Hollywood employees admit why today’s movies look terrible

As visual effects technology continues to evolve, you can expect today’s biggest movies to look their best. However, this assumption is often far from reality.

Despite the innate innovation and creativity that had characterized the film industry for over 100 years, Hollywood he has a VFX problem he can no longer ignore.

Due to the explosion of streaming services and VFX-heavy blockbusters that increased production budgets and now required an exorbitant number of hours on the computer, the special effects crisis and, consequently, the conditions working conditions for VFX artists have only gotten worse in recent years, according to an in-depth report published by GQ in January

One such artist named Yves McCrae, who had designed CGI on multiple big-budget projects like “Godzilla,” “Black Panther” and “Stranger Things,” told the men’s magazine his work on “cats“. The 2019 musical was notorious for its bad CGI when it was released, prompting memes mocking the film for falling into the uncanny valley.

“There wasn’t enough time, and not enough experienced artists, to give it nearly as much polish as a VFX-heavy film like this requires,” McCrae said.

“We knew it was going to look awful. But we all had a great time working on it.”

While McCrae looked back on the film and laughed, others couldn’t say the same about its VFX nightmares.

It has been reported that many employees at VFX houses were pushed to the limit due to workplace abuse, tight deadlines and unreasonable hours, sometimes totaling up to 70 hours a week. The exhaustion was so extreme that some artists cried in the bathrooms as they worked until the early hours of the morning.

Also, others could not leave at the end of the day before finishing their work.

“I’ve been working until I feel like I’m going to die,” one employee posted on Reddit. Another compared the working conditions to “psychological torture”.

Also, the big movie studios that ask for their help don’t make it easy for the VFX designers either. One even shouted Marvel Studiosthe Disney-owned subsidiary known for making the CGI shots in its full slate of theatrical films and streaming series.

“Working on Marvel shows is what pushed me to leave the visual effects industry,” Dhruv Govil tweeted last year. “They’re a horrible customer, and I’ve seen too many colleagues go broke after being overworked.”

Govil worked on “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” before leaving Hollywood altogether.

Once dominating the box office with groundbreaking visuals, Marvel has worse CGI today than movies released more than a decade ago.

This reduction in the last 13 years
for u/BozZombiesArnie in marvel memes

Other related problems affecting the film business are inexperienced artists getting projects they are not qualified for, not enough experienced artists on a given project, and directors who do not understand or understand the creative process of VFX. All of these difficulties come under the coined term “pixel f***ed”.

For more context on the issue, watch the video below.

While the VFX crisis has hit Hollywood, there are still some cinematic bright spots this year that make good use of the technology.

For example, the recently released “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and the upcoming “Dune: Part Two” appear to creatively implement CGI along with stunts and practical effects, or in the case of “Oppenheimer,” no CGI shots were used at all.

Movies like these show that it’s possible for visual effects to look good or even spectacular, but Hollywood doesn’t seem to care about their workers or their craft at the moment. Because of this, the visual effects crisis will probably continue and lead to the downfall of the film industry.