VFX will not be my friend after this.

I suppose this would be considered a post that would burn bridges if I had any bridges to burn, but you aren't going to see my internet avatar turn green anytime soon.

I shall...e'splain...



A few weeks back, a 'movement' started in the visual fx industry because apparently the bosses in charge of the companies were 'under bidding' (i.e. they were offering to take in less money for the work than it would actually cost and create the fx in less time than it would actually take) in order to get the work.  VFX artists responded to the situation by picketing the Oscars and turning their online avatars a solid green, the same color used as the backdrops in live action shots that allow special effects to be inserted later.  Safe to say, they mad.  I get why, but - and here's where the bridges I'm not on get burned - I can't really say I sympathize.

First off, this is a story with only one ending.  See, the VFX companies aren't just competing with each other for these bids, they're also competing with overseas VFX companies or branches in places like China and India who are offering to do the same jobs at significantly lower costs that US companies simply cannot compete with.  This isn't a new problem, and it always has the same ending because if you're not willing to work for less, you're not going to get the job and US employees are not willing to work for less.

On a surface level, this seems like a pretty simple equation.  If someone else is willing to do the same job for less, they'll get the job and if you aren't, then you should look elsewhere or get over it.  The qualifier here is that for as long as visual media has existed, (i.e. film) the US - specifically Hollywood - was the only game in town.  A hundred some odd years of one place being able to set whatever price it wanted for media-related products because there was literally no where else to get it.  That's a lifetime's worth of entitlement to build up only to have it all swept away in decade or so because the internet and computers in general have made the scarcity that created said entitlement completely irrelevant.  Everyone with a computer and an internet connection has immediate access to steal, learn and create content from the exact same software of industry professionals.  Everyone.

Well said Gary.

Try and picture someone who grew up on this industry before the internet revolution made their tools/education/skills so readily available.  Remember scarcity is value, and value determines how you live.  Having to be forced to completely alter that value of what you have spent your life pursuing can definitely induce a dramatic reaction.  So when I say I don't sympathize, that doesn't mean I don't understand, but like my mom was always telling me when I bitched at her about things I thought were unfair: tough shit.

The VFX industry, hell any entertainment-based profession, is relatively useless.  Entertainment has always been a luxury, not a necessity.  I can be emotionally stimulated by said industry and this may indirectly lead to acts that are beneficial to mankind, but when the chips are down, value is always prioritized first by what I need, not what I want.  There is more value in asking customers if they want fries with that, because I will die if I don't eat food.  I will not die if I don't watch movies or good special fx.

I see this situation coming from artists in this industry time and again.  Animators got up in arms back in the day because hand drawn was being outsourced, but we simply would not have tv animation today if it wasn't all done in Korea.  They didn't like it, it happened anyway.   It's the same deal here.  VFX artists can't stop the world from turning and I can't help but tell them to learn to deal, because the world doesn't care about their bitching.  That's life.