Scott Ross further discusses the reasons behind the unstable nature of the VFX industry. More on the Pro Video Coalition’s website. Also of note, Rhythm & Hues has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as reported by Variety and VFX Soldier.
Why is the VFX business failing?
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There has to be some big changes coming to the VFX industry. R&H provided the FX for Ang Lee’s Life of Pi which is picking up awards everywhere for its use of CG and wouldn’t have been possible without VFX. That’s not to mention all the summer action movies that bring massive profits to the film studios. It’s sad to see this happen.
Oh, there will be soon even more such news soon.
Since years this scenario is known to most artists and vfx managers, so there is no surprise.
This is a natural cycle, just like in 1960s: remember the times of “Ben Hur”-like and movies with 100.000 background actors … thousands of such expensive movies were produced in that period.
Suddenly they vanished. Never came back.
Nobody wanted to pay or to watch blockbusters anymore.
Hundreds of studios went bankrupt.
It took 10-20 years, till 1980 or later till the next megalomania wave came back (i think it was even StarWars which activated the vfx genre).
You have today only blockbusters, the cheapest cost not less then $100 mil. This is the same scenario like in the past, it breaks back into pieces.
I wrote here about it a year or two ago, i think i even wrote DD will be the first one.
In 70th you have had a small but interesting movies, dramas, Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson, Conan (with 50 actors and staff), FlashGordon (with virtually no effects) etc, you know…. i am wondering how the movie world in 2020 will look like and which genre will replace this sick blockbuster gorillas..
People are tired of explosions, destructions and various super monsters.
I think needs a break, now is time to go back to art of classic cinema.
I don’t know, you might be tired of explosions, but if you look at box office receipts, the general public does not seem to be tired of them yet.
It’s actually quite different from the studio system breaking down in the seventies. That was a bunch of very outdated and expensive backlot movies made under a stale system being overrun at the box-office by more youth-oriented independent films (like Easy Rider). It happened because the studio moguls that had lost touch with a new generation.
Now it’s a different set of rules where the outcome is very uncertain. The movies aren’t failing at the box office, most are earning bucketloads of money. The problem is constant underbidding from VFX vendors on work that is very tough to estimate in advance. I’m very curious to see how this will be solved (if at all), it seems what is needed is something radical in the bidding and payment process.
I think its because all not very cheap thing in VFX and GFX industries…?? isnt ?…