Dear Gossips,
It’s Beyoncé Day, I know that is all anyone cares about. I mean, even as I write this,第一幕：文艺复兴is playing in the background. Like, this is the sh-t I have to finish so I can devote all my attention to Queen Bey. There will be Beyoncé break downs coming, don’t worry. But first, let’s revisit the state of the visual effects industry which is, I’ve said before,in a crunch这会影响越来越多的输出，并迫使一些VFX繁重的电影转移到后来发行日期，以便花时间进行必要的工作。本周，有一个new expose fromVultureabout how terrible it is to work with Marvel, saying they regularly “pixel f-ck” workers with late-stage demands and last minute changes.
The VFX artist in question speaks anonymously, which is not surprising. It’s hard to get people to go on record about the state of labor in the VFX industry because the whole industry is so precarious, routinely overworked and underpaid with studios going out of business, evenhours after winning major awards. While “pixel f-ck” is a funny term, the working conditions outlined in theVulture文章是该行业的标准标准 - 长时间，薪水很少，焦虑攻击，恐慌发作，哭泣的jags，这都是由苛刻的生产房屋以及经常有柔和愿景的董事驱动的，这些愿景的外观和haw的外观都应该是什么样的，假设他们甚至知道如何有效与VFX合作。（一个理由Catslooks like it does, allegedly, is that Tom Hooper simply didn’t know how to best utilize the technology to fulfill his vision.)
Overall, the issues in the article aren’t unusual. The VFX industry is in crisis, though to date it hasn’t got much traction in the entertainment press. Maybe that’s changing, with thisVultureexpose, coming a few months after aReddit call-out这将奇迹标记为镇上最糟糕的雇主。（记者是actively using Redditto find more sources.) Last week, Daniel Chin at The Ringer called out “Marvel’s VFX problem”, pointing out that as audiences have been—slightly—more mild on the Phase 4 movies, it’s drawn more criticism of how these movies get made and upsetting fans, not unlike sneaker heads finding out their favorite kicks are made in sweatshops. Despite articles over the years lamenting this or that VFX house going under, it feels like momentum might finally be shifting in favor of labor, with people focusing on work conditions and bad practices, and a growing sense that things MUST change.
The defense is that work conditions for VFX artists are like this everywhere, undercutting bids is basically industry-standard—and isn’t it the fault of the company owners, anyway, who offer and accept what they know to be substandard rates?—and Marvel is merely doing what everyone else does, why pick on them? Well, they’re the biggest and most successful game in town, so the target on their back is big. But also, they have the money, power, and influence to actually enact change in this area. They could start paying VFX workers fair wages and set an industry standard—a rising tide lifts all boats. And if it’s a question of budgets, maybe don’t make six $100 million-plus productions a year, maybe make three, and pay the below-the-line workers better.
而且，这是Marvel的特殊工作方式增加了问题。做出如此多的最后一刻的故事决策，然后需要效果后期改变，直到游戏后期才能做出设计决策，而在没有使用VFX方面没有经验的招聘导演都是Marvel生产的商标。您可以在没有经验的情况下雇用董事，但是通过更明确的后期制作过程向他们带来招聘可能会有所帮助。Marvel定期将独立世界的导演与经验丰富的二级工作人员配对，熟悉舞台和拍摄大型动作序列。为什么不为VFX做同样的事情呢？
It’s the “we’ll find it in post” mentality, to which I always say, “If you don’t have it on the page when you start, you won’t find it in post when you finish.” Just having key decisions like what a character’s costume and superpower looks like set before production can ease up the VFX pipeline, never mind if everyone already knows how the movie ends before they start shooting. Marvel has ridden so high for so long, that even the barest hint of audience dissatisfaction is opening the door to these exposes. But it goes far beyond them. This might end up being the start of a major labor dispute in Hollywood.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
Attached: Dakota Johnson on set of Marvel'sMadame Webthe other day.
