Hollywood's Greatest Trick
By Sohail Al-Jamea, Ali Rizvi, Greg Hadley and Elizabeth Koh
Visual effects artists are responsible for some of the most iconic moments in movie history. The top 10 highest grossing films of 2016 all contained computer generated imagery. But while Hollywood's profits grow, visual effects artists struggle for fair pay, representation and recognition beyond the most prestigious award in film — an Oscar.
It was one of the most controversial cinematic moments of 2016.
In the final scene of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” a figure shrouded in a white cloak turns, extends her hand, faces the camera and utters one word: “Hope.” Audiences everywhere gasped, screamed and cheered.
Nearly 40 years after the first “Star Wars” movie debuted, the character of Princess Leia had returned to the screen without aging a day, even as the actress who portrayed her, Carrie Fisher, went from 19 years old to 60.
The masterpiece of movie magic, combining old footage and recordings with digital effects to turn back time, raised ethical questions about profiting in perpetuity off the likeness of an actor. When Fisher died just a few weeks after the “Rogue One” premiere, Disney executives reportedly considered recreating her digitally in order to include her in future installments of the franchise, before ultimately issuing a statement saying they would not.
But the very fact that an actor’s death might not mean the end of her on-screen career shows how rapidly the visual effects industry is changing.
While Hollywood’s profits rise and visual effects artists continually raise the bar for what’s possible on-screen, its daily workers say they remain underpaid, overworked and without representation.
Personal costs
In practically every modern blockbuster, the visual effects department is the largest group of workers.
More than 700 artists, animators and supervisors were credited with visual effects in “Rogue One,” like the one that brought young Carrie Fisher back to the screen.
“Independence Day: Resurgence,” “The Jungle Book” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” each list more than 1,100 special and visual effects artists in their credits, per IMDB.com. According to some industry insiders, the credits often fail to list up to one-third of those who actually worked on the film.
Yet even with the huge demand for ever-improving visual effects, the life of a visual effects artist can be financially unstable.
The average hourly wage for an American visual effects artist is $30.76, according to May 2015 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But job stability is rare, and most visual effects artists are nomadic, moving around, working under contract for the length of a job, and living paycheck to paycheck, several former artists say. Once one job ends, the pressure to find another job begins.
“When your job is up, you get kicked out and you might find a new job right away and you might not,” said Andreas Jablonka, a visual effects artist from Germany. “So a lot of us, myself included, sign up for unemployment (but) by the time you have the one week waiting period, suddenly you might have a new job. You go on and off.”
Payment can sometimes be delayed for weeks or months. Some people report not getting paid at all, whether the project is a huge film with a massive budget or an independent low-budget flick. Independent contractors rarely receive health insurance or any other benefits, so purchases beyond daily expenses can fall out of reach, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“A VFX guy buying a house, it would be suicide,” said Pierre Grage, a former visual effects artist who wrote a book on the challenges facing the visual effects industry. “You’re going to get fired, you just don’t know when. But your house payments have to go on, you still have to pay for school.”
Even a salaried, stable position does not preclude obstacles. On Reddit threads and message boards, anonymous artists talk about working 20 hours a day, 80 hours a week, sometimes as many as 32 hours straight. Grage says he once rendered a single shot 1,300 times before the filmmakers settled on something they liked.
“One time I worked [in Mexico] three months straight without a day off, and I had to fake an injury to get a day off work,” said Mariana Acuña Acosta, a veteran visual effects artist. “I worked seven days a week, 12-, 14-hour days.”
Unsurprisingly, the rate of burnout among visual effects artists is sky-high, according to Grage, Acuña Acosta and other visual effects artists. The industry takes young, enthusiastic artists and turns them into workaholics that churn out visual effects shots. In order to keep going for as long and as hard as they do, some visual effects artists develop unhealthy habits.
“There’s many stories of people who ended up getting dependent on some sort of substance abuse because they’re working these crazy long hours,” said Daniel Lay, a former visual effects artist who has advocated for artists’ rights on his blog, “VFX Soldier.”
Eric Kohler, a producer with Vitality VFX, got up one day in 2015 and walked out the door at work without his wallet or keys. He stopped answering his phone and went completely off the radar. For a week, he was missing, before authorities finally found him 1,000 miles from home in Mexico.
Kohler later said in a Facebook post that he was suffering from an addiction and that he was checking into rehab.
No one talks about it
Visual effects are more integral than ever to movie magic. But most artists can’t, or won’t, speak openly about their concerns.
The profession is a “young person’s” game, according to Grage, for those who love movies and want to be a part of Hollywood. Early-career artists often feel it is not a big deal to work 80 hours a week, move around the world and have no health insurance.
“If we didn’t have so much passion for it, I don’t think we would put up with all the abuse,” Jablonka said. “That’s cool the first year and the second year and maybe even longer but at some point, especially when you want to have a family … freelance work, it’s just too hard to come by.”
Schools that teach visual effects promise unrealistic wealth and returns for working hard, Grage said. As a result, plenty of young people are encouraged to enter the industry, creating a steady supply of naive, passionate workers always available for companies to hire, undercutting leverage for more experienced and jaded artists.
“They’re very eager and excited to get experience, said Patrick Longstreth, a longtime visual effects artist currently at TruTV. “So a lot of companies are just hiring younger people at a lower rate in hopes of getting more work out of them.”
Older workers say they feel pressured to match the output of younger people, who routinely put in 80 hours a week, or fear being fired, according to Longstreth and Grage.
Hollywood´s Greatest Trick
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