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Excellent Podcast with David Cohen! Highly talented and phenomenally dedicated craftspeople have been abused long enough. It is very refreshing to hear a frank discussion about what really is going on in our industry. The abuse that occurs on some of these shows is remarkable, and would be illegal in many civilised countries. I believe that the “above the line” compensation needs to be adjusted just as the “below the line” compensation has fallen.
If budgets are increasingly lowered, why is it that the “above the line” personnel generally do not share in this compensation reduction? This is quite interesting given that in many films the “stars” are “created” and “acted” by VFX artists! Without these gifted and talented artists there would be no film! I would like to hear comments from others regarding this topic. It is a good start to get it out in the open with this podcast.Glad you liked the podcast and the article. Your concerns about the growing discrepancy between above-the-line and below-the-line compensation are shared by much of the industry. It’s certainly an issue for SAG and AFTRA; the unions feel the middle class is being squeezed out, to some degree for the same reasons that vfx artists are being squeezed: offshoring… less emphasis on quality… Writers & journalists are facing some of the same pressures.
There are macroeconomic reasons for it in a global economy — people who provide unique services (stars) can command a premium, while people who provide commoditized services (day players, vfx artists) face downward pressure due to increased competition. None of which makes it any easier to put up with.There are the world economy pressures, “budget” constraints, and other real and tangible reasons for our industrie’s predicament. Then there are simple, fixable things that contribute to the problem. Ivy league business school graduates that have no clue as to how the film business operates.
I have seen many decisions made during post production that are mind boggling, and waste enormous amounts of money. Poor planning, incompetent people put in positions of enormous importance, and so on and so on. I can’t go into specific examples here in detail, but let’s just say that they would be the equivalent of redesigning a house whilst being framed. All with the expectation that the architect, builder and other trades continue working for the initial budget. No one wins here but the studios.Finally, this issue has started to be addressed. I have believed this for a long time but someone has finally said it. I think that this is an issue both in VFX work and in the computer games world. If you watch the extra features for certain films, VFX is hardly mentioned, even though it is an integral part of the film. The quality of work done by almost all VFX houses is flawless and because of this may be seen to be easy or just done by the computer, without much artistic control.
I am unsure how this should be tackled but would love to see the VFX artists elevated to a similar status as the other artists contributing to films. I think that this needs to be an issue brought up across the industry and everyone needs to have a united belief to change the situation.
Am looking forward to the FXTV cast to hear what is dicussed. Hopefully something can be done in the near future.It’s interesting that this is just now being brought up. I worked in games for about 10 years and the dream of many artists I worked with was to leave and join the film/fx industry. Game developers and particularly publishers forced working practices on their staff very similar to that which you’re complaining about now. This link is about 3 years old but you may recognise the sentiment …
http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html
I’m hoping that things are different now but I had enough and after yet another redundancy I eventually left the industry. Now I do vfx and have far less stress but I know I’m lucky.
Zog: As I discuss in the podcast, I was able to write this article and get it on the front page of Weekly Variety for two reasons. First, I was hearing that there had been a shift since “War of the Worlds” and what had been a difficult situation had taken a turn for the worse. Second, two major companies were willing to go on the record and warn that the current schedules are a problem, not just for the vfx shops but for their studio clients.
I’ve received a lot of feedback from vfx artists, all concurring with what is in the article. But that’s not surprising, since I think I was only writing about problems the vfx community already knew well. Keep in mind, though, that Variety’s print readers are executives, above-the-line pros and agents, people who wouldn’t necessarily have any idea about any of this. What’s more, for them the news isn’t “You’re putting vfx artists through hell,” it’s “You’re running the risk of missing a release date on a tentpole or of turning a $250 million investment into a $300 million loss because you rushed a movie out before it was done.”
So while it would be nice to think that simple humanity and decency would dictate some moderation of these practices, any such relief is more likely to be driven by risk-management concerns.
Zog: As I discuss in the podcast, I was able to write this article and get it on the front page of Weekly Variety for two reasons. First, I was hearing that there had been a shift since “War of the Worlds” and what had been a difficult situation had become intolerable for some people and companies. Second, two major companies were willing to go on the record and warn that the current schedules are a problem, not just for the vfx shops but for their studio clients.
I’ve received a lot of feedback from vfx artists concurring with what is in the article. But that’s not surprising, since I think I was only writing about problems the vfx community already knew well. Keep in mind, though, that Variety’s print readers are executives, above-the-line pros and agents, people who wouldn’t necessarily have any idea about any of this. For them the news isn’t “You’re putting vfx artists through hell,” it’s “You’re running the risk of missing a release date on a tentpole or of turning a $250 million investment into a $300 million loss because you rushed a movie into release before it was really complete.”
So while it would be nice to think that simple humanity would dictate some moderation of these practices, such relief is more likely to be driven by risk-management concerns than human decency. That’s why Chrissie England, Tim Sarnoff and John Knoll were careful to talk about the pictures being at risk.
Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to imagine a studio caring anything about “warnings of employee burnout” or “compromised film quality” until there is a measurable effect, in terms of dollars lost. That is, until a film fails financially and that failure can be attributed to the unreasonable deadlines and treatment of vfx employees, why should any studio stop? And frankly with the multitude of variables that go into the success or failure of a film, it probably will never come down to the fx in a measurable way.
But remember that there’s a very good reason that film crews are UNIONIZED. There is a very strict rate of pay with strict conditions for every single man, woman and child who walks onto a Hollywood film set. There’s minimum “turnaround times” (humans need sleep), guaranteed meal breaks, minimum pay scales, and so on. Otherwise, why wouldn’t a studio simply demand everyone work until they drop and then replace them all with a fresh batch of workers eager to “break in.” Until vfx artists unionize, there is really only one direction this whole thing can go: it’s gonna get worse before it gets better.
History shows that the “pendulum” swings dramatically both ways. I think it is time for things to “swing” in the favor of hard-working, incredibly talented people.
What we have here is a case where the “Railroads” are being built by highly skilled professional workers, and the studios are treating almost all of them like day laborers, as if there is a long line of replacements! (Which there is NOT!)
The truth is that you could take the top 250 “day laborers” out of the visual effects field and you would have NO MORE RAILROAD, or at best… a very inefficient and broken one.
100+ years ago, workers unionized, and forced the issues to the table. Compromises were made… BLOOD was SHED!…and technology marched on, for the better of industry and workers.
I say, take a step back….. and seriously consider how important, REALLY, is it that this very cool looking, piece of $%t story gets finished on time? Is is worth your marriage? Your kids school play? Oh well, At least you have the medical benefits, right? …. Talent does NOT grow on trees, and they literally have NOWHERE to go to find replacements for a large (organized) number of us.
In the mean time, we streamline our processes, build our fx systems, organize our efforts, and prepare to take back the art AND the projects from these industrial “machines”.
“We ants can do great things!…. And YOU know it, DON’T you!?” – Flick the Ant, A Bug’s Life.
I think the problem is that there are a long line of replacements. That point was made by a couple of people I interviewed for my Variety article and one is quoted to that effect in the story. There are lots of people lined up to take vfx jobs, new shops coming online in Asia… supply and demand is not working in the artists’ favor.
“I think the problem is that there are a long line of replacements”
Like any other business, you get what you pay for. I know from personal experience that when it comes to getting high-caliber freelance help, there aren’t as many great employables waiting to take your job as some would make you believe. As far as the outsourced work I have seen, it is a mixed bag of quality.
There is considerable water cooler chat regarding re-unionizing, if you will. History shows that the “pendulum” swings both ways, and it is swinging towards the organization of labor as labor is repeatedly abused.
The cream will always rise to the top.
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