Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1446450
D E PA R T M E N T 1990s EUGENE SAL ANDR A 1980s STEVE HULET T F E AT U R E From 1976 to 1986, former Local 839 Business Representative Hulett worked in the story department at Disney on movies like The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, and the Winnie the Pooh theatrical featurette. He departed ("got laid off), did some freelancing for Warner Bros., and then joined the writing staff at Filmation until the studio closed its doors in 1989. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY? In October 1976, I entered the trainee program in the animation department at what was then Walt Disney Productions. The artists who'd worked at the studios since the 1930s were retiring in droves, and the company was filling the department with newbies. WHAT DID YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY? The friendships, the camaraderie, the challenges that had to be met to get a project up and running—those were the main things. My best friend at Disney was a talented story artist named Pete Young, who died abruptly the fall of 1985 . He was 37 when he passed. I still think about him. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PROJECT YOU'VE WORKED ON IN YOUR CAREER AND WHY? My favorite would be The Great Mouse Detective. Story-wise, the feature turned out well. It was the first project under the Katzenberg-Wells-Eisner regime at Disney. It was the first project on which John Musker and Ron Clements were directors; it came in on time and on budget, and made a bit of money. TELL US WHAT THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY LOOKED LIKE IN THE 1980S. During the time I worked on the creative side, it was a different animal entirely from what it is today. The animation industry in Los Angeles was considered a minor sideshow in the film industry: Disney did a feature every two to three years, Hanna- Barbera and a few other T V animation studios cranked out Saturday morning cartoons, and the Guild had between 1,000 to 1,600 active members. At the end of the 1980s, active membership in TAG was down to just over 700 members. Filmation, which had been a large studio in the mid-1980s, closed its doors. Things were bleak. HOW DID THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY CHANGE FROM WHEN YOU STARTED TO WHEN YOU RETIRED? By the time I retired as TAG's business rep in 2016, cartoons had gone from being a minor element in the motion picture industry to a major driver of employment and profits, with lots of animation studios in operation. HOW DID THE UNION IMPACT THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY WHEN YOU WERE A MEMBER? It kept a floor on wages when times were bad and ensured good medical benefits and a pension during fat and thin times. It launched a 401(k) plan that gave members access to three different pension plans: the traditional Motion Picture Industry Pension, the Individual Account Plan, and the TAG 401(k) Plan. Salandra studied animation at New York University under John Canemaker, as well as classical figure drawing at the Art Students' League of New York. After graduating from NYU, he spent time at MTV Animation and Jumbo Pictures, got his first union gig on Turner Feature Animation's Cats Don't Dance, and has since spent most of his career at Disney TVA and Disneytoon Studios. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY? As a child, I was interested in drawing, performance, film, and puppetry. My mother Barbara and grandfather Eugene were creative and encouraged my interests. Lucille McKeon, an art teacher at our public school program for "gifted and talented students," gave me (this page) Eugene Salandra with Marge Champion & John Canemaker- NYU, 1995; (opposite page) Eugene Salandra working on Faerie Film, 1993 20 KEYFRAME