From Spiunion and TAG have announced an informal meeting for VFX professionals near Imageworks in Culver City. :
Friday April 20th.
Culver Hotel
9400 Culver Boulevard Culver City, California 90232
12-3 pm
Please help spread the word.
Soldier On.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
VFX Soldier 
Great news…but a bit hard to get to frame the San Fernando valley on a lunch break if your lucky enough to be currently employed. Will there be a gathering up here as well at a later date.
This is the first of regular meetings meant to provide answers regarding unionization, a venue for dialogue as well as introduce members of IATSE to the visual effects community as a whole. The meeting will first be held in Culver City for its proximity to Imageworks who has an active campaign in place.
Most of IATSE offices are located in the valley, so holding a meeting there would be an easy request to fill. Email me with suggestions on locations you feel would be appropriate.
skaplan@animationguild.org
Reblogged this on The Hub and commented:
VFX professionals are creating movement in an effort to organize. Those who can adapt to impending changes will be the most successful. #entrepreneur
Just reported in the Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/04/sony-pictures-imageworks-workers-take-steps-to-unionzie.html
Men In Black 3 has wrapped. Amazing Spider-Man wraps in another month. The majority of Wonderful Wizard of Oz is up in Vancouver. Is there going to be anyone around to unionize?
From what I’ve heard, Sony is planning on ceasing shot production in LA and moving all of it to VC. There will a small core group who will work on lookdev and pipeline, but that’s about it. So, while I think it’s cool that steps are being taken there, as you mentioned, there might not be anyone to benefit from it.
I’m hoping that what I’ve been told is not accurate. Anytime a large shop closes any where, it’s usually a bad thing for the whole industry.
It’s not accurate.
Really? Because the people I’ve heard from are staff people in the middle of hammering out contracts over which city they will be working in. As in, they have different roles and offers based on where they end up.
Have you been talking to freelance or other staff? I’m curious to see if things aren’t even transparent to everyone there. Are you able to expand past, “It’s not accurate?” I totally understand if you can’t. I can’t really give an more details than I’ve already stated. I don’t want the people I’ve talked to to get into trouble.
I’d say it’s pretty accurate – They’re trying to move all of animation, lighting, and compositing up there. They say rigging and pipeline are “staying” in L.A, but the reality is that they’re strongly encouraging those folks to go too. New hires are mostly for YVR. It’s quite a bummer around here
Eh, they’ve been saying that for years now. While they /are/ trying to get as many people in Vancouver, they’ve always needed a Culver crew. Doubt they can change that while all the directors are in LA.
The LA crew always happens in the last 2 months of production. but who wants to wait for that to happen? On green lantern they went from a 7 month contract to a 2 month contract unless you opted for ABQ.
It’s simple really; self-entitled, over-paid, over educated, bloated, gun toting, military subsidized, consumer zombie, corporate barbarians don’t work as hard as cold, hungry, peace loving, socialists that don’t complain when they have to pay high taxes to subsidize their own existence.
(Re-post) Waiting for Hollywood: Canada’s Maquila Film Industry
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/1728/
If I was in the U.S I’d attend – go people! Support change in out industry.
[…] There is also coverage in major publications about today’s VFX union informational meeting near Imageworks. […]
I hope Steve and the Guys keep it to the basics, since there seems to be a lot of misconceptions in the VFX world about the Union and what it meant to us workers at Disney/Dreamworks…
Basically:
-Adherence to labor laws and hours with paid overtime
-Set wage wage *minimums*.
-Portable health care through Motion Pictures Health Plan
-Individual Account Plan [Pension 1 paid by employeer/producers]
-Retirement Pension Plan [Pension 2]
-5 years of work gets your retirement pension vested
-13 years [?] and you get health coverage until you retire, even if you leave the union after that point.
I’d wish I was union throughout my career, imagine working studio to studio and having your benefits carry over from place to place.
The only thing that the studios wouldn’t like is the #2 line item. The minimum wage for a vfx guy would generally be around $35/hr.
I mean the teamster who’s driving the stake bed truck on and off the Culver Lot carrying equipment for a set shoot is making $30-50/hr with a pension, the artists should be getting a fair shake of a deal as the rest of the set staff/tradesmen…
$50/h for driving a bed truck?! where do I sign up?!
Check with IATSE and the Teamsters. The minimum you should be making as a driver is towards $27-30/hr depending on license. If you can operate specialized vehicles, have a class C license, plus other tradeskills that bumps up quickly.
$35/hr minimum? what are you smoking?
Many of us have already paid for the privilege of working on blockbuster films. It spread like a cancer through Montreal and is happening right now in LA. Keep in mind IATSE and IBEW are international unions. If the studios can have no problem expanding globally don’t short your thinking and believe it’s impossible for a union to follow there business model.
Dude I’m serious, if I can apply for that job @ $50/h w/ pension I’ll show up first thing Monday morning, I live few blocks north of Sony so I’ll even walk down there!
vfxguy: It’s in the guilds wage minimums for CGI animators/technical directors etc. You can look it up yourself on the local 839 website.
Depending on the studio, some it’s around 28-29$ /hr.
That’s not bad for a kid out of a school with a good reel.
I went to the meeting and filled out my Union card. A couple thoughts/observations.
A lot of SPI artists knew about the meeting but didn’t go.
I think the primary reasons are fear and apathy. The fear is “I don’t want to rock the boat, what if I get blackballed?”
The apathy is “Well things aren’t so bad for me now. What’s for lunch?” Unfortunately getting people to have some balls and get off their asses is tough and if I knew how to do this I’d be a Union Organizer instead of an FX guy.
Also, I’m a big supporter of the Union but the folks organizing the drive should probably be be more meticulous in their efforts – When I got a note on my desk with a letter and Union Card there were no clear instructions on where to send it. And at the Imageworks meeting there should have been someone handing out blank Union cards at the entrance, and someone collecting them as well. Instead there were just a bunch of cards on a table in the corner. If you have to hire swimsuit models to coax people into signing up, fine, do whatever it takes.
I’ll put my money where my mouth is – If the Union folks are short on manpower please feel free to contact me at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericrosenthal and I ‘d be happy to help (except for the swimsuit modelling part)
Eric
land for sale…
[…]VFX Organizational Meeting Near Imageworks This Friday « VFX Soldier[…]…