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North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
181–190 of 305 posts
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple does this too - they set wildly low payable rates and then get surprised when Foxconn grinds their workers to dust.
What makes you think that if apple paid "fair" prices, that it won't get siphoned off to pay management/shareholders?
If Apple was willing to pay fair prices, they would do the work in a country with strong laws and strong unions not allowing such things to happen.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#183[flagged]
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#184[flagged]
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that's the most interesting part of the article - that Amazon and HBO projects are being worked on by NORTH KOREAN workers!!! I totally agree with the HN headline and I'm glad it got me to click and read the entire article.
It's also wild that it somehow makes financial sense to outsource a core input into your product. A company that makes animations outsourcing animation makes as much sense to me as a software company outsourcing engineering. Though we do have a plane company that outsources making planes, but that's going some sort of way right now...
To be fair, the outsourced tasks seem to be for edits, and not for original artwork.
There’s a lot you can hide with outsourced software engineering. With animation it’s all on display.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#186Generally, how far downstream does the US State Department expect companies to vet vendors for sanctions violation? Due diligence this many layers deep is expensive, especially if hostile (investigative work to proactively discover dishonest sourcing reports.) I would think it would vary by industry--e.g. animation is obviously less stringent than medical devices so would have fewer reporting and certification struct…
The entire chain all the way down is sanctioned, the US can and will climb up and down that chain to punish sanctions violations. A company like Disney will have to have a Sanctions Compliance Program and like any other compliance regime, there are standards, external auditors, etc. to make sure enough is being done, and "enough" can be a bit of a moving target. If you get caught having sanctioned suppliers, those st…
Thanks; this is helpful. Looking up what sanctions compliance/export control professionals proactively do yields a ton of additional information.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#187Why is the USA sanctioning the citizens of North Korea?
It's not like theyre happy about a dictator running the country doing international crazy stuff and oppressing them.
I feel like we should be supporting any capitalistic effort they make so that they can build up resources to combat their dictator from within.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our of curiosity why did you think Invincible had abysmal animation? Which is ironic since in the last seasons they even broke the fourth wall and did a tongue in cheek poke at their audience who criticize their animation quality explaining how they're under crunch and what techniques they use to cut corners. Quite clever actually. Didn't think they were covering up their North Korean animators though lol.
They didn't do themselves any favors by putting out a nicely animated teaser for season 2, which was made by a studio that otherwise didn't work on season 2 at all (they were busy animating Captain Laserhawk for Netflix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjDOpHuUppU
I mean, that shaky cam execution is not so great. It feels super unnatural.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that's the most interesting part of the article - that Amazon and HBO projects are being worked on by NORTH KOREAN workers!!! I totally agree with the HN headline and I'm glad it got me to click and read the entire article.
It's also wild that it somehow makes financial sense to outsource a core input into your product. A company that makes animations outsourcing animation makes as much sense to me as a software company outsourcing engineering. Though we do have a plane company that outsources making planes, but that's going some sort of way right now...
Animation has been outsourced for decades, typically with in-house artists providing the key frames and outsourced animators doing the “in between” frames.
Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series
#190If you are outsourcing over the entire globe things like this tend to happen. There is very little you can actually do to verify how the work you require really gets done, especially if the format is purely digital and there is no physical process you could monitor. Companies building things in China have been caught in that trap multiple times and somewhere down the line the work was allegedly done by highly mistrea…
It's really easy though, actually, isn't it? Just don't toss problems over the fence to China. i.e. don't outsource things.
that is indeed an easy solution, but that doesn't mean it is a good solution, or even better than no solution.