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Digital Domain’s first animated feature The Legend of Tembo fulfilled its prophetic title. Thanks to the misdeeds of the company’s management, the film can never exist and has, in fact, turned into a legend.
The film’s co-director Aaron Blaise is keeping Tembo‘s memory alive on his newish blog by posting materials from the film’s production. So far, he has uploaded concept and development paintings, pencil tests, and most impressively, a massively detailed how-to guide for drawing elephants. If there’s one thing that can be safely concluded from all this material, it’s that the man knows how to draw a mother-humpin’ elephant.
Awful news out of Florida this morning. Digital Domain announced today that as part of “a strategic realignment that will enable it to focus its resources on its core business,” it will shut down its new Port St. Lucie, Florida studio Tradition and halt production of its first animated feature The Legend of Tembo. Per the studio’s press release:
As a key part of this strategic realignment, DDMG has begun the cessation of its Port St. Lucie operations by reducing virtually its entire Port St. Lucie workforce, retaining approximately 20 employees who will remain as part of the wind-down.
According to a Cartoon Brew commenter, 300 people lost their jobs this morning. The breakdown: “About 100 on Tembo, 50 or so on VFX, 100 or so doing Stereo Conversion work, and about 50 or so misc. employees.”
One artist who was let go tweeted, “A very sad day for the Digital Domain Tradition studios family. I’ll miss the whole Tembo crew,” and followed up with, “In related news, I’m looking for work! I’ll have an updated portfolio online later today.”
Other Digital Domain studios will remain open according to the same press release: “DDMG’s studios in California and Vancouver intend to continue to operate without interruption, as will the Digital Domain Institute, based in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Further, John Textor is stepping down:
John C. Textor has resigned, effective immediately, from his positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of DDMG, as a member of the Board of Directors of DDMG, and from all positions as an officer and director with all subsidiaries of DDMG.
Digital Domain executive Ed Ulbrich has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Digital Domain Productions. Ulbrich has been with the company since its founding in 1993. According to DD’s corporate website, Ulbrich is “the chief architect of its commercials business, including Mothership.” He has exec-produced the vfx for over 500+ commercials, as well as the studio’s Academy Award-winning vfx in Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I wrote at the end of August about how Digital Domain was on the brink of disaster due to Textor’s reckless management. What was written then is appropriate to reprint today:
There are already many victims in this situation. I feel awful for the artists who are working on Digital Domain’s first (and potentially last) feature The Legend of Tembo, as well as for all the other Digital Domain employees. I feel bad for Florida citizens who handed $132 million of their taxpayer dollars to a reckless and clueless businessman. I feel outraged for the incoming students of Digital Domain Institute who may have to perform slave labor because Digital Domain doesn’t believe in federal labor laws.
“Today’s the last day, there wasn’t much to be said. Just everybody apologized and said this is something that’s very hard for everybody,” said Philip Rosado, a digital artist. Rosado said he moved here from Vancouver, Canada, and had been working for Digital Domain for about a year. “Gotta get on the horn and find work,” he said. “I got two babies to feed, a wife to take care of, a roof to put over our heads. It’s not about me. It’s about my family.”
They also have a statement from Scott Ross, who started Digital Domain in 1993 with James Cameron and Stan Winston:
“It really breaks my heart when a company is started, and a company moves employees 3,000 miles away to a new home with a promise of a great future with the knowledge that there’s a strong possibility that the company would be out of business or that it would shutter its doors. It’s unconscionable to me that you can upset a human being’s life and a family’s life in the way that this company has.”
This photo taken by TCPalm photographer Will Greenlee is captioned: “A Port St. Lucie Police Department officer is stationed Friday at the gates of Digital Domain Media Group Tradition Studio as workers leave the building with their possessions.”
UPDATE (3:40PM ET): Watch local news coverage from WPTV:
Has nothing to do with the crew or ‘Hollywood’ and everything to do with freebie top heavy tax credits and a race to the bottom.
Like
akira said, on 9/7/2012 3:17:00 PM
paying 350k per year to a director of a film that has potential to gross over 100 million is not too outrageous.
the outrage is hiring a full crew without having the money required to complete the film.
don’t blame the director, only the producers. otherwise you can reason that every crew member was overpaid
Like - 1 others like this comment
Sarah J said, on 9/7/2012 4:05:00 PM
I don’t know much about the business, but… Don’t such large salaries mostly just go to directors with experience, or directors in big studios like Disney? Feel free to correct me, again, I don’t know much about the business, but Digital Domain is a small studio and so far, they haven’t made a big feature film and they don’t have a lot of money. If you’re running a studio that has never released a feature length film and the directors you’ve hired don’t have any big directorial names under their belt, it’s probably not a good idea to give them huge salaries.
Like
Sarah J said, on 9/7/2012 4:08:00 PM
That’s a shame, but I guess we should’ve seen it coming. Really sucks for all those people losing their jobs, and it’s too bad that The Legend of Tembo got shut down, I would’ve gone to see it. Hopefully the other workers can find jobs.
Like
Mike Inman said, on 9/7/2012 5:20:00 PM
Good point Matt. I wonder if it’s possible for the FSU students who paid for the privilege of working at Textor’s boondoggle to now get their fall tuition payment back? Maybe a lucky few can transfer over to a legit animation school such as RCAD/Sarasota or CalArts
Like
Mark Mayerson said, on 9/7/2012 7:18:00 PM
I was being ironic.
Like - 2 others like this comment
Steve M. said, on 9/7/2012 7:45:00 PM
A real shame all those artists had to lose their jobs, all because of one reckless, idiotic CEO.
Like - 2 others like this comment
Robert Redford said, on 9/8/2012 5:48:00 AM
I’m not blaming the director only, read what I said in all my posts. But the reality is everyone is responsible one way or another. I’m an artist but the day of artists placing the blame only on the suits, producers and other non creatives are over. Again the problem was the whole venture was underfunded and when you have two directors calling a venture that had over 100 million a start up shows how ignorant to the process everyone was. If it was a start up why be paid 350k, take a lower pay. In start ups you have individuals that put in their own money, don’t always get paid , or even pull their own money to make payroll. No matter how you slice it it a waste a of money. Funny how you talk about the potential of a movie making millions, well this one won’t even see the light of day because of greed and irresponsibility.
Awful news out of Florida this morning. Digital Domain announced today that as part of “a strategic realignment that will enable it to focus its resources on its core business,” it will shut down its new Port St. Lucie, Florida studio Tradition and halt production of its first animated feature The Legend of Tembo. Per the studio’s press release:
As a key part of this strategic realignment, DDMG has begun the cessation of its Port St. Lucie operations by reducing virtually its entire Port St. Lucie workforce, retaining approximately 20 employees who will remain as part of the wind-down.
According to a Cartoon Brew commenter, 300 people lost their jobs this morning. The breakdown: “About 100 on Tembo, 50 or so on VFX, 100 or so doing Stereo Conversion work, and about 50 or so misc. employees.”
One artist who was let go tweeted, “A very sad day for the Digital Domain Tradition studios family. I’ll miss the whole Tembo crew,” and followed up with, “In related news, I’m looking for work! I’ll have an updated portfolio online later today.”
Other Digital Domain studios will remain open according to the same press release: “DDMG’s studios in California and Vancouver intend to continue to operate without interruption, as will the Digital Domain Institute, based in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Further, John Textor is stepping down:
John C. Textor has resigned, effective immediately, from his positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of DDMG, as a member of the Board of Directors of DDMG, and from all positions as an officer and director with all subsidiaries of DDMG.
Digital Domain executive Ed Ulbrich has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Digital Domain Productions. Ulbrich has been with the company since its founding in 1993. According to DD’s corporate website, Ulbrich is “the chief architect of its commercials business, including Mothership.” He has exec-produced the vfx for over 500+ commercials, as well as the studio’s Academy Award-winning vfx in Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
I wrote at the end of August about how Digital Domain was on the brink of disaster due to Textor’s reckless management. What was written then is appropriate to reprint today:
There are already many victims in this situation. I feel awful for the artists who are working on Digital Domain’s first (and potentially last) feature The Legend of Tembo, as well as for all the other Digital Domain employees. I feel bad for Florida citizens who handed $132 million of their taxpayer dollars to a reckless and clueless businessman. I feel outraged for the incoming students of Digital Domain Institute who may have to perform slave labor because Digital Domain doesn’t believe in federal labor laws.
“Today’s the last day, there wasn’t much to be said. Just everybody apologized and said this is something that’s very hard for everybody,” said Philip Rosado, a digital artist. Rosado said he moved here from Vancouver, Canada, and had been working for Digital Domain for about a year. “Gotta get on the horn and find work,” he said. “I got two babies to feed, a wife to take care of, a roof to put over our heads. It’s not about me. It’s about my family.”
They also have a statement from Scott Ross, who started Digital Domain in 1993 with James Cameron and Stan Winston:
“It really breaks my heart when a company is started, and a company moves employees 3,000 miles away to a new home with a promise of a great future with the knowledge that there’s a strong possibility that the company would be out of business or that it would shutter its doors. It’s unconscionable to me that you can upset a human being’s life and a family’s life in the way that this company has.”
This photo taken by TCPalm photographer Will Greenlee is captioned: “A Port St. Lucie Police Department officer is stationed Friday at the gates of Digital Domain Media Group Tradition Studio as workers leave the building with their possessions.”
UPDATE (3:40PM ET): Watch local news coverage from WPTV:
Has nothing to do with the crew or ‘Hollywood’ and everything to do with freebie top heavy tax credits and a race to the bottom.
paying 350k per year to a director of a film that has potential to gross over 100 million is not too outrageous.
the outrage is hiring a full crew without having the money required to complete the film.
don’t blame the director, only the producers. otherwise you can reason that every crew member was overpaid
I don’t know much about the business, but… Don’t such large salaries mostly just go to directors with experience, or directors in big studios like Disney? Feel free to correct me, again, I don’t know much about the business, but Digital Domain is a small studio and so far, they haven’t made a big feature film and they don’t have a lot of money. If you’re running a studio that has never released a feature length film and the directors you’ve hired don’t have any big directorial names under their belt, it’s probably not a good idea to give them huge salaries.
That’s a shame, but I guess we should’ve seen it coming. Really sucks for all those people losing their jobs, and it’s too bad that The Legend of Tembo got shut down, I would’ve gone to see it. Hopefully the other workers can find jobs.
Good point Matt. I wonder if it’s possible for the FSU students who paid for the privilege of working at Textor’s boondoggle to now get their fall tuition payment back? Maybe a lucky few can transfer over to a legit animation school such as RCAD/Sarasota or CalArts
I was being ironic.
A real shame all those artists had to lose their jobs, all because of one reckless, idiotic CEO.
I’m not blaming the director only, read what I said in all my posts. But the reality is everyone is responsible one way or another. I’m an artist but the day of artists placing the blame only on the suits, producers and other non creatives are over. Again the problem was the whole venture was underfunded and when you have two directors calling a venture that had over 100 million a start up shows how ignorant to the process everyone was. If it was a start up why be paid 350k, take a lower pay. In start ups you have individuals that put in their own money, don’t always get paid , or even pull their own money to make payroll. No matter how you slice it it a waste a of money. Funny how you talk about the potential of a movie making millions, well this one won’t even see the light of day because of greed and irresponsibility.