Welcome back to Wednesday, everyone! This week I wanted to spotlight a story that’s been in the news this week, about visual effects workers in the film industry filing a petition to hold a unionization election. This could be a huge turning point. Vulture writes:
This marks the first time visual-effects professionals have banded together to demand the same rights, wage protections, and professional watchdog oversight enjoyed by workers in almost every other segment of the entertainment industry. The supermajority of Marvel’s 52-member on-set and post-production crew signed authorization cards to indicate they wish to be represented by the powerful labor union representing some 170,000 artisans, technicians, stagehands, and craftspeople across TV, film, and live theater in the United States and Canada.
[…]
In an era when around 90 percent of all films in release feature varying degrees of VFX fine-tuning (and it’s not uncommon for a show like Stranger Things to showcase up to 4,400 visual-effects shots across a single season), workers within the field have remained stubbornly, confoundingly unrepresented by any professional union or guild. While fellow below-the-line workers in such divisions as costumes and wardrobe; hair and makeup; lighting, props and paint; and script supervision have been historically championed by IATSE, underappreciated VFX professionals have been unable to claim benefits such as paid overtime and health care, and have been at the mercy of pronounced labor shortages and managers’ unrealistic deadlines — despite the workers’ increasing indispensability within popular culture.
https://www.vulture.com/2023/08/vfx-workers-vote-to-unionize-at-marvel-for-the-first-time.html
The visual effects industry has made news recently for incredibly challenging working conditions. Speaking to Vulture, an anonymous worker in the industry describes what it’s like doing VFX for a Marvel film:
The studio has a lot of power over the effects houses, just because it has so many blockbuster movies coming out one after the other. If you upset Marvel in any way, there’s a very high chance you’re not going to get those projects in the future. So the effects houses are trying to bend over backward to keep Marvel happy.
To get work, the houses bid on a project; they are all trying to come in right under one another’s bids. With Marvel, the bids will typically come in quite a bit under, and Marvel is happy with that relationship, because it saves it money. But what ends up happening is that all Marvel projects tend to be understaffed. Where I would usually have a team of ten VFX artists on a non-Marvel movie, on one Marvel movie, I got two including myself. So every person is doing more work than they need to.
The other thing with Marvel is it’s famous for asking for lots of changes throughout the process. So you’re already overworked, but then Marvel’s asking for regular changes way in excess of what any other client does. And some of those changes are really major. Maybe a month or two before a movie comes out, Marvel will have us change the entire third act. It has really tight turnaround times. So yeah, it’s just not a great situation all around. One visual-effects house could not finish the number of shots and reshoots Marvel was asking for in time, so Marvel had to give my studio the work. Ever since, that house has effectively been blacklisted from getting Marvel work.
https://www.vulture.com/article/a-vfx-artist-on-what-its-like-working-for-marvel.html
Unionization would be a major step toward improving conditions. The election could be held as soon as August 21, so keep an eye on what happens — because it could have ramifications for the entire industry. And in an era where we are seeing writers and actors strike to ensure fair treatment, it’s important for every worker to have the same ability to band together.
Be kind and thoughtful today. Cheers.