Layoffs and Closings in March/April, and More Overseas Production ...

In case you haven't been paying attention...

Layoffs at Electronic Arts

Publisher confirms some cuts, denies report of Montreal operations shutting down entirely

Layoffs are hitting developers large and small alike this week. Following on yesterday's news of?layoffs at Vancouver-based Slant Six, a new round of cuts has been confirmed at Electronic Arts.

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Layoffs underway at Disney

Disney has begun laying off around 150 staffers at Walt Disney Studios. Employees began receiving pinkslips Wednesday morning.

Individuals working in home entertainment, production, distribution and marketing, as well as the company?s music and theater business in New York City are feeling the brunt of the impact, with only a?small number of employees leaving the animation division.

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LucasArts Shutdown Triggers Layoffs at ILM

Today?s announcement of the shuttering of LucasArts Games and the layoffs that followed has had a ripple effect within Lucasfilm: Layoffs at Industrial Light & Magic.

Lucasfilm has long had a strategy of sharing technical resources and staff among visual effects, animation and games. But with production finished on the ?Clone Wars? animated series and the next Star Wars animated series not yet in production, and the closing of LucasArts, a portion of its staff was left working only for ILM?s vfx business.

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VFX House Pixomondo Shuts Shanghai Office, Will Move Away From Film?

Visual-effects company Pixomondo will move away from the film business after shutting its Shanghai office in the wake of closures in London and Detroit, the company told TheWrap.

CEO and founder Thilo Kuther (pictured below) said Pixomondo, which recently completed work on the Tom Cruise action film ?Oblivion,? has just laid off roughly 20 animators and artists in the Shanghai office. About a half-dozen employees were moved to its Beijing office, he said.

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Chinese Partners Play With Fourth ?Transformers?

The ?Transformers? film franchise has found a few friends in China to get the fourth installment made.

Just don?t call it a co-production.

Paramount Pictures has brokered what it calls a ?co-operation agreement? with state-backed broadcaster CCTV?s China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises to produce ?Transformers 4,? which Michael Bay is returning to helm.

CCTV comes under the umbrella of the powerful State Administration of Radio Film and Television.

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The Mill Plans to Close Its TV VFX Department

As the VFX industry awaits the results of Rhythm & Hues? bankruptcy auction -- where parties met until 2 a.m. PDT and a decision was expected this morning -- London-headquartered The Mill revealed that it plans to close its ?TV visual effects unit, with a possible loss of 25 jobs.

The Mill CEO Robin Shenfield said in a statement that Mill TV -- whose credits include Doctor Who, Merlin and Sherlock for the BBC -- has weathered losses in 2012 and that red ink has accelerated in the first quarter of 2013. The facility will continue to focus on its commercial business in the U.S. and U.K.

According to the statement, "Mill TV has suffered a number of setbacks such as failing to join the roster on Starz/BBC production of DaVinci?s Demons and the cancellation of Sky?s Sinbad sequel. Going forward, broadcasters are commissioning less high-end VFX driven drama series this year, with Merlin discontinued and the BBC not commissioning a Doctor Who series this year."

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Tippett Studios VFX House Lays Off 40 Percent of Workforce

Berkeley, Calif.-based VFX company Tippett Studios laid off 40 percent of its workforce Friday, the company's CEO and president Jules Roman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter, with the possibility of more pink slips coming.

More than 50 visual effects designers were let go, leaving a staff of 100 full-timers still working at the studio, whose recent work is on display in such blockbuster films as Ted and Twilight: Breaking Dawn.

"We're hibernating, figuring out a way to reinvent and scale down because there's a lag in work obviously and there's such upheaval in the visual effects industry, period," Roman said.

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Source: http://thinkinganimationbook.blogspot.com/2013/04/layoffs-and-closings-in-marchapril-and.html

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