When Mark Patch started as a visual effects coordinator on WandaVision, he saw it as a great opportunity. It was November 2020, and he’d been out of work for four months due to the pandemic. Working on Marvel’s first scripted show for Disney+, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, felt like working on a 10-hour movie in half the time, Patch says. He worked 16-hour shifts, skipping break periods and spending his lunchtime scanning set designs and costumes while the crew enjoyed their midday meals. Patch quit after just eight days.
- 8/16/2023
- by Kalia Richardson
- Rollingstone.com
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees released a survey Wednesday finding that visual effects workers lack access to portable health insurance and retirement plans.
The survey found that among visual effects workers who work on the “client side” of the business, only 12% have a health insurance plan that they can take from job to job. Another 45% get healthcare only for the duration of their project, while 43% do not have health insurance at all.
The union released the results as it wages a campaign to organize VFX workers, who have not had labor representation. The survey also highlighted the lack of other benefits that come with union jobs, including employer-sponsored retirement plans, breaks and rest periods, and overtime pay. The survey found that some workers on the lower end of the pay scale barely make minimum wage, when unpaid overtime is factored in.
The survey differentiated between “client-side” VFX workers,...
The survey found that among visual effects workers who work on the “client side” of the business, only 12% have a health insurance plan that they can take from job to job. Another 45% get healthcare only for the duration of their project, while 43% do not have health insurance at all.
The union released the results as it wages a campaign to organize VFX workers, who have not had labor representation. The survey also highlighted the lack of other benefits that come with union jobs, including employer-sponsored retirement plans, breaks and rest periods, and overtime pay. The survey found that some workers on the lower end of the pay scale barely make minimum wage, when unpaid overtime is factored in.
The survey differentiated between “client-side” VFX workers,...
- 3/2/2023
- by Gene Maddaus
- Variety Film + TV
It’s not just cutting corners on the new “Ant-Man” movie. Visual effects workers across the industry, roughly two-thirds to be precise, believe their working conditions are not sustainable due to a severe lack of health care, retirement options, overtime pay, and training in their field.
That’s the opinion of hundreds of VFX professionals across Hollywood who participated in a survey launched by IATSE and published Wednesday in an effort to finally get VFX workers organized as a union.
Organizers on behalf of IATSE spoke to press Wednesday about the “alarming,” yet not surprising, survey results, which also revealed that nearly nine out of 10 VFX workers feel they have no means to negotiate for their rights or for solutions to burnout, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions. Armed with this information, IATSE hopes to launch a formal VFX union later this year. The timing may be fortuitous given the other impending labor negotiations,...
That’s the opinion of hundreds of VFX professionals across Hollywood who participated in a survey launched by IATSE and published Wednesday in an effort to finally get VFX workers organized as a union.
Organizers on behalf of IATSE spoke to press Wednesday about the “alarming,” yet not surprising, survey results, which also revealed that nearly nine out of 10 VFX workers feel they have no means to negotiate for their rights or for solutions to burnout, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions. Armed with this information, IATSE hopes to launch a formal VFX union later this year. The timing may be fortuitous given the other impending labor negotiations,...
- 3/1/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
In light of the recent attention brought to the current state of the U.S. visual effects industry and labor conditions for VFX workers, Indiewire asked VFX artist Maggie Kraisamutr to share with the world her experience as a VFX artist over the past ten years. Her story, one alternating between good treatment with benefits and insecure prospects with long hours, joins the many others we have begun to hear in the past few weeks as the greater public turns its attention to the film industry's labor practices and business ethics. In 2003, I left the traditional animation industry because of questionable labor practices and lack of work due to global outsourcing. Since then, I have changed careers from animation to VFX. In the last decade, I have been consistently working as a freelance VFX artist from small boutique VFX houses to major corporate studios like Disney. I've worked for both...
- 3/1/2013
- by Maggie Kraisamutr
- Indiewire
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