Support Vfx artists…the real superheros..!!

GO GREEN! SUPPORT THE VFX INDUSTRY !
For those friends and family that are out of the VFX loop, here’s what happening in the VFX/Animation Industry:
There was a VFX march at the Oscars, to shine some light on what’s been happening in our industry.
My guess is word of that got to the directors of the Oscars and they got skittish.
As the awards for Best VFX were being presented, some jokes were made by the cast of the Avengers, either as an attempt to diffuse the situation, or to make fun of the nerds in the back room. I’m unclear as to which was the intent, but either way it was awkward.
Bill Westenhofer and the crew from Rhythm and Hues, won for Life of Pi. As soon as Bill started to mention R&H, the latest casualty in the VFX race to the bottom, they cut him off like so much a political activist, or anybody else using the bully pulpit of the awards as an awareness tool. He should have lead with it, as some folks might have interpreted events as, “Oh, he was just running over his time!” They played him off with Jaws. How cute.
He hadn’t. What was telling is that they cut his mic and cut away, first to the audience and then to a bewildered Seth MacFarlane. He had been silenced.
What’s different in this case, is that these guys had just won the VFX Oscar! Now they’re outta jobs and the FX facility is bankrupt and in danger of closing, like so many other FX facilities.
Directly because of the producers, directors, and studios IN THE ROOM. It’s deplorable.
Artists have been sent home WITHOUT PAY, and without any kind of benefits for them or their families. This time it’s R&H and yeah, they just did some really great work that just won the Oscar for the VFX and for the Director of the movie, so a light was to be shone on the situation. (The Director, by the way, failed to mention them, even though the Digital Tiger was a significant part of the film.)
It’s actually happening all over. Digital Domain, just had it happen. They’re still recovering, and who knows what will happen in the long run. Pixomondo (VFX Oscar, 2012) just shut down their London and Detroit facilities today. The Mill, Double Negative and even ILM are having staff laid off, transferring staff overseas and between facilities, and generally leading their artists, animators, engineers, technicians and programmers into a state of constant economic migration, and fiscally indentured servitude.
All because the people sitting in the room tonight, at The Oscars: the Producers, Directors, and Studio Executives – all feel that Visual Effects, the one thing in common with all of the top grossing movies of all time, are too expensive. The highly talented people who create these profit avenues for the studios are disposable commodities, and are not to be paid fairly.
It’s wrong. It’s got to stop.
GO GREEN! SUPPORT THE VFX INDUSTRY !

Some nice corporate support…God bless you guys!

https://www.facebook.com/Houdini3D
https://www.facebook.com/AutodeskME
https://www.facebook.com/AdskMaya
https://www.facebook.com/AutodeskSoftimage
https://www.facebook.com/Autodesk3dsMax
https://www.facebook.com/RiggingDojo
https://www.facebook.com/MorpheusRig

Are there any other Academy Award winning VFX Sups who’d like to say a few words?…

Kevin Mack wrote:

I am an Academy member and Visual Effects Oscar winner for “What Dreams May Come” (1998). I have always been very proud of this association and achievement.

However, the treatment of the Visual Effects category at this year’s Oscars was appalling and infuriating. This disrespectful attitude toward VFX is widespread in the film industry and is a major contributing factor to the troubles facing the VFX community.

While hundreds of VFX artists gathered outside the Dolby Theater, attempting to bring attention to their plight, the Academy broadcast a demeaning and disrespectful attitude toward VFX to the entire world. The fact that Ang Lee and Claudio Miranda failed to acknowledge the VFX work that was fundamental to their receiving awards is symptomatic of this attitude.

It’s deplorable that the Academy chose to kick this community of talented artists and technicians when they’re down. These people have contributed greatly to the art and science of motion pictures, not to mention box office profits, and this is how the Academy treats them?

I am ashamed and embarrassed for the Academy.

I strongly recommend a widely publicized apology.

Sincerely,

Kevin Mack

Contributed greatly to the art and science of motion pictures?… more like BUILT the foundation of art and science that makes motion pictures the massive force of economy and revenue that it is for the U.S.! The United States (Hollywood) is the Juggernaut of the global film industry… countries all over the world show Hollywood made films, and when we get a forign movie here that gets an ounce of attention, half the damn people here just complain about subtitles…. so what do they do? MAKE AN AMERICAN VERSION! ugh.

Filmmakers have only dreamed of being able to produce the lush imagination and visionary quality that is just common today for decades on decades… until the late 90s when the true power behind the unlimited hours of dedication from digital artists and programmers first began to really make an impact. then as technology progressed exponentially, the hardware caught up with our imaginations, and the programmers rose to the occasion to keep developing technology. Filmmakers today (ones with budgets) are just plain pathetic without every single one of these dedicated artists… but who made Avatar? James Cameron right? Not the technology. Not the artists who MADE AN ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD FOR HIM!

Goddammit, CG has almost replaced actors entirely… but we still need miley cyrus or a jonas brother or fucking jonah hill to voice a CG penguin or parrot or alien so it does well at the box office. right?

oh, but thanks kevin… keep speaking up..