i’m completely on side with your thoughts and have been vocal about them, and criticized from a number of corners about this very thing. i was an owner of a facility for 10 years before selling it, and although we weren’t perfect- the changes the corp made after the acquisition were not in line with my perspective, and is one of the reasons i left.
there are many ways to fix this race to the bottom, but the key thing to know is that it has to be a concerted effort- and it starts with artists, freelancers and then moves up to facilities.
it isn’t up to the studios..this is a codependent relationship and everyone has to put their collective feet down and say ‘no more’
that means:
1. artists must be reasonably paid for work and refusing to work overtime without compensation – at EVERY facility, no matter the size.
that means the kids, the pros, the seasoned veterans need to shrug off the cool factor, be willing to lose out on some ‘awesome’ project..and be willing to work on something tedious or uncool, saving some of that reasonable salary and OT pay for a rainy day so you can say ‘no’, hold the line and get paid the right rate for the right gigs.
2. facilities must never accept work for less in order to keep people employed. its a downward spiral. you will never get the rates back up – you push competitors to follow you down and the studios win.
although far more painful in the short run – it means layoffs rather than facility closures. hopefully you have paid artists well enough to save for a rainy day. see #1.
We know the expertise and talent is HERE – and ultimately the work comes back, _every_single_time_.
At the start of a show: if the shots are bid high – shots/shows will go to India/China/Korea; they will fail; then we will get the work at higher rates at the end.
logic will not prevail, the cycle will continue, but we can stop our acceleration of cost reduction, and make the studios pay for the expertise. money is never an object for the studio at the end of a project.
studios never fail to pay for expertise.
the vfx industry just keeps giving it away for free.
eventually there will be some stability if we hold the line.
as for how to achieve #1, i completely believe that if we can’t self manage; if we really are unable to act as a collective without a formal charter then we need to unionize to ensure facilities and individuals follow an appropriate line. This isn’t impossible, it just will take effort, and for gods sake – take the well paying gig over the ‘cool’ gig any day.
Mr Bond
I could agree more
You I’m not even working in the industry , but I’ve been preparing myself to, I feel really really disappointed esp. with Houses and how the accepts the sh.ty treatments. I dont know much, but I wouldn’t want to work my life away and I fucking work too hard, I’m sick and tired of broke.
One one thing , this stupid sh.t have been going on for far too long , the cool gig BS.
I heard too many artist going , well we got in to create cool sh.t, But at the end of the day, this is just a Job just like any other, it’s not special
Yes you get to create cool sh.t but really really it’s just a job. So let’s all get that into Our heads. and for goodness sake you guys already in the biz , you have the power to make things right so us up and comings would not suffer the same fate . Let all come together and Organise this mess without fear.
“…the moviemaking assets at Ringling College of Art and Design involves more than $1 million in public, and possibly charitable, funds to build a post-production operation on the campus…”
A number of other major changes need to happen for this model to be dominant:
The emergence of a freelance games development workforce, coming together for a project in the same way a crew assemble for principal photography on a movie. (Owain Bennallack’s excellent article in Develop sets out some of the issues and requirements here, and I particularly endorse #5: the need for equitable pay)
Acceptance of new financing models such as single-project special purpose vehicles
Increased reliance on standardised middleware to allow contractors to move from project to project
Massively increased expertised in outsourcing and managing vast projects mainly staffed by outside contractors
But I am convinced that Will Wright’s departure will be seen by future historians of the games industry as a turning point. As the moment when the creative talent broke free of the contractual restrictions of publisher employment and were freed to pursue their dreams.
But it’s not all good news for developers
However, this is not the beginning of a development utopia. There is some bad news for all those developers who are not superstars (in other words, everyone except the handful of individuals names above):
The only people who will get the mega bucks are the superstar developers who can make or break a game. No one else
As publishers embrace this model, they will massively downsize their internal development. (Microsoft is well on the way to eliminating internal development already)
But these new production companies will give developers an example to aim for. And, as developers increasingly move from project to project as freelancers, they will get to work with the best and brightest creative talent in the world.
I love this blog. I’m wondering if you know of a good way to get shots for a demo reel after a freelance project is completed. Would it be easier to write up an agreement before? So many of my friends do freelance work and no one has a better method other than writing a request and then hoping that they follow through.
The contracts we sign are also put all the power of allowing demo reel shots in the hands of the studios. I’m wondering if there is a good way of amending these contracts so we freelancers would receive a copy after the project is aired. Maybe you would have a template?
Hey!
i’m completely on side with your thoughts and have been vocal about them, and criticized from a number of corners about this very thing. i was an owner of a facility for 10 years before selling it, and although we weren’t perfect- the changes the corp made after the acquisition were not in line with my perspective, and is one of the reasons i left.
there are many ways to fix this race to the bottom, but the key thing to know is that it has to be a concerted effort- and it starts with artists, freelancers and then moves up to facilities.
it isn’t up to the studios..this is a codependent relationship and everyone has to put their collective feet down and say ‘no more’
that means:
1. artists must be reasonably paid for work and refusing to work overtime without compensation – at EVERY facility, no matter the size.
that means the kids, the pros, the seasoned veterans need to shrug off the cool factor, be willing to lose out on some ‘awesome’ project..and be willing to work on something tedious or uncool, saving some of that reasonable salary and OT pay for a rainy day so you can say ‘no’, hold the line and get paid the right rate for the right gigs.
2. facilities must never accept work for less in order to keep people employed. its a downward spiral. you will never get the rates back up – you push competitors to follow you down and the studios win.
although far more painful in the short run – it means layoffs rather than facility closures. hopefully you have paid artists well enough to save for a rainy day. see #1.
We know the expertise and talent is HERE – and ultimately the work comes back, _every_single_time_.
At the start of a show: if the shots are bid high – shots/shows will go to India/China/Korea; they will fail; then we will get the work at higher rates at the end.
logic will not prevail, the cycle will continue, but we can stop our acceleration of cost reduction, and make the studios pay for the expertise. money is never an object for the studio at the end of a project.
studios never fail to pay for expertise.
the vfx industry just keeps giving it away for free.
eventually there will be some stability if we hold the line.
as for how to achieve #1, i completely believe that if we can’t self manage; if we really are unable to act as a collective without a formal charter then we need to unionize to ensure facilities and individuals follow an appropriate line. This isn’t impossible, it just will take effort, and for gods sake – take the well paying gig over the ‘cool’ gig any day.
just my thoughts, or some of ‘em.
good work and keep it up
chris bond
Mr Bond
I could agree more
You I’m not even working in the industry , but I’ve been preparing myself to, I feel really really disappointed esp. with Houses and how the accepts the sh.ty treatments. I dont know much, but I wouldn’t want to work my life away and I fucking work too hard, I’m sick and tired of broke.
One one thing , this stupid sh.t have been going on for far too long , the cool gig BS.
I heard too many artist going , well we got in to create cool sh.t, But at the end of the day, this is just a Job just like any other, it’s not special
Yes you get to create cool sh.t but really really it’s just a job. So let’s all get that into Our heads. and for goodness sake you guys already in the biz , you have the power to make things right so us up and comings would not suffer the same fate . Let all come together and Organise this mess without fear.
A free market economy does not allow for compassion and solidarity.
I fear vfx artist are like the uk coal miners of the 70′s. Why pay uk prices when it is cheaper to import coal from Russia.
Support must be marshalled from sister entertainment/film unions.
Just saw this article on Ringling College of Art and Design and it seemed related to the article about Gnomon you posted…is a trend starting?
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100920/ARTICLE/9201018?p=all&tc=pgall
“…the moviemaking assets at Ringling College of Art and Design involves more than $1 million in public, and possibly charitable, funds to build a post-production operation on the campus…”
What about the indy games business model?
Is now the time?
A number of other major changes need to happen for this model to be dominant:
The emergence of a freelance games development workforce, coming together for a project in the same way a crew assemble for principal photography on a movie. (Owain Bennallack’s excellent article in Develop sets out some of the issues and requirements here, and I particularly endorse #5: the need for equitable pay)
Acceptance of new financing models such as single-project special purpose vehicles
Increased reliance on standardised middleware to allow contractors to move from project to project
Massively increased expertised in outsourcing and managing vast projects mainly staffed by outside contractors
But I am convinced that Will Wright’s departure will be seen by future historians of the games industry as a turning point. As the moment when the creative talent broke free of the contractual restrictions of publisher employment and were freed to pursue their dreams.
But it’s not all good news for developers
However, this is not the beginning of a development utopia. There is some bad news for all those developers who are not superstars (in other words, everyone except the handful of individuals names above):
The only people who will get the mega bucks are the superstar developers who can make or break a game. No one else
As publishers embrace this model, they will massively downsize their internal development. (Microsoft is well on the way to eliminating internal development already)
But these new production companies will give developers an example to aim for. And, as developers increasingly move from project to project as freelancers, they will get to work with the best and brightest creative talent in the world.
http://www.gamesbrief.com/2009/04/will-wrights-departure-signals-the-end-of-the-entire-games-publisher-business-model/
http://collider.com/green-lantern-budget/87666/
you will find it interesting…
Hi!
I love this blog. I’m wondering if you know of a good way to get shots for a demo reel after a freelance project is completed. Would it be easier to write up an agreement before? So many of my friends do freelance work and no one has a better method other than writing a request and then hoping that they follow through.
The contracts we sign are also put all the power of allowing demo reel shots in the hands of the studios. I’m wondering if there is a good way of amending these contracts so we freelancers would receive a copy after the project is aired. Maybe you would have a template?
Thanks in advance!
Hi,
I would like to meet with you to discuss helping VFX workers. Please contact me. Thank you!
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-visual-effects-workers-20120420,0,563491.story