Overworked and Underpaid, VFX Workers Vote to Unionize at Marvel - eviltoast

On Monday, a group of more than 50 on-set employees filed a petition for an election to be represented by IATSE.

  • ME5SENGER_24@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Good for them. Considering the billions made with little to no practical effects or quality acting, they deserved the bulk of the revenue. Without the VFX those movies would’ve been trash

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      1 year ago

      There have been so many selfies from actors working on marvel movies of them just literally working on green screens. There was one, it may have been Julia Louise Dryfus, I don’t remember exactly, but they were on a bridge in LA that was supposed to be Boston, and they literally made everything green screen except for the handrail. It’s nuts how much they’re putting on VFX artists and they absolutely should have a union

      • Tathas@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Wasn’t it one of The Hobbit movies where Ian McKellen had to do all of his filming alone in front of a green screen, delivering his lines to a green stick, all by himself?

        • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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          1 year ago

          Yup, I can’t imagine what it’s like now being an actor. At least before you could act with someone else, play off each other. Now “Just act at this stick and do a good job”

    • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s a shame Marvel and studios alike them are pushing the deadline for production of these movies. I think I heard that these VFX artists gets weeks to finish the job they get. So they have to work 60 - 80 hours a week. That is truly terrifying.

      • ME5SENGER_24@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I work for “the mouse” and from an insider’s perspective, the company is fucking retarded. The left hand doesn’t talk to the right and neither hand has any idea they’ve got feet. It’s the most siloed company I’ve ever been a part of.

        • totallynotarobot@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not mouse, but adjacent, and y’all got some amazing talent and toys in your vfx arsenal. Absolute respect to that team and everyone I’ve encountered from Mouse Proper, ILM and otherwise. Seriously top notch humans who deserve representation and recognition, no matter what their bosses’ hands and feet are up to.

      • Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This is what I’ve heard, too. It’s always a huge crush to get everything done by an unreasonable deadline. Every single time. They should absolutely strike for more humane working hours and realistic scheduling.

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    So the writers are underpaid, the actors are underpaid, the VFX people are underpaid…

    When they blow $200M making a movie, where does the money go?

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        And the companies that act as middlemen.

        If they pay a vfx studio 10 million, not even a tenth of that goes to salary. And what does, gets sucked up by executives at the company.

        That system should at least mean steady work for the artists, but then they only have jobs while the company has a project

      • realcaseyrollins@kbin.projectsegfau.ltOP
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        1 year ago

        Actually, it’s either a) big name actors who are demanding more money upfront because of disappearing residuals, or b) shooting in expensive locations. There are many such cases of both of these factors coming together to create a perfect storm too.

        Say what you will about Sound Of Freedom, but that movie was made on a $14.5 million dollar budget by an indie studio shooting at economic locations while not overpaying the main cast. If this was made by a major studio, I bet it would cost about $75 million at least to make the same looking movie with equivalent-calibre actors and similar looking locations. (It should also be pointed out that Angel Studios has already agreed to the Hollywood unions’ terms, so it’s likely they have already been giving their actors and writers fair residuals for awhile now, due to their low resistance to the terms.)

    • Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Tom Cruise has to get to his next Scientology level SOMEHOW, stop thinking of only yourself

      • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Those shell companies on the Caiman Islands set up to account away all the profits don’t pay for themselves, you know?

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Hollywood accounting is almost as notorious as Louisiana politics for being crooked, labyrinthine, and nigh arcane.

      Seriously, it’s a fucking crazy web of financial fuckery.

  • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Good! Those movies are 90% VFX. It’s insane that the actors get paid many times more than the artists who make those movies possible.

  • googlesnarfen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fuck yeah! I’m so happy this is happening! I’m a freelance vfx guy, and although I’m working in Europe and things are not quite as bad here (yet), I’m super stoked our US friends are gaining some traction! Hope they can keep the momentum going, it sure is time for things to change a bit for the better in this business.

  • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’m really surprised they weren’t already, even the set designers are unionized under IATSE