Feat of Clay

What's the best way to control expenses -- to bring them down from $250,000 or $500,000 per minute of film (which is how much Vinton usually spent when doing commercials) to something closer to $50,000 per minute? According to Turpin, the real trick is to make sure that the team producing "The PJs" doesn't fall prey to Hollywood-itis. "When you watch the filming of live-action programming, it's amazing to note the number of stars and other highly paid people who stand around doing nothing all day," Turpin says. "We wondered what would happen if we removed every single idle moment from our own production schedule. Would doing so burn out our animators? We hoped to convince them that, because they were our most valuable resource, they shouldn't have to wait around all the time."

Turpin's idea led to the creation of a production staff that precisely choreographs every minute of every workday. That team maps out each moment of each episode on the "Big Board," an enormous chart that shows which animators will use which characters at which moment on which stage during every minute of every 10-hour workday. On the Big Board, the staff can post 63 simultaneous schedules involving dozens of people and hundreds of characters -- as long as it first runs a series of computerized conflict checks. "We've taken FileMaker Pro to places where it's never been before," says Ollie Green, 27, scheduling supervisor. "I often feel like I'm an air-traffic controller. I look out at all of those stages and think that this must be what it's like to land 100 planes on time every hour."

The Art Is in the Artists

So what is Vinton's biggest insight, the one that gives him a huge edge in the war for creative talent? He knows that none of his artists really wants to be working for him in the first place. "It seems that the kinds of artists we want to attract all have a strong desire to do their own work," Vinton says. "That's especially true if you're feeding them a steady diet of commercials."

To attract the very best artists, and then to give them plenty of reasons to stay, Vinton has instituted programs and policies that are designed to show his support for the artists he hires. The Walkabout, for example, is a program that allows employees to take a 13-week paid hiatus, or Walkabout, that gives them the time and the freedom to work on their own projects. Every year, the program results in two or three short films, as well as many other personal projects. The logic behind Vinton's decision to implement the program is unassailable: The best people will find a way to produce their own films, whether he wants them to or not. So why not make it harder for them to leave his company by encouraging them to produce projects of their own on his premises?

Vinton has also created a policy that allows animators to use any of the company's equipment at any time -- as long as it's after regular business hours. That way, employees can continue to work on their own projects, even after a Walkabout. And, like the Walkabout program, this policy lets employees know that the company understands their passion for the art of filmmaking.

Turpin suggests that such freedoms are a part of a human-resources approach that any company might want to consider. "Every organization values creativity," he says. "But creative people need a huge amount of variety in their lives. So why not encourage it? The biggest moneymakers in any organization are always the people who know how to be different."

To Have a Competitive Edge, You Need to Have a Creative Edge

Turpin's comment on the value of being different may sound strange, given the amount of TV-commercial work that Will Vinton Studios has done. After all, the hallmark of most advertising is a kind of inoffensive blandness. "All agencies have guidelines for characters," says David Altschul, 54, president of Vinton Studios's advertising division, who joined the operation in 1982. "And those guidelines always read exactly the same way: Every character should be endearing, energetic, and likable."

The characters that Will Vinton Studios has created tend to violate that principle. "We try to understand what kind of world the characters live in, who the other characters are, and, most important, what conflicts exist between them," Altschul explains. "What are their flaws, their vulnerabilities? Without knowing those things, it's hard to tell a story that engages the audience." The company's characters tend to have an edge; they're more likely to be mischief makers than rosy-cheeked heroes. And, as a result, they stand out.