Today is going to be a weird day I can tell already.

So I got this mail telling me that someone is putting someone else work on their reel. Apparently Justin Kurtz from NYC downloaded animation from someone's website and put it on their reel and sent it to a company. The guy reviewing reels at the company saw the stuff and recognized their friends work so they mailed the reel to their friend. This happened at CalArts as well. Apparently someone took a tour of the animation facilitys, saw artwork on the walls. Pulled the artwork off the walls, put it in their portfolio and submitted it to CalArts. Well of course CalArts recognized the artwork (they already knew some of it was stolen) and told the guy never to apply to CalArts again and not to expect to get his portfolio back.

I don't understand whey people think they can get away with this. It's a small industry, it's worse then the Six Degrees of Separation Kevin Bacon game. Everyone knows everyone, and if they don't know everyone they know someone who knows everyone.

This isn't that weird fuzzy ground where six people worked on the same shot and you all want to put it on your reel. This blatant stealing and you will get caught. DON'T PUT SOMEONE ELSE WORK IN YOUR PORTFOLIO AND CALL IT YOUR OWN. EVER.

Secondly I got this news story about employees at ILM who are on strike (kind of). They don't want a pay cut and they want their benefits. With the recent layoffs and the move to India my hart goes out to the people at ILM. They're facing an uphill battle I'm afraid. The movie industry makes billions on the movies they work on, yet the people who work on them have to fight for ever inch of every paycheck.

I'm also keeping a close eye on the lawsuit at EA. EA is well known for employee abuse. I hope this is a wakeup call for EA. I don't wish to see the company go away. But I do want to see them start to treat their employees right. If the employees win that will send a clear signal to the rest of the entertainment industry (not just video games) that you can't get away with employee abuse.

Weird morning, I hope it doesn't get any worse!