One of my "pet" issues is stopping the exploitation of the young and aspiring by entrepreneurs who seem (sometimes deceptively) to be in a position to make their dreams come true. In the field of cartoon voiceover work, we have a lot of folks out there who are offering "coaching" and lessons and access to agents, and kids who yearn to follow in the voicesteps of Mel Blanc and June Foray flock to them. Some charge reasonable rates and do their charges much good. But some charge them a fortune and deliver little of value. One way to separate the latter from the former is that the former often turn down potential students as lacking sufficient talent. The sleazy kind never seems to turn away anyone who has sufficient cash, no matter how little promise they may show.
Artists get scammed in different but no less scummy ways. Lately, aspiring or outta-work animators are being solicited to enter "contests" in which they labor for free on projects which may or may not ever amount to anything…and if successful, may or may not reward their volunteers. The terms might as well say, "We get everything, you get nothing except what we decide to give you." That's not good for an artist's wallet, career or soul. (Last time I pontificated on this subject, I got an e-mail from a self-proclaimed "enterpreneur" who insisted there's nothing wrong with gambling and he pointed out that I once spent a lot of time playing Blackjack. I wrote back to him that, first of all, I didn't bet my career on Blackjack, and I was also playing a game with clearly-defined payoffs if I won.)
Lately, Amid Amidi over at Cartoon Brew has spotlighted a couple of these cases of getting kids to work for free by calling it a contest. Here's one and here's another. Amid and I have friendly disagreements about many aspects of the cartoon biz but we're on the same page on this one. And I fear that with the economy zooming about like a well-greased luge ride, it's only going to become more prevalent.