Visual effects artists aim to create better work environments
Visual effects artists aim to create better work environments
Visual effects artists aim to create better work environments
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-visual-effects-workers-20120420,0,6115743,full.story
They called it the zombie walk.
After midnight, when the coffee and Red Bull had worn off, Sari Gennis and her co-workers would take a brisk stroll to make it through their graveyard shift. For four months straight, often seven days a week, a team of visual effects artists worked 12-hour shifts to complete the 3-D conversion of movie blockbuster "Titanic."
Gennis said the long hours aggravated a severe arthritis condition. She'd already had both knees replaced, and needed a third surgery, but couldn't afford to take time off for the operation.
"If I continue these kind of hours, it could kill me," the visual effects veteran said.
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But the artists who create the effects, crouched over computers using software to create digital images, complain they're often employed in electronic sweatshops, work inhuman schedules and without health insurance or pensions.
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Effects companies based in London; Vancouver, Canada; or Mumbai can take advantage of tax credits and cheap labor to underbid California-based firms. At least half a dozen California companies have shut their doors in recent years, pushing hundreds of visual effects artists out of jobs that pay $75,000 to $150,000 a year
(more at link)
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Article talks of efforts to unionize nationally when they should aim to unionize globally. Also speaks of animation guild suing some effects houses which is ironic. I remember when the animation union, now guild, didn't even want to admit fx animators and artists. How things change...
Wish the administration would do more to keep these jobs in the country.