Traitors, Whiners and other forms of Cowards

by Armand Cabrera

Rhythm and Hues can bite me. They are part of the problem, not the part of the solution. They were happy to outsource jobs from America when it served their purpose to get cheap contracts and undercut other American FX companies that went out of business because of them. Now they go out of business from an environment that is a race to the bottom for wages that they helped create. They made the rope they are now hanging by. Their awareness now that they are gone is too little too late. Let their rotting corpse be a testament to their betrayal and cowardice.

Even though they were one of the first to outsource labor and offer cheaper wages now they are complaining.? If people want to complain about the loss of art and VFX jobs that is one thing but don't hold this company and its owners up as martyrs because they weren't, they were traitors to the cause and created their own undoing. Their artists worked for free on projects and now have the audacity to whine about their company going under? Each one of them helped to create this environment and now they reap the spoils of those decisions.  

Outsourcing was illegal for the most part and thought to be un-American before NAFTA. Other countries that were part of the trade agreements created tax incentives to bring in business. We could have too but didn't and the companies didn't care because upper management was getting richer faster. 

Globalization was always going to be at the workers expense not the business owners, or so they thought. Artists in the industry were always willing to trade their self worth and self respect for peanuts working 80 hour weeks being paid for 40 hours and taking lower and lower pay in the process until what was a middle class profession is now a minimum wage job.

Take a Stand Against Free Work

by

Armand Cabrera

I participate in a number of groups on linked-in for professional artists and illustrators. I am a freelance artist now and online groups and forums are where I get most of my work. I also participate in sites like Conceptart and other art hosting sites. All these sites constantly talk about not working for free and having a professional attitude when it comes to work, yet not a week goes by that someone doesn't ask for and get positive responses to free work. It can be in the form of crowd sourcing or competitions to win job positions or unpaid internships which are illegal in most states, but there they are.

 This is especially true in the video game groups on Linked-in. I'd like to see professional forums ban all crowd sourcing requests. Let them beg for free work over at Craigslist, Elance or Odesk where the pool of untalented masses gather and keep them off of professional sites like Linked-in Groups or Concept art and CGHub.

 If professionals are serious about not working for free they have to be more proactive in my opinion. Banning crowd sourcing is a start and assures that jobs that show up in these groups or sites are professional work offers only.

When Conceptart was posting free work requests with paid job offers I complained and they created a separate category for free work but I don’t think that went far enough. If the people who start these professional affiliations really care about artists in any professional capacity they need to protect the industry by not participating in its dismantling. The way to start is by taking a hard stand and demanding only paying job offers are acceptable on these sites.

If we want change then we should be the ones to start it. I am going to write to all the groups I'm with on Linked-in and ask them to implement a ban on free work of any kind including free internships which are illegal most of the time. I am also going to flag any post asking for free work in any of the sites I participate in.I am going to do this on Craigslist, Elance and Odesk too, I hope other like minded professionals will join me in this and maybe we can start to change the culture and save our industries.