great work – stay strong everyone
This is the International movement for VFX Solidarity.
info@vfxsolidarity.org
Visual effects workers in film industry 'overworked'
Friday, 10 May 2013 06:22 UK: Jim Taylor
They help to create everything from spaceships to superheroes, and alien cities to entire planets.
Hollywood blockbuster to receive Kiwi taxpayer grant
7:15PM Saturday May 11, 2013 Source: ONE News
A blockbuster Hollywood film on track to rake in at least $1 billion worldwide will soon get a hefty hand-out from New Zealand taxpayers.
Going Green: VFX In Crisis
Marthinus Dawid Van Rooyen: Published in Playboy South Africa April 2013
The truth behind the lights and clockwork.
Why VFX Houses Lose Money on Big Movies (Guest Column)
Scott Ross for The Hollywood Reporter
Ex-Digital Domain CEO and founder Scott Ross says relentless cost pressure from studios is tearing the industry apart.
Adaptation: VFX Town Hall
April 30, 2013 | By Mark London Williams.
One of the responses of the visual effects community to the ongoing industry crisis has been to stage a series of meetings and dialogues to forge a consensus on what to do next.
Pac Title's Phil Feiner: Tax the Studios on Incentives
4:46 PM PDT 4/26/2013 by Carolyn Giardina
Speakers discuss the troubled VFX business model during an online town hall meeting.
Ethyrea Films Announces Multi-Million Dollar Deal With Reliance MediaWorks
April 29, 2013, 3:03 p.m. ET
Ethyrea Films has successfully concluded negotiations and is pleased to announce a $9 million dollar visual effects co-production deal with Reliance MediaWorks (RMW). Reliance Group has been a contributor to blockbusters like "Cowboys and Aliens," "War Horse" and the critically-acclaimed film, "Lincoln," Ethyrea Films is excited to add RMW to its roster of talented VFX companies willing to contribute to the effects-driven independent franchise.
Pixomondo, VFX Company for 'Oblivion,' Closes Berlin Office
April 29, 2013 @ 7:04 am
Visual-effects company announces closure on Facebook
Hollywood's China Solution: Two Versions Of Some Movies
4/24/2013 @ 2:46PM Dorothy Pomerantz
Marvel will tweak the film for Chinese audiences.
FIVE CHARGED WITH FILMS TAX FRAUD
30th April 2013
Five people are to be charged in connection with a film industry tax relief fraud which cost the public purse around £125 million, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
FMX 2013: the VFX View From Europe
April 29, 2013 by Claire-Dee Lim
FMX, Europe’s most influential conference on digital entertainment successfully concluded last Friday (April 26) drawing an international audience of professionals, innovative talents and students from 46 countries.
The UK's first VFX festival hopes to raise awareness of a vital industry
02 October 12, by Ian Steadman
Pictured above (left to right): Pat Joseph (The Mill), Courtney Vanderslice (Cinesite), Sir William Sargent (Framestore), Samantha Perahia (British Film Commission), Hector Macleod (Glassworks), Ed Vaizey MP (minister for culture, communications and creative industries), Paul Franklin (Double Negative).
ILM to Pact With China’s Base FX
April 18, 2013 | 03:52AM PT: Clifford Coonan
Kathleen Kennedy signs agreement in Beijing
Prana wins auction for Rhythm & Hues
03.28.13 | 10:07PM PT David S. Cohen
Associate Editor, Features
After a see-saw auction that lasted most of two days and nights, a holding company connected to Prana Studios has agreed in principle to acquire bankrupt visual effects studio Rhythm & Hues.
Tippett Studios VFX House Lays Off 40 Percent of Workforce
11:36 AM PDT 3/29/2013 by Seth Abramovitch
CEO Jules Roman tells THR the company is going into a "period of hibernation" as the visual effects industry continues to contract in the wake of the Rhythm & Hues bankruptcy.
Rhythm & Hues auction prompts escalation of VFX protest
March 28, 2013, By: Allie O'Neal
For the visual arts community, profile images are going green as the latest awareness effort on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The green square represents green screens found on movie sets where visual effects are to be added later...
TV winner: tax breaks boost VFX firm Double Negative
Gideon Spanier: 22 April 2013
Seeing double: the business was behind the effects on the latest Batman film. Pic: DC Comics.
Prime Focus emerges as bidder for Rhythm & Hues
Richard Verrier - LA Times - March 21, 2013, 5:30 a.m
Prime Focus, the Indian visual effects and 3-D conversion company, has emerged as a possible buyer for Rhythm & Hues, the prominent visual effects company which recently filed for bankruptcy protection.
Rhythm & Hues Bid Deadline Today; At Least Four Buyers Reportedly Interested
JEN YAMATO - Deadline - Friday March 22, 2013 @ 3:24pm
It’s coming down to the wire for bankrupt VFX house Rhythm & Hues. Today at 5 PM is the deadline Federal Court Judge Neil Bason set for interested buyers to submit qualified bids for the company ahead of a March 27 auction.
$90 million movie studio slated for Effingham
G.G. Rigsby - Savannah Now - March 19, 2013 - 11:29pm
The Effingham County Industrial Development Authority unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday with Medient Studios Inc. for a $90 million movie studio
Visual effects firm to move into new Kaohsiung studio
James Lee - Focus Taiwan - 2013/03/23 18:23:38
Rhythm & Hues Studios Taiwan Co., a subsidiary of the California-based Rhythm & Hues Studios Inc. (R&H), will move into a new facility in southern Taiwan next week, a local executive said Saturday.
The State of the Industry
Rate a Reel - March 2013
As you are most likely aware, the VFX industry is going through a transitional phase. Your facebook has turned into a green chessboard. Over 70,000 artists from around the world joined the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VfxSolidarityIntl in less than a month.
The failures of visual special effects
Helen Kelly - The Standard: 11:30 am, March 20th, 2013
I “attended” a fascinating “town hall” meeting last week of artists from around the world in the Visual Special Effects sector. Ignited by the failure of the company Rhythm and Hues
Digital Domain CEO: We Can Still Save the Visual-Effects Industry
Brent Lang, The Wrap
Visual-Effects Firms Having Trouble Seeing Green
Listen to the NPR piece.
Mandalit del Barco
March 19, 2013 2:30 AM
What's going on with the troubled VFX industry?
MAR 18, 2013, 09:30 AM ET, Emily Rome, Entertainment Weekly
The VFX Community asks "What Now?"
Yahoo.com
VFX Town Hall Urges Trade Association and Union
7:50 AM PDT 3/16/2013 by Jonathan Handel , Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter
Lawyers to laid-off Digital Domain freelancers: "Pay us or we'll sue!"
Latest from Variety 3/13/13
The VFX Community Raises Awareness: "Pi Day"
Animation World Network
International Simulcast 3.14 at 8pm pst
Pi Day 3.14
Pro Video Coalition
Rhythm and Hues approved for March auction
Fox + Rhythm and Hues response inside
VFX World-Wide Town Hall: Pi Day 3.14
Join the Worldwide VFX Town Hall Thursday 3.14
"Michigan Tax payers already payed for Oz"
The Mackinac
Oz hits $80M U.S. $150M Worldwide
The Hollywood Reporter
Rhythm & Hues Bankruptcy Spurs Explosive 'Liquidation' Suggestion
The Hollywood Reporter
Oscars 2013 Protest: Hollywood
Read the article.
The Hollywood Tax Story They Won't Tell at the Oscars
Feb 23 2013, Glenn Reynolds
At the Democratic National Convention last year, actress Eva Longoria called for higher taxes on America's rich. Her take: "The Eva Longoria who worked at Wendy's flipping burgers—she needed a tax break. But the Eva Longoria who works on movie sets does not."
VFX Solidarity Call to Action
This is where it began. Oscars 2013 protest at Hollywood and Vine.
Open letter from Scott Ross
Read his letter to The World.
Without VFX
What would your favorite movie look like without VFX?
VFXSI: Digital Artists around the Globe
70,000 strong and growing.
Pitiful Piece of Pi
Read on.
Welcome to VFX Solidarity International. Where The World Unites For VFX.
MISSION: Currently, we are working on the following to bring a fairness to workers and facilities to reality worldwide!
1) Summer Green Movement
2) Help support formation of a VFX Union and Trade Association
3) VFX Townhall Live Streaming, publicity, and other support
4) Online International Issue Forums: Union, Trade Assoc., Tax Subsidies, et al.
5) Online International Key City Leader Forum Program – where you can reach directly out to the current leadership
6) Online International Committee Forums
7) Online VFX Educational Media Center
- including Green Spring Documentary, interviews, and links to all the top educational links
8) Online Job Center to keep up-to-date opportunities available to everyone!
2) Help support formation of a VFX Union and Trade Association
3) VFX Townhall Live Streaming, publicity, and other support
4) Online International Issue Forums: Union, Trade Assoc., Tax Subsidies, et al.
5) Online International Key City Leader Forum Program – where you can reach directly out to the current leadership
6) Online International Committee Forums
7) Online VFX Educational Media Center
- including Green Spring Documentary, interviews, and links to all the top educational links
8) Online Job Center to keep up-to-date opportunities available to everyone!
Charity Overview: VFXSI is here to help coordinate with the formation and communication with International Unions & Int’l Trade Assoc’s for the greater good of Global Markets and stable business model, standards, and practices. It is our goal is to help stabilize the VFX global community by supporting and resolving all the issues that stand before us today. And in the process coordinating global leadership through social media to bring companies and workers together and discover the solutions in forming a stable global VFX market.
-VFXSI
Nick Giassullo
Great to see the vfx global movement moved to an official website.
bigpoppa
It’s not the “VFX houses who loose money on big movies”, it’s the VFX
artists and staff who lose money on big movies every time!!
I want to highlight a big part of the problem, and underscore a big part of the problem. Bankruptcy is a protection for these VFX houses, written by business for business to protect business, it’s the artists and support staff and craftsmen who are loosing their earned wages and having their artwork and time stolen from them. All the while the VFX houses happily turn over that artwork to the studios who in turn make millions of dollars from it. The artists and support staff are the ones left begging for wages that they’ve already earned, that’s not right and it’s not fair.
Rhythm and Hues will be fine after bankruptcy, they are protected, but there are hundreds of artists and staff who worked tirelessly on these films who got several weeks of earned wages stolen from them. Who were lied to about the health of the company so that the company could continue to bid work. They are the only ones who lose in this scenario, and the leadership at Rhythm and Hues and Digital Domain knew that they would be the only ones left holding the bag when the music stopped.
So while everything that has been said is somewhat true and explains why VFX houses in North America have a hard time making a profit, it does not excuse or explain why they stole earned wages from their artists and staff in the process. The leadership at these VFX houses are a BIG part of the problem not the solution, and we need to stop letting them use excuses to explain whey they could not turn a profit as justification for continued theft of wages. And at some point start demanding that they put protecting the artists and craftsman above maintaining relationships with studio executives and extending their own personal interests.
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We need to keep the momentum going. Only good can come from this movement.