Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Ever-Turning Wheel

Thirty-five and more years ago, fierce arguments broke out at Hanna-Barbera about American animation artists going overseas to train foreign artists and technicians. One of the main destinations at the time was Korea.

Over time, a bunch of jobs departed Los Angeles for countries along the Pacific rim. Over more time, jobs that had originally been sub-contracted from animation studios here to Japanese studios were getting sub-sub-contracted to companies in Korea.

And today there is this:

The Korea Animation Producers Association (KAPA) will help develop an applied graphic design training center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The Vietnam News Agency is reporting that an agreement was made by the city’s Information Technology Training Institute (ITTI) and KAPA on May 16.

The terms of the agreement are that ITTI will facilitate the training courses, while KAPA will assist in technology transfer, training lecturers, providing specialized software, and assessing training quality.

During the first two years, the center will train 200 learners, with the number increasing in the following years to 500-800 learners.

This is not the first time these two countries have worked together in helping build part of Vietnam’s entertainment industry. Previously, Korean cable firm CJ Media helped develop Vietnam’s first fully equipped TV studio in Ho Chi Minh City.

How the big wheel keeps on turning. When this whole sub-contracting thing got started, I was wearing a Navy uniform, part of the military machine that was dropping bombs on the country to where Korean animation jobs will -- we have no doubt -- soon be going.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes... it's a shame.
Too bad the unions of America have made it impossible for companies to make a profit here or maybe there wouldn't be a need for outsourcing.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you're right, troll. I'd much rather be earning $1.50/hour--which is undoubtedly about what those Vietnamese workers will be making, if that.

Anonymous said...

Yep, it's too bad Dreamworks won't be able to make a profit on Shrek III, cause it only made 122 million its first weekend. How can they possibly expect to afford those outlandish union rates??

Steve Hulett said...

Too bad the unions of America have made it impossible for companies to make a profit here or maybe there wouldn't be a need for outsourcing.

Oh yesss. What with labor unions representing 7% of the non-public sector workforce, it's obvious that it's unions that have driven all the work overseas.

Can I have some of whatever that is you're smoking? I'm pretty sure it ain't tobacco.

Anonymous said...

Right, because the union has done such a great job at making sure jobs stay in America and that animators share in the profits...
If the union is such a valuable asset, why is it that animators still have to constantly scramble to find work, often work several jobs to make ends meet, beg and plead for overtime pay, and still get treated like garbage by the big studios only to see more and more outsourcing with every passing year?
Do you union people have even a marginal understanding of how capitalism works?

Anonymous said...

"Oh yesss. What with labor unions representing 7% of the non-public sector workforce, it's obvious that it's unions that have driven all the work overseas.
Can I have some of whatever that is you're smoking? I'm pretty sure it ain't tobacco."

is this really the best rebuttle you can come up with?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps GM, Disney and other american corporations will open shop in Iraq next...

hmmm...they use slogans siting patriotism to get soldiers to go and take over, but then, the elitist conveniently forget about patriotism, and put thousands of americans out of work in search of cheaper labor.

Then, they put the blame on the unions...

rufus.

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