"Why Do Practical Effects Get Replaced With CGI?" - An Appeal From The Practical VFX Industry

If you haven't heard of Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI), you ought to get educated - An offshoot of Stan Winston Studios that was born in 1989, the studio has specialized in delivering the highest quality practical effects to at least a few dozen movies you've probably watched, including this year's Godzilla, Xmen - First Class, the Aliens Franchise and many more over the years.

Celebrating their 25th year in business, they've created a new video to explain some of the challenges that practical effects studios are facing in this day and age, when producers and studio execs seek to up the visual ante by over relying on CGI. The most famous example of this is probably 2011's The Thing prequel, which was supposed to be entirely shot with practical effects as a throwback to John Carpenter's original 1982 feature. In a move that soured many fans, studio execs opted to apply a CGI treatment towards the end of production, overriding even the directors wishes.

In the case of that movie, what made the original The Thing so frightening was the fact that the practical effects were so grounded, and 'real' that it instilled a deeper fear in audiences than what a computer could accomplish. That choice had quite the opposite effect, drawing audiences out of the movie when the afflicted researchers turned into rubbery, overly motion blurred CGI monsters that had a loose grounding in that reality. As one artist we heard from put it best, the best VFX is a balanced marriage of practical and CGI - There's a reason movies like Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers still look so good today. Think about it.

The founders of ADI offer a compelling case as to how things have gone a little too slanted in the favor of CGI as of late, and I kind of have to agree...An overabundance of CGI in any film, no matter how well it's done has a nasty tendency to distract rather than immerse. For an idea of just how far animatronic technology has come since the 80's, I'd like to invite you guys to check out the mind blowing work that Gustav Hoegen did for Prometheus's engineers. 100% Practical.

"Life After Pi" - An Intimate Look Into The Troubled VFX Industry

Life After Pi is a documentary born out of a deep sense of frustration over a completely broken system in Hollywood, one that's adversely affected over 21 US VFX Studios in the last ten years or so. In an article that we wrote last year, we noted how foreign subsidies were driving VFX studios to bankruptcy by stretching them extremely thin and forcing them to bid lower and lower for movie projects: Ryhtm and Hues was just one of the companies to fall victims to this trend at a most inopportune time back in 2013, going into bankruptcy while winning Oscars for Life of Pi simultaneously. At the time it seemed baffling that such a thing could happen, but troubling rumors started to pop up while last years Oscars were ongoing.

The event that caused a large stir in the VFX industry came about when director Ang Lee and the Cinematographer completely failed to acknowledge the hundreds of (Now jobless) people that poured their life into making their CG heavy movie a success. This unified artists from many different fields to share their disdain for the current state of the movie industry, which has paid no regard to fostering the home grown studios that made dozens of their movies into visually stunning box office hits. Life After Pi goes into what happened at the studio during and after this period, and the type of broken system in Hollywood that has been driving many studios into bankruptcy.

Considering that we've seen little to no acknowledgement of this problem from studios, we'd encourage you as a reader to share this documentary wherever you can to educate people on this issue. Especially with the Oscars around the corner, it wouldn't hurt to see actors or directors acknowledge the hundreds of people working long, unpaid hours in the VFX trenches out of love for their craft. The same could be said about many other creative industries, where figureheads get all the credit for the work of hundreds. There needs to be a change.

"Life After Pi" - The Rise And Fall Of The VFX Industry

The 2013 Oscars marked a dark moment in the VFX Industry, when artists were presented with a very strange moment: The Life Of Pi getting an Oscar while Rythm and Hues, the studio behind it's beautiful visuals went into bankruptcy, just one of many VFX house casualties in that short period. At that ceremony an entire group of people who owed their success to these hundreds of hardworking artists took on a dismissive tone. Ang Lee accepted that Oscar and failed to even thank the hundreds of people who made the heavily CG reliant movie possible, which honestly disgusted us to no end.

As Walt Jones, a CG supervisor best put it: It gelled the entire VFX industry into being horrifically pissed off at the way they were being treated. A new documentary will be released in just two weeks time called Life After Pi which is set to be the first chapter of an upcoming feature-length documentary: Hollywood Ending that delves into the larger, complex challenges facing the current US film industry. This year's Oscars will also feature a march of solidarity for these artists, a second plea to Hollywood to not destroy the American VFX Industry in favor of cheap outsourcing. The film will be released on the 25th.

Is The VFX Industry Going Extinct? The Dark Shadow Of Rythm & Hues

With a great deal of friends in the VFX industry, yesterday saw a strange turn of events in the social sphere following the 2013 Oscars, an event that netted Ang Lee's Life Of Pi four Academy Awards in the categories of best director, best cinematography, best visual effects, and best original score. Yet despite all those accolades and close to half a billion dollars in international box office revenue, the company that brought Ang Lee's vision to life, Rythm & Hues filed for bankruptcy just two weeks ago, resulting in 200 artists losing their jobs. This comes as the result of years of slaving over R&D, new pipelines and bringing the director's vision to life. 1200 other artists jobs currently hang in the balance.



The issue presents an ever growing concern with the state of the VFX industry, and the strange belief that the artistry behind these types of projects is the result of simply pushing a few buttons. Yesterday's Oscar's featured some moments that truly brought me pain, including the cast of Joss Wheadon's The Avengers making a complete mockery of the situation, Ang Lee disregarding giving any shout out to the VFX team on stage, and Bill Westenhofer (VFX supervisor on Life of Pi) getting cut off when he attempted to bring light to the plight of Rythm & Hues and the industry as a whole.