Category: ves
Hollywood actors union votes to strike if contract talks fail
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/hollywood-actors-union-authorize-strike-1.6866720
Talks between the 160,000-member union, Hollywood’s largest, and the major studios are scheduled to start on Wednesday, June 28th.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/06/an-actors-strike-could-devastate-studios
EU AI Act
https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/
The AI Act is a proposed European law on artificial intelligence (AI) – the first law on AI by a major regulator anywhere. The law assigns applications of AI to three risk categories. First, applications and systems that create an unacceptable risk, such as government-run social scoring of the type used in China, are banned. Second, high-risk applications, such as a CV-scanning tool that ranks job applicants, are subject to specific legal requirements. Lastly, applications not explicitly banned or listed as high-risk are largely left unregulated.
FX Artists Are Tired of Fixing It in Post
https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/vfx-artists-in-hollywood-push-for-union-amidst-wga-strike.html
The CGI in The Little Mermaid was criticized for having an uncanny and soulless look. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was called out for lackluster visual effects. So much of what we see onscreen relies on computer-generated imagery, and it costs a lot of money to make. So why does it often look so bad?
Vulture’s Chris Lee explains there is a long list of reasons: a lack of qualified workers, directors with limited visual-effects experience, and studios such as Marvel overworking and underpaying. “It’s an unsustainable business model,” he tells Into It, “and I’m told over and over again by not knowing what they want, and by overworking these employees, it’s basically a race to the bottom. The films decline in quality, and the fans revolt.”
The “massive lie” that returning to work is magically better for productivity and collaboration
“I think the push in some quarters to get everyone back into the office for the majority of the time is being driven by two factors.
The first one is concern about commercial property values.
The second is a peculiar harking back by some managers to a 1950s Theory X approach. Theory X assumes that all workers are lazy, must be watched at all times and need to be directed and controlled in order to work.”
Disney aims for more profits at Disney+ with more ads, less content, higher fees
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/business/disney-earnings/index.html
“Disney+ and its other two services, ESPN+ and Hulu, together trimmed losses by $228 million, or 13%, from a year earlier to $659 million. The improvement from the previous quarter was even greater, as it trimmed losses by nearly $400 million from $1.1 billion.
Disney did it with a 2% drop in subscribers for Disney+ to 157.8 million, and a 1% drop in subscribers overall, when including ESPN+ and Hulu in subscription totals. It was able to trim losses with fewer subscribers through higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs. “
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65553932
“Disney has announced plans to combine content from its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services in the US.
The move comes after Disney+ lost four million subscribers in the first three months of the year, and the firm is under pressure to make its streaming business profitable
It now has a total of more than 231 million subscriptions across its three streaming platforms, which also include the sports-focused ESPN+ and wider entertainment site Hulu. Disney+ has close to 158m subscribers around the world, although that is still behind rival Netflix’s 232.5m subscribers.
The latest announcement comes after thousands of Hollywood TV and movie screenwriters held their first strike in 15 years last week. They are calling for better pay and working conditions as the transition to streaming has upended the traditional television and film industry. The last writers’ strike was in 2007. It lasted 100 days and cost the industry an estimated $2bn.”
VES VFX INDUSTRY 2023 – GROWTH, GLOBALIZATION AND CHANGE
https://www.vfxvoice.com/vfx-industry-growth-globalization-and-change/
“The number of productions globally is now being rationalized to the reality of what can be produced. Demand was outstripping supply to such an extent that it was actually becoming unsustainable. What we are seeing now is more of a sensible and sustainable approach to content creation, and it is finding equilibrium – which is a good thing. There is still growth, but it is a lot more structured and sustainable.”
“VFX global market revenue will climb from $26.3 billion in 2021 to $48.9 billion in 2028”
“Demand for VFX looks likely to continue, though there is still the challenge of delivering the work within budgets and compressed schedules at a time of rising costs, particularly of labor.”
“The biggest challenge to our industry is bringing in the next generation and providing them with training and opportunities to succeed. Many of us were able to get a break somewhere or discover the potential for a career in VFX thanks to technical training or personal connections.”
AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd song goes viral
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65298834
“Drake’s complaint came after Universal Music Group wrote to streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music, asking them to prevent artificial intelligence companies from accessing their libraries.
It is thought companies have been using the music to “train” their software.
“We will not hesitate to take steps to protect our rights and those of our artists,” UMG warned in the email, first obtained by the Financial Times.
Several websites already offer fans the ability to create new songs using soundalike voices of pop’s biggest stars.
French DJ David Guetta recently used a site called uberduck.ai to mimic the voice of Eminem and add it to one of his instrumentals.
“I’m sure the future of music is in AI,” he told the BBC.”
DPReview.com to close
https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close
Dear readers,
After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.
The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content.
Everyone on our staff was a reader and fan of DPReview before working here, and we’re grateful for the communities that formed around the site.
Thank you for your support over the years, and we hope you’ll join us in the coming weeks as we celebrate this journey.
Sincerely,
Scott Everett
General Manager – DPReview.com
Bomper Studio implements a 4 day work week and encourages others studios to follow suit
https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bomper-studio-4-day-work-week/
Welsh CGI and Animation studio, Bomper Studio, has made a progressive move and has voted to stick with a 4-day work week after a successful trial.
Bomper Studio is fully self-funded, which has been incredibly important in providing freedom to shape the company and its business practices. Over the past 4 years, Bomper has consistently spent a quarter of its revenue on Research and Development.
Forbes – The Hypocrisy Of Layoffs At Google, Microsoft, And PayPal
“These companies chose to blame thousands of people for a problem that was specifically created by their execs. The same people writing crocodile-tear-stained layoff letters are the same ones responsible for unrealistic projections, unrealistic spending and unrealistic hiring.”
“With corporate leaders having incentives not to benefit stakeholders at shareholder expense, delegating the guardianship of stakeholder interests to corporate leaders would prove futile. The promise of pluralistic stakeholderism is illusory.”
The Big Tech and big fintech companies aren’t worried about letting people go because when the next up-cycle hits they’ll pay top dollars (of course), but just as importantly, these resources can (nearly) seamlessly “plug and pay” into the tech environments in any of these companies.
“They use the same communication tools, the same programming tools, the same everything. There’s no (or hardly any) onboarding and training time required to get someone up to speed.”
“Without the need to spend months (weeks at the least) and untold dollars on training new employees, technology firms are emboldened to just let people go when it’s expedient for them.”
Disney to slash $5.5 billion in costs as it unveils vast restructuring
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/08/disney-reorganization.html
“On Wednesday, during its quarterly earnings call with investors, Disney also announced it would be cutting $5.5 billion in costs, which will be made up of $3 billion from content, excluding sports, and the remaining $2.5 billion from non-content cuts. Disney executives said about $1 billion in cost cutting was already underway since last quarter.”
CGI Looked Better 10 Years Ago
https://www.cbr.com/why-old-cgi-better-than-new-movies/
“The visual effects (VFX) industry is a rapidly growing field that plays a significant role in the entertainment industry, particularly in film and television. However, the industry also faces several challenges that can affect the quality and accessibility of visual effects in productions. One major issue facing the VFX industry is the high cost of producing visual effects. The process of creating visual effects can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the use of expensive software and hardware can drive up costs. This can make it difficult for smaller productions and independent filmmakers to afford to use visual effects in their projects.”
MidJourney – Terms Of Service item 10
https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/terms-of-service
10. Limitation of Liability and Indemnity
We provide the service as is, and we make no promises or guarantees about it.
You understand and agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party for any loss of profits, use, goodwill, or data, or for any incidental, indirect, special, consequential or exemplary damages, however they arise.
You are responsible for your use of the service. If you harm someone else or get into a dispute with someone else, we will not be involved.
If you knowingly infringe someone else’s intellectual property, and that costs us money, we’re going to come find you and collect that money from you. We might also do other stuff, like try to get a court to make you pay our attorney’s fees. Don’t do it.
Epic Games to Pay Record $520 Million to Settle FTC Charges Over Child Privacy and Player Manipulation
“The Federal Trade Commission has accused the leading video game developer of manipulating young players into unintentional purchases, illegally collecting personal information of kids under the age of 13, and endangering children by connecting them with strangers in its hugely successful ‘Fortnight’ game.”
Cinesite group secures $235m funding package
https://www.televisual.com/news/cinesite-group-secures-235m-funding-package/
The Cinesite Group has agreed a new long term financial arrangement that ensures our ability to continue supporting our talent and customers across the world, which is a massive vote of confidence for the talent working within all the studios and what has been built within the Cinesite group
How to learn to become a VFX artist
- Structure your learning time
- Consistency
- Retention
- Mental health
- Don’t feel intimidated
- Don’t feel rushed
- Be kind
- Luck is when preparation meets opportunity
Former WarnerMedia CEO, Jason Kilar: Streaming Wars Will Produce ‘Multiple Business Casualties’ in Coming Years
“In this scenario, no more than three global entertainment companies are likely to attain the streaming-service scale required—300 million global subscriptions at an average of $15 per month—to generate attractive cash flows.”
Kilar made sure to note that he believes that Prime Video and Apple TV+ are exempt from this vision, as those streamers are both tied to giant tech and commerce companies with multiple revenue streams.
Nickelodeon Studios Production Workers Go Public With Wage Concerns During Union Drive
“With a union, Nickelodeon production workers say they are attempting to boost wages — which several claimed Monday are currently untenable for those living in the Los Angeles area — and lower healthcare costs. “The current pay gap for production roles makes it near impossible to survive in Los Angeles. Many of us have taken the shame of asking our parents for money so we can pay rent and eat,” says production coordinator Ryan Brodsky said in a statement. “We’re working full time for one of the largest corporations on earth and there’s no reason that our parents should be funding this multi-billion dollar corporation.”
CG asset production coordinator Minh-Chau Nguyen added that “many” colleagues have attempted to earn more by taking on side jobs, working more overtime, taking out loans or asking friends and family for help. “This unsustainable model of working more for less needs to end now. With voluntary recognition from Nickelodeon, my hope is that the future generation of production workers can focus on building their career instead of worrying about unlivable wages, work-life imbalance, and inadequate benefits.”
Technicolor (MPC, Mikros, The Mill) shares sank 87% over four days
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/movie-effects-company-technicolor-now-144937131.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/vfx/comments/yyn1kx/the_buzzards_are_circling_technicolor/
“The increasingly bleak financial outlook of Technicolor Creative Services, parent company to MPC, Mikros and The Mill was announced by top execs on a hastily arranged shareholder conference call this week. In the call, TCS’s CEO and COO admitted that several factors are contributing to a much lower earnings forecast for 2022 than previously expected.
Among the reasons given was “persistent attrition” among employees. It was estimated by the execs that around 30% of employees at Technicolor had left in 2022 alone. Many of these employees include senior level creatives and sales workers responsible for drawing in big accounts at Hollywood movie studios.
The loss of senior level employees has also caused “efficiency” at the company to plummet to an estimated 50% with the reasoning given by execs being that less experienced employees left over at the company are now having to pick up the slack from the workers who quit. In other words, it now takes twice as many people to do the same work as before. Conditions, in the words of the COO, are “not improving.”
Reduced “efficiency” has also led to significant cost overruns on multiple shows, and has also resulted in missed deadlines for clients’ projects. In the call, execs lamented that missed deadlines have also caused their clients to reduce the amount of work awarded to MPC as their confidence in MPC’s ability to deliver has been diminished.
Trying to keep things positive, the execs mentioned that their strategy for 2023 would include a greater focus on KPIs (key performance indicators), although they declined to discuss them in detail, and a bigger push of work to India, despite the fact that India is already where a majority of their work is now done.”
#BrendanFraser is a righteous dude.
In November 2007 our paychecks stopped. I was the FX lead on #JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth for Meteor Studios in Montreal and was asked to convince my crew to stay and finish the picture with a guarantee we’d all get paid with overtime. We had a handfull of shots left.
As soon as we delivered the last shot, we were escorted out. It was two weeks before Christmas and we’d soon learn there was no money. Meteor was declaring bankruptcy.
They owed us 1.3 million dollars.
Variety put their best reporter on it and after many artists and support staff bravely came forward, I got this short terse email:
“The paper(Variety) has decided that another visual effects company going bankrupt, however sad, is really not news worthy at this time”
I kept trying to get help from the Hollywood press. I realized it wasn’t just Variety’s decision, no one wanted to touch the story. My guess was the studio had put pressure on them to bury it.
Finally, I made that rejection quote from Variety the headline of our own press release, and hired a PR company to release it. One artist, Eric Labranche, made a website for us to communcate with each other and vote, many others helped as well.
Then I tried to get the attention of Brendan Fraser, the star and executive producer of the movie. I called his “people” from IMDB pro. They said they’d tell him, they did not.
24 hours after the release, I got a threatening email from Variety and a call. I hung up. I then got a call from Les Normes the labor dept in Canada. They told me not to go to the press it would ruin our case. I hung up on them to. Then the phone rang again and it was this fast talking New York City gal with a heavy brooklyn accent. She was excited that I’d called Fraser’s people and had gotten no response from him.
It was page six of the Post, the gossip page, but we’d take it. She said the story would be live on the website within the hour. Exactly one hour later there it was: https://pagesix.com/2008/08/01/a-journey-in-search-of-pay/
My phone rang as I was reading the piece, a 212 area code, I answered to thank the girl, but a man answered and he said. “Is this Dave Rand?” I said “Yes”.
“This is Brendan Fraser, what the fuck is going on?”
He had no idea that artists were not paid on his movie. He listened intently, asked a lot of questions and promised he would call me regularly until this was solved.
First, he called the Post to tell all: https://pagesix.com/2008/08/03/to-the-rescue-2/
A vfx wave began to form. Branden kept his promise, he publically campaigned for us. The media, especially Variety, even started to cover our story. Thank you David Cohen.
We finally got 80% of our money almost 2 yrs later.
To quote the great Steve Hulett : “What runs the world isn’t what’s right, or who’s the richest, it’s leverage, and who has it.”
We’d had none, but Mr Fraser gave us wings.
He’s a righteous dude.
These days, I’m very selective, if I’ve chosen to work there you can bet they’re moving in the