JackO Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Still pissed they got played off during Oscars. Hope they can form their own union. That would help, both domestic and abroad vfxers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Futurist Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Why VFX Houses Lose Money on Big Movies (Guest Column) Ex-Digital Domain CEO and founder Scott Ross says relentless cost pressure from studios is tearing the industry apart. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-life-pi-titanic-vfx-426182 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) (Appropriately?) The VFX industry is holding a worldwide Town Hall "Pi" meeting tonight; they are live-streaming and live-blogging on the web. Here's the live stream, if anyone's interested: http://vfxsolidarity.org/vfx-town-hall-3-14-live-stream/ Some of what's been discussed (cribbing from the FX Guide live-blog): - establishing a trade organization (all or most of the VFX houses would be a part of it). - changing their business model to include cancellation policies and payment schedules. - pushing governments to get subsidies removed. - education policies for the broader film industry. - standardized contracts. - better PR for the industry. All of these things sound like smart, sensible concepts. Edited March 15, 2013 by Telemachos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vc2002 Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) I wonder why they didnt do these years ago. I mean as a business that's been in this industry for many years, weren't they supposed to do a couple of those already? Edited March 15, 2013 by vc2002 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 I wonder why they didnt do these years ago. I mean as a business that's been in this industry for many years, weren't they supposed to do a couple of those already? Which ones? I agree that as a facet of the industry, it is not well-organized overall. Apparently VFX houses used to be against a trade organization because they felt it would be "competition". Payments traditionally have been half up front, half on project completion, but of course with more and more being demanded in less and less time (and less and less profits) many FX courses are using future bids to pay for current costs. The ruthless cutthroat drive to the bottom has meant standardized contracts don't really exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I find it incredible that even a major effects house like ILM has a very small profit percentage (probably because of all the R&D work they do). Look at the chart here: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-07/how-disney-bought-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars#p3 That's what worries me about Disney owning ILM. You know they're gonna want to find some way to boost those profits, probably by cutting staff and other costs. We almost certainly won't get another Rango out of ILM, despite it winning the Oscar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Marvel Fanboy Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Digital Domain CEO: How We Can Still Save Visual-Effects Industry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kvikk Lunsj Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Has James Cameron or Peter Jackson spoke about this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Marvel Fanboy Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Has James Cameron or Peter Jackson spoke about this? Not yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vc2002 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Has James Cameron or Peter Jackson spoke about this? I would like to hear Jackson and Lucas talking about it. They are the owner of the two biggest VFX houses in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 I would like to hear Jackson and Lucas talking about it. They are the owner of the two biggest VFX houses in the world. Not anymore, for Lucas. Still, I agree, it'd be nice to have some major "outsiders" (non-VFX people, albeit with strong connections) give some support. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dashrendar44 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Not anymore, for Lucas. Still, I agree, it'd be nice to have some major "outsiders" (non-VFX people, albeit with strong connections) give some support. Lucas don't give a crap about VFX people. For him, they're just pushing the buttons to make what he wants magically happen. This is the guy that complained about ILM's people parking their fancy cars (hear: bought with HIS money by paying their fees->"they cost me too much since they can afford fancy cars") I think Lucas still hold some grudge against ILM guys who spent SW ep.IV's whole initial SFX budget to "experiment" to no avail with no valuable footage. (You can learn about this in the making-of) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kvikk Lunsj Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I wish the VFX companies would go on strike so alll the summer blockbuster would be affected. All blockbuster count on visual effects. If they VFX suck then it will hurt the word of mouth. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vc2002 Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 I wish the VFX companies would go on strike so alll the summer blockbuster would be affected. All blockbuster count on visual effects. If they VFX suck then it will hurt the word of mouth. You have to have a wide union to organize it right? But that's something this business still lacks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I'm still surprised that Disney was allowed to take ownership of the number one SFX company in the industry. Shouldn't that count as a monopoly or at the very least a conflict of interest? Surely ILM could survive on its own? Maybe the ILM employees are happy about now working for Disney, but I doubt it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 I'm still surprised that Disney was allowed to take ownership of the number one SFX company in the industry. Shouldn't that count as a monopoly or at the very least a conflict of interest? Surely ILM could survive on its own? Maybe the ILM employees are happy about now working for Disney, but I doubt it.Why would the ILM employees care? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vc2002 Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I'm still surprised that Disney was allowed to take ownership of the number one SFX company in the industry. Shouldn't that count as a monopoly or at the very least a conflict of interest? Surely ILM could survive on its own? Maybe the ILM employees are happy about now working for Disney, but I doubt it. ILM was owned by Lucasfilm, so Lucas must have sold it as a package deal: you buy Lucasfilm and ILM, or you buy nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Homer Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Why would the ILM employees care? Maybe some people don't like working for a huge heartless corporation that only cares about profits? Lucas didn't seem to really care if his companies made a profit. He just liked putting his earnings back into the industry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plain Old Tele Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Maybe some people don't like working for a huge heartless corporation that only cares about profits? Lucas didn't seem to really care if his companies made a profit. He just liked putting his earnings back into the industry. That's not true at all. From the ILM peeps I know, while many of them were happy to work for Lucas (since he created one of their favorite movies ever), what made them happy to work at ILM was the opportunity to create new, exciting things that no one had ever seen before, and to work on some of the biggest, geekiest movies ever. That's not going to change no matter who's in charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACCA Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 The whole situation is really sad, and boils down to the never-ending greed of the studios. Sad, sad situation indeed, and I truly hope the VFX industry finds a way out of this, unionizes, and continues to thrive in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
