Linda Codega at Gizmodo wrote an amazing article on the state of the VFX Industry, and it is a must read.

This really hits home for me as I am a non-union editor, who recently got screwed in California with AB5 making my 1099 work basically illegal, and losing all the tax benefits of a Schedule C. And it is what I wanted to do coming out of USC, I wanted to go intern at ILM, but it was unpaid and you had to move to Marin county so only rich kids had the opportunity.

Basically VFX Artists have been unable to unionize, and because of how the industry is panning out, if a VFX house was to unionize they would not be able to underbid non-union effects houses, and so would close. And with Marvel ruling VFX, and with a methodology that may be good for them but screws the artists and companies that do the work. They don’t plan beforehand or lock things down to the end, which means redoing completed shots, without more money to do so. It just like the film LIFE OF PI which won Rythym & Hues, which won them the oscar, but broke them, when Ang Lee made a change to the Tiger late in the film, forcing them to make changes to all their already completed shots.

And that fact that as contract players, and jobs transitory it is impossible to really take a union vote, which takes time.

Honestly since companions can’t afford to go union because they would then not be able to underbid non-union houses, the only thing that would help would be to make laws protect artists. Of course Republicans and even most Democrats would never agree to the necessary changes. That would be to force companies to pay overtime after 40 hours, mandate 5 or at most 6 day weeks (with time and a half for the 6th day and double for overtime on the 6th day). And for this to work, there would have to be taxes on companies taking work overseas, or to cheaper states. Also they would need to get rid of the tax breaks for working in remote locations, as these tax breaks, make work cheaper in those states and undercut the ability to get paid your rate wherever you are.

The fact that not only are the artists having to work 7 day 70+ hour work weeks (I have done that, and you can only do it so long before you mentally break down) and the companies making single digital profits at best, this is only going to get worse until all the effects houses go out of business, as they just won’t be able to make a profit. Sure this will mean moving overseas for VFX work, which is already happening (the article talks about artists having to move to Canada for work), but it will make work harder being all overseas remote, and we will lose the talent that is able to the shots.