VFX Lunches in the Park

Just a reminder that we will be continuing our lunch time meet-ups in St. Anne's Churchyard. The forecast for tomorrow says chance of rain. If it does rain we will move into the Plaza Food Court Area on Oxford St.  We will make the call 30 mins before hand if it looks like rain and I will tweet the move to the Plaza. Fingers crossed for the to sun win out. Our original initiator of the meetings is away, so instead of a green flag please look for someone in a green jumper and a big smile!Come on out and meet up to discuss the latest industry news and meet other BECTU members. We will also have more flyers if you'd like more to distribute or haven't gotten a chance to see one yet.

1:00-2:00pm Thursday at

The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne’s Church Courtyard, Wardour Street)

 Hope to see you there!

Thursday Lunchtime VFX Meetup!

1:00-2:00 Thursday at The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street, nr. Shaftesbury Ave.)

No doubt about it, the weather sucked last Thursday. Right around 1:00pm, the heavens opened and the downpour came to dampen our lunchtime meetup. D'oh! We had leaflets and everything!But all was not lost. One of our gang had the brilliant idea of moving at the last minute to The Plaza on Oxford Street and a quick Tweet later, the now legendary Thursday Lunchtime VFX Meetup went ahead unabated in new and dry surroundings!Some regulars were there and some new people came by to pick up a leaflet or two (hundred) and it all was quite nice having real chairs to sit on and everything. We've decided from now on that if the weather sucks, we move to The Plaza foodcourt. Always good to have a meetup-backup plan!So this week the weather is looking better and the Thursday Lunchtime Meetup is on track for another good turnout. This is the place for all you VFX BECTU members and people who work in visual effects to get together and talk about the industry and what difference you think a union might make. Will you join us?What the hell? Come by and check out what all the fuss is about! Grab something to eat and and pop 'round to meet up with fellow VFX people at... 

1:00-2:00pm Thursday at

The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street)

Look for the green flag!

We are going to be here this Thursday and every Thursday to help connect and motivate people who work in London visual effects! 

See you there! Bring along a friend! Make new friends! Take away some leaflets!

This Thursday... Leaflets!

Thanks to everyone who came last week to the Thursday VFX lunchtime meet up!Wow - This is really taking off! There were some terrific regulars who showed up and a whole lot of new faces too! Great to meet new vfx people who care about the issues that we all think are important to the visual effects industry here in London and all over the world.Unpaid overtime is still the number one talking point for everybody at the meetup, so this Thursday, be sure to show up because we'll be passing out some leaflets about this big issue. Everybody who comes along for the Thursday lunchtime meetup can take away a stack of these leaflets to pass out to friends and colleagues. And THAT my friend, is what's called action!So why not grab some grub and shoot the breeze this Thursday with some other vfx people who want to change things for the better!Thursday 1:00-2:00pmSt. Anne's ChurchyardWardour Street (nr. Shaftesbury Avenue)Look for the green flag!Slowly but surely, visual effects people here in London are beginning to realise that this ain't gonna happen all by itself. We ALL need to get involved and make a difference or we will never move forward.Spread the word... bring a friend...See you there!Follow us on Twitter @VFXUnionUK

Soho VFX lunchtime meetup

Something’s been happening in Soho for the last month or so. Every Thursday from 1:00-2:00 we gather in the courtyard of St. Anne’s Church (a.k.a. “Jurassic Church” on Wardour Street nr. Shaftesbury Avenue) for an informal vfx lunchtime meetup.

Visual effects BECTU members and people who just work in visual effect are meeting up every Thursday to talk about the union and issues that are interesting to people who work in the visual effects industry here in London.

It started small with just four of us about a month ago. There’s dozens of us now and more people join us every week. Come along and help us keep the momentum going!

Let’s face it… because we are organising quietly at the moment, the visual effects union movement looks (to non-members) like it has stalled out. Everybody is waiting around for something to happen and it ain’t happening. The problem is that the visual effects union is like a secret society that’s so secret, even the members don’t know who’s in it or what’s going on. This is a chance to change that from the ground up by connecting with like minded people and creating a grassroots movement ourselves. 

It’s already happening. Please come and join us every Thursday from 1:00-2:00. Bring a sandwich or some sushi and just have a chat. All are welcome.

Look for the green flag. 

Unbelievable, unwatchable and unavoidable?

A recent article on cracked.com titled: 6 Reasons Modern Movie CGI Looks Surprisingly Crappy has been making the rounds on social media recently. I've seen people sharing it with myself and other visual effects artists and including comments along the lines of "told you so" and "sort it out!".As a visual effects artist, I can't help but feel like they're calling us the bad guys, but is that really true?In a response to the latest VFX Blockbuster behemoth Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the article claims that a significant and growing percentage of the public is weary of the big visual effects driven films today. The article goes on to list reasons like the tendency for blockbusters to ignore the laws of physics in big action sequences (unbelievable), ubiquitous and over the top orange and teal grading palette (unwatchable) and a general criticism for the overuse of CG for absolutely everything, everywhere (unavoidable).The author occasionally channels Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park when he said: "(they) were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."To be fair, I agree with a lot of the sentiment of the article. Even as a film visual effects artist for whom it is in my best interest to see more visual effects in movies, as a film lover I'm almost always in the "less is more" camp when it comes to the tricks of my trade.The bottom line: We shouldn't blame the visual effects artists for the excesses of the studios. The studios who make these crazy visual effects bloated blockbusters are first and foremost in it to make money (art comes a little further down the list for them) and they have observed that more often than not, lots of visual effects = lots of money at the box office. It makes sense that they're going to shoehorn in more and more visual effects chasing that lovely filthy lucre.As long as the visual effects heavy blockbusters keep bringing in the lions share of the unprecedented billions at the box office during this "golden age" of studio profits, they are not just going to stay the course, they are going to turn it up to Eleven.