Recent years have seen a wave of stories from VFX workers in Hollywood calling out studios and directors for expecting too much for too little when it comes to providing visual effects for some of the biggest movies of all time. While there have been many reports blasting Disney and Marvel Studios for tough working conditions, a visual artist who worked on the originalAvatarhas revealed that working onJames Cameron’srecord-breaker brought with it some harsh working conditions.
WhileAvatar’srecent return to theaters has proven that there is still a lot of audience interest in the franchise ahead of December’s release ofAvatar: The Way of Water,it seems that James Cameron’s quest for perfection came at a cost for those assigned the responsibility of bringing the director’s vision to life on screen. WithAvatarvery much back in the public eye, VFX artist Nick Sinnott used his Twitter account to call out the director and the now defunct VFX company he worked for at the time for pushing workers too far. He wrote in a series of since-deleted tweets:
“A fun thing about working on the vfx forAvatarwas being the only major department not unionized and having Cameron exploit that fact with endless unpaid revisions than win a bunch of Oscars. I’m not under NDA about this because the studio I worked for as the time no longer exists. Guess why. The light and magic doc is amazing but the stretch they yadda yaddad over in the last episode was ILM unionizing in the 90s then being systematically threatened with outsourcing until the union dissolved.”
Related:Spider-Man VFX Artist Speaks Out Against Marvel’s Harsh Working Conditions & Poor Treatment
Avatar: The Way of Wateris Now Part of The Disney Family
With the increased pressure on those involved in the production of some of the biggest and most scrutinized movies and TV shows currently out there, there are many people who have now started blowing the whistle on the conditions they have been previously forced to work in to meet the incredibly tight deadlines studios impose on their output.
While at one time, movies would take years to make, with practical sets and props being the norm, many movies are now relying heavily on CGI, and with competition for big contracts being fierce in Hollywood, delivering perfect work, in record time, for minimum cost is leading to many hidden issues behind the scenes.
Recently Marvel Studios has been on the receiving end of a number of reports about almost unbearable working conditions on movies and TV shows, which has included having work sent back to be revised outside of regular working hours with the recipient being required to work unpaid to get effects finished. With many of these reports having involved movies released in the last few years, it is doubtful whether the issues have completely gone away and been resolved. With movies continuing to push new technology to its limit in order to create something that has never been seen before on screen, the industry looks to have a long way still to go.
