UPDATE: Rhythm & Hues Gets $5M To Finish Legendary’s ‘Seventh Son’

COMMENTS (9)

• So what happened here? Was it mis-management…or did the company contract to produce effects they couldn’t actually do without a lot of in-house r&d that they had to finance themselves?

  Comment by pete — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 9:50am PST  Reply to this post

  • Hey Pete,

    Were it so simple that a single issue might be the cause of the R&H problems, but unfortunately, mis management is just a fraction of the reasons. Without detailing all the woes of the current visual effects industry, it can only be saved if it follows Nietzsche theory, “Out of chaos comes organization”.

    As it currently stands, this business is completely out of control as it death spirals overseas. There is no person and no entity whether it is unionization or a trade organization which can probably stop the bleeding before more and more patients (effects houses) especially in the states become terminal.

    It’s like watching what is happening in Syria. It’s horrible. People are dying and lives are being destroyed…but, no one seems to be able to do a damn thing to fix it.

    Comment by no easy answer — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 1:26pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’ve been in VFX on features for 10 years. Most of the features I’ve worked on are mid budget 30-50mil. NONE of them have ever done their primary VFX work in the US. Here is my typical breakdown of vendors – Big shots to Canada, mid-range shots to India/Thailand/European VFX houses, low end work to people in LA who will work on a weekly rate. Every time I had a big shot that I would bid out to the big companies in the US – R&H, ILM, Digital Domain, etc – the price would be so crazy that it wasn’t even up for discussion. We had to go out of town because they could not play ball on budget. I’m shocked these companies have survived as long as they have. Too much overhead, too many execs, too expensive. Lower your costs or die.

  Comment by VFX Editor — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 3:09pm PST  Reply to this post

  • and thus, your shots look like shit….

    Professor Falken

    Comment by Professor Falken — Thursday February 21, 2013 @ 11:26am PST  Reply to this post

• R&H had a market lock on cartoony cg/live action hybrids for years and was able to remain profitable, even with a topheavy, antiquated production infrastructure. When studios stopped making those movies they were forced tp compete with everybody else. And they weren’t quite efficient enough to make it work.

  Comment by VFX knowitall — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 3:28pm PST  Reply to this post

• The employee who filed the lawsuit claiming that R&H violated the WARN act is not subject to the WARN act.

  He was an “at-will” employee (as most freelancers are), which pursuant to California law, means that he could be terminated at any time, for any reason, without notice. It also means that he had the right to quit at any time, for any reason, without notice.

  Comment by VFX_Person — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 4:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• “VFX Editor” – you DO realize that what the VFX artists do is not just tech, and it’s not computers that do the work, but skilled artists and engineers, right? It’s easy to say “Lower your costs or die” – but what VFX is about is R&D, new tech, new everything – all the time. Studios STILL think it’s just “push a few buttons” – and it’s not like that at all. They keep hiring reckless inexperienced directors, and the sets are a mess, and things get shot that should never get shot, and they say “Fix it in post” – and THEN wonder why costs spiral out of control? Sorry, but there aren’t enough skilled and trained people in foreign countries(India/China) that can do this work (yet).

  Comment by it's art not just tech — Friday February 15, 2013 @ 5:04pm PST  Reply to this post

• I agree with “art it’s not just tech”—vfx editor, there is no substitute for quality, unless of course, you have your highest standards set at mediocrity. I have seen the most atrocious shots come through a studio, things that in the days of fritz Lang or Alfred Hitchcock, or Jean Cocteau, would have been meticulously thought out and required only enhancement, not frankensteinish recreation, which is the expensive part of post—artists cleaning up mistakes that productions on location have overlooked, while huge percentages of the budget have already been spent making those mistakes. In any case, the attitude of “vfx editor” seems to be the prevalent one–there is a quote in Skyfall in which the Prime Minister addresses Mum–”you behave as though human intelligence is the only resource available to us!” And we artists may be, idealistically, assuming the same regarding talent and experience, while clearly, those who are NOT artists in this business these as negligible if not problematic traits–because they are expensive.

  Comment by Get Gratitude — Thursday February 28, 2013 @ 9:58am PST  Reply to this post

• “It’s like watching what is happening in Syria.”
  No. No it really isn’t.

  Comment by Jared — Thursday February 28, 2013 @ 12:23pm PST  Reply to this post