The internet has been particularly active this week with visual effects news. Here is a list of links that we found interesting, if we missed any please add to comments and if we find more this week we’ll add them here.

Visual Effects related links:
Wall Street Journal: Working as a Visual Effects Artist

Shoot: AICE Extends Membership to Design, Motion Graphics and Visual Effects Companies

Postworld: SAG and AFTRA: Together Again

LA TImes: ‘Wonderland’ was a career challenge for EFX wizard Ken Ralston

WSJ: Being James Cameron

Labor related:
A real life story about freelancing: Epilogue Ei8ht: The True Story of a Freelance Artist

fxdad.org: Post about companies using Employers of Record also one titled Organizing Your Labor

The Animation Guild Blog: Organize MBO?

UPDATE- added since original post:
Dazpix: What you need to know when considering going Freelance and Setting Up on your own in Motion Graphics

Thinking Animation Blog: Protecting Yourself as a Freelancer

Pro Video Coalition: Is a Visual Effects Guild to Materialize this Decade?

There has been a lot of activity since our podcast about the Open Letter to James Cameron and our interview with Steven Hulett from The Animation Guild. In the interview with Lee Stranahan about the Open Letter he proposed a VFX Town Hall meeting, a webinar style event to discuss the issue of VFX Fairness. Lee has been hard at work on this and has already confirmed participants: Digital Domain Founder Scott Ross, Visual Effects Society Chair Jeffrey A. Okun, Warner Brothers VP of Effects & Animation Chris deFaria, The Animation Guild’s Steve Hulett and VFX Artist Dave Rand. Start thinking of your questions and we’ll let you know the details when we know more.

Steven Hulett has a new post at The Animation Guild Blog about forming a Visual Effects Guild and mentions a new brand new blog to discuss the formation of such a guild – www.fxdag.org. This blog launched yesterday, so the forums have not had a lot of activity yet, but there is a poll: Is this a good idea? and a list titled: What labor concerns do you have?.

A couple other writers have been doing great work in this area. Over at AWN Richard Kerrigan has written several articles we would recommend. At Motionographer check out Questioning the Freelance Dilemma by Bran Dougherty-Johnson, and make sure you check out the comments.

UPDATES 02/18:
The New York Times has an article “U.S. Cracks Down on ‘Contractors’ as a Tax Dodge”
Inc. is covering also: Obama Cracks Down on Use of Contractors
A post on the Animation Guild blog about the NT Times article has lit up with comments.

The folks over at Chemical Wedding were already known to us because they make the iPhone app Helios that calculates Sun Position. They now have introduced a Director’s Viewfinder app called Artemis. It supports selected film and digital cameras with more to come. It says “coming soon” on the web site but it is in the Apple app store now for $29.99 US, which is higher than a lot of iPhone apps but cheap if you’ve ever priced Director’s Viewfinders to hang around your neck.

Screenshots and more details at: www.chemicalwedding.tv/artemis.html

Two online videos with appeal to our industry made waves in the social networking worlds like Twitter and Facebook this week.

The first one, by editor Joy Moeller, is a list of 21 things that a client should and shouldn’t do in an edit session to keep peace with your editor.

The second one places comments about doing (and paying for) work in our business into other contexts.

After the jump you’ll find the videos plus we got a chance to talk with Joy Moeller about her list and the reaction.

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Autodesk released a Stereoscopic Filmmaking Whitepaper delivering a comprehensive understanding of the state of the industry and its current barriers. The whitepaper provides valuable knowledge for anyone curious about the future of Stereo 3D (S3D) and highlights current industry challenges from technical production complexities to studio considerations and theatrical acceptance.

While the industry faces numerous economic, technical and creative barriers, the growth of Stereo 3D is omnipresent and the demand for live action SD3 cannot be ignored. Autodesk’s whitepaper devotes a considerable amount of thought to standardized workflow processes and the creation of affordable tools to make S3D more available and accessible to a broader range of film projects—both independent and studio-driven.

The whitepaper is available for download (pdf) here.

We have recorded an interview with Steve Hulett of The Animation Guild for an upcoming podcast and part of a series we are working on concerning labor laws. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to them in advance by providing this link to their blog post about some visual effects artists on Journey to the Center of the Earth who did not get paid. Look for the podcast in the coming weeks.

The Visual Effects Society has released a document titled “The State of Visual Effects In the Entertainment Industry”. Written by Renee Dunlop, Paul Malcolm and VES president Eric Roth it covers topics like “Advances in Visual Effects Technology Drive Changes On and Off the Set ” and “Impact on the Bottom Line”.

You’ll find the link after the jump.

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Stu Maschwitz over on his ProLost blog has written a must read article titled “The Film Industry is Broken” about the lack of a Universal Color Metadata format.