The company chosen for the analysis, DreamWorks Animation has been considered a cheap Disney knockoff for quite long, yet somehow managed to change its reputation not only among the target audience, but also among its rivals. DreamWorks Animation managed to beat Disney’s long-lasting monopoly for animated movies production, though failing to be the first company to break new grounds in the use of CGI animation in 1998 (Loughlin, 2012, October 3), which are the key reasons for it to be analyzed in the given paper.
DreamWorks Animation employs a number of people, and it is practically impossible to distinguish three particular types of employees that make the bulk of the studio.
However, when taking a closer look at the way in which the company operates, one will find out that there are animators, i.e., the people who actually work on the product, including Tech Rendering Animators, Designers, etc., the IT Department (Systems Engineering Manager, Software Manager, etc.) and the people involved in promotion design and implementation (Public Relations TV Director, Senior Manager in Publishing, etc.) (DreamWorks Animation, 2014).
Each of the people listed above uses appropriate sources of information in order to make the inside company processes run smooth. For example, the department of animators and the people involved into the animation process need the information concerning the latest techniques in computer animation. The IT Department requires the data on the latest computing and programming related issues.
In their turn, the Public Relations Department must have the information regarding the demands of the target audience, the statistics on the rivals and their performance, the success of the company’s production, the box office for the company’s movies, etc. Since organizing the work of so many people is unbelievably difficult, one must give Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks Animation Studio’s CEO, credit for having enough courage to leave the Disney Studios and follow his dream by creating his own studio (McNicholas, 2010, May 2).
It should be noted that in the present-day world, a number of tasks that traditionally used to be carried out by people are performed by machinery and with the help of various computer programs.
The fact that technology is capable of replacing human resources can be seen as both an improvement and as a major problem, the former concerning the production process and the latter related to unemployment rates. In DreamWorks Animation, however, the focus seems to be on employees and their satisfaction, though the quality of the end product is also in the list of top five priorities of the company.
Judging by the work that the employees mentioned above are supposed to perform, it can be assumed that they are practically irreplaceable by any kind of technology.
Despite the fact that technology is integrated into the production process of the DreamWorks Animation Studio, the role of technology is restricted to providing more opportunities for wrapping the audience into the story and sympathizing with the characters of animated movies (Innovators: DreamWorks animation draws up cutting-edge technology, 2012, July 7).
The given facts should not be misinterpreted as the evidence of the company’s unwillingness to keep in pace with time and technology – quite on the contrary, DreamWorks uses rather advanced technology in the production of its animated feature films. The role of technology, though admittedly huge, still defines technology as a tool, and not the substitute of the company’s personnel – the latter are clearly irreplaceable.
Reference List
DreamWorks Animation (2014). Jobs. Web.
Innovators: DreamWorks animation draws up cutting-edge technology (2012). Intel Free Press. Web.
Loughlin, W. S. (2012). Head of DreamWorks Animation to visit SU. Syracuse University. Web.
McNicholas, K. (2010). Ten minutes that mattered: Jeffrey Katzenberg. Forbes. Web.