Category: ves

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/14/its-a-constant-hustle-actors-join-writers-on-the-picket-line

https://vancouversun.com/business/local-business/bron-studios-burnaby-files-for-bankruptcy

https://deadline-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/deadline.com/2023/07/oliver-stone-oppenheimer-sag-aftra-wga-strike-roots-1235438219/amp/

“The studio is always telling you that they’re losing money, but they always find a way to make a new level of profit for 10, 15 years. … It’s that perpetual industrial problem with a capitalist group that pays its executives more and more money and screws the average writer.”

Fran Drescher
“Thank you everybody for coming to this press conference today. It’s really important that this negotiation be covered, because the eyes of the world, and particularly the eyes of labor, are upon us. What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run.

“We have a problem, and we are experiencing that right at this moment. This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in in earnest thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me, or our negotiating committee, or our board members. It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions, of people all across this country and around the world — not only members of this union, but people who work in other industries.

“And so it came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads. But we had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly: How far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.

“They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment. We stand in solidarity, in unprecedented unity. Our union and our sister unions and the unions around the world are standing by us, as well as other labor unions. Because at some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being dwindled and marginalized and disrespected and dishonored. The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI.

“This is a moment of history and is a moment of truth. If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business who cares more about Wall Street than you and your family. Most of Americans don’t have more than $500 in case of an emergency. This is a very big deal, and it weighed heavy on us. But at some point you have to say, ‘No, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’

“Privately, they all say we’re the center of the wheel. Everybody else tinkers around our artistry, but actions speak louder than words, and there was nothing there. It was insulting. So we came together in strength and solidarity and unity with the largest strike authorization vote in our union’s history. And we made the hard decision that we tell you as we stand before you today. This is major. It’s really serious and it’s going to impact every single person that is in labor. We are fortunate enough to be in a country right now that happens to be labor-friendly, and yet we were facing opposition that was so labor-unfriendly, so tone deaf to what we are saying.

“You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contract to change too. We’re not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us. What are we doing… moving around furniture on the Titanic? It’s crazy. So the jig is up AMPTP. We stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect and to be honored for our contribution. You share the wealth because you cannot exist without us. Thank you.”

John H. LiuJohn H. Liu • Chairman Of The Board/ CEO of HAN Pictures, Executive Producer, Producer, Showrunner, Creator, Writer at HAN Pictures and Media

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66185585

https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/david-simon-writers-strike-wont-end-soon-1234882393/

“I heard a very funny thing,” Simon said. “It may be apocryphal, but somebody, the vice president of the East, she assured me the other day that she had it on good authority that all of the rental yachts from Santa Barbara down to San Diego had been rented through the end of summer. All the execs are gone for the summer.”

https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/

Regardless of whether SAG-AFTRA goes on strike this week, the studios have no intention of sitting down with the Writers Guild for several more months.“I think we’re in for a long strike, and they’re going to let it bleed out,” said one industry veteran intimate with the POV of studio CEOs.

With the scribes’ strike now finishing its 71st day and the actors’ union just 30 hours from a possible labor action of its own, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are planning to dig in hard this fall before even entertaining the idea of more talks with the WGA, I’ve learned. “Not Halloween precisely, but late October, for sure, is the intention,” says a top-tier producer close to the Carol Lombardini-run AMPTP.

https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/spider-verse-animation-four-artists-on-making-the-sequel.html

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/across-the-spider-verse-work-conditions-phil-lord-230052.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/hollywood-actors-union-authorize-strike-1.6866720

Talks between the 160,000-member union, Hollywood’s largest, and the major studios are scheduled to start on Wednesday, June 28th.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/06/an-actors-strike-could-devastate-studios

https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/vfx-artists-in-hollywood-push-for-union-amidst-wga-strike.html

The CGI in The Little Mermaid was criticized for having an uncanny and soulless look. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was called out for lackluster visual effects. So much of what we see onscreen relies on computer-generated imagery, and it costs a lot of money to make. So why does it often look so bad?

Vulture’s Chris Lee explains there is a long list of reasons: a lack of qualified workers, directors with limited visual-effects experience, and studios such as Marvel overworking and underpaying. “It’s an unsustainable business model,” he tells Into It, “and I’m told over and over again by not knowing what they want, and by overworking these employees, it’s basically a race to the bottom. The films decline in quality, and the fans revolt.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/disastrous-experiment-real-reason-behind-hated-return-to-work-push/news-story/6f377ea396388a531de6cedf89936fe5

“I think the push in some quarters to get everyone back into the office for the majority of the time is being driven by two factors.

The first one is concern about commercial property values.

The second is a peculiar harking back by some managers to a 1950s Theory X approach. Theory X assumes that all workers are lazy, must be watched at all times and need to be directed and controlled in order to work.”

https://variety.com/2023/film/global/cinesite-majority-stake-andy-serkiss-the-imaginarium-1235621547

https://www.ilm.com/bill-george-rotj/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/business/disney-earnings/index.html

“Disney+ and its other two services, ESPN+ and Hulu, together trimmed losses by $228 million, or 13%, from a year earlier to $659 million. The improvement from the previous quarter was even greater, as it trimmed losses by nearly $400 million from $1.1 billion.

Disney did it with a 2% drop in subscribers for Disney+ to 157.8 million, and a 1% drop in subscribers overall, when including ESPN+ and Hulu in subscription totals. It was able to trim losses with fewer subscribers through higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs. “

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65553932

https://jobvfx.com/

https://www.vfxvoice.com/vfx-industry-growth-globalization-and-change/

“The number of productions globally is now being rationalized to the reality of what can be produced. Demand was outstripping supply to such an extent that it was actually becoming unsustainable. What we are seeing now is more of a sensible and sustainable approach to content creation, and it is finding equilibrium – which is a good thing. There is still growth, but it is a lot more structured and sustainable.”

“VFX global market revenue will climb from $26.3 billion in 2021 to $48.9 billion in 2028”

“Demand for VFX looks likely to continue, though there is still the challenge of delivering the work within budgets and compressed schedules at a time of rising costs, particularly of labor.”

“The biggest challenge to our industry is bringing in the next generation and providing them with training and opportunities to succeed. Many of us were able to get a break somewhere or discover the potential for a career in VFX thanks to technical training or personal connections.”

https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close

Dear readers,

After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.

The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content.
Everyone on our staff was a reader and fan of DPReview before working here, and we’re grateful for the communities that formed around the site.

Thank you for your support over the years, and we hope you’ll join us in the coming weeks as we celebrate this journey.

Sincerely,
Scott Everett
General Manager – DPReview.com

https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bomper-studio-4-day-work-week/

Welsh CGI and Animation studio, Bomper Studio, has made a progressive move and has voted to stick with a 4-day work week after a successful trial.

Bomper Studio is fully self-funded, which has been incredibly important in providing freedom to shape the company and its business practices. Over the past 4 years, Bomper has consistently spent a quarter of its revenue on Research and Development.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2023/02/06/the-hypocrisy-of-layoffs-at-google-microsoft-and-paypal/

“These companies chose to blame thousands of people for a problem that was specifically created by their execs. The same people writing crocodile-tear-stained layoff letters are the same ones responsible for unrealistic projections, unrealistic spending and unrealistic hiring.”

“With corporate leaders having incentives not to benefit stakeholders at shareholder expense, delegating the guardianship of stakeholder interests to corporate leaders would prove futile. The promise of pluralistic stakeholderism is illusory.”

The Big Tech and big fintech companies aren’t worried about letting people go because when the next up-cycle hits they’ll pay top dollars (of course), but just as importantly, these resources can (nearly) seamlessly “plug and pay” into the tech environments in any of these companies.

“They use the same communication tools, the same programming tools, the same everything. There’s no (or hardly any) onboarding and training time required to get someone up to speed.”

“Without the need to spend months (weeks at the least) and untold dollars on training new employees, technology firms are emboldened to just let people go when it’s expedient for them.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/08/disney-reorganization.html

“On Wednesday, during its quarterly earnings call with investors, Disney also announced it would be cutting $5.5 billion in costs, which will be made up of $3 billion from content, excluding sports, and the remaining $2.5 billion from non-content cuts. Disney executives said about $1 billion in cost cutting was already underway since last quarter.”

https://www.cbr.com/why-old-cgi-better-than-new-movies/

“The visual effects (VFX) industry is a rapidly growing field that plays a significant role in the entertainment industry, particularly in film and television. However, the industry also faces several challenges that can affect the quality and accessibility of visual effects in productions. One major issue facing the VFX industry is the high cost of producing visual effects. The process of creating visual effects can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the use of expensive software and hardware can drive up costs. This can make it difficult for smaller productions and independent filmmakers to afford to use visual effects in their projects.”