Why The VFX industry is on The Decline

this video is brought to you by production create in 2013 Rhythm and use a very popular and prestigious VFX Studio won an Oscar for their amazing work on the film Life of Pi but to the surprise of everyone it filed for bankruptcy shortly afterwards and regardless of being one of the best Studios on the face of the Earth it went under nonetheless also digital domain the VFX company whose Founders include Titanic and Terminator director James Cameron went into chapter 11 bankruptcy just 10 months after its initial public offering in 2012. digital domain has worked on more than 90 major Motion Pictures including Pirates of the Caribbean at the World's End Transformers The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Star Trek and X-Men first Class just to name a few the studios that went bankrupt were working on the most profitable and the highest profile VFX films of all time you would think that they are making bang but ironically their artists and employees are working overtime all the time and not getting compensated in some cases according to these employees they were expected to work long hours often without overtime pay in order to meet tight project deadlines as one VFX artist put it we had 100 hour weeks we were sleeping in the office showering in the gym and then going back to work Scott was former general manager of locust films industrial line of magic VFX studiosad crunch is systemic in the industry and it is entirely predictable outcome of the business model that has been created this is just some of the examples of Studios working their VFX artists to the limit in order to meet the deadlines and and the biggest offenders are well-known VFX Studios working for big production companies like Marvel and Netflix so what is really going on on one hand these well-known VFX houses are working on the biggest and the most financially successful Hollywood big budget movies and on the other hand their VFX artists are working under miserable conditions sometimes without conversation and at the end these VFX houses face the great threat of going bankrupt VFX work is known for tight schedules and high expectations and artists are often required to work long hours than the typical 9-5 job in order to deliver high quality results on time this can include working evenings weekends and even overnight shifts the long hours can be physically and mentally demanding and can result in Burnout and fatigue for some VFX artists in addition to long hours these VFX artists often work Under Pressure which can add to the stress and intensity of the work long hours and high stress can also have a negative impact on the personal lives of these people making it difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance if this is really a thing in this industry gilberg director of Ready Player One Indiana Jones Jurassic Park and many other popular films shared working 18 hours a day for weeks on end is simply and sustainable I hope the industry will find a better way to work so that VFX artists can be compensated for their amazing talents and hard work even though over time is a huge part of the culture of the VFX industry today some Studios have it under control and allow their VFX artists to choose whether or not to work overtime but for the most part it is an option that can become a must in some cases and some VFX artists are not so lucky to have this luxury in their companies one senior VFX artist said on Reddit I was eduana for five years I really enjoyed it for the most part but it was shocking how disorganized and chaotic it was for a large top tier studio in the 2010s yes it was a 50 hour work week and over time after that a lot of younger people would really make that over time as much as possible which seemed crazy to me because I had so many hobbies in New Zealand I avoided over time as much as possible even what approved for lots of extra hours because my personal time had become much more important to me the project-based workers who joined us Midway into troubled Productions were the ones who really cranked up the overtime I was a senior level effects artist when I was hired there and basically made the same as I was in LA but things have really changed there since The Hobbit wrapped VFX in general is really tough these days especially if you are an older Season Pro who's seen it and done it already in my opinion it is not a hundred percent the fault of the VFX Studios that their VFX artists are slaving away their lives to finish projects most people will blame the studios because it is such an easy targets since it is all what you can see but the true reason behind the match that we are seeing in the VFX industry is not so obvious for people who are not directly involved in the industry I'm not saying that all VFX Studios have overtime but those that work directly with big Production Studios such as Netflix and Marvel especially sure as hell do they suffer from very hard working conditions not because the VFX Studios themselves want to put them through it but because they don't have a choice in most cases if anything VFX houses want to keep their employees healthy and working and delivering projects to keep the company running over the years so what is the root of the problem and how the hell the marvels of movie production are responsible more than the VFX Studios themselves for the suffering of VFX artists to answer this question we have to understand how VFX projects are negotiated in the first place foreign Marvel Studios is one of the largest producers of Blockbuster films in the world they started with the huge success of the first Iron Man movie and carried an accelerated momentum for more than a decade with many successful movies such as Captain America The Avengers black panther Doctor Strange In addition to others with the grand finale of infinity war that broke all records with being the highest grossing film of all time as a result Marvel has now a significant impact on the visual effects industry so many VFX Studios compete for the opportunity to work on Marvel films as they create some of the highest profile and the most lucrative projects in the industry but ironically the success of Marvel movies and the amount of money they bring created an intense competition for work which had and still has an impact on the VFX bidding system with Studios and their bidding projects in order to win the work this had led to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing as Studios have been forced to lower their prices in order to remain in competition and keep their doors open as one VFX artist put it the VFX bidding system is like a race to the bottom the only way to win is to cut corners or work for less than you should even though Studios calculate everything beforehand it is still guesswork and does not allow a lot of room for delays rework or unexpected events just because if they ask for too much they will lose the bid Pauline Duval VFX producer said bidding on projects is very difficult and stressful because it is a guessing game it is almost like playing poker as a result many of the FX Studios are operating on thin margins which can put pressure on them to cut corners and require their employees to work long hours including crunch or overtime periods especially leading up to the film's release this has contributed committed to a culture of unsustainable working conditions in the VFX industry with many artists working long hours and facing burnout to address these issues some studios and Industry organizations are working to promote better working conditions and to raise awareness of the challenges faced by a VFX artists but to this day the VFX building system is fundamentally the same if you want an example look no further than Rhythm and Hughes the award-winning VFX Studio filed for bankruptcy in 2013 after winning an Academy Award for their work on the film of Life of Pi the Studio's Financial struggles were largely attributed to the building system and the pressure to submit low bids to win contracts and we didn't ask her didn't prevent their inevitable demise we also talked about digital domain who also went bankrupt in 2012 after struggling to complete a bidding war with other Studios the company had a number of higher profile projects Jacks at the time including Transformers Dark of the Moon and Real Steel but to be fair this is not a new problem because even before Marvel and forbidden was a thing but now everyone want to add Marvel to their list of their clients that's why the bidding wars are more intense than ever the core of the issue was the fact that when Studios bit on a project they receive a flat fee for doing a certain number of shots and the production company as the VFX Studio to factor in revisions and other unexpected circumstances but they can't ask for a lot since VFX houses are under bidding each other as long as possible in the hope of getting the job or the project and fearing that they might lose it which are basically two phases of the same coin this is where the real problems start because VFX projects are paid per shot not per hour like the filming crew for example So eventually Studios will find themselves burning for the money that they have been bidding on and also spend millions of dollars of their own money to pay their employees and other expenses some studios take on death to save themselves but a lot of them will go under eventually despite being superstars in the VFX industry but how can these Studios with tens of years of experience miscalculate their expenses and find themselves in these disasters the post-production process which includes visual effects is critical in shaping the final product which is the film in this case in post-production visual effects artists add and manipulate visual elements to enhance the look of the final product however post-production can also be subject to change in the creative process for example changes in the script story or Creative Vision can lead to changes in the visual effects work which was originally already planned this can result in additional work for VFX artists who may need to redo and recreate parts of their work to match the revised version as a result this adds more financial burdens to the studios which means the longer making the shot takes the more money they will have to burn the problem lies in the fact that the studio has been paid a limited number of dollars to spend on a particular shot but there is no limit on how much they will spend which can lead to spending more than they get paid for and this is a a big No-No if you want to make profit the most annoying problem is that VFX artists face a ton of challenges related to clients who are dissatisfied with the work produced this can occur when the client has expectations but are not in line with reality what can be done or achieved with visual effects or when the client request changes but are not feasible within the constraints of time and budget additionally VFX artists may also face issues with clients who are not knowledgeable about the visual effects industry and cannot understand the complexities and limitations of the work involved this can lead to colonies making a realistic demands or requesting changes that are not feasible this happens a lot with many directors who are not in charge of VFX teams demanding finalized renders before for example creating the final Anatomy clothes hair grooming and other stuff or environments which is just impossible and sometimes they straight up expect to make changes on things that are extremely hard to redo which you saw crashing for VFX artists and very expensive for Studios I might add like when Rhythm and use was asked to change the direction of the Waves multiple times when simulating water without knowing that it takes an insane amount of simulation time and computing power to deliver these final results furthermore VFX Studios May face issues related to scope while clients request additional work or changes to the scope of the project beyond what was originally agreed upon resulting in additional work and cost for the VFX houses if you are looking for elements to include in your VFX and animation projects that let me talk about production crate and its assets that include VFX elements effects muzzle flashes splatters sounds royalty-free music 3D models materials in addition to scripts and add-ons tutorials VR environments and anything else that you can think of basically production crate probably has everything you need overall it contains 10 000 creative assets that can be used in VFX Motion Graphics animation and everything else in between also they recently updated their website and they added some new content that might interest you guys they added a new pack for aspiring VFX artists and filmmakers that is completely free to download and you can use it in any commercial or non-commercial project which is very cool and the new pack contains 50 VFX elements from five different categories which are all from footage grade if you are interested you will find the necessary links in the description I hope you found this video useful and informative if you did please give it a thumbs up you can also take a look at some of our previous videos thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: InspirationTuts

Views: 52,588

Keywords: The Hidden Truth Of The VFX Industry, the dark side of vfx, why VFX work is so hard, overtime, overtime in vfx, crunch in vfx, bad working conditions in vfx, Marvel, netflix, ilm, rythm & hues, digital domain

Id: Yczt9ooexLk

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 21 2023