From the world of Pandora in"Avatar: The Way of the Water" to the hyper-realistic jets in"Top Gun: Maverick" and the exoplanetary weather of"The Mandalorian," chances are your favorite films and TV series owe a lot to visual effects artists.
Scripps News previously reported on the issues facing the VFX industry, including long hours, low pay, and outsourcing jobs to companies outside of the U.S. "We would love to have as many VFX workers in the same union that already represents film and TV folk, right? The more of us there are, kind of the more ability we have to negotiate better contracts which improve, you know, entertainment workers’ lives," said Jonas Loeb.This is actually the second major unionization effort started by visual effects workers.
As Brian Westenhoffer accepted the 2013 Academy Award for visual effects in"Life of Pi," his acceptance speech was cut short after he spoke out about the financial struggles in VFX work.