latimes.com: They called it the zombie walk.After midnight, when the coffee and Red Bull had worn off, Sari Gennis and her co-workers would take a brisk stroll to make it through their graveyard shift. For four months straight, often seven days a week, a team of visual effects artists worked 12-hour shifts to complete the 3-D conversion of movie blockbuster "Titanic."Gennis said the long hours aggravated a severe arthritis condition. She'd already had both knees replaced, and needed a third surgery, but couldn't afford to take time off for the operation. "If I continue these kind of hours, it could kill me," the visual effects veteran said.
6 comments:
If Hollywood is going to have special effects workers and the these ridiculous new gimmicky things it better be prepared to pay for them. It is ridiculous in this day and age and in this country that there are people who are working that are treated that poorly and are given those terrible of working conditions. There is no reason for people to have to do work in those conditions. And if Hollywood can't pay for workers to be unified then there is no reason that they should be allowed to produce movies with special effects no matter how much money they make off of them.
Amen Zoe! Her "zombie walks" remind me much of the runs around Purnell we take when pulling all nighters. Every hour, when the numbers are the same (1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55) we take a lap around the 3rd floor of Purnell in order to wake ourselves up. It works everytime. I agree that there is absolutely no reason for people who slave so hard over special effects to have to do their work in a bad environment. I can't understand why anyone would treat the people that will most likely make their movie a hit like dirt.
It would seem to me that when the fancy special effects that your movie's success depends on is made by people with special skills, rather than by a 5 year old with a sock puppet, you should strive to keep those specially-skilled people happy so that they keep working on your project.
We need to treat our special effects designers better. I feel that bad conditions come to anyone who is in high demand, although this makes no sense, it has been this way for years. If you need someone a great deal, an employer will make sure that person is working as much as possible, juicing all of there special skills to the greatest possible degree. We are in the age of computers, and graphic/ visual designers are in the need! I think that because of this, this is not reason to treat your workers like cattle. I think it would be interesting to see if visual effects artists can rally together and use their special skills as power to wager a protest over get more humane working environments.
I wonder how much these people are coerced into working insane overtime; I'm sure that there are many people lined up to take that job if they turn it down. That said, California's labor laws are in pretty forgiving to employees, which is why it is imperative that the studios resolve the independent contractor conundrum, that is to say employing people via 1099 rather than as legitimate employees. This means that the artists invoice the studio for a flat amount without tax deductions or deductions for Social Security and health insurance. If the state does a better job of enforcing this, a lot of the call for unionization will probably be moot.
I feel that this kind of treatment is something that we as students are learning to avoid. We have been made aware that people will sometimes ask too much of you and it will wear you thin. That being said, there are many ways to get stuck in the trap of not identifying the manner of how you are being treated because you were caught up and it took a much needed operation to open your eyes. There are times where I witness people being taken advantage of, or I am taken advantage of and it just happens that you are overworked. Hopefully, not getting stuck is something to aim for but it is important that artists especially artists like these special effects artists get some kind of legal protection. Especially when they need the legal protection to avoid permanent physical damage.
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