Pink Floyd Animation Contest Draws Criticism For Appearing To Be Exploiting Animators


It has been 50 years since the release of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon. In celebration of their chart-topping music album, Pink Floyd is releasing a remastered deluxe box set. The deluxe set is available for pre-order right now for $299 at this link. They announced this box set on their social media pages with an included video. In a separate video posted on the same day, they also announced a contest for artists, specifically those who can animate.

Video of an unboxing the deluxe box set:

Video with Pink Floyd band member Nick Mason announcing the contest for animators:

Along with the January 19th video announcing the contest, a text description was included:

Pink Floyd is celebrating The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary release by inviting a new generation of animators to enter a competition to create music videos for any of the 10 songs on the iconic 1973 album. Pink Floyd has a rich history of collaborating with animators from the beginnings of the band (Ian Emes, Gerald Scarfe etc.), and in some cases the visuals that accompany the songs have become synonymous with the music itself.

The 50th Anniversary will be no exception. The band would like to give all animators an opportunity to present a fresh take on these timeless aural works. Animators can enter up to 10 videos, one per song on the album. A winner will be selected from a panel of experts which will include Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell (Pink Floyd’s creative director) and the BFI (British Film Institute). The deadline for submissions is November 30th 2023.

At the end of the video is a link to either enter the contest or read for more information, with an exclamation on the main contest page including winning ”up to £100,000”, which is around $109,090.

Although the idea of participating in an animation contest for a very well-known band might sound exciting for some people, others have expressed concerns, particularly with clauses 23 and 24 from the terms and conditions described on their website. Many are calling this exploitation.

Director of cinematography and layout artist at Disney Joaquin Baldwin, who worked on movies such as Frozen, Moana, Zootopia and Encanto, strongly encouraged people to not enter this competition:

Matt Danner played Kermit on Muppet Babies, as well as being the director for the new series Night At The Museum on Disney+.

JuanPe Arroyo is a director, animator, and visual developer at The Line Animation studio. He expressed frustration at how many do not consider how very time consuming animating anything can be, and what little respect is given for what goes into creating animation:

Director and animator Jeremy Nixon compared the cost of Pink Floyds’ ”The Wall” animation to what animating would cost today for every minute:

In a follow-up tweet, Nixon corrected his BFI endorsement tweet after the British Film Institute released a statement clarifying they have no involvement with this contest:

There is also another clause which states that if there are fewer than 30 entries by the November deadline, then they have the right to cancel the contest. So even if you were to put all of that effort into creating an animated piece, there is a chance that you’ll just be wasting your time for a Maybe Contest.

Comic artist Videajames remarked on the irony of the contest:

What do you think of this contest after looking at the terms and conditions? Would it be something you would find to be worth the risk in your time and money? Let us know your thoughts!

Source: LouderSound

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Sarah Leone

An independent artist who loves to mix things up between traditional and digital art. She has a love for all things anime, animation, and manga. Oh, and cats. Can't forget the cats.

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