The European Film Subsidy Trade War

Image from Joe Karaganis consultation to the European Commission

Last week I touched upon what essentially is a trade war occurring in various states and provinces in the US and Canada. The same phenomenon is occurring in Europe.

While the UK offers US studios generous subsidies to do vfx and production work for feature films there, the animation and video game industry receive none.

The video games industry has been unsuccessful trying to lobby for subsidies as they lose talent and work to subsidized regions like Canada. As far as the UK animation industry is concerned, where does the work go as they too are unsuccessful to lobby for subsidies?

“I know a couple of people who do a similar role to me, coming up with ideas for shows, who now just work out of LA. They’ve gone over there and they don’t bother knocking on doors in the UK any more.”

Family Matters

Motionographer conducted a survey of 2,236 professionals in the motion-graphics industry concerning family. The results are available here:

- 63% of the respondents didn’t (At the time of responding) have kids!

- Unsurprisingly having kids takes its tole on extra-curricular creative projects. Nonetheless 40% of mographers with kids still find time outside work to do motion things. Kudos!

- Once kids are on the scene, most motion workers try and get some kind of grip on their hours, but late working is still a regular part of professional life for most.

- We seem to have great partners who by and large tolerate long hours, although patience thins once kids are around.

- And 50% of those with kids said that having kids has made them think about leaving the industry.

Who Is VFX Soldier?

Well, something funny happened to me today.

Joe Harkins, who was irked about some of my posts, wrote a pretty controversial post titled “Who Is VFX Soldier?” in the hopes to make me “own up” to what I have written over the years. He subsequently revealed that in his spare time, he has been trying to track down my identity using some rather flimsy evidence to come to some wild conclusions as to who I am.

To my surprise, before I could respond a plethora of comments and tweets by various individuals were directed at Mr. Harkins in strong disagreement for attempting to out me. Soon he apologized for the post and took it down, along with his whole blog and twitter account.

First let me say I accept Mr. Harkins apology. I’m sorry if you were irked by my post but I strongly disagreed with what you were saying. After Joe took the post down, I tweeted to ask him to put the post back up because what he did was already out of the bag and eventually someone was going to re-post it elsewhere. He ask that I not put up what he wrote and that I not comment on the issue. While I will respect Mr Harkins wishes on not revealing his post, I have to comment on the issue to clarify a few things.

The North American Film Subsidy Trade War

Film Works LA Campaign Manager and lawyer Adrian McDonald published a superb 81-page case against state film subsidies. It’s a great weekend read for anyone interested on educating themselves on the whole matter. It’s available here:

http://www.stop-runaway-production.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/McDonald_To-Send-to-Author.pdf

Essentially what is happening in the USA and provinces of Canada is a trade war. Various locations are engaged in protectionism against market economics by offering artificial prices to producers through film subsidies.

This is a race to the bottom and I’ve always said on this blog “In a race to the bottom, the last one left standing is the biggest loser.”

Us Versus Them

On one vfx project I became aware of my new officemate taking an expensive cab home whenever we worked late. He and his wife were recent immigrants to the country with no car. I decided to offer him a ride home  and eventually the practice became routine: We’d work late, he’d reach for the phone to call the cab, and I’d yell at him to put the phone down as I’d insist on giving him a ride home.

I was a bit embarrassed to admit the reason for my kindness. If he had asked I would tell him that his apartment was on the way home – actually it was 10 minutes out of the way. The truth is I always had a fondness for immigrants and this wasn’t exclusive to “white collar” immigrants. In college when I was working at a restaurant I routinely gave immigrant co-workers a ride home late at night.

Why did I develop such strong kindness for immigrants?

The VFX Trade Organization Dilemma

Last week VFX Artist Joe Harkins started a petition to end VFX subsidies and lobby for a trade organization that represents the VFX facilities. He also wrote a post on why we need to support the trade organization:

Unlike other crafts in the film business, we don’t work directly for the movie studios. We work for a 3rd party that negotiates the work, agrees to a price, and then executes the task at hand. We need the facilities we work for to be healthy.

While I agree with the conclusion that we need to end subsidies and form a trade organization, I have to respectfully disagree with the premise used to make the argument. The trade organization is a helpful but unnecessary earmark to the very prudent idea: Ending subsidies.

VFX Artists Petition US President & VES

Obama’s Speech Touches On VFX Issues

This week VFX Artist Joe Harkins started a petition to the US President and Visual Effects Society to end illegal subsidies:

You agree that we need to create an organization that will lobby political action to enforce the WTO guidelines. Specifically the free trade agreements against foreign subsidies. You also agree that our elected officials need to do something about WTO violations that hurt our industry.

Since day one of my blog I have railed against subsidies and I support this petition. As you can see in the above video, the current President is interested in combating these subsidies. We need to let him hear our voice. One way to do this is by having you, your family, your relatives, your friends, and your  co-workers sign Mr Harkins’ petition.

You can sign it here:

http://tinyurl.com/vfxpetition

The Most Expensive Places To Live In The VFX Industry

VFX Artist Aruna Inversin has a great post on Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate prices:

Making a decision to move up north is not a small feat, especially in this rough and tumble world of the quick buck, cheap labor, and inadequate contracts. Here’s one reason to think twice.

Demographia, a property-affordability survey published by Illinois-based consultant Wendell Cox, estimates that median real-estate prices in Vancouver are 9.5 times median household income. Only Hong Kong and Sydney are less affordable by that measure. (New York comes in at 5.1.)

I’ve written a few posts on how Vancouver’s real estate market is the most unaffordable in the world.

However, even if real estate is affordable, I’ve written that VFX artists shouldn’t buy a home because the nature of the industry is project based. Even if you had gainful employment in Los Angeles, bouncing between Imageworks, Disney, DreamWorks, Digital Domain, and Rhythm & Hues are still long commutes from the suburbs. A mortgage is for 30 years, nobody had been at the same vfx company for that long… unless you’re George Lucas.

Tough Times In Australia

A bit of slightly good news and very bad news this week for the Australia VFX market.

Reporter Brendan Swift has been doing some excellent coverage of the Australian VFX industry. This week he ran an article on Dr. D Studios that created Happy Feet 2 and was slated to do the new Mad Max film. The good news is the company actually made a profit however it’s future is doubtful:

Dr D Studios posted a net profit of $8.79 million last financial year, according to financial documents filed with the corporate regulator. However, the future of the company remains unclear following a production lull in the wake of Happy Feet Two.

This week also saw the cancellation of Alex Proyas’ Paradise Lost which looked like it was going to be a very big film with lots of VFX. The huge film subsidies the Austrailian government offered Legendary Pictures was enough to get Digital Domain to open a facility in Sydney but it still wasn’t enough to get the film green lit:

A government spokesperson said a planned Sydney office for VFX house Digital Domain will no longer be opened. Digital Domain was set to create the bulk of Paradise Lost‘s effects and was also an investor in the film.

The slightly good news is that Digital Domain will send some work on other to Australia.

Part of the problem is that the Australian Dollar is at an all time high against the US Dollar (or the US Dollar is at an all time low depending on how you want to look at it). This makes it more expensive for US Studios to do work there, even with the huge subsidies.

Soldier On.

LA Times Looking To Speak With VFX Artists

In my last post, VFX Artist and advocate Dave Rand mentioned that Richard Verrier, an LA Times reporter who covers labor issues in the Hollywood industry, is looking to report on VFX workers who have been adversely effected by the current climate in the VFX industry.

I encouraged workers who have written to me about joblessness, health insurance issues, employee misclassification, labor law violations, unpaid wages, and subsidies, to contact Richard Verrier.

Write to: Richard.Verrier@latimes.com

An article in the LA Times would help bring the current events in our industry to the forefront. Please take the time to tell Richard your story.

Soldier On.