The money trail

IT’S an industry standard evolved over a decades-long debate between the writers and their employers [“Eyeing a Little More Green,” Aug. 20], Jay A. Fernandez wrote, describing residual payments for writers in the film industry. In a practical sense, it means that the writers of “Goldmember” get paid a small percentage of every sale of a video or DVD, which can add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the writers of “Shrek 2” receive nothing.

He went on to say that this disparity has its roots in the early days of animation, when storyboard artists and animators were the primary creative forces behind projects, and screenwriters, if they were used at all, came in to add polish at the end.

While the animation industry may have its roots in the storyboard-first model, there’s no “disparity” where residual payments to writers are concerned -- storyboarders did not get profit participation before the screenwriters arrived and they do not get it now, regardless of their contribution.

Historically, no writer gets a piece of the animation back end, whether they do their writing with a typewriter or a pencil. Even in the lucrative world of prime-time network animation, where nearly every show is covered by the Writers Guild of America, those shows are covered individually, not by studio, and certainly not by industry tradition.

The idea that the battle here is between screenwriters and storyboarders is a distraction that serves the studios well.

The real fight, as always, is with the studios themselves and against the notion that getting a dream job in animation is a worthy trade-off for being among the most poorly compensated authors in the film and television industry.

JAY LENDER

Los Angeles

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WHILE the Animation Guild has no residuals that flow directly to animation writers in its collective bargaining agreement, approximately $350 million in residuals goes into the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ pension and health plan -- of which the animation guild is a part -- each year.

The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan covering animation writers is generally recognized as the strongest, most comprehensive union health plan in the entertainment industry.

The Animation Guild does have credit arbitration in its collective bargaining agreement.

STEVE HULETT

North Hollywood

Hulett is a business representative of the Animation Guild, Local 839.