Raging at Hollywood right now. I didn't watch the Oscars, but learned last night that there's some outrage going around about it.
The VFX industry has been in a deepening crisis for several years already. They've been hit bad by outsourcing and abusive expectations, and it's incredibly specialized work. I can tell you first-hand that the knowledge and dedication of the artists who work on these things is extraordinary. I've read dozens of interviews with artists behind major special effects films, and I have yet to see a single one who hasn't traveled the world studying at various art schools or who can't recite the name of every bone & muscle group in the body, followed by mathematical formulas about the penetration or refraction of light through various surfaces. It's an industry with no shortage of people as dedicated to their work as Truean.
Yet Rhythm & Hues, the studio behind this year's Oscar award for VFX, just filed for bankruptcy after pushing out a film that grossed $583 million. They've had to lay off about 250 employees.
So laid off employees organize a protest outside the Oscars. They're not protesting Rhythm and Hues. Everything I've seen indicates that they've always been one of the best managed studios, and did everything it could for its employees. They're there to protest the way the industry as a whole treats VFX studios.
And then this happens.The Oscars respond by cutting out a huge chunk of the intro to the VFX nominations, basically the whole part that explains how important they are, and then cuts off the acceptance speech just as he begins to say something about this situation. Supposedly it's because he took too long, but the timing is just too convenient, especially following the previous insult. To top things off, I've seen multiple comments that any recording of this clip is being reportedly removed from Youtube.