Posted on Dec 29, 2022
Avatar 2: What is the future for visual effects?
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Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 3
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Yet as advancement in technology gives filmmakers greater freedom to realise their wildest cinematic dreams, progress needs to be made to create a better, healthier working culture for the VFX artists to deliver increasingly complex demands. "With high-speed video communication and the expansion of VFX companies around the globe, it means someone, somewhere is working on the VFX of your film at any hour of the day," says Squires. "Those supervising and monitoring the work may now have to have reviews at 8am, 5pm, midnight and 3am."
He suggests unionisation as the solution, and that seems to be the consensus for making the VFX workplace healthy again. "The lack of international unionisation and any cooperation by the visual effects shops is hurting workers," says the second VFX artist. "Visual effects shops frequently underbid each other, and Marvel (and other clients) know this and pit them against each other, consistently leading to massive overtime and burnout from the artists," he alleges, "and then the visual effects shop eats losses, and the cycle begins again."
"Right now, there's no incentive for a visual effects studio to give their employees better hours, better benefits or a better life balance," adds the first VFX professional. "There's no way for a single employee to push back but if you get a bunch of them, VFX studios have to prioritise that."
..."Yet as advancement in technology gives filmmakers greater freedom to realise their wildest cinematic dreams, progress needs to be made to create a better, healthier working culture for the VFX artists to deliver increasingly complex demands. "With high-speed video communication and the expansion of VFX companies around the globe, it means someone, somewhere is working on the VFX of your film at any hour of the day," says Squires. "Those supervising and monitoring the work may now have to have reviews at 8am, 5pm, midnight and 3am."
He suggests unionisation as the solution, and that seems to be the consensus for making the VFX workplace healthy again. "The lack of international unionisation and any cooperation by the visual effects shops is hurting workers," says the second VFX artist. "Visual effects shops frequently underbid each other, and Marvel (and other clients) know this and pit them against each other, consistently leading to massive overtime and burnout from the artists," he alleges, "and then the visual effects shop eats losses, and the cycle begins again."
"Right now, there's no incentive for a visual effects studio to give their employees better hours, better benefits or a better life balance," adds the first VFX professional. "There's no way for a single employee to push back but if you get a bunch of them, VFX studios have to prioritise that."
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