sent from: London, UK. destination: Ithaca, New York, USA

Amidst the unfolding story that is Digital Domain’s current downfall, a relatively small story in business news, but one that every vfx worker is – or should be – watching, I am struck by the way everyone is trying to grasp lessons in it, even as the story becomes more complex day-by-day. On one side – people bellowing for a vfx union – a good thing I believe, but hard to see how that would have changed that outcome of the current situation. On another, denouncing business practices that although they failed here, might one day point a way through to a new business model. I have to believe that it’s in the movie studio’s interest to have a healthy, innovative, competitive VFX industry, but they have managed to abuse the VFX vendors, who have been complicit in their abuse, leaving a lot of closures and studios hanging by a thread, desperate for the next scrap from their master’s table. The only consolation – a lot of studios have swept in to grab the talent let go from the DDMG layoffs – there’s life and vibrancy in the industry still.