Marvel: VFX Artists Discuss Pressure and Crunch

For a few weeks now, stories have been circulating on the Internet about visual effects artists who Marvel settle up. These reports were triggered by a Reddit post titled “I’m honestly tired of working on Marvel series!” There were also various discussions on Twitter on the topic.

The reports are similar and speak of far too much work for the VFX artists, which has to be done in far too little time. It’s common for people to crack up under the pressure of these projects, a source who spoke to colleagues at IGN said.

On the outside, Marvel’s announcements seem like clockwork. The viewers do not know that the film they are watching might not even be finished by this morning.

Marvel: Studios and artists are afraid to say no

The artists reported that it is normal for VFX projects to sometimes require 15 to 30 revisions. With Marvel, however, it should happen that a single recording is returned more than 50 times. One artist said he saw 144 different versions of a single shot. Some artists report on month-long 80-hour weeksto finish the projects by the deadline.

Marvel is a big name in the industry and many VFX studios are afraid to defy them. This often leads to studios entering a bidding war just to win the contract for the next Marvel show. A deal for Marvel Studios can mean a lot to the studios portfolio and as one artist put it, everyone wants to work on the Avengers.

A similar process would also take place at other major film studios, such as at Disney or Warner Bros. Marvel should be compared offer the worst compensation and artists would typically have to work with a much smaller crew. For example, a team leader asked for ten people for a project, but the VFX studio only gave him two employees.

“When we’re working on Warner Bros. or Disney shows, we have a little more power to fight back. But Marvel… everyone’s kind of afraid to upset them because if you upset them, you won’t get any of their shows in the future. So have [die Studios] very afraid of saying no to anything. Marvel hits back hard when you say no” such a source from IGN.

The working conditions also affect the quality. The first Trailer of the latest Marvel series “She-Hulk” was heavily criticized for its visual effects. However, this should not be due to a lack of effort. The artists point out that you can’t do a good job if you don’t give people the time to do a good job.