{"id":2775,"date":"2013-06-13T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T20:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2014-05-22T04:50:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T09:50:30","slug":"collider_vfx_townhall_wrapup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/collider_vfx_townhall_wrapup\/","title":{"rendered":"COLLIDER CONFERENCE NEW YORK VFX TOWN HALL STRIKES CHORD WITH INDUSTRY WORKERS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Event included the results of a COLLIDER-sponsored survey of attitudes among VFX workers, revealing dissatisfaction with current industry practices.<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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NEW YORK, NY \u2013 June 13, 2013 \u2013 The just-concluded COLLIDER Digital Production Conference, which wrapped up its inaugural three-day run in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday of this week, proved to be an energetic and at times impassioned forum for the exchange of viewpoints and attitudes about ongoing trends in the visual effects, animation and digital production arenas.<\/div>\n
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\"Michelle<\/a>

Michelle Higa Fox, Founder and Creative Director of the New York motion graphics shop Slanted Studio, addresses the Town Hall audience.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A key part of the conference, which included master classes, panels and keynotes on the latest trends and techniques (for a full roster of conference presentations and activities, click here<\/a>), was the VFX Town Hall event that took place on Monday evening, June 10.<\/div>\n
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Dubbed VFX Town Hall: COLLIDER 2013, this was the first New York City-based town hall gathering for members of the visual effects industry.\u00a0 It was moderated by veteran 2D compositor and visual effects artist Mariana Acu\u00f1a \u2013 known to many as @vfxchick on Twitter and moderator of an earlier VFX town hall held this last Pi Day, March 14.<\/div>\n
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The panel of speakers included Scott Ross, Co-Founder of Digital Domain; Eric Robertson, EP\/Owner of Mr. X Gotham; Yana Lehman, Founder and Executive Board Member of Post New<\/p>\n
\"The<\/a>

The VFX Town Hall: COLLIDER 2013 panel includes (from left) Yana Lehman of Post New York Alliance; Eric Robertson of Mr. X Gotham; Michelle Higa Fox of Slanted Studio; Scott Ross of Force of Nature; and Cecelia Fredricks of IATSE Local 829.<\/p><\/div>\n

York Alliance (PNYA); Cecilia Fredericks, National Business Agent, IATSE 829; and Michelle Higa Fox, Founder and Creative Director of the motion graphics shop Slanted Studio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In addition to the experts on stage, VFX Town Hall: COLLIDER 2013 included a round-robin of viewpoints and reports from VFX pros from around the world, who were patched in via a Google+ Hangout session. This included people in Germany, the UK, Mexico City and Sydney.<\/div>\n
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Key Issues Discussed<\/b><\/div>\n
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The Town Hall comments from the various speakers ran the gamut, from Lehman\u2019s explanation of the benefits of tax credits and subsidies in New York that apply just to post production and visual effects to Robertson\u2019s belief that, despite<\/p>\n
\"VFX<\/a>

VFX Supervisor Scott Squires, on screen, participates in the VFX Town Hall: COLLIDER 2013 event via Google+ Hangout. At right is Town Hall moderator Mariana Acuna Acosta.<\/p><\/div>\n

what many have heard to the contrary, there is reason for visual effects artists to be hopeful.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s never been so much visual effects work available in film and TV than right now,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m here to share a message of hope. The future is bright.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ross, who appeared on a standalone session earlier in the day, updated the audience on his efforts, so far unsuccessful, to launch an industry trade association for visual effects companies, while IA\u2019s Fredericks discussed the benefits of unionization at length and explained how visual effects workers at individual companies could seek to organize and request recognition as a union.<\/div>\n
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VFX Survey Findings Reported<\/b><\/div>\n
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COLLIDER also presented the results on an online study that it conducted in the week leading up to the conference.\u00a0 On hand was Jay Van Bavel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology of New York University, who developed the study for COLLIDER and interpreted its findings.<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/a>

The engaged and attentive audience for the Town Hall event included both those attending the COLLIDER conference, seen here, as well as many more who watched the live online video stream.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Van Bavel conducted a similar survey for the Style Frames conference, which took place in February of this year.\u00a0 The Town Hall survey asked participants to rate their responses and emotions on a variety of topics, and to share their feeling about the current state of the effects industry.\u00a0 They were asked what actions, if any, they\u2019d be willing to take to bring about change.<\/div>\n
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A total of 327 people took the VFX Town Hall survey, of which 272 responses were analyzed, Van Bavel said.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat we found was that there\u2019s a political divide in the visual effects community over whether people should get involved in trying to effect change\u201d in business practices and worker treatment, Van Bavel said.\u00a0 Those who identified themselves as more conservative see the current state of affairs in the business as an economic issue revolving around factors such as competition and supply and demand, while those who identify as more liberal see it as a moral issue that revolves around fairness, exploitation and injustice.<\/div>\n
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Van Bavel added that this philosophical divide was most apparent when asked to view the industry\u2019s problems from the standpoint of themselves as individuals.\u00a0 But when asked about to view the industry\u2019s current state from a more collective standpoint \u2013 as a member of a larger community of visual effects workers \u2013 there was a much stronger consensus that change was required, and a greater sense of motivation to make it happen.<\/div>\n
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ABOUT STASH<\/b><\/div>\n
Stash Magazine curates the world\u2019s largest online library of animation, VFX, and motion design, keeping creative professionals in over 80 countries inspired and informed with monthly issues and a daily news site since 2004.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Event included the results of a COLLIDER-sponsored survey of attitudes among VFX workers, revealing dissatisfaction with current industry practices. NEW YORK, NY \u2013 June 13, 2013 \u2013 The just-concluded COLLIDER Digital Production Conference, which wrapped up its inaugural three-day run in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday of this week, proved to be an energetic and at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lmnews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/VFX_Townhall_Wrapup_slider1-940x390.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2775"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3194,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2775\/revisions\/3194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyc3d.org\/3dwp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}