Please click this if you are here because of the fliers
About My Senior Project
Why I Chose this Project
My name is Soleil Aleman, and I am currently a senior at International Polytechnic High. My school is a bit different from a traditional high school, as we are required to complete a senior project that aims to better a community. At the end of the year, I must give an hour-long presentation on the problems within this community and how I contributed to addressing them.
For my project, I have chosen to focus on advocating for animators. This topic feels especially relevant today, given recent events in the industry. If you don’t know, a lot of people in this industry are being laid off, which is resulting in the soon-to-be death of TV animation. The animation guild has been doing negotiations trying to get better wages and working conditions for these animators. Cartoon Network was just recently shut down; it broke my heart. I’ve always loved cartoons and felt deeply connected to their storylines. Which I feel many can relate to. Cartoons have brought so many people together and have been a vital part of everyone's childhood. Through this project, my goal is to better understand the challenges animators face and bring attention to an art form that I feel is often overlooked in the entertainment industry.
But wait, there's a problem?!?
The animation industry is struggling. Not only is this hurting the shows we love, but it's also hurting the people who create them. Greedy studios are cutting budgets, which makes animators work faster on projects with less money and less job security. This makes it very hard for animators to be creative, which results in low-quality shows. These problems force many to leave the industry because they are no longer making a livable wage. With all these problems, animators have had to advocate for themselves. No one really cares about what's happening in the industry. The Animation Guild, which is their union, fights for better pay and working conditions, but there's still a long way to go, and if we don't bring attention to these problems and support animators, we will lose a beautiful art.
Budget Cuts
Going more into detail about budget cuts. Studios are reducing spending on projects, which oftentimes forces animators to work with limited resources. This not only impacts the quality of the final product but also impacts the creative freedom that animators can take. Shorter production timelines have also become a common pressure on animators. The more time that they spend working on these cartoons, the more money the studios will have to pay them. Obviously, the studios don't want to do that, so they are giving them shorter deadlines, expecting higher quality work, which in return causes the animator to work overtime with no overpay. This toxic environment also creates lower job security for workers, as studios often fire people and rely on freelancers to save money. On top of all of this, these unrealistic expectations that these studios implement kills creativity as animators are forced to prioritize speed over quality. In the end, all these shortcuts don’t just hurt the animators but it also hurts the audience as it leads to lower-quality shows.
Streaming Platforms
Streaming platforms have changed the animation industry by one hundred percent. On one hand, they’ve created more opportunities for animated shows with platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu funding new projects. But there is a downside to this. These opportunities often come with shorter seasons. This is because, after a certain amount of season, the studios are required to pay the animators more money, which is something they don’t want to do. So, with these shorter seasons, we have less job security for animators. A common term that we see is shorter contracts and lower pay. This makes it harder for animators to have stable careers in the industry. Another issue with streaming platforms is bad marketing. Some great, high-quality animated shows don’t get the promotion that they deserve. So if they struggle to find an audience, then their show just slowly dies on the streaming platform because it didn't get the right foot traffic. A running joke in the industry is that shows go on Apple TV to die. Just because Apple doesn't market shows correctly. On top of all of this, we just have so many different streaming platforms competing. You’re obviously not going to subscribe to a new platform every time you want to watch a show. Not everyone can afford this. However, the animated shows on these platforms are just slowly dying with low audience views.