ZZ Studios
Staffing Requirements
Working on the location and facilities at ZZ Studios has got me thinking about the staffing requirements. The Executive management group is very small for the scale of operation I have described. This makes me think Zig Zag runs a tight ship, without a lot of middle managers. She has exactly the people she needs for any given project, no more, no less.
Per Sabrina The Story and ZZ The Story, ZZ brings her employee's payroll to the office on Fridays. Whether this is weekly, bi-weekly or monthly is not clear. The industry standard is bi-weekly, so this is what I am assuming. Per Sabrina The Story, part of that budget is reserved for her cash only employees, who work under the table for her for various reasons that are not important to explore now. This would be the salary for the regular staff and full time actors. When the studio is in full production and all studios and editing suites are in use, the payroll budget would swell nicely.
From events described in all three media reference sources, (ZZ The Story, Sabrina The Story, and Sabrina Online the strip), it seems that there is always something going on in at least one of the studios every day. I expect the studio works on a high-low almost seasonal schedule, with times of low production and times of high production. For example, June, July, August would be high production times as the studio gears up for the Christmas holiday season. So this dictates that there must be a sizable stable of extra paws for all departments when the production schedule goes into full swing.
From the three media reference sources, it is clear that ZZ Studios puts out a high quality product. Which is why it occupies a slice of the market that Playfur cannot evict it from. Zig Zag refuses to put out a crappy product, and says so to James Sheppard in ZZ The Story. A high quality product means excellent employees who know their stuff and are compensated well for the work they do. We know from the three media sources that Zig Zag thinks of her employees as family more than just numbers on an accounting spreadsheet, and we wouldn't want her any other way.
ZZ Studios contracts Lillian Bartholomew as their fashion designer/consultant, and has Rosalie act as the hair stylist on her shoots as well. These two businesses are not included in the staffing, or bi-weekly payroll. In fact, they are probably paid by the job, Rosalie most likely under the table.
The standard employee list follows, this is just a rough guideline to get an idea of the number of people that work at the studio on an average, given, daily basis, and is not intended to be comprehensive nor writ as CANON.
Executive management:
Zig Zag, Owner, Chief Executive.
Marvin Badger, Chief Administrator/Business Manager.
Actors and Actresses:
Rafe
Mia (occasionally serves as receptionist)
Wanda Vixen
Sheila Vixen
Tamara Rabbit
Tygon Panthera (per Victoria and Tygon)
Creative projects:
Sabrina Mustelidae, Senior Graphic Designer.
Mark, Principal Photographer.
Franklin, Senior Editing Manager.
Two unnamed full time Video Editors.
Per The Circular Object MARK II Mike Mezcal is a Part Time Video Editor in this department.
Two unnamed script writers/editors
Per Victoria and Tygon, one writer is named Tygon
Per Workplace Relations one is names Eric Taillong
Per Workplace Relations ZZ Studios has a Professional Music Composer named Jake “Jazz” Phillips.
Engineering:
One unnamed Senior Technician.
Two unnamed Equipment Maintenance Technicians.
OR
One unnamed Senior Technician.
One unnamed Junior Technician.
In The Circular Object MARK II I have opted to go with the first option: One Senior Techician and two Full Time Equipment Maintenance Technicians. However, this does not preclude the possibility that the employment arrangements could not differ from what is represented in The Circular Object or The Circular Object MARK II. They are named so:
Senior Tech: Tiver Trefoil
Engineer: Amber Alisurus
Engineer:
Support Staff:
Several unnamed Studio Technicians. These furs would have duties that would range from setting up cameras, lights, backdrops and sound, and would include using and/or working that equipment during an average shoot.
Several unnamed Stage Crew. These furs would be responsible for keeping continuity on the set and checking the actor's positions as well as the person who operates the clapboard and others in the background that keeps everything flowing smoothly.
Several unnamed Camera Operators.
And,
Rodney Lapine, Camera/lighting maintenance person.
Clarence Skunk, Gofer. Clarence does everything else that needs to get done but that no one else is doing.
Darke Katt, Janitor
This is around twenty to twenty-seven people, approximately. There is a scene in Sabrina The Story that describes nineteen people gathering for checks in Zig's office. One of them is Marvin, who paws out the checks, three of them are paid cash, (Yevette, Rodney and Dawne), and remember, Sabrina is with Chris at her parents home, and Clarence has not yet been hired, he's sitting on the massage table looking embarrassed. (We have to give Chris some creative latitude here. He says that Zig led Clarence to her office and had him sit up on her massage table, but we have established in ZZ The Story that Zig's massage table is set up in a different room from her office. Sorry, Chris, I checked that.) Not that that is either here or there. Of those nineteen people Chris notes, one third of them are wearing "dressing gowns or less". That makes six point three furs in various stages of undress. This is acceptable if we consider that there are more actors than I've mentioned above, (there HAVE to be), and also, that some of them may not be actors, or acting that day, but web models. (Once again we have to give Chris some latitude. His scene makes it look like everyone in the building dropped what they were doing to come get paid. That is extremely unlikely. First of all, how would the people on the closed sets know to come to Zig's office? Surely Marvin knows better than to enter a closed set. Second of all, the editors would be loath to leave their editing bays in the middle of an edit. (There are two reasons for this. 1, Time in the bays is budgeted by the Production Manager for specific editors and projects. This is because there are multiple features being edited at the same time and server space and time is limited. 2, Walking away from your work in the middle of an unfinshed edit is anathema to video editors. [Trust me on this, I know video editors.] Besides being bad form.) And third of all, they probably wouldn't stop a photo shoot in the middle either. But, this is a creative project Chris has embarked on, so let's give him his creative license.) What that means is that twelve point seven of those people are just regular staff, and that matches up pretty closely with the staffing requirements I've outlined above, so kudos' Chris, I think you got it just about right.
Of course, how many people actually work at ZZ Studios fluctuates on any given day. ZZ has a lot of part-timers, and freelancers working for her on an as needed basis, and, of course, not all the actors are involved in all productions at all times. Acting is a physically demanding job and I would expect the actors would be given generous breaks between movies when possible, leading to a rotating retinue of actors coming and going from ZZ Studios. Royalty checks are, of course, completely separate from paychecks.
There is a line from ZZ The Story that I have been unable to quantify. Burner wrote: (This is Marvin talking here,) "Zig, I'm not trying to make you feel any worse for what happened. I just want you to let me know when you're carrying that kind of money so I can make arrangements to escort you." This is a problem. I know Zig likes to take care of business matters herself, but isn't payroll really a function of the Business Manager and thus Marvin's pervue? Of course, in the first chapter of ZZ The Story we find ZZ working the accounting books, so okay, ZZ wants to handle that aspect herself. It is still unclear how Marvin could not know he was going to get paid. I mean, how could he not know he gets paid every Friday, (or every other Friday, or whatever)? Is this a new situation? Did Zig just recently start brining in the payroll herself? What did they do before then? The events of the two media sources, (Sabrina The Story and ZZ The Story), seem to indicate that the payroll distribution in Zig's office is pretty normal, so where does Marvin's surprise come from? As I said, I am unable to quantify that scene in ZZ The Story. If you have any ideas, please let me know. In the meantime I will chalk it up to creative license on Burner's part.
This is a work in progress and has no significance outside of itself. I found it fun to try to categorize just who is in ZZ Studios, and hope you find this information to be helpful. In no way am I suggesting that this list is complete or accurate or in anyway represents CANON in the way ZZ Studios is structured or operates. But it does help to give us perspective on just what ZZ Studios is.
Please give me feedback on your thoughts or views. ZZ Studios is a place where we can all have fun together.
Authored by
Gregg G. Guydish
No copyright infringements were intended in any way. If you feel I did so, please advise and we will discuss it.
Nighters!
Character Zig Zag is Copyright \xA9 Maxx the Black Rabbit
Characters Chris Foxx, Clarence Skunk, Dexter Collie, Angel Collie, and Wanda Vixen are Copyright \xA9 Chris Yost.
Characters Franklin, Mia the Red Panda, James Sheppard, and Rhonda Badger are Copyright \xA9 James Bruner.
Character Marvin Badger is Copyright \xA9 James Bruner after a description by Chris Yost.
Characters Sabrina Mustelidae, Amy Squirrel and Darke Katt are Copyright \xA9 Eric W. Schwartz.
Characters Amber Meeya Ailurus, Tiver Trefoil, Tyler and Mike Mezcal are Copyright \xA9 Gregg G Guydish.
Character Tygon Panthera is Copyright \xA9 Marc-Dennis Horn.
Characters Eric Taillong and Jake “Jazz” Phillips are Copyright \xA9 Michael Barnes.
All rights to additional characters reserved by their respective owners.
Note from the Author:
I am currently working my way through Workplace Relations by Michael Barnes and Awakenings by Grakin. Updates will be added as significance occurs. If you have a piece of Sabrina/ZZverse fiction that you feel will contribute to this list, or just want to share in general, please let me know, I’d be happy to read it and see what you have to offer, thanks.
Gregg