VFX's Annual General Meeting

The Most Important VFX Meeting of the Year!

• It's your time to decide. Come to our Annual General Meeting next Wednesday and hear about what BREXIT could mean for VFX.
• Vote and decide on next year's important issues and choose who represents you as committee members.
• Most importantly help lead the discussion and become one of the committee members yourself!

All VFX employees welcome! All you have to do is sign-up HERE

To nominate yourself or another union member for the committee please email all nominations to Paul Evans <pevans@bectu.org.uk> by 5pm on June 19. All positions open for nominations and vote including: Branch Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Communications or just general committee member.

VFX News

Visual Effects News and Stories from Around the Web

16 Directors Redefining the 21st Century Blockbuster

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Joe and Anthony Russo, JJ Abrams, Jennifer Lee. Jon Favreau, Zack Snyder, David Yates, Matt Reeves, James Gunn, Gareth Edwards, Colin Trevorrow, Patty Jenkins, Joss Whedon, Matthew Vaughn

FXGuide fxpodcast #303: UK Union update

We discuss the latest info about UK visual effects artists who are seeking union representation. Joe Pavlo (artist) and Paul Evans (BECTU) are our guests. Unpaid overtime, fear, social media, how to organize, collusion, opting out of overtime... just a few of the things Joe and Paul discuss with our Jeff Heusser

Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts

With 1963 primitive graphics technology, How was this skeleton animations fights achieved?

First Look At Spiderman Concept Art From Captain America: Civil War 

Check out a batch of concept art for Spider-Man from the Captain America: Civil War Art of the Movie book, which is now available.

Eye candy trumps plot in ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’

A trippy showcase for the latest visual effects wizardry, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” takes us on another adventure that is long on twee but short on story.

Judge Certifies Class in Animators' Anti-Poaching Scheme Lawsuit

VFX workers claim Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and others conspired to keep wages low by promising not to poach one another's employees.

'X-Men: Apocalypse': Solid premise can't uphold the franchise's ponderous weight

http://www.examiner.com/review/x-men-apocalypse-solid-premise-can-t-uphold-the-franchise-s-ponderous-weight

‘Warcraft’ Featurette Highlights The Technology Called 'Haircraft'

A featurette was released to showcase how much time and effort went into the making of this film specifically on the visual effects.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ Clip Features Absolutely Zero Turtles

Humans: the unsung heroes of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.

Here's how the big battle from last night’s 'Game of Thrones' looks without visual effects

HBO released a visual effects breakdown of the big cave battle beyond the wall as part of its "Anatomy of a Scene" series. The seven-minute video reveals how the climactic battle, and its haunting final moment with Hodor, came to life. 

Come along to our weekly Thursday VFX Lunchmeet

Every Thursday from 1-2pm at the Jurassic Church (St. Anne's, Wardour Street - nr. Shatesbury Avenue) Grab a sandwich or some sushi, sit on the grass, soak up a little sunshine and chat about what's happening in the world of London VFX - look for the green flag!

1:00-2:00pm every Thursday

The Jurassic Church

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

UK VFX Union featured on fxguide podcast!

Paul Evans, the BECTU national official for the vfx branch and Joe Pavlo, the vfx branch chair had a chat with Jeff Heuser from the fxguide podcast to talk about their work in the UK to establish a Visual Effects Union. A lot of ground was covered from the explosive growth of the vfx union in the UK over the last year, to some of the issues facing people working in the visual effects industry and a look ahead at the future of the union in the visual effects industry.listen to the episode here:

fxpodcast #303: UK Union update

We discuss the latest info about UK visual effects artists who are seeking union representation. Joe Pavlo (artist) and Paul Evans (BECTU) are our guests. Unpaid overtime, fear, social media, how to organize, collusion, opting out of overtime... just a few of the things Joe and Paul discuss with our Jeff Heusser

also available to download in iTunes

Inspired? Why not come along to the Thursday VFX LunchMeet every week from 1-2pm in the courtyard at St. Anne's Church, Wardour Street (nr. Shaftesbury Avenue) and find our more about the vfx union - or just cut to the chase and join the union right now!

VFX Branch wins award!

At the BECTU National Conference over the weekend, the Visual Effects Branch was honoured with the Roger Bolton Memorial Award. It's basically the unions "branch of the year" award and it was presented to members of the committee at the conference in recognition of our record breaking recruitment over the last year and our recognition campaigns at MPC and Framestore!Come along to our Thursday VFX Lunchmeet today from 1-2pm at Jurassic Church (St. Anne's, Wardour Street - nr. Shatesbury Avenue) so we can give each other high fives and pats on the back! Grab a sandwich or some sushi, sit on the grass, soak up a little sunshine and chat about what's happening in the world of London VFX!

1:00-2:00pm Thursday

The Jurassic Church

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

Thursday VFX Lunchmeet back at the Jurassic Church today!

With London weather, you've gotta be prepared to grab some sunshine at a moments notice! Spring seems to be finally here and the weather is gorgeous, so we're moving the Thursday Lunchmeet back to the courtyard at St. Anne's Church on Wardour Street (a.k.a. The Jurassic Church)!

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

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

 Grab a sandwich or some sushi, sit on the grass, soak up a little sunshine and chat about what's happening in the world of London VFX! Come along and tell us what you think about your experiences with the HourlyRateCalculator! It's going to be a beautiful day, and I'm promised the T-Rex will behave itself and stay in the enclosure the entire time. 

1:00-2:00pm Thursday at

The Jurassic Church

(St. Anne's, Wardour Street)

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! The VFX Union can only work for you when you get involved!

Look for the green flag!

Large BECTU survey points to serious concerns from MPC's visual effects workers

full article on BECTU's website here

Bare necessities missing for VFX workers at MPC

“Moving Picture Company appears to encapsulate everything that is wrong with employment in UK VFX in microcosm” says BECTU, the media and entertainment union.In a large-scale survey of people who have worked at London's Moving Picture Company (MPC), conducted in the week leading up to the UK premiere ofJungle Book, BECTU has found a workforce, both past and present, that has serious concerns about the company's coercive working culture, with widespread complaints from world-class VFX artists about pressures to work excessive unpaid overtime.In late 2015, BECTU started actively recruiting at MPC, which provided VFX services on Jungle Book.  In campaigning for union recognition, members were taken aback by management's hostility to this move; recruitment literature was removed and discussion about the union was banned in staff forums. Thankfully, part of the company's attempts to keep the union out resulted in small improvements to management attitudes towards their staff, but - as BECTU's survey shows - significant concerns remain.In particular, members were conscious of unfair pressure resulting from the company's culture of short-term contracts. MPC has an employee-profile that dramatically contradicts UK Screen's claims that "91% of the UK VFX workforce have a permanent contract."

Short term contracts increase workplace pressures

Instead, MPC appears to have an overwhelming preference for short-term contracts, with a surprising number of individual respondents (in free-text comments) making a direct link between this and the climate of pressure from managers, particularly on unpaid overtime.Significant numbers of staff were prepared to say that:

• MPC is not interested in a fair dialogue with independently-minded employees
• they have little faith in the 'Crew Forum' as a means of resolving problems fairly (current employees were significantly sceptical)
• work-life balance for VFX artists at MPC is often very bad.

There were widespread fears around:

• refusing to work unpaid overtime
• raising legitimate grievances with management
• management finding out about individuals' BECTU membership.

There was a significant number of respondents who complained of "unwelcome pressure" or feeling harassed by colleagues / management, and an even larger number of respondents who said that they knew of colleagues who had experienced such pressure. A very clear majority of the respondents who knew about unwelcome pressure believed that reporting such behaviour would be frowned upon (in many cases because management were the ones behaving badly).Paul Evans, BECTU national official, supporting VFX workers said:"These results are very disturbing and we hope that MPC will agree to work with us on a full independent survey on this subject so that it can be dealt with properly. The VFX sector is now a central part of the UK film industry. It is astonishing that most survey respondents were frightened that MPC would find out that they are members of a trade union, and that there was a widespread fear of raising concerns, reporting unwelcome pressure and asking for a responsive management."MPC appears to encapsulate everything that is wrong with employment in UK VFX in microcosm – particularly the way the business is structured to pressure people into working long hours without being paid for overtime. In a few clear cases, respondents reported direct bullying and intimidation from managers."If the UK VFX industry is to retain the talent that it needs to survive and grow, it needs to be a race to the top, and not to the bottom. We need London to lose its reputation for excessive unpaid overtime, and this forms part of BECTU’s wider campaign to ensure that everyone in the film industry is paid for all of the hours that they work." BECTU is the media and entertainment union for the UKread the full article on BECTU's website here 

This Thursday and every Thursday, union members and other vfx people get together at our weekly lunch meet where we chat about things that are important to people in the vfx industry.

We will be meeting this Thursday April 14th  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag!

JOIN THE DISCUSSION! Sick Pay: Part 2

How does your sick pay stack-up?

On our previous blog post we talked about sick pay, but do you ever wonder how your sick pay might stack up comparably? How it might stack up to other unionized sick pay?The VFX BECTU Union Branch welcomes any company's decision to give employees entitlement to some sick pay and it’s great to see employees speaking up and having serious dialogue about sick pay with some employers, but in reality offering 0.5 days per completed month, up to a maximum of 5.5 days within the first year of employment is peanuts in comparison to other employers in the media and entertainment industries. The fact that so many employees in VFX are on short-term contracts means that even this paltry offer rarely ever matures into anything that would cover more than a couple of days paid sickness leave. Especially when we as workers can feel guilty about using those days during crunch and having our colleagues pick-up the slack when we’re all a team and under the gun together. Not to mention that it seems more and more these days we are in shorter deadlines and crunchtime with more work to do than ever. Those sick days are of course used or lost and do not accumulate and when you change jobs, you must reenter another qualifying period even if you are returning to a company whom you’ve been employed with before. Although something is better than nothing, not every visual effects company has had this policy. In fact, while not London based, Rhythm and Hues actually offered cumulative employment periods. That mean that returning contract employees didn’t have to re-enter a qualifying period if rehired. Their previous time employed, even with breaks, was counted overall for qualifying for extra holidays, sick days and medical.We are aware that the VFX companies have a joint HR working group that is hosted by UK Screen and establishing something like this as a cross-sector arrangement would be a welcome development for the companies to offer fairly standard sickness terms to their owns staff and could help freelancers carry days with them to new companies. We also think that a cross sector arrangement might be beneficial helping visual effects companies come up to par with similar employers in the media and entertainment industries.BECTU has seen comparative surveys of London-based media companies holiday offerings and the BBC turns out to have the lowest sick-pay provision - and even they pay up to four weeks sick pay for each illness, and up to 13 weeks for all absences to all staff who have worked less than two years in the company (the entitlement doubles after two years). There is no qualifying period on this.If anything, because so many staff are on short-term contracts, we would expect an employer like this to offer much more generous terms. In the West End Theatres, while there are qualifying periods for earning more than Statutory Sick Pay, the industry has recognised that short-term contracts are a problem and the employers who are members of the Society of West End Theatres often use 'continuous employment in The West End' rather than continuous employment with individual employers as the qualifying measure for terms and conditions that vary based on length of service. This makes sense to us on at the VFX BECTU Branch, after all, many times it’s not the employees or the company’s fault when there are gaps in projects. We fully understand that things get pushed, deadlines change, and sequences get cut on the editing room floor. However, we must admit that this is felt most by those who have contributed so much to the success of countless Hollywood Blockbuster that make millions who inturn then must deal with uncertainty and gaps in employment. While the gaps may be unavoidable, surely starting over and over at the same companies and reentering qualifying periods is something we can change.  As shown above this would be completely achievable and is already done by the West End Theatres and indeed was even implemented by another visual effects company. This small change could make a world of difference for visual effects employees. It could even be broadened into a shared pension scheme, so workers don’t have to continuously roll individual pensions from one company to the next as they switch jobs and instead work through a “continuous employment in London Visual Effects” as the qualifying measure for terms and conditions that vary based on the length of service.

This Thursday and every Thursday, union members and other vfx people get together at our weekly lunch meet where we chat about things that are important to people in the vfx industry.

We will be meeting this Thursday March 24  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag

An open letter to all staff at MPC

Dear MPC Employee,We are sure that you've heard rumblings about a bid by BECTU to achieve Trade Union Recognition at MPC. We thought that it was time for the union to write to you directly - addressing some of the concerns that have been raised with us over recent weeks.We initially asked for union recognition in the Compositing and Roto-Prep departments of MPC because most of the staff in those departments asked us to do so.Most of the staff in those departments (65% on the day that we lodged our request) were already BECTU members. Your colleagues did this because they want a voice in the industry that they work in. So many of you are on short-term contracts, and because of this, our members told us that they were frightened to raise their concerns because they feared being labelled as a trouble-maker.We understand that, and we will not be disclosing the names of our individual members to employers.Having a formal role for BECTU at MPC would end that worry anyway, and that's why your colleagues requested it. They have told us that they don't like the assumption that they will work long, arbitrary hours of overtime. They don't like getting emails - at 9pm - berating them for not being at their desks.They don't like the culture of short-term contracts and short notice periods. They don't like the lack of structure in their careers with the company. In other sectors of the film industry, there are training paths and established career structures, and our members have a perception that their employers don't care about that.Since we lodged our first 'recognition' letter, our membership at MPC has grown considerably. Our total London VFX membership is four times bigger than it was in Summer 2015, and we are now thinking of broadening our campaign to other departments. But before we can do this, we need you to join the union.We would like to deal with one important issue that has been raised by MPC Staff.Every single bit of union activity will be 100% directed by BECTU members. Our work will not be driven by BECTU Officials or the wider union. We are a very democratic union.For a long time, BECTU has been trying to have a serious conversation with VFX employers about the long-hours situation. We have found it almost impossible to get the employers to engage with us properly, and because of this, BECTU's members asked us to mount a 'Paid Overtime' campaign.

We have to run campaigns like that when we can't have a serious dialogue with employers. We would much rather sit down and negotiate ways that long hours can be limited and planned-for.To be clear, we have no intention of asking for, or agreeing to, anything that will damage basic rates of pay. Other VFX employers manage this situation in better ways and we want serious conversations with MPC about how we can do this here. Paid overtime is only the solution if employers won't be sensible and negotiate properly on this issue. Just to underline...

• 100% of our policy positions with MPC will be decided, democratically, by BECTU members working for the company
•  100% of our negotiations will be directed by BECTU members working for the company

We will not argue for anything without agreeing it with our members first. Our members love their work and they want their company to succeed. We are not planning to do anything that will hurt MPC. We are attempting to make MPC do something that it plainly doesn't want to do: Negotiate with its staff about the working conditions that they are employed under.Our members have reported that, since union activity started, that some working conditions have improved slightly, and one or two perks have started appearing in your inboxes. The 9pm emails have stopped.... for now.We don't want to lose these gainsWe hope that you will consider joining BECTU. We enclose a membership form that offers a discounted joining rate if we get your form back (in the enclosed FREEPOST envelope) before February 21st 2016.In the meantime, please keep an eye on http://vfxforum.org - the VFX Union website - you will find details of our regular lunchtime meetups, and hear what other London VFX workers have to say about their working conditions.We think that you deserve a voice.With best wishesBECTU London VFX BranchDownload PDF here: An open letter to all staff at MPC

 Want to find out more? Come to our Thursday VFX LunchMeet every week at Kingley Court, Carnaby Street from 1:00-2:00 (look for the Green Flag!) 

JOIN THE DISCUSSION!

What if I don't work much VFX overtime?

Not everyone has the same issues or problems while working in visual effects. There has been a lot of discussion on the topic of overtime, but what if you don't work a lot of overtime? What can the union do for you, you might ask. While we have answered this topic on our FAQ page, there are still many things that union can do for you.

• When you join, you get access to lawyers and the experience of BECTU. They can help answer contract questions and generally advise you in all areas of UK working laws and employee rights.
• If you have issues at work, BECTU can come and help represent you with your employer as your advocate.
• You'll also be part of a growing network of UK colleagues who come together to discuss issues and talk about related VFX topics.
• The union could negotiate to ensure our members receive credits on films, as other unions have organized for their members.
• Furthermore there are a lot other benefits that collective bargaining can achieve beyond OT issues including better sick/holiday/flex-time benefits and redundancy packages in case of layoffs or better contractual notice (a topic we have recently posted about.) and lots of other changes that can improve your work conditions and strengthen the industry as a whole.
• There are even some great discounts and offers that you as a member receive, including an Apple Store discount. See BECTU's website for details.

This is still something you can contribute on. Please come to our weekly lunch and discuss with your vfx colleagues what you'd like to see come out of an agreement between workers and visual effects companies. You are the union - get involved! Also, please Take our latest poll on contracts!

LOCATION CHANGE:

We will be meeting this Thursday 11 February  1:00 – 2:00 pm  @ Kingley Ct, Carnaby St. 

Look for the green flag

What Kind of Contract Do You Have?

From our FAQ Page:

What if I don't work much VFX overtime?

Then you’re very lucky! However, remember that this is issue is not just about you – it’s about your friends and colleagues too.How many of them have you seen regularly working late without pay? How often do you see them queueing up for the company dinner in your office each evening, especially around a deadline? Do you feel comfortable about that? Try asking some of them about the comments from the MPC Variety article or the VFX overtime survey – how many of them are genuinely happy about working conditions in the VFX industry right now?You don’t need to be working excessive VFX overtime yourself to agree with us that the industry needs to change.

See also:

• http://effectscorner.blogspot.ca/2015/03/visual-effects-and-overtime.html
• http://variety.com/2014/film/news/moving-picture-co-finds-valuing-artists-is-the-best-effect-1201346561/

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