VFX Artists Told About Marvel’s Abuse and Mistreatment of Them

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VFX artists are right now in a terrible situation with Marvel Studios. The VFX members who work at Marvel Films told that Marvel is hiring multiple VFX studios at a time, all over the world. So, not only is underbidding happening because of domestic competition in the VFX market.

Speaking to Gizmodo, VFX artists told that Marvel Studios first send a dossier of shots that need VFX work. At that time, the Studio will give a shot description that simply reads “An alien spaceship appears.” A bidding producer at a studio will review those shot descriptions in order to create an estimate for the bid, but this is more of an art form than a science.

VFX artists have spoken out about Marvel’s mistreatment of them.

“Nobody is holding Marvel accountable. So they don’t care. They’re like, ‘Fuck you guys. We can make as many changes as we want and you just have to deliver it.’” A VFX artist Sam also revealed an incident where an actor was filmed in a practical suit and the studio decided it was the wrong suit. “And you have to replace their entire body and just leave their head in every shot.”

VFX artist David said “It’s a race to the bottom,” he added, “Because when the big [production companies] say they need work done, [the VFX studios] undercut each other so much that by the time they finally get that contract, they’ve bid so low they’re lucky to break even. And so that forces these VFX studios to operate at very low margins.”

During San Diego Comic-Con International 2022, Marvel Studios announced the future projects and the MCU storyline has been titled “The Multiverse Saga.” The announced projects are Secret Invasion, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Echo, Loki Season 2, Blade, Ironheart, Agatha: Coven of Darkness, Captain America: New World Order, Daredevil: Born Again, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, and finally conclude with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

When asking about why nowadays hear about Marvel Studios only. they told Marvel has announced so many projects, the Studios need to hire dozens of studios at a time, all over the world.

“For example, the UK doesn’t have any paid overtime in any industry,” said H, a production coordinator, “and because they don’t have to legally pay anyone overtime when they bid a show that might cost them $15 million to do the work, a UK studio might say, ‘Well, we’ll do it for ten.’ So if they rack up 200 hours of overtime a week in London, it doesn’t affect the bottom line… It’s not costing the studio any money to force you to work through this crunch delivery.”