2013-02-27, 週三 14:18
上層分類: 動畫製作
分類: 合成與特效
作者 Joe Chiang 江効儒

美國「視覺特效產業」的窘境

vfx

前言:

這次奧斯卡頒獎典禮，有超過 400 位的視覺特效從業人員，在外頭示威抗議。他們這樣作，是為了讓大家意識到才剛得獎的 R&H 公司，宣告破產後，浮上檯面的種種產業問題。

(原文作者) PixelMagic 說:

我相信許多人對這個事件不太了解，一下提供一些我個人的看法:

就算一部電影在全球賣座幾億美金，替它製作特效的特效公司還是很難從中賺到錢。特效公司一年能賺到 5% 的利潤，算是好的。大部份時間，都處於打平或虧損的狀態。這個情形，對在特效公司上班的人很不利。會有這種問題，電影公司、特效公司，雙方都要負責。

1. 最顯著的原因是: 別的國家有提供稅金上的補貼，讓我們 (美國) 無法跟其它國家公平競爭。如果一間加州 (美國) 的特效公司用某某價錢標下一個案子，一間溫哥華 (加拿大) 的特效公司也可以用一樣的價錢競標，還送 30-35% 的稅金減免。這個錢，特效公司還拿不到，是電影公司拿。電影公司都那麼有錢了，它 30% 的特效費，納稅人還會自動幫它付。加州的特效公司對這種情形完全沒輒，公平競爭跟本是妄想。

2. 低階工作，像去背、修圖之類的，會被電影公司外包到中國和印度，因為那裡的工資太便宜了。

3. 電影公司會對特效公司施壓，叫他們用更低價，做更多事。還有，還會逼特效公司要在有補貼政策的海外地點開分公司，讓電影公司享受稅金減免。如果特效公司不願開分公司，或沒錢開，電影公司就不會把案子發給他們。更扯的是，電影公司還指望特效公司要吸收所有海外開設的費用，同時還敢要求特效公司降低勞工成本。

4. 除了電影公司會要求用最少的錢，做最多的事外，它們還要壓縮製作時間。以前一部電影特效要花一年的時間才能做完，現在，六個月、或更短的時間內就要完成。因此....

5. 特效公司的員工都必須瘋狂加班。一天10-12 個小時很正常。尖峰時刻，16 個小時。在公司過夜，見怪不怪。這種不人道的工作時數，可以持續 3-6 個月，甚至一週 7 天。更誇張的是，很多特效公司不會付加班費。但，這也是因為電影公司也不願付加班費，就算完工期限被壓縮了，還是不付。

6. 所有電影圈的相關行業，除了視覺特效外，都有工會保護。這樣，才能避免不公平的事情發生。視覺特效從業人員除了工時長外，福利也差，因為他們不是正職員工，他們只是臨時約聘工人，只能一家一家公司跳，一個一個案子換。

7. 員工怕特效公司，他們敢反抗就會被解僱，因為，還有一堆無知的熱血青年，巴不得要做好萊塢的案子。少了工會，這些員工就沒有發聲的管道。

8. 特效公司也怕電影公司，因為，電影公司 (客戶) 就那幾家，派拉蒙、環球、福斯、索尼、華納。要是特效公司敢反抗，馬上就變黑名單，準備關門大吉了。同理可證，特效公司員工要是敢抱怨，也會變黑名單，不會再被聘用。

這只是幾個問題，但我認為最重要的是，視覺特效從業人員的待遇像垃圾，這些人熱愛他們所做的，也因此被佔了便宜。該是他們為了公平待遇站出來的時刻了!

原文:

More than 400 VFX artists protest at the Oscars, to highlight the growing problems in the VFX industry after Oscar winning studio, Rhythm & Hues (Life of Pi) recently had to file for bankruptcy

Since some people here don't fully understand the situation, I will try to provide some insight.

VFX studios are having a very difficult time making profit on movies they work on, even if that movies goes on to make millions or over a billion dollars. VFX studios make 5% profit on a GOOD year, but most of the time breaking even or even losing money on a job. This in turn has a very negative effect on vfx workers working at those companies. The entire fault does not lie with movie studios or vfx studios, but both contribute to the bad state of affairs in different ways.

1. The most noticable, is that other countries offer tax subsides that do not allow even competition. If a VFX studio in California bids on work for a set price, then a VFX studio in Vancouver can bid that very same price AND offer a 30-35% (not sure of exact figures) tax rebate on that work, but the VFX studio doesn't get that money, the movie studio does. So they (the movie studio) automatically get 30% of their VFX paid for by tax payers instead of out of their already wealthy pockets. The California VFX studio therefore cannot compete with this situation, so fair competition is impossible.

2. Low rung jobs such as roto/paint fixes are being outsourced to China and India by movie studios because they can get the work done far cheaper there.

3. Movie studios put vast pressure on VFX houses to lower costs AND do more work at those costs. They also put huge pressure on VFX studios to open offices in subsidized locales so they (the movie studio) can take advantage of tax breaks. Most VFX studios who refuse or can't afford to offer a subsidized location don't get the work and go out of business. However, movie studios expect the VFX studio to take care of all the costs of moving to the new country themselves. And still have the nerve to ask for cheaper labor.

4. In addition to movie studios asking for more and cheaper work, they want it done in less time. VFX on a movie used to be 1 year long, and now they are trying to take the process down to 6 months or less. Because of this...

5. VFX studios often have their staff put in TONS of overtime. 10-12 hour days are a norm, and during crunch time 16 hour days, heck, spending the night at the studio, is not unheard of and in fact common. These horrendous hours can last 3-6 months, 7 days a week. On top of this, several VFX companies are not paying for that overtime, because movie studios refuse to pay for the extra hours (remember they are putting on the pressure for cheaper), even though they have insane deadlines for VFX delivery.

6. Every other movie trade except VFX has a union to prevent such gross injustices. VFX artists don't have a stable 9-5 full time job. They are just temp contract workers, jumping company to company, project to project. As such, they do not have portable benefits, as other unionized trades in filmmaking do.

7. Artists are too afraid to speak up against these injustices because they'll just kick you out the door for causing too much trouble, because there are 100 dumb young kids who would jump at the chance to work on a Hollywood movie for peanuts. Without a union, they don't have much leverage.

8. VFX studios are too chicken to take a stand against the movie studios, because really, they only have about 5-6 clients such as Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony, etc. If a VFX studio stood up to one of these companies about their unfair practices, they'd get black listed as trouble makers and never asked to work again, thus driving them out of business. Likewise, if a VFX worker complains to a supervisor about unfair hours and no overtime pay, he is similarly black listed to not be hired again on the next project.

This is just a handful of problems, but I feel the major ones. VFX artists in Hollywood are treated like shit. VFX artists have a huge passion and love of their skill and trade, and because of it are taken advantage of. It's time for them to stand up and just be treated like decent hard working human beings.

原文連結: reddit 400 vfx artists protest at oscars