The Visual Effects Industry implosion and the movement to save it

Over the past few months I have been writing about the visual effects industry, past present...but not the future. Because it's hard to tell what the future will be. Everyday more effects facilities are shutting down or laying off employees in large numbers. If history is any indication, we may see a replay of what happened to the American animation studios in the 50's and 60's. Due to the rising cost of labor during the economic boom times of post war USA, Movie studios were forced to move their cel animation operations overseas where trained labor was significantly cheaper. It never returned. CGI and digital effect technology is no longer exclusive to the US and Canada. Now everyone has the science at their disposal. The question seems to remain..can the industry survive in Western countries that are competing with third world dollars. Will a trade organization that is embraced industry wide save this faltering sector of the entertainment world?

Ask anyone who decides to work in the field of effects and they'll almost always tell you they do it for the love of film and creativity. Very few people enter this field to get rich. But even a modest salary in the United states is significantly higher than in China or India where cost of living and hourly wages are lower. It's simple math. Hollywood is a business and like any other...the steel and textile industries for example...cost to profit considerations are first and foremost. It may be a little naive to think that every country and every effects company will go along with collective bargaining or trade organization structuring. But anything is possible at this point.

A great site for daily developments in this field is vfxsoldier.com. An anonymous visual effects industry journalist who has been following recent trends and developments in this area of entertainment (Most recently alleged layoffs at Sony Imageworks).You can follow his blog below at

www.vfxsoldier.com

also another site that has been posting many personal stories of the impact of these industry wide changes can be found at vfxsoldiarity's Facebook page

link at

https://www.facebook.com/VfxSolidarityIntl



This is an ongoing story not just of this niche section of the entertainment industry but the ongoing narrative of our livelihoods being shipped out overseas. Very soon we may no longer have a creative work force here in the United States. We will just become simply a nation of consumers who no longer create for art or even leisure.

It's something to contemplate on


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtqkJWcdB0&feature=youtu.be