Survey: Artists’ migration threatens animation sector

The government, along with the stakeholders of the animation and digital content outsourcing industry, are urged to strengthen contingency programs in sustaining the attractiveness of the country as preferred hub for offshore services. 

An industry situationer, released by the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis (IDEA) and Bayan Telecommunications Inc., showed that the industry is currently facing problems from brain drain to lack of manpower and dealing with the perceived gap between the demand and supply for creative services in the country.

Although the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Animation Council of the Philippines have implemented a joint effort to boost the sustainability of the industry, this has to be reinforced further to accommodate the expected demand of 25,000 artists in the year 2010.

According to the report, the threat of artists’ migration has continuously haunt the industry, as incentives offered abroad are set to attract artists from the Philippines which depletes even more the already scarce pool of labor force.

“Monetary incentives offered in the country [Philippines] can not be set at par with those abroad as this would destroy the competitiveness of wages across industries and also the cost efficiency of the country in the global market,” the report stated.

Good artists are being hired in other countries, making the Philippines their training ground for greener pastures, which is harmful to the domestic industry.

In Cebu, VersaGrafx Designs Philippines Inc. established its presence here in 2005 to take advantage of the untapped good artists and animators in the province. The Cebu offshore office is the first facility opened by the company outside of United States.

The company establishes a conceptualization and design facility for cinema standees, and other promotional collaterals for Hollywood movie production companies in Cebu.

VersaGrafx president Larry Collins in an earlier interview said that the good pool of talented people in Cebu, especially the high-skilled designers pushed him to initially invest about US$250,000 to set up the facility in Cebu.

Based on the report, there are currently over 7,000 artists in the animation sub-sector. At this level, animation studios are already experiencing a surge of demand over supply of service providers.

The company’s designing process will involve a review of cinematographic materials and on-location shoots and still photographs to be used in the conceptualization and design.

The finished products will be the visual and construction designs of the cinema standees and DVD tower casings in electronic files and the movie webpage designs.

The market of the Philippines for creative services is divided into two classes: entertainment base and education/business base.

The Philippines has been working on cartoon flicks known worldwide, these include; Tom & Jerry, Adam’s Family, Scooby Doo, The Mask, Power Puff Girls, The Incredibles, Dexter’s Laboratory, Dragonball Z, The Jetsons, among others.

Walt Disney and Warner Bros, are among the big animation studios worldwide, that have high regard for Filipino artists, the report said.