VFX Artists: Are they getting the Recognition they Deserve?

There’s no escaping Visual Effects these days – it’s become a ubiquitous part of film making.   Of course they’ve always been used in fantasy specials like The Hobbit and Harry Potter, or Sci-Fi films like Gravity and Interstellar but they’re also used in films you wouldn’t think they have.  Apparently historic dramas like Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, the biopic starring Idris Elba, have benefited from the use of VFX.  For Godzilla, in order to complete 960 visual effects shots it required 762 visual effects crew, spending months working on each aspect.  Visual Effects have become a necessary part of the post-production workflow.  

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'Harry Potter' Visual Effects team reveals Amazing work behind 'Deathly Hallows'

However, over the last few years, there have been backlash at the VFX Industry over working conditions.  Over the last two years “The Association of Digital Artists, Professionals and Technicians (ADAPT) – a trade group formed to address the business interests of the VFX community – organised demonstrations, calling for an end to the subsidy race that has created an uneven playing field, forcing VFX artists to frequently move around the world in order to stay in employed.” Most notably, there was a rally over 500 members of the VFX community along Hollywood Boulevard before the Academy Awards last year. 

OVer 500 VFX artists sport the iconic green of a green screen to demonstrate their anger before the Oscars in 2014.  Source. 

This was a result of notorious VFX company, Rhythm and Hues, filing bankruptcy on 11th February 2011 where 254 employees had to be laid off, which sparked the protest outside the Academy Awards.  It was up for an Academy Award for Life of Pi, which eventually won. Although the company received a $17 million loan in order for the company to finish the projects it already had in the pipeline, there was still uproar within the VFX community.  The company is famous for its creatures and character animation, specialising in digital animals.

The VFX industry is often determined by tax incentives, and as a result VFX studios have decided to move work away from the US to places such as Canada and the UK, which have either forced their employees to move with them in keep their jobs.

For example, last May, after fears that they would shut down their VFX studios all together, Sony announced that its Imageworks special effects facility would move from Culver City, LA to Vancouver, Canada, leaving the VFX industry in LA in “full collapse”

In response to this, an amendment to a proposed legislation to expand California’s film and TV tax credit was changed. The amendment expressed the views of ADAPT:

"which is to pursue a complicated legal process in which trade officials would be compelled to pursue tariffs on things such as visual effects and music scoring, the type of work that has been lost to other countries. Such tariffs would help bring parity to the cost of such work"

Of course this legislation was opposed by major studios which benefit greater from the subsidies offered by other countries. 

Adapt Logo. Source

However, the legislation did not include any funding for the legal efforts of ADAPT. As a result, in an attempt to challenge the film subsidies offered by other countries, a group of visual effects dropped their effort earlier this month due to lack of funds to pursue a legal strategy that would allow US officials to pursue trade action.  As a result, ADAPT was dissolved in January.


The working conditions are also undesirable for VFX artists, particularly in the UK. A report by BBC Newsbeat argued that VFX artists are overworked, often working unlimited unpaid overtime. The studios do not recognise that visual effects is a time consuming process that requires highly skilled professionals. Employers reported that cheques had bounced, and some still have not yet received payment for work completed several months ago, despite the VFX industry contributing around £250 million a year to the UK economy.

So what now for VFX artists? You can tell that VFX artists are not as well valued as you'd think they'd be seeing as they have become an integral part of the film making process in recent years.  Just take a look at end credits to films, the names of VFX crew are almost always listed towards the end, often underneath the name of the receptionist and the caterers.

If VFX artists continue to struggle in getting their rights and efforts recognised by the industry, Elly Hart warns that, 

"Films would halt production, release dates would be missed, merchandising agreements would be broken, the cinemas would have nothing to show, and we would have nothing to watch. If we don’t start addressing these problems soon, there might not be any other way around it."