VFX Trouble

Did you watch the Oscars? Did you see Life of Pi win for cinematography and visual effects? The Westerhoffer acceptance speech is cut short just as he begins to explain how much trouble his business, and his industry, are in. I had no idea about this trouble until I encountered this article yesterday - apparently loads of VFX houses are going out of business. This sums up the issue:

Simply put, governments can offer a film tax incentives to produce work in their country, which lowers the sticker price of VFX work made in that country. To compete and stay afloat, companies that don't benefit from government subsidies have to continually slash their costs. And unlike many other sub-industries within film, like editing, there's no formal visual effects union to, as one artist wrote, "prevent VFX houses from underbidding each other to death."

While I often bemoan the over reliance of CGI these days I can't help but look at something like Before VFX to remember the magic that these production houses are bringing to the table. All and all, an interesting subject to keep an eye on.