Avatar VFX Workers Vote To Unionize (hollywoodreporter.com) 28
Visual effects artists working on James Cameron's Avatar movies have voted to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. From the Hollywood Reporter: Of an eligible 88 workers at Walt Disney Studios subsidiary TCF US Productions 27, Inc. who assist with productions for Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, 57 voted to join the union and 19 voted against, while two ballots were void. These workers include creatures costume leads and environment artists as well as others in the stage, environments, render, post viz, sequence, turn over and kabuki departments. Management and labor now have a few days to file any objections, and if none are raised, the election results will be certified.
This bargaining unit doesn't include employees of VFX facility vendors, notably Weta FX, which is the lead VFX house on the Avatar films and employs the vast majority of the more than 1,000 artists who work on a typical Avatar movie. But unionizing the group represents a major inroad for the VFX industry labor movement, believes one VFX industry source who spoke with THR. "While insignificant as a number, this is the core team that answers to Jim Cameron," says the source. "They are not necessarily impressive in size, but in influence."
The workers first went public with their organizing bid in December, when they filed for a union election with the NLRB. At the time, participating workers said in public statements that they were aiming to gain comparable benefits and pay to their unionized peers and have greater input into in working conditions. "Every one of my coworkers has dedicated so much time, creativity and passion to make these films a reality. So when you see them struggling to cover their health premiums, or being overworked because they took on multiple roles, or are just scraping by on their wages ... you cannot keep silent," said kabuki lead Jennifer Anaya.
This bargaining unit doesn't include employees of VFX facility vendors, notably Weta FX, which is the lead VFX house on the Avatar films and employs the vast majority of the more than 1,000 artists who work on a typical Avatar movie. But unionizing the group represents a major inroad for the VFX industry labor movement, believes one VFX industry source who spoke with THR. "While insignificant as a number, this is the core team that answers to Jim Cameron," says the source. "They are not necessarily impressive in size, but in influence."
The workers first went public with their organizing bid in December, when they filed for a union election with the NLRB. At the time, participating workers said in public statements that they were aiming to gain comparable benefits and pay to their unionized peers and have greater input into in working conditions. "Every one of my coworkers has dedicated so much time, creativity and passion to make these films a reality. So when you see them struggling to cover their health premiums, or being overworked because they took on multiple roles, or are just scraping by on their wages ... you cannot keep silent," said kabuki lead Jennifer Anaya.
Who to blame (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, Cameron knew and didn't care, but Disney's the boss.
I assume this means more animation tasks will be replaced by AI a little sooner than they would have otherwise.
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe but Weta is pretty much right behind or even next to ILM in terms of reputation and quality, they are going to be fine. What's nice is this sets a solid precedent for smaller studios who routinely get jerked around by the studios.
The story of Rhythm and Hues who won an Oscar for Life of Pi and even took loans out to complete it then went bankrupt 3 months later.
https://variety.com/2013/film/... [variety.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
From Wikipedia "In February 2015, founders Hughes, Goldfarb, and Tso were sued for having “pillaged” the VFX house, including conflicted technology and real estate transfers."
Re: Who to blame (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
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There’s always reruns of Andy Griffith. But he might be too woke for you as old Andy didn’t feel the need to carry a gun.
Re:Who to blame (Score:4, Insightful)
Executives haven't been holding off on replacing humans with AI out of the kindness of their hearts. It's because AI isn't yet up to the task. The only way to accelerate AI is to throw money at R&D. Starting unions has zero impact AI's fitness.
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>The only way to accelerate AI is to throw money at R&D
That was the point. They'll likely do that over throwing money at humans on an ongoing basis. They only have to pay for the AI once.
Anti-Corporatist (Score:4, Insightful)
I always thought it weird to work on an anti-corporatist film made by a giant Hollyweird corporation that will claim a loss on a $1B gross and screw the workers on backend and resisuals.
Sounds like that's indeed how it is.
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Is time the fourth dimension in four dimensional checkers? So that you can go back in time and correct an error to make sure you always win? Seems unfair. Maybe it's played on a tesseract. That would be cool to see.
I assume you haven't seen 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel [wikipedia.org] before?
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I mean, of course they are holding an asset of the owners almost literally hostage: the workforce.
Though the owners are actually literally holding every other asset hostage.
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In real world, owners own. As in they hold things. Whereas holding something "hostage" indicates that one holding something does not own or control the thing being held. So owners cannot hold "everything they own and control" hostage from employers by definition.
Unless you're a far left nutjob who believes that private ownership is only relevant as a targeting marker for persecution.
Avatar 3 video leaked (Score:1)
https://youtu.be/262I-raaI2U?t... [youtu.be]
Unions should hold periodic reauthorization votes (Score:1)
Especially in businesses where the workforce turns over frequently. But even in more stable environments too.
So fucking what? (Score:1)
Time to overseas the effects department (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not like you couldn't see the obvious solution here.
Time for Afghanistanimation?
What a bunch of non-workers here (Score:2)
I just skimmed the thread, and most of the comments are from people who have never actually worked for a living.
Just so brainwashed idiots (like most of you) need to understand, let's see: I was working for Ameritech '95-'97. The week I broke 70 hours, I swore I'd never do that again. And for that, I got a nice raise. Up to $53k/yr. No, I didn't miss any decimal places there.
But the assholes in charge plan something, don't listen to the line managers, then when it's not done, say "whatever it takes". One of
"overworked because they took on multiple roles"?? (Score:2)
Uhhh....