Hi! It's been interesting reading about the various complaints
concerning Disney and their business practices. I was digging around my
old magazines and found this article from issue 39 of The Little Express
about the troubles singer-songwriter Andy Partridge (of the musical
group XTC) had negotiating a deal to include his songs in the animated
Disney flick "James and the Giant Peach" (which came out in April 1996).
Here's what Andy had to say about the whole thing:
"Originally I was very excited about doing this, and they sent me a
screenplay by Dennis Potter and I thought well this is going to be very
stark because it's a Roald Dahl story and then there's Henry Selick [The
Nightmare Before Christmas] directing. So I was very excited; they sent
me some suggestions, where they wanted the music, and what they wanted
the songs to be about and so forth, and I did four songs pretty quickly
which I was really pleased with, but over the subsequent weeks they went
and fired Dennis Potter, which was a real shame, and then they started
rewriting and they said after a while, Oh! we've changed the script so
much that I'm afraid none of these songs now fit, can you write some
more? And I was getting a bit miffed so I suggested they show me a
contract before I wrote anymore and when the contract came through I was
appalled. I spoke to some people in the music business who have had
dealings with Disney and they said they are the tightest and most
difficult company to do businees with. And I can see why because this
was an appalling deal. I spoke with them and they were in no mind to
change the contract, or they couldn't because it was just Disney Company
policy. But it meant that I would get no royalties, they would take my
copyright away from me, and I basically wouldn't own the songs I'd
written. They offered me a flat fee up front but it was so small I'd
actually make more money per song producing some one else's material. I
said to them that I don't think my publishing company will let you take
away the copyright and the other thing is I would be unhappy about that
as you will no doubt go on to make millions from the use of these songs.
It's not like they're being tagged on, they are integral, because they
have to animate to these songs. I simply couldn't throw my copyright
away, I'd hate myself evermore. So they said in so many words take it
or leave it, which was galling. I don't want to work for charity for an
organisation that has more money than it knows what to do with. They
are so anti the songwriter. I would've got four cents per copy of sheet
music sold, but nothing for CDs or home videos. This is a very "family"
company but if I died my children would derive no benefits."
Make of that what you will.
Dave O'Connell
York PA
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--------------------------------
End of Disney comics Digest V98 Issue #133
******************************************
Author
Topic: 199805
(261 messages)
Dave O'Connell
Disney business practices
Message 256 -
1998-05-30 at 23:32:54
HorizonHse
Disney contracts
Message 257 -
1998-05-31 at 00:43:38
hi,
what's all this surprise about disney writing the stingiest contracts in the
business? the company has been known for that almost since the day they
opened. when they buy rights to something, they buy rights to everything
except the author's first born. when disney was virtually the only place in
town for children's material, they must have gotten in the habit of paying as
little as possible -- no competition can sometimes do that. how else could
barrie's peter pan become walt disney's peter pan; travis' mary poppins become
wlt disney's mary pollins; verne's 20,000 leagues ... become disney's 20,000
leagues...; milne's winnie the pooh become disney's winnie the pooh; etc.? the
company's position always was take it or leave it.
the company's reputation also was the same in it's dealings with actors and
other film makers: pay as little as possible, own everything. disney also had
the reputation as the studio where actors worked on their way up or on their
way down -- meaning they needed the work and would work cheap.
personally, i think professionals should be paid fairly for the work they do.
apparently disney doesn't. it's not always an easy choice do the work or pass
on the project -- ask anyone in any field who needs a job. i guess it's simply
a reality of working with or for disney.
i disagree about not purchasing disney stock because you don't want to support
the company any more than necessary, but you'll buy it's products when you
like them. just the opposite is true. the products make money for the company.
the stock makes money for the people who own it. the value of disney stock has
tripled in the last 5 years. it also pays a dividend. owning it would have
enabled you to make money from disney as disney made money from all of us.
bill
what's all this surprise about disney writing the stingiest contracts in the
business? the company has been known for that almost since the day they
opened. when they buy rights to something, they buy rights to everything
except the author's first born. when disney was virtually the only place in
town for children's material, they must have gotten in the habit of paying as
little as possible -- no competition can sometimes do that. how else could
barrie's peter pan become walt disney's peter pan; travis' mary poppins become
wlt disney's mary pollins; verne's 20,000 leagues ... become disney's 20,000
leagues...; milne's winnie the pooh become disney's winnie the pooh; etc.? the
company's position always was take it or leave it.
the company's reputation also was the same in it's dealings with actors and
other film makers: pay as little as possible, own everything. disney also had
the reputation as the studio where actors worked on their way up or on their
way down -- meaning they needed the work and would work cheap.
personally, i think professionals should be paid fairly for the work they do.
apparently disney doesn't. it's not always an easy choice do the work or pass
on the project -- ask anyone in any field who needs a job. i guess it's simply
a reality of working with or for disney.
i disagree about not purchasing disney stock because you don't want to support
the company any more than necessary, but you'll buy it's products when you
like them. just the opposite is true. the products make money for the company.
the stock makes money for the people who own it. the value of disney stock has
tripled in the last 5 years. it also pays a dividend. owning it would have
enabled you to make money from disney as disney made money from all of us.
bill
Tarjei Kidd Olsen
Disney comics Digest V98 #133
Message 258 -
1998-05-31 at 04:42:22
JAKOB:
>In Sweden this week, Don Rosa's "The Black Knight" (24 p) was publishe=
d as a
>1-parter (!). But has it been published as 2-parter anywhere (yet)?=20
It's being published as a 2-parter here in Norway. I received the first
part two days ago (29th of May) in issue 23 of DD&Co..
Excellent story so far, btw :)
And it wasn't printed as a separate bonus-type issue?
-- |Tarjei - Kidd - Olsen|=20
-- Home:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 (Email removed)=20
-- Work:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 (Email removed)=
a.norgesnett.no
-- Website:=A0=A0 http://home.sol.no/~kidd/index.html=20
-- Panacea:=A0 http://panacea.norgesnett.no/
>In Sweden this week, Don Rosa's "The Black Knight" (24 p) was publishe=
d as a
>1-parter (!). But has it been published as 2-parter anywhere (yet)?=20
It's being published as a 2-parter here in Norway. I received the first
part two days ago (29th of May) in issue 23 of DD&Co..
Excellent story so far, btw :)
And it wasn't printed as a separate bonus-type issue?
-- |Tarjei - Kidd - Olsen|=20
-- Home:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 (Email removed)=20
-- Work:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 (Email removed)=
a.norgesnett.no
-- Website:=A0=A0 http://home.sol.no/~kidd/index.html=20
-- Panacea:=A0 http://panacea.norgesnett.no/
SRoweCanoe
Disney comics Digest V98 #133
Message 259 -
1998-05-31 at 05:03:31
Missed this the first time, but it was written:
>Barks recognised that without Disney, he would probably have been a
>chicken farmer somewhere.
Well actually, Barks was a girlie cartoonist before he worked for Disney.
He left Disney to become a chicken farmer!
It was Western that he started doing comic book stories. He allways used to
tell folks that he had no contact with Disney the company while he was doing
comic books. Oddly enough, western gave him fringe benefits during the
1950s/
Steven Rowe
>Barks recognised that without Disney, he would probably have been a
>chicken farmer somewhere.
Well actually, Barks was a girlie cartoonist before he worked for Disney.
He left Disney to become a chicken farmer!
It was Western that he started doing comic book stories. He allways used to
tell folks that he had no contact with Disney the company while he was doing
comic books. Oddly enough, western gave him fringe benefits during the
1950s/
Steven Rowe
Berglund
"The Black Knight" - a new record for a Swedish Rosa publication!
Message 260 -
1998-05-31 at 13:47:08
***NOT SURE IF THIS POSTING IS A SPOILER BUT BE CAREFUL, SINCE IT REGARDS
ROSA'S "The Black Knight" STORY.....***
that sould be enough of a warning...
>In Sweden this week, Don Rosa's "The Black Knight" (24 p) was published as
a
>1-parter (!). But has it been published as 2-parter anywhere (yet)?
looking closer at the design of the story and the order information and
events are introduced plus the fact that I can't find any evident
"cliffhanger"-picture it seems the story was intended to be published in one
piece. I could, of course, be completely wrong. If my memory serves me
right, Rosa has created different splash panels dividing the story for
publications in different countries at some point. Don?
/Martin Berglund
ROSA'S "The Black Knight" STORY.....***
that sould be enough of a warning...
>In Sweden this week, Don Rosa's "The Black Knight" (24 p) was published as
a
>1-parter (!). But has it been published as 2-parter anywhere (yet)?
looking closer at the design of the story and the order information and
events are introduced plus the fact that I can't find any evident
"cliffhanger"-picture it seems the story was intended to be published in one
piece. I could, of course, be completely wrong. If my memory serves me
right, Rosa has created different splash panels dividing the story for
publications in different countries at some point. Don?
/Martin Berglund
Don Rosa
Disney comics Digest V98 #133
Message 261 -
1998-05-31 at 16:48:03
Aaahhhh. I want to announce, even if no one here is particularly
interested... just to hear my self say it (type it?)... that today I sent
off the LAST of the drawings-on-tip-in-title-pages for the Gladstone
hardback "Lo$" limited-edition. I spent the last THREE WEEKS doing the same
drawing, over and over, as fast as I could, timing myself on each one to
maintain speed, working 8 hours each day and 2 hours each late-night, to get
the last 137 full-color two-figure drawings done. I don't know if you can
imagine what it's like to draw the same picture so many times, plus *color*
it with over *twenty* colors, for 10 hours per day, for three weeks
non-stop. And I'm practically still sane, for most purposes. Well, I'm still
short of "certifiable", anyway.
This was the last bunch of these drawings and I wanted to get them finished
so that Gladstone could do their final binding of the remainder of the
thousand books. If you don't know what I'm referring to, this was the
hardback edition of the "Lo$" in which Bruce Hamilton asked if I'd place
original drawings, b&w or color, or just a signature. He guessed that they
would offer a thousand possible, perhaps they'd sell 500... and of that 500,
perhaps 400 would just be signed, 50 would have b&w head-shot drawings, 25
would have b&w full-figure drawings, 20 would have full-color drawings, and
maybe 10 people would want full-color two-figure scenes. So that wouldn't be
too bad... I could do all that in a few days of steady work...and I said
sure, I'd do it.
What happened was that they sold all 1,000 immediately! About 400 people
wanted just signatures, about 100 wanted head-shots, about 100 wanted
full-figures, about 50 wanted full-figures in color... and around *350*
people wanted two full-color full-figures!!!! What I originally expected to
take about a week suddenly would takes several months of steady work! I
couldn't virtually quit my Egmont job, so I had to start doing these things
in bunches, and forcing all these nice buyers to just wait until I could get
to their drawings. I appreciate their interest... but my mission in life is
not to draw the same picture over and over and overandoverandoverandove for
single individuals... I'm not an "artist", I'm a storyteller... I want to do
stories that millions of people in Europe and Asia (and a few people in
America) will read.
But I'm glad that Gladstone did so well with the book -- next time I'll be
better aware of the potential buyer-response to me doing something like
this! (And next time I'll also check on who's writing an "introduction"...
hand-correcting and initialing all *one thousand* copies of this intro took
a BIT of extra time.) And if there are any people on this ML who ordered a
full-color/2 figure edition of the book, you can now know that as soon as
Gladstone's bindery does its job, your book (which I believe you expected to
have last October?) will be on its way to you!
And now I'm FREE! FREE, DO YOU HEAR!!! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaa!!!!!!
(thud)
interested... just to hear my self say it (type it?)... that today I sent
off the LAST of the drawings-on-tip-in-title-pages for the Gladstone
hardback "Lo$" limited-edition. I spent the last THREE WEEKS doing the same
drawing, over and over, as fast as I could, timing myself on each one to
maintain speed, working 8 hours each day and 2 hours each late-night, to get
the last 137 full-color two-figure drawings done. I don't know if you can
imagine what it's like to draw the same picture so many times, plus *color*
it with over *twenty* colors, for 10 hours per day, for three weeks
non-stop. And I'm practically still sane, for most purposes. Well, I'm still
short of "certifiable", anyway.
This was the last bunch of these drawings and I wanted to get them finished
so that Gladstone could do their final binding of the remainder of the
thousand books. If you don't know what I'm referring to, this was the
hardback edition of the "Lo$" in which Bruce Hamilton asked if I'd place
original drawings, b&w or color, or just a signature. He guessed that they
would offer a thousand possible, perhaps they'd sell 500... and of that 500,
perhaps 400 would just be signed, 50 would have b&w head-shot drawings, 25
would have b&w full-figure drawings, 20 would have full-color drawings, and
maybe 10 people would want full-color two-figure scenes. So that wouldn't be
too bad... I could do all that in a few days of steady work...and I said
sure, I'd do it.
What happened was that they sold all 1,000 immediately! About 400 people
wanted just signatures, about 100 wanted head-shots, about 100 wanted
full-figures, about 50 wanted full-figures in color... and around *350*
people wanted two full-color full-figures!!!! What I originally expected to
take about a week suddenly would takes several months of steady work! I
couldn't virtually quit my Egmont job, so I had to start doing these things
in bunches, and forcing all these nice buyers to just wait until I could get
to their drawings. I appreciate their interest... but my mission in life is
not to draw the same picture over and over and overandoverandoverandove for
single individuals... I'm not an "artist", I'm a storyteller... I want to do
stories that millions of people in Europe and Asia (and a few people in
America) will read.
But I'm glad that Gladstone did so well with the book -- next time I'll be
better aware of the potential buyer-response to me doing something like
this! (And next time I'll also check on who's writing an "introduction"...
hand-correcting and initialing all *one thousand* copies of this intro took
a BIT of extra time.) And if there are any people on this ML who ordered a
full-color/2 figure edition of the book, you can now know that as soon as
Gladstone's bindery does its job, your book (which I believe you expected to
have last October?) will be on its way to you!
And now I'm FREE! FREE, DO YOU HEAR!!! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaa!!!!!!
(thud)