Animation Firsts

[pasithea]

Okay okay, I know. Every other post I make seems to reference The Illusion of Life but this post is to be no exception.

One thing that's been consistently striking me as jarring about the book is that the writer always refers to the people he works with as 'The Men'. Never even as 'the guys' or 'the boys'. So I get to the part about the Ink and Paint departments (which is a horror story unto itself from his summary) and anyhow. IaPers are called 'The Girls' except in a few places where they are 'the women' but mostly they're 'The Girls'.

Yes, I understand this is The Way Things Were but that doesn't mean I have to like them or not question them. My number one question, of course, is: How the heck did women tolerate that kind of world? I mean seriously. Not being allowed to have their 'dream job' because it 'wasn't suitable for girls', being kept from sports, only a few years earlier at that point, not being able to vote, and just a little before that, not allowed to own property. Heck, you WERE property. I'd have been really pissed off all the time. How the Hell did they keep from just losing it and beating the shit out of everyone in sight? the same goes for blacks. The first black animator was Frank Baxton at Warner in 1957. The first woman animator was Lillian Friedman at Fleisher in 1932 but she was the exception, not the rule and got paid 1/3rd of what 'The Men' got. It wasn't until the mid 70's that Black and Women animators were able to find work at big studios in any significant numbers, and by then, the 'golden age' was passed and it was already in decline.

It's interesting the things that we take for granted but depressing that it was ever and issue at all and that someone had to fight long and hard to make it so easy for me. :/

Comments

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Well, these days one person can make an entire animated feature essentially on their own, armed with a few computers and Lightwave, I'd take these days over the golden age any time. :)

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

What I mean by "Golden Age" is back when people were animating for the joy of it and pushing the envelope on what they could do. Before corporate american had taken an interest in Hollywood and said, "Don't do anything new and novel. Stick with what makes money." and sucked the life out of films. Animation in particular was religated to 'childrens fair, and kids will watch anything so long as it's brightly coloured'. The 70's through present are the height of corporate greed and 'downsizing'. Probably the real reason they started hiring women and blacks was because they could get them cheaper than white men. That's really depressing to think about. It wasn't how good you were but how cheap you were. :/

Anyhow, I agree. Now is the time to be. There's a new golden age coming. Maybe not for feature films but at least a rebirth for the greatness of the old shorts. I can pencil-test for basically 'free'. Ink and Paint I can largely automate and if I want to change a colour scheme midway through it's approximately 3 mouse-clicks to do so. I can simulate a full orchestra on my keyboard with the aid of my computer, and all this is just 2D. As you point out, in a lot of ways, it's even cheaper and easier in 3D. So yeah. Hurrah for technology!

I was just reflecting on how frustating it must have been for women and other minorities back in the day. Would you want to paint at all if the only way you could do it 'for a living' was by sitting day in and day out filling in flat solid colour on someone else's outlines?