for the technologies that are infiltrating the field, come up for review.
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