Tolling VFX Shots

I've received a lot of feedback from vfx artists concurring with what is in the article. But that's not surprising, since I think I was only writing about problems the vfx community already knew well. Keep in mind, though, that Variety's print readers are executives, above-the-line pros and agents, people who wouldn't necessarily have any idea about any of this. For them the news isn't "You're putting vfx artists through hell," it's "You're running the risk of missing a release date on a tentpole or of turning a $250 million investment into a $300 million loss because you rushed a movie into release before it was really complete."

So while it would be nice to think that simple humanity would dictate some moderation of these practices, such relief is more likely to be driven by risk-management concerns than human decency. That's why Chrissie England, Tim Sarnoff and John Knoll were careful to talk about the pictures being at risk.

-- David S Cohen in the talkback to a podcast on crunching VFX schedules