You may recall, if you have read all of my posts (and why wouln’t you, they are literary gold!) that early on I posted some thoughts and links abou unpaid artists and the closure of Metero Studios:
http://www.thejuniorcompositor.com/2009/01/25/industry-the-state-of-the-visual-effects-industry/
It seems like some kind of agreement has been reached with the artists getting 70% of their wages. That’s right, 70% of their wages for producing A-level visual effects for a major VFX studio which was in turn part of the Discovery group. That is to say, Discovery are not exactly hurting for cash. There are more than a few galling aspects to this case, least of which is working for 3months and not getting paid. There is the fact the artists got shafted and not paid just before Christmas. That pretty much sucks the big one, but how about Meteor effectively shutting down and opening again with the same muppets running the business with the same equipment on the same premises? This is what happens with limited liability companies. They can go bankrupt/insolvent and wind up and there is nothing you can sue them for. They sell the equipment and facilities to another $2 company for cents in the dollar and start again as a “new and different” company.
I bring the whole topic up again as I have seen and heard similar stories since begining my professional career in CG and it makes me so goddamned angry that CG artists are treated this way. We are a young industry and at the moment we have no sort of union protection whatsoever. I am not suggesting that a union is the only answer, but at the moment, artists are treated like disposable rags and the companies play us off against each other. Given that there is a perception that CG is a “glamour” and “fun” industry and that the schools are pumping out students like there is no tomorrow (because CG students are fish in a barrel for fees, see last post), the attitude seems to be “You should be thankful that we are paying you $18/hr to play with computers all day. It’s fun and if you don’t want to do it, we’ll get that 17 year old to take your place.”
Now, as someone starting in the industry you might be tempted to think “Whatever old man, if you can’t take it, get out and give me ago”. That might be fine while you are living with your parents and just starting out. $18h/r making CG cartoons might seem like mana from heaven compared to working for McDonalds, but what happens in 5 years time? You have moved out, you have rent to pay, you bought a car, you have bills, thinking about taking a world trip or saving for a house. You have moved up the payscale a bit and then the same thing happens to you . . . “Well we can’t afford to pay you what you are worth. How about a pay cut and you can keep your job?” “Errr, no, I have 5 years experience”, “Hmmm, yeah, well, we have this 17yo who will work for $15 an hour, sooooo, seeya!”
The fact is that work in CG is almost *all* contractual, unless you somehow land a gig where you have ongoing full time employment (often smaller studios or if you are some kind of coding/TD guru). That means you generally count on not working at least 3mths of the year and making up for it the other 9mths. It also means it is very hard to get loans as you can’t show consistent income.
So, what we have is an industry where if you have 5 years experience you *might* be earning decent coin, but your job is usually not safe, you are often treated as disposable and you have to constantly watch out for up and comers willing to work crazy longer hours for less money.
If the VFX industry continues the way it is going now, there won’t be many old-timers, like their are on the live-action production side (camera ops, gaffers, riggers etc). What we will have is an industry full of people with 5-10 years experience who eventually give it away after being kicked in the guts too many times.
Take care of yourself as nobody else in the industry will do it for you. Sad but true.
ETA: No images today as something happened with my hosting and FTP. I am currently looking at moving the entire blog to Squarespace as it is becoming too much of a hassle to troubleshoot each week.