I’ve just been reading this article from Variety (VFX artist plight at issue) in which former VFX and motion graphics artist and now political blogger, Lee Stranahan, appeals to James Cameron to speak out for fairness for visual effects artists, and I’ve been thinking that it is indeed time for VFX artists (and engineers) to get the recognition they deserve.

But it goes much deeper than this.

For VFX artists, they deserve better pay and benefits and better credit positioning. For VFX engineers, they deserve at least a credit. As a former VFX engineer it has to be said that we generally get paid better than most VFX artists (however this is not always the case and speaking to former colleagues at other facilities, the pay for system administrators/engineers can vary greatly – especially, it seems, when it comes to gender. Junior engineers who put in much of the grunt work when it comes to installing heavy server and workstation kit, earn far less than most VFX artists, and yet put in just as long hours and lousy shifts). This is because engineers are likely to be more employed full-time at a post facility rather than on a contract basis (unlike artists who can come to a facility on a contract/job/freelance basis). So here us engineers have the better deal so far it has to be said. But we should – in effect we’re working in a specialised HPC (high performance computing) environment – something where skills can be transferred to scientific/lab research positions and other specialised “cloud” computing infrastructures.

For those artists on contract/job/freelance basis have very little in the way of entitlements/benefits (holiday, sick pay, etc.). Full time employees at post houses usually have at least a pension scheme. This is not extended to contracted employees in most cases, obviously.

So what is the incentive for the VFX artist? Career progression? Possibly. But this depends, in part, on credits. And as mentioned in the original article, VFX staff are almost always listed after craft services and appear right towards the bottom of the credits. Even then not everyone is included (engineers are almost always excluded – it suggests that render farms, workstations, software, storage, VPNs, and everything else in-between sorts itself out despite the combination of grunt work, long hours, lousy shifts and most post houses consider engineering a “necessary evil” and hardly get a good word sent down to them from clients or even management of the company they work for) and everybody is fighting for space for their names to be included as studios allocated a set limit per facility.

Mind you, given how most broadcasters trim out the credits of films when they air anyway (yet same broadcasters won’t do the same for their own programs), it’s a moot point. Is there any need to expose more film for people’s names? How about flashing up an URL at the end of the film to learn more about the filmmakers and the people that made the film? To be honest, I just don’t know what the answer is, but the entire credits system is proving to be unfair. Even if you ARE included in the end credits, it’s likely your name is probably misspelt by the third party company responsible for typesetting and producing those credits.

My opinion of the VFX industry after six years working for it was that both creative and technical teams are seriously under-represented. I was not at all impressed with the Visual Effects Society’s representation in the UK at the time – all the benefits really went to those that worked in and around Los Angeles and New York. I am assured things have improved by now, but it’s still not enough. VES should be doing a lot more for it’s members – especially in the international, non-US community where a lot of UK facilities are being used for major Hollywood-funded films are made. Surely there must be an organisation out there prepared to truly stand up to the film and TV studios on behalf of those (artists, engineers, producers, supervisors, etc) to ensure better benefits for those that work in it?

That said, it’s the employers of VFX personnel who should be doing more for it’s employees regardless of whether they be full-time or contract. During my years in the industry, working full-time, I was never offered any training on anything that remotely interested me. There was always talk, of course, but absolutely nothing came out of it other than a monthly subscription to Safari Bookshelf on-line.

VFX work IS being taken advantage of by film studios. One could say that the post house is merely a film studio’s rag doll – to be battered about as needed, and when done, tossed aside for something cheaper and shinier. Some directors prefer working with certain facilities, but it’s probably more of a case that they prefer working with certain people. If those people feel they’re not being looked after by the facility they’e working for, or the film studio, they’ll go elsewhere.

All I know is that I’m encountering more and more artists leaving the film industry to pursue careers in graphic design, the games industry (yipe – if you thought the film industry could be scary, the stories I’ve heard about the game industry is enough to make one scream), or anywhere else their talent might be appreciated. Similarly for engineers who leave to work for specialist HPC/cloud systems.