the studio

this studio has been around for a long time, but has recently become quite successful. they have figured out a way of making animated films much cheaper. a combination of having a good team and certain economical production practices. the higher ups – producers and directors and finance people – are american. the rest are french. you’d think that doing production in paris would be very expensive. certainly, living is very expensive. but for the film,

the models are simple and the shading (colors and textures) are simple. they concentrate on the story. typically in france, it’s not easy to fire someone. you have to go through protocol and it can take a couple of years, plus the company has to pay wages for about a year afterwards. . however now, there is a certain category of worker allowed by the french government called the “interim de spectacle” – sort of translated as “show biz short term worker”. created for people who work in theatre and such, who would work for short periods of time on a production and then move on. with this format, you can hire someone for a day and then you’re done with them. the person would have to work a certain number of hours a year to qualify for unemployment benefits when they are not working. so the studio hires people only for the days they need them. if something stops up the work, say a story crisis, you don’t have people sitting around waiting on payroll. the company pays slightly higher taxes for this type of worker, but can save tons of money. the first film they did was a huge success. they made a lot of money and had not spent a lot to make the film. they are just finishing their second film.

i’m lucky that the director is american. we can work in english. the rest of the office is french, so i get some practice. the only problem is that i’m really good focusing on my work and at tuning out french.

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