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Ross Lincoln is a Deadline contributor.
UPDATE, 4:26 PM: By Deadline’s count over 400 protesters are gathered at the corner of Hollywood and Vine as celebrities and filmmakers walk the Academy Awards red carpet just blocks away at the Dolby Theatre. The grassroots protest is organized by ex- and current employees of bankrupt Life Of Pi VFX house Rhythm & Hues to bring attention to the company’s recent Chapter 11 financial woes, which trickled down this month as over 250 employees were axed without pay.
Even those that remain at Rhythm & Hues working on upcoming tentpoles like Legendary’s Seventh Son have not received a paycheck in weeks. Today’s protest is also tied to a growing effort to unionize the VFX industry under the banner of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). But among today’s protesters the unionization issue has mixed support. One marcher who asked to remain anonymous said he fears that unionization might contribute to the industry’s economic problems. Others lamented the difficulty in unionizing, citing mixed interest in the industry and the need for studio cooperation as potential roadblocks. However, the subsidization of VFX houses abroad, particularly in Canada, was a source of seemingly unanimous criticism. Numerous signs bore witness to the sentiment, with slogans like “Foreign Subsidies = No LA VFX Jobs” and “End The Subsidies War” common.
RELATED: VFX Pros To Stage Oscar Protest
VFX artist Dickie Payne, whose work includes Titanic and Seaquest DSV was particularly scathing. It isn’t as though VFX employees in Los Angeles can easily relocate, he said. In addition to the problem of uprooting from a community when you have children and other ties, there are immigration restrictions.
Tiffany Wallace, attending in support of her partner David Dang, a freelance VFX artist and grassroots organizer, exhorted marchers over a bullhorn: “We need to stand united as workers, and as people who know our work is valuable”. Speaking to Deadline she cited long hours and diluted pay as a particular problem for VFX professionals trying to build a life. After spending an hour and a half marching at Hollywood and Vine, the procession marched to the boundaries of the LAPD’s zone of protection around the Oscars at Wilcox Ave to continue their demonstration.
Related: Rhythm & Hues Confirms Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing
PREVIOUSLY, 2:48 PM: More than 300 VFX professionals have gathered in protest in Hollywood, just down the street from the 85th Academy Awards where Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi is set to vie for the Best VFX Oscar this afternoon. Rhythm & Hues this month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after laying off over 250 employees. Protesters are wielding homemade signs, marching in a long circular procession, and chanting in unison: “Respect the artists, respect the workers, respect visual effects”. A plane carrying a banner reading “BOXOFFICE + BANKRUPT = VISUAL EFFECTS VFXUNION.COM” is scheduled to fly over the Oscars red carpet from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
“We’re tired of paying for the studios’ movies, our employers paying for the studios’ movies, and foreign tax payers paying for the studios’ movies”, Rand told Deadline prior to Sunday’s protest. “It’s the greatest con of the entertainment industry”.
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What a bunch of losers.
Because they want jobs? Yea..real aholes.
You must be a producer.
No one owes anyone a job, especially in this business, and no one has a “right” to a job. It’s all based on what kind of value you can create. Things would work a lot better if so much of the money didn’t rise to the top, but no one can force that to stop happening.
Not that Ang Lee isn’t a brilliant man, but I seriously doubt he could of done the VFX in “Life of Pi”.
au contraire…
The losers are people like you who don’t understand that without VFX pros, all movies would look as cheesy as Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Losers? How so?
always easy to armchair criticize. we’ll see how pissed you are when all your jobs go over seas… cuz no one has gotten mad over any of that yet… sarcasm here.
Why would you say something like that?
What these companies do is send up footage to Canada, they do their thing, then send it back, assembled, but in bad shape. Then the FX houses hire ONE PERSON, usually someone made management (so no overtime) to clean up the Canuck’s mistakes, and the company pockets the rest of their fees. Which is substantial.
And by “companies” I meant the studios, not the VFX houses.
Something needs to change in the VFX industry. VFX is the “star” in many of these international blockbuster films, and currently the business side seems a bit broken.
Its a shame that it has come to this. We need responsible filmmaking in this country.
Make that 300. This is a march that starts in LA, but is echoed around the world.
not quite, sorry. i want my government (canada) to help me keep my job here, thanks.
That’s awesome! Essentially you have a “government as union” that helps you keep your job in Canada. Tres se bon.
“Just down the street…” Hollywood & Vine, away from all the cameras, and we wouldn’t want to upset all those highly overpaid stars arriving in their limos.
Union picketing, demonstrations,protests, free speech in general, its all been marginalized and hidden away from where it would do the most good. The so-called liberal, bleeding heart HOLLYWOOD liberals, seem to remain deafly silent when its in their own backyard, and not in their own personal interest.
Truth.
“The Republican and Democratic parties are alike capitalist parties — differing only in being committed to different sets of capitalist interests — they have the same principles under varying colors, are equally corrupt and are one in their subservience to capital and their hostility to labor.”- Eugene Debs
I think the point is that those on the Left in Hollywood run around shouting diatribes filled with pro-union mantras. Of course, they are all for everyone else succumbing to the union until it affects their own bottom line. At least, the folks in the Republican party tend to be more honest about being pro-business.
BTW, your quote of Eugene V. Debs lacks context since, during his time, both parties lacked any cohesive platform outside of civil rights — and even that was a crapshoot. For crying out loud, Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive!
There are over 400 now. Without VFX your movies would suck, and we are tired of doing your 911 work and slaving for nothing.
All the protections they are asking for can be afforded to them by joining IATSE or another union or by creating their own union. Employers WILL screw workers. Almost always. That’s why unions exist. If these people want to be part of the film industry, I recommend they join one of the five film unions.
Oh my god. Do you seriously believe that not ONE vfx artist has ever spoken with IATSE reps? Please, just go away.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
Good for them.
very educated response that
You obviously have no clue about what is happening in this industry. Research before you fire off your kazoo.
Not really clear on what they are protesting. That their company didn’t know how to manage the company?
They are trying to bring attention to the low wages, long hours and poor working standards that vfx workers get. It’s not just R&H going out of business. It is all vfx facilities as the work goes overseas to sweatshops.
This protest is to draw attention to the artificially low, fixed bids the big Hollywood studios demand from vfx companies. Under-bids are killing vfx company profits world-wide. This, in turn, hurts workers and jobs. The big film producing studios don’t pay low, fixed bids for live action crew, for actors, for composers, for sound, so vfx companies and workers should not allow themselves to be exploited.
The protest is also to draw attention to support for worker rights. No matter your political or economic beliefs, every role in production deserves a union or a guild, and almost everyone in the industry has a union, except for these vfx people. Even people like Ronald Reagan needed the actor’s union at some stage in their careers.
If you can’t get rid of all the tax incentives and subsidies, extend them to vfx vendor companies, not just the big production company studios. Some of these vfx companies, like Rhythm and Hues, are the cream of the crop in innovation, customization and quality. When a Hollywood studio needs first-class, ground-breaking quality for a top-grade movie, they go to these kinds of people. These vfx companies deserve to charge the true and fair costs of keeping some highly skilled American workers and jobs, plus some profit. If governments are going to support the big producer movies, these vfx companies should also be supported.
VFX companies should form a trade association, to represent their needs, along the model of the AICP.
“Change the model on which facilities are compensated, whether this means moving to ‘cost plus a fixed fee’ or back-end participation in gross revenue. VFX companies currently are effectively funding feature films while accepting a thin profit margin, to a meaningful degree.” – I agree with Scott Ross on this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qzk4P-U9vXo
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Don’t worry. He’ll be laid off soon and then he’ll understand because this is not just a vsfx thing unfortunately.
NO your the loser!. To be honest I have worked in the industry for over 15 years. We wouldnt’ have Star Wars without these visual effects artists so stop name calling to an industry I am sure you spend money on watching .
It’s time these artist get the respect they deserve for their work. Why should they work long hours with no health benefits, no retirement benefits on short contracts doing 6-7 day weeks and many 12+ hours days, not seeing their families, only to be let go at the end of the project? There is no security and these big studios are making MILLIONS while artists have to move all over the world to follow tax breaks and stay employed with no job security. Shame on Hollywood.
please note that Beasts of the Southern Wild (which is up for Best Picture) and is not a student film, used students who got college credit to do it’s FX:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/02/21/the-students-who-schooled-the-oscars-in-the-art-of-special-effects/
Good luck.
There is a big difference in quality and budget between small independent films, which can be done with simpler vfx, and studio-funded films, which require more complex, expensive, and sophisticated visual effects. I don’t anyone should assume that just because a certain style of vfx works in lower budget films like Beasts of the Southern Wild, that means it also works in a major vfx film, like Life of Pi. Cheap labor and students are not able to perform the same creative leadership, quality, and volume of work as a top-notch vfx company.
I certainly sympathize. I’m a teacher and there are a lot of “design” type colleges and these kids are going through these programs expecting to get a job when they graduate. This is sad and indemic of our whole country. Good people losing jobs.
If you want to know what this “bunch of losers” are protesting about, there are a few good sites that are covering the issues at hand:
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/
http://www.drake.org.uk/2013/02/a-history-of-screwing-over-vfx-artists-to-cumulate-in-oscar-protest-this-sunday/
http://www.indiegogo.com/EndVfxSubsidies
The basic gist is that CA-based VFX companies can no longer afford to compete with government-subsidized VFX facilities in other countries. Digital Domain and Rhythm & Hues are only the two most recent cases, there are many more that have collapsed in the past few years, and no doubt more to come in the future. So what? Who cares? Well, obviously all of us who make a living in VFX care, but the studios should too. If the current trends continue, here is what you can expect:
1) more big shops will close, more talented artists will move away or quit VFX entirely. This brain-drain will mean that the quality of VFX will go down, as experienced and talented artists and supervisors leave Hollywood (your movies will look worse)
2) the big facilities that can handle huge VFX jobs will be gone or severely downsized, meaning the studios will either have to divide the VFX up amongst many, many smaller (and less capable) companies or just cut back on the scope of the VFX in each film (your movies will look even worse)
3) eventually almost all VFX work in CA will dry up, leaving the studios with one option- fly to India or China and try to get the artists there to do as good a job as we’ve been doing for the past few decades (your movies will look even worse than you can imagine)
It’s a pretty simple downward spiral- if something doesn’t happen to keep VFX shops afloat in CA, the films you know and love are going to get really cheesy really quickly. And for those who say that VFX are not all that important to the film biz, 49 of the 50 top-grossing films of all time rely heavily on VFX to tell their stories.
If the VFX folks lose, we all lose.
That’s an LA-centric argument though, and the problem is bigger than that. It’s a global business and lots of the shops are hurting.
True. This is an article about the LA protest happening right now, so my comments are aimed at the specifics of what these people are protesting, but there are shops closing all over the world and those artists are definitely suffering too. Pixomondo just announced 2 shops closing today- Detroit and London. It’s crazy how many companies are closing, and how many artists are out of work.
This particular protest is focusing on the damage that subsidies have done to the LA market:
“In its bankruptcy court filing, Rhythm & Hues estimated that tax credits, currency-exchange rates and labor practices gave other English speaking countries a between 35% and 60% cost advantage over Los Angeles. Tax credits available in California and other states are more limited.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323864304578316414057909902.html
I don’t know what to think about government-subsidized shops closing overseas, if they are already operating at such a steep financial advantage and STILL can’t stay afloat… is it mis-management on the VFX company level, or is there something very, very wrong with the industry at large?
I will say this: “fix it in post” has become the warcry of modern filmmaking. The lack of pre-production planning that leads to this on-set attitude is to blame for rising VFX costs more than anything else. Proper planning leads to cheaper production and post, every time. If it was thought through before the shoot, it wouldn’t cost so darn much to fix later.
Could not agree more. But there’s more at play here. There aren’t a lot of of knowledgeable VFX folks at the high administrative/executive levels, so what you may find are some sorely inexperienced people running the show at VFX houses. Spending is rampant, with very little oversight. Payment is slow to come, and, very often, as you’ve indicated, insufficient because of many last-minute adjustments. Compensation for these changes is not always received; the companies often eat those costs. Artists are well-paid for their services, payrolls tend to be high. It’s all a recipe for disaster. And I fear the level of talent overseas will continue to rise, as more houses go belly up, further nailing the VFX coffin in L.A. Still, what’s happened at Rhythm & Hues is just a damn shame.
Ah I see. Well most of that is correct, but one thing I don’t understand about R&H is they were among the first to ship work overseas. They basically sold the LA market out first, and most impressively with what? Five studios overseas? They are among the lower paying, and send the most work overseas,yet seem to be saber rattling over subsidies, which seems unfair.
You know who really doesn’t have my sympathy vote? The 23 year old VFX Data Wrangler flown in on first class from the UK on 3K/week plus full per diem, hotel rooms and a car in Los Angeles. No experience needed. TIghten up these unnecessary production spends and maybe the people who deserve it will actually get paid.
Not sure where you get your math from 600, I work with you guys and no data wrangler is getting 3K a week and first class tickets. Also there is experience needed for mapping, gridding, working with Camera Dept, knowing general tracking and plate knowledge, survey. Please don’t just diss our job without proper research. Thanks.
And I know exactly who your referring to and highly doubt that even $50k on a job is putting a dent on the VFX budget. Go after the directors who can’t make up there minds before they shoot and decide to do it all in post and over run their budgets and VFX pays the price.
3k a week?? For a render wrangler? Please tell me which studio that is, I’ll apply right now.
This is an incredibly ignorant comment. You expect anyone to believe that a 23 year old with no job experience gets flown in from Europe and paid 3 grand a week to work in vfx? I would love to meet this guy!
I have a worked in vfx for 5 years. Most junior artists are making less than 60 grand a year, with no benefits (health insurance, sick days, etc.) and are expected to work crazy overtime which frequently goes without compensation. That’s the reality known by people who actually work in vfx.
600 is making an ignorant statement and it’s not true. If they hire someone to data wrangler with no experience they pay a crap rate and hire whoever they can. However you hire someone that has some experience it shows in the end result. The use of a Data wrangler (for now) is an important job and requires experience on most levels. But we do not make that kind of money. The travel part outside of first class is true.
“Blocks away”? LOL that’s L.A. geography for you. Hollywood & Vine is about a mile from Hollywood and Highland! Then again, when someone in L.A. says “right around the corner,” they mean a couple exits down on the freeway…
Hopefully these VFX folks will get their due. I can’t think of any movie that doesn’t require VFX these days. Even the small films. It’s all part of the recent great American tradition of outsourcing everything to the detriment of our workers – in any field!
Help me understand: what’s the going rate (annual compensation) of a VFX artist? $150k ? More? Less? Depends?
Last year I made $40,000.
It really depends since so much of the work is freelance. I’ve been around for a bit, but only worked nine months out of the year, with partial health insurance. Really where you make the money is the insane overtime, so you basically have to work six days a week for months on end, but then you’re out of work looking for your next gig. And then those savings go away. It’s a fun game.
Someone needs to get a hold of Mike Wassel and Scott Ross, ask them about Image Engine. R&H, wake up. Your luck and money are being sent over the border by “friends” of yours.
R&H has five studios overseas, they’ve been sending work over the border for years.
… i really cant stand people who dont understand what their beautiful happy little world would be like with no creative, dedicated and innovative individuals in it.
artists rule this world. i think we should all leave for a year and see how the rest of the planet can deal with not having any kind of visual stimulation. hows that video game? hows that movie? hows that magazine? hows that awfully directed porno? hows that movie ad? hows that label? hows that website? we’re not just a business. we are god damn people. talented people. people that make you cry, make you laugh, make you sing and make you see the greater things in life that youd never be able to imagine on your own.
we create everything you see pretty much anywhere you go. power to the creators. we deserve respect and credit (and while your at it, profit sharing). damn it.
It would be like north korea or lybia. Not the worst thing in the world I guess lol.
This protest is to draw attention to the artificially low, fixed bids the big Hollywood studios demand from vfx companies. Under-bids are killing vfx company profits world-wide. This, in turn, hurts workers and jobs. The big film producing studios don’t pay low, fixed bids for live action crew, for actors, for composers, for sound, so vfx companies and workers should not allow themselves to be exploited.
The protest is also to draw attention to support for worker rights. No matter your political or economic beliefs, every role in production deserves a union or a guild, and almost everyone in the industry has a union, except for these vfx people. Even people like Ronald Reagan needed the actor’s union at some stage in their careers.
If you can’t get rid of all the tax incentives and subsidies, extend them to vfx vendor companies, not just the big production company studios. Some of these vfx companies, like Rhythm and Hues, are the cream of the crop in innovation, customization and quality. When a Hollywood studio needs first-class, ground-breaking quality for a top-grade movie, they go to these kinds of people. These vfx companies deserve to charge the true and fair costs of keeping some highly skilled American workers and jobs, plus some profit. If governments are going to support the big producer movies, these vfx companies should also be supported.
VFX companies should form a trade association, to represent their needs, along the model of the AICP.
“Change the model on which facilities are compensated, whether this means moving to ‘cost plus a fixed fee’ or back-end participation in gross revenue. VFX companies currently are effectively funding feature films while accepting a thin profit margin, to a meaningful degree.” – I agree with Scott Ross on this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qzk4P-U9vXo
.
Great comment, David!
What I see happening in the VFX industry is that the barriers of entry are getting much lower: pretty much anyone with artistic skills can start a VFX house.
For example, in the past (say, 10 years ago), Autodesk Flame – which still costs a cool $500,000 – used to be one of the key software tools to get into the business, while today, The Foundry’s Nuke (which has mostly the same features) costs $5,000.
There are even free, open source VFX tools available, like Blender (check out the videos/films done with it at Youtube, it is a Pro level tool).
The bottom line is that there is more competition today for VFX than ever, and some companies are going to go out of business.
Artists have to compete with a growing number of people that are entering this end of business – possible leading to lower wages or no employment at all at VFX, if they don’t like the compensation levels.
The most talented people, as is the case in any business, will still get paid the top bucks.
From all these comments, it’s clear that so many in the business don’t understand what’s going on. Visual Effects companies are being squeezed by studios to do their work for less and less and to compete with Chinese and Indian labor rates. Clearly that won’t work as the cost of living in the States won’t allow for rates that are well below minimum wage. American VFX companies also pay for software that Chinese companies openly pirate. If American studios are allowed to continue to send their VFX dollars overseas to these VFX sweatshops then the plight of the American VFX company and artist is sealed. Unionization will do NOTHING, except hasten what is already happening.
We did nothing when the studios wanted to get cheaper labor and tax credits in Canada years ago, we shouldn’t be surprised that it has gotten to this point. The business starts here, we need to force the studios economically to keep it here or it will be just like manufacturing in this country.
VFX Company President
It is not about unionization, it is about tax credits. If they wanted a union they should have started one 15-20 years ago. When everyone was being paid so much that everyone didn’t feel that you needed one. Now it is to late.
Get LA off its Butt and join the fun and start giving tax incentives to stay in LA. The tax credit does not need to be as much as the other places, please stop all the red tape. currently the little incentives LA has for the studios, they need to jump through hoops to get it.
Basic economics
If you give tax credits, the talent will stay and then spend there hard earned dollars in Los Angeles. this goes for film production also.
and to think I had a notion Gov Schwarzenegger was going to help.
Wrong…..
Currently the artist is chasing the jobs from Vancouver to New Zealand to Australia to London. The artist is living out of a duffle bag with no roots being planted.