VFX Studio Financial Difficulties and Woes of the VFX Artist Rhythm and Hues was a well-known visual effects studio, has been around since 1987. This studio did the special effects for movies such as The Golden Compass, and more recently for the award-winning Life of Pi, which won an Oscar for it’s visual effects. This studio has had much success, but despite this the studio was forced to file bankruptcy only a couple of weeks prior to winning an Oscar. This signifies a red flag for the VFX industry as a whole. If a successful studio is able to fall under so easily, what will happen to the smaller, less successful studios? How is this affecting those working in the VFX industry? The VFX industry is struggling because of their poor business …show more content…
This means that they will bid on different projects for a certain amount and they will get no more or less for working on that project even if extra hours are spent on it. This means that VFX studios have to try to estimate how much it will cost them to make certain scenes in order to avoid losing substantial amounts of money. This sort of guessing-game is difficult to get right, especially if the director does not know what they want. In order to get an estimate without knowing exactly what the project entails, the VFX studio will have to multiply the amount of potential scenes by the potential length of the scenes and multiply that by the average amount it takes to produce similar scenes. If an estimate is off it could mean losing thousands upon thousands in revenue. There is also the issue of competition between studios. In order to win bids, studios may have to bid lower than they would like in order to get the job at all. Movie studios want to make their movies for the lowest price possible so they will often contract with the lowest bidding VFX studios. This fixed bid system makes it difficult for VFX studios to make decent sized profit margins, and sometimes VFX studios actually lose money on their …show more content…
The fixed bid system and foreign subsidies and tax incentives are largely to blame for all of the VFX studio failures that have been happening. This affects not only the studios themselves but also the VFX artists who work there. VFX artists have to deal with ridiculous hours with little pay, no health insurance, and no guarantee of a secure job. Without these artists, movies would undoubtedly be very different than they are today. So, it is in the VFX industry’s best interest to change the business model that they currently follow. Paying on an hourly basis rather than a fixed bid model would be a start. Also, eliminating the foreign subsidies and tax breaks would help tremendously. Unionization is also a possibility to help improve the working conditions for the VFX artists. No matter what, the VFX industry needs to make sure that changes are made, or else the industry itself will crumble and leave VFX artists jobless. Works Cited: Skilton, Paul F. "Supply Chain Governance In A Creative Industry: Offshore Sourcing Of Special And Visual Effects." Academy Of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings (2008): 1-6. Business Source Complete. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. “Povs Emerge On VES 2.0, VFX Issues. (Cover Story)." Shoot 52.7 (2011): 1-17. Business Source Complete. Web. 3 Apr.
In Hollywood political conflict was also paving the way for what would later occur in Hollywood as the HUAC would attack the industry. Big business controlled the lucrative industry and the companies that controlled the market were eight major studios in Hollywood. The Metro-Goldw...
As can be seen in exhibit to solution 2, we have estimated the per-film value of each production company. MCA Universal, Warner Brothers and Walt Disney Co are the only production companies that provide a positive per film value, with values of 9.89, 1.92, 12.56 million respectively. This value is calculated by dividing the net present value of all the movies by the total number of movies. We also calculated the average value of each production company based upon their share of the total number of movies produced. The companies with positive values were MCA Universal, Warner Brothers and Walt Disney Co is also the only production companies that provide a positive per film value, with values of 1.40, 0.37, 1.40 million respectively. These values are based on the average value per film multiplied by the company's average share of the industry.
...central rather than peripheral in the forging of a more liberating and intelligent visual culture in the United States" (p. 37).
The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios Inc. were two of the largest movie and entertainment studios. Disney owned and operated an unparalleled portfolio of theme parks classic movies and characters. Pixar was the leading creative and technological computer generated imagery (CGI) studio but lacked extensive product offerings and distribution channels. At the time of the merger agreement, Disney’s traditional hand-drawn animation films were declining in popularity with the introduction of CGI films. Meanwhile, Pixar possessed the creative and technical resources that Disney lacked, but was unable to profit from characters and films after movie ticket and DVD sales, which were typically one-time purchases. Additionally, the production and distribution contract between Pixar and Disney was rapidly approaching its expiration. Instead of renewing the contract, the two companies decided to merge with the intention of capitalizing on ...
Snead, James A., Colin MacCabe, and Cornel West. White Screens, Black Images: Hollywood from the Dark Side. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.
The television's new “golden age” is now upon us. As the internet continues to make filmmaking more accessible to public, Hollywood will continue being one of the biggest and greatest influences on today’s society and politics. It is much easier to create and share your ideas through film than ever before. Independent studios before, greatly expanding the number of debates and arguments people have access to. Never has the power to express yourself and your views through film been so great, and we are better off for it.
Hollywood has for over twenty-eight years created and supplied products associated with movies to all main film studios, leisure and entertainment industries. The most revered clients recognized in the entire world include Disney, Paramount, Colombia, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and Universal among others. For this basis, the greater part of the actors all over the world wants to labor and make a living in Hollywood. The exceptional and distinctive characters have their own customs, beliefs and cultures which aid them to pursue fame and fortune in this Dream Factory. Every talented person desires this American dream. There are numerous prospects that make life better and in Hollywood, t...
Describe some ways in which business values and artistic values in Hollywood contend with one another.
Computer generated imagery has evolved and spread throughout cinematography and the film world like wildfire. Although computer generated imagery offers countless creative opportunities, the art form of special effects makeup should be practiced and preserved, as just that- an art form. Most people have begun to describe special effects makeup as anachronistic. Considering how long special effects makeup has been around, people are convinced that its existence is coming to an end.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Many do not consider where images they see daily come from. A person can see thousands of different designs in their daily lives; these designs vary on where they are placed. A design on a shirt, an image on a billboard, or even the cover of a magazine all share something in common with one another. These items all had once been on the computer screen or on a piece of paper, designed by an artist known as a graphic designer. Graphic design is a steadily growing occupation in this day as the media has a need for original and creative designs on things like packaging or the covers of magazines. This occupation has grown over the years but still shares the basic components it once started with. Despite these tremendous amounts of growth,
We can see that union protects and serves the musicians and gives them freedom to pursue their own careers in the performing arts. These organizations create stability for the pursuit of full-time jobs in many different areas of the arts, not only in music but also in the world of theatre and visual arts.
There is a financial concept called the Parkinson’s Law which is, the film’s budget will
Maria G Mackavey. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Hollywood: Sep 2006. Vol 9 iss; pg244 6pgs
Bishop, Rod & Case, Dominic & Axarlis, Stella & Plante, Johanna & Allsop, Derek 2000, Innovation in the Australian Film Industry, Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Canberra.