Keep the VFX Artists Happy

Lots of discussion going on today about the VFX protest at the Oscars last night, and the ire that was raised when the "Life of Pi" winners were cut off, midway through their impassioned plea on behalf of the struggling industry. There have been some great pieces written about the sad state of affairs. I particularly liked the one from Drew McWeeney over at Hitfix, who points out that Hollywood has become increasingly dependent on visual effects over the past decade.

So I thought I'd do a little exercise to see exactly how much impact those effects artists are having. I went down the list of the highest grossing films of all time and took out all the ones that depended heavily on CGI and visual effects sequences. This included all the animated films, and a big chunk of the superhero and fantasy films. Anything with computer generated characters like "Lord of the Rings," "Avatar," and the "Harry Potter" movies were out. However I left action-adventure films that were largely built around stunts and more real-world thrills.

Many of these films still had a significant amount of effects work, but it was conceivable that you could make a similar modern James Bond without the CGI. Christopher Nolan's grittier, more realistic style also kept the latest Batman movies on the list. I went back and forth on "The Hunger Games," but decided that most of the CGI-heavy sequences could have been removed without affecting the movie much. But the "Twilight" movies? Those vampire and werewolf visuals were leaned on pretty heavily to make up for shortfalls in the writing. So out they go.

You would end up with a list of the highest grossing films of all time domestically that looked like this:

1. The Dark Knight
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Hunger Games
4. The Passion of the Christ
5. Forrest Gump
6. Skyfall
7. The Sixth Sense
8. Home Alone
9. Meet the Fockers
10. The Hangover

"The Dark Knight" is currently the fourth highest grossing film in the U.S. at the time of writing, having grossed over half a billion dollars, about $200 million shy of "Avatar," which is on top with $760 million. "The Hangover" is all the way down at #59 with $277 million. Of the Top 100, 75% of the highest grossing films could not exist without the contributions of VFX artists. The ratio gets even worse if you look at worldwide numbers.

1. Skyfall
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Dark Knight
4. The Da Vinci Code
5. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
6. The Hunger Games
7. Forrest Gump
8. The Sixth Sense
9. Fast Five
10. The Passion of the Christ

"Skyfall" is the seventh highest grossing film of all time and "The Passion of the Christ" is all the way down at #72. 82% of the Top 100 are heavily dependent on CGI. What's more, "Skyfall" has made $1.1 billion in global ticket sales, but that's less than half of the current leader, "Avatar," which generated a stunning $2.7 billion international box office. Hollywood has become increasingly reliant on the international box office to make up profits, and global audiences prefer action-adventure, fantasy, and animated films, which all need lots and lots of CGI.

For years we've been seeing the economics change and the value shift from stars and directors to brand names and ever-more impressive effects. It seems like the studios have been on a never-ending campaign to cut costs for years now, and animators and effects artists have never worked in a labor-friendly industry. I've heard a few horror stories first hand. I've got an animator in the family. And I've got friends in the industry, just trying to get by. However, it's getting to the point where the cutting may have gotten too deep and something is going to give.

Some morbid part of me wants to see what would happen if all the effects houses went on strike, and the studios were left scrambling with substandard artists and impossible deadlines that really were impossible this time. Would we see films with unfinished effects released to theaters? More delays? Part of me wonders if this is one of the contributing factors to all those films that got pushed back last year. Were post production woes responsible for the unprecedented amount of release date shuffling? Without VFX, would Hollywood pay attention to things like story and character for a change?

But that would be courting disaster. Hollywood makes all these effects-heavy films because they're popular and successful. Audiences love them, and taking them away would probably result in drastically lowered box offices revenues, meaning everyone would feel the hurt. No, it's in everyone's best interest if Hollywood makes nice with the VFX artists and they can figure some way to work things out. It's a complicated and messy situation, but one that's needed to be addressed for a long time.

Fingers crossed.
---