For years, visual effects or VFX workers have been mistreated
by major Hollywood studios, especially Marvel.
Now they're hoping to unionize in an effort to create better working
conditions for themselves.
Because they are overworked and
it appears that they have been mistreated with nightmarish working conditions.
Now, Chris Lee from vulture talk to VFX workers in the film industry and
here's what they told him.
Okay, certain complaints come up over and over, the punishing deadlines,
grueling work hours, too few workers charged with too much work.
That seems to be a trend in a lot of companies these days.
Also the underpayment and systematic pixel effing an industry
phrase used to describe the behavior of nit picking clients
who lack the VFX knowledge to communicate their needs.
Now, an anonymous production coordinator spoke to Gizmodo about what
it's like to be in a VF production house.
Okay, so pay close attention to what it's like.
Some of this stuff is insane.
So almost every studio has some sort of cry room where
people will just go into and cry for 10 minutes and
then they come back out to do their job.
I have had artists who have had HR step in and say we have to take you off this
show because it's unhealthy and we're concerned for your safety.
There's been fistfights in the middle of the studio.
People just reach a cracking point.
I've been on shows that were doing 60, 70 hour weeks for
five weeks straight, full of people who don't see their family anymore and
that's standard across the industry.
So John, there's a race to the bottom with how this hiring
structure works before I get to those details.
What say you about marvel and about these Hollywood studios
mistreating these incredibly important visual effects workers?
>> I don't wanna disappoint you,
but I think that what I'm gonna say is gonna be pretty common sense.
Art is very important in a society.
And I don't think that there's any truer,
deeper art form these days than marvel movies.
And so that's the omelet they're the eggs.
How do you think it's gonna get made?
I'm kidding.
Obviously, no, it's unacceptable.
[LAUGH] It's not acceptable.
It's not new.
They're treated this way VFX artists and other coders and stuff, and
video games get treated this way, the people who actually make the thing, but
you don't see their face, it's very easy to exploit them.
Especially in an industry that has a certain number of very
high profile projects that you or the company that you work for.
That contracts to them really wants to have their name affiliated with,
then that creates that race to the bottom.
So, no, obviously, I don't like it, it sounds absolutely terrible.
>> It really does.
And so let me talk a little bit about that race
to the bottom situation because these visual effects workers,
these VFX workers, they are not working as marvel employees.
So they get contracted by marvel and they're part of various
companies that contract out to Hollywood studios like marvel.
But since these different companies representing
the VFX workers are competing with one another.
They bid competitively, meaning you can hire our workers for a lot less.
You get what I'm saying?
>> Or we'll do it in a shorter amount of time, which requires more crunch or
will only hire so many people for this contract.
>> Right, so they're known as VFX production houses that bid
against each other and that creates that race to the bottom.
Now Mark Patch, a visual effects coordinator with so
several big projects under his belt, spoke to vulture about his
experience almost working for a marvel show on Disney Plus.
So let's talk a little bit about his experience.
Marvel VFX supervisors demanded to see a pay stub from Mark's previous job,
then undercut his rate by several $100 a week.
I mean, there is no marvel without these workers.
Do you guys understand that?
Like that's all marvel is, just a bunch of visual effects.
>> I would say release the cut that doesn't have any of the visual effects.
>> Yeah, it's nothing, there's nothing, I mean.
>> Mark Ruffalo going like yaay.
>> Yeah, this is insane.
The job itself would have entailed 18 hour days, seven days a week for
three months straight.
Furthermore, Mark would have been forbidden from publicly disclosing
that he worked on a marvel project.
>> I'm assuming until after.
>> I guess, I don't know, but that's a weird rule that they had.
Especially in the prestige of having done work for them as part of the appeal,
I'm sure.
>> Exactly.
>> But also I think it's probably a significant portion of the work in
the industry in any given year.
They're producing so many movies and so many shows.
>> Yes, exactly.
Now Mark's experience, by the way with marvel is apparently pretty common.
So Chris Lee writes that one visual effects worker currently employed by
marvel on a feature project estimates that they are completing
approximately four times the amount of work they are being paid for.
The minute I deliver movie name redacted, I'm never coming back, the person says,
moreover, while understaffing is already rampant across the entertainment industry.
VFX-IATSE estimates that marvel hires one VFX artist for
every three such specialists another studio might for an equivalent job.
So they're having one workers do the job of multiple workers.
Again, I mean, you can see the parallels in every industry, right.
Like we're talking rail workers having to deal with that, right.
We're talking about visual effects workers having to deal with that in Hollywood
studios.
You see it across the board, Starbucks employees and
baristas experiencing that as well.
Now marvel is also notorious for
being extra picky with their pixel effing requests I guess.
And so that part of it is very frustrating as well, but
I'm gonna fast forward to what the workers are trying to do in order to
mitigate the poor working conditions they're dealing with.
And there is some progress being made, so they wanna unionize,
they want collective bargaining, which I do agree is the best way to protect
themselves and to get better working conditions.
VFX-IATSE is a branch of the massive IATSE or
international alliance of theatrical stage employees union and
it hopes to organize visual effects workers in Hollywood.
So, VFX-IATSE took a big step forward last month.
So I wanna give you the details on that.
In December of 2022 the VFX Union launched its own survey to examine pay rates,
working conditions and long term sustainability in the industry.
The first study of its kind with IATSE institutional clout behind it.
The new survey aims to simultaneously build awareness from the bottom up,
creating a super majority of workers across the industry.
Who can hold studios and vendors to a certain standard leaving marvel,
no choice but to fall in line.
Now, given the overwhelming survey response, Ben Speight,
an organizer at the animation guild and VFX-IATSE says,
VFX has never been closer to organizing its labor force.
Is this the year we unionize?
Now, Speight asked himself that question, there has never been a higher
level of interest among VFX workers in the country and beyond.
So that gives you a little ray of hope for these workers.
But another parallel that you can notice regardless of what industry we're talking
about is that workers are finding solutions by organizing their workplace.
They realize that collective power is much more effective than,
I don't know, going to HR and
complaining about the working conditions in an individual way, right.
So hopefully they do unionize.
Hopefully they do get better working conditions for themselves.
No one should be working seven days a week,
no one should be working 70 to 80 hours a week.
That is insane.
Okay, we're not living to work, we work to be able to pay for
our necessities, but life is about spending time with our families,
enjoying time with our friends, we need to protect that.
>> Yeah, the people whose work is considered so
crucial that they're constantly juggling their work versus their family
are supposed to be the people they're animating on the screen.
Superheroes, not them actually, I hope that they get that supermajority
that it's not undercut by a couple of VFX production companies here.
Or internationally or something that marvel wouldn't do that,
would fear how that would look in terms of PRII have no idea.
In theory, this could be a thing that the workers can do what they can, but
then also, in theory, there could be some sort of boycott that's hard.
I think that someone should do that,
I'm not going to, we were playing that trailer into the galaxy.
I need to see that but.
>> Okay pause for a second, look, I boycotts don't work okay.
It's not an effect.
It really hasn't been.
>> Well, we're right now seeing in the tabletop role playing game space Hasbro,
which owns Wizards of the Coast, which makes dungeons and
dragons created a whole new what's called an OGL.
Which manages how independent writers and
contractors do work that can be played in their system.
And the new one that they were coming with after Hasbro acquired the system was so
predatory that people started canceling their subscriptions to
the online system D&D beyond.
And lots and lots of creators on YouTube were putting out videos attacking
the change.
And celebrities who produce content for the system did the same and
they have backtracked and they appear to be changing course.
>> The invisible hand of the free market.
>> It was actually a really impressive effort.
>> [LAUGH] Okay, so I guess in some cases a boycott could work if
there's enough backlash but labor power is more important.
So they should organize and it looks like they're doing that.
>> Just to play devil's advocate.
I think that marvel isn't kind of a hard spot here because.
>> Are they?
>> Well, they might want to pay more, but
these movies barely break even their passion projects really.
I don't think they make money on any of these things and
there's no merchandizing opportunities.
So what are they supposed to do?
>> Yeah, I mean again, parallels.
>> The band ones make $400 million [LAUGH].
>> I think most of them are bad, but it's just taste.
>> Phase has been amazing.
This last phase has been really good.
>> Last phase?
>> Phase of movies.
>> Whatever, I mean, look, I'm glad they exist okay.
Like people get real upset when I say, I'm not into marvel, I'm just not into marvel,
but I'm not judgmental towards people who are into marvel.
I get why people are into it, but there is no amount of marijuana I can consume
that'll make me enjoy a marvel movie.
>> I think we can find that amount [LAUGH].
>> I don't know, it's an experiment.
>> Okay, let's let's go to that man, I'll bring some gummies.
>> [LAUGH] We'll see how it goes.