/hobby/ - Hobby

The visual effects (VFX) industry is in crisis currently.

Despite being a staple of current filmmaking around the world, VFX studios and artists are getting paid absolute shit and overworked to an insane degree. This is largely due to the fact that this industry is a relatively recent development and did not benefit from the active labor movement in the way that other departments in the film industry did. Most of kinds of work that go into making films have a well established union, but VFX artists do not. Consequently they tend to get exploited significantly more than other departments. This exploitation is responsible for the current profitability of VFX-heavy blockbuster films and TV shows, and is also probably a major factor in the stagnation of visual effects development. However, the situation has reached a point where the workers are beginning to be sick of it and there are rumblings among VFX workers.

A VFX worker strike could cripple the film industry totally. Even fairly mundane products tend to employ a large amount of CGI. That's because CGI has become cheaper and easier in many cases than traditional filmmaking techniques. Why build the whole set when you can pay a VFX studio some pennies to render set extensions for anything the actors don't interact with? This has made the VFX industry pivotal in film and TV production, because the film crews who would handle this work practically have been replaced to such a degree that not as many even exist as there used to be. A VFX strike wouldn't just be inconvenient but in many if not most cases would bring production to a halt. An industry-wide strike would bring it to its knees. The obstacle to this is of course the need to actually organize the workers, but we are in an upswing of labor organizing so this is not that unlikely, although it's easier said than done.

you can't get into the industry anymore unless you know people and you went to some school for it
the days of freelancing until you hit the jackpot are long gone

>>29680
How do we help the vfx workers to strike or unionize?

We need to do it tbh, Although I don't think some disaster like the WGA Strike leading to Reality Shows would lead to it

>>29693
Capitalism, truly a meritocratic system

>>29680
IWW need to get in these places
>>29693
p much, the days of a good portfolio are done. You need to cultivate a following online, and know people, it's basically just a job.

>>29714
wtf sam j is a scab :(???

Alec Baldwin Got away with manslaughter.

>>29712
>>29694
Yeah VFX is one of the most global aspects of filmmaking because the work is on data. Most aspects of a film involve some physical presence but you can farm out VFX literally anywhere.

>>29680
Also of note about this is that movies and TV are very prominent in mainstream consciousness so a movement to organize VFX artists would be an amazing opportunity to educate a lot of people about labor organizing.

>>29714
>>29744
if you can't tell this was a bit, they are clearly acting and reading off the prompter. nobody talks like that. the academy specifically put the bit in the show to mock VFX artists

>>29782
It's not manslaughter unless your decision making was to blame. Such as firing a gun you knew was loaded while you were too drunk to use it safely not firing a gun used as a prop consensualy with what was believed to be blanks.

>>29785
It's Baldwin's production company mismanaging safety. The armorer and saftey people literally walked off the set in protest because of the problems. They had already had accidental discharges multiple times and they just went ahead and got new people who would put up with the safety issues.

The buck stops with him.

>>29784
that's so fucking cringe

>>29782
So like what would have been apt justice? Moneytary compensation for the family + Shutting down the production+ Jail time for baldwin for 5-10 years?

Someone dying at the production of a film is so sad, I don't know what happened later but everytime I see DP2, I just remember the stunt lady who died from it

Anyone work with 16mm? Turns out there are some places that not only stock it, but will process and scan it for you for a fee, only in a few big cities though
Also, DaVinci Resolve is free post-production software that works on Linux as well as Windows and Mac
The premium edition only adds a bunch of bells and whistles IMO, so it's a great deal that the free edition has so much already

>>29809
Do you need da vinci resolve paid? I have some version of it on my laptop, I got it a week ago

I can't figure it out, I like Shotcut, it's open-source and good for basic editing

>>29813
>Do you need da vinci resolve paid?
Unless it has "Studio" in the name, no

>>29809
>>29813
kdenlive is another good one
make sure to link executables for ffmpeg, ffplay and ffprobe in the environment tab in the settings

>>29785
>It's not manslaughter unless your decision making was to blame

So it was manslaughter

H.R Geiger was one horny dude,
Have any of you ever written a "Spec" Script? Or any kind of script?

I'd like to read 'em (I am the son of a wealthy industrialist)

Actors shouldn't be paid at all nor have any privileges on set and should be abused with impunity
The person that holds a boom mic is more useful for production than even the actor for a main character
They literally just talk, and sometimes make faces, and on the off chance even manipulate their limbs and whatnot

>>30852
okay, make a movie without actors then

>>30855
Someone already has
https://youtu.be/s2WGE1L6WKs

Weird Al straight up telling people to pirate his new movie if they can't watch it otherwise. This is in the replies to a tweet from the production company btw.

>>30938
Why're you snitching

>>30938
Based lad

Interesting analysis of the contemporary style of film direction compared to the "classic" style and how it's become simpler and more homogenous, not making much use of the potential of the camera, sets, and actors.

how do you become an indie filmmaker?

>>37218
Get a camera, crew, actors, editing equipment, write a script then film it.

>>29785
>>29786
A year late with this but the fact that Baldwin continued production after numerous firearm safety violations and accidents occurring prior to the fatality makes it manslaughter. Compare this to Brandon Lee's death, which was an honest mistake between 2 different people in the prop and firearms department that miscommunicated, and no prior issues with firearms before the fatality.

>>37226
The original armorer quit over the safety concerns and they hired a new one (pic related) who admitted her inexperience, and they ignored her requests for further precautions and training. She's been charged too.
They also allowed people to go target shooting with the production's guns using real bullets.
About 2 weeks ago it was announced that Baldwin's case is going to go before a grand jury to determine whether to re-charge him (he wasn't tried so double jeopardy doesn't apply).
>Compare this to Brandon Lee's death … no prior issues with firearms before the fatality.
The Crow had a lot of safety problems and multiple people got significantly injured before Lee was shot, including Lee. As for the firearm safety, they didn't have the same procedures back then that they do now, which is largely in response to the accident that killed Lee.

>>37230
>She's been charged too.
She really isn't to blame tho if she placed requests for further precautions or training, since clearly Baldwin and co weren't listening.
>The Crow had a lot of safety problems and multiple people got significantly injured before Lee was shot
Oh I know that, but most of those were because of the stunts and generally violent aspect of the film. And I actually wrote a post about how the accident that led to Brandon's death was essentially what wrote modern procedures and regulations regarding firearm safety in films today.

>>37233
>She really isn't to blame tho if she placed requests for further precautions or training, since clearly Baldwin and co weren't listening.
Yeah she's just a newbie to the field who they are throwing under the bus for not being able to stop industry bigshots from doing what they wanted to do.

>>37244
>she's just a newbie to the field who they are throwing under the bus for not being able to stop industry bigshots from doing what they wanted to do.
She was probably too inexperienced in Hollywood realities too, since she should have quit like the prior armorer when that became apparent.

>>37218
>An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in some cases, distributed by major companies).
So, produce a movie without a major studio being involved

>>37251
>So, produce a movie without a major studio being involved
Are you summarizing in layman's terms or telling the anon to do that?

>>37258
I mean, categorically that's what making an indie film would be
Anon should have been more specific with their question: how to learn filmmaking skills? What stylistic and thematic choices define "indie filmmaking"? How would you find the resources to produce an indie film? etc

Wanted to repost an interesting take about sex in films and how it shouldn't just be there for the sake of it, it caught my attention because of the examples it cited. I personally don't really have an issue with sex scenes themselves in movies/shows. The issue is that in many cases, when the fucking happens, the plot stops, and I'm less interested in the subpar softcore porn attempt than I am in the story. It's often done tastelessly too.

>Kommando_Kaijin
>''It's honestly a case-by-case basis as to whether or not a film needs a sex scene in my opinion.
Impostor (2002, sci-fi, thriller), I'd say needs it's sex scenes because they establish how authentic the protagonist and his wife's feelings are for each other in spite of the events of the film. I'm not gonna spoil it because it caught me off-guard and I'm normally clairvoyant with movie plots.''
>Convict 762 (1997 sci-fi, horror) uses a sex scene between the last two remaining characters towards the end of the film to build up tension as to whether or not one of them is the genocidal murderer, Convict 762, who has the number carved into his back in the film's intro without his face being shown. The sex scene keeps the man's back out of view and ends when the final girl looks in the mirror across the room, seeing the number carved into his back, starting the final chase of the film. The sex scene is a little bit too long, but the entire film has way worse issues, there's a reason this film has no Wikipedia article and is omitted from most of it's actors & actresses filmographies: It's total ass.
>And then there's the 2006 Miami Vice film. Every one of it's sex scenes has me wishing the film would get back to the plot and end already. Actually, every scene in the film makes me wish it would just end already, the 2006 Miami Vice film is not good, not at all. And it's PSP tie-in game is worse, the controls are abysmal and every round flies 45 degrees from the gun's barrel. Nothing about Miami Vice '06 is good. Just watch the original show instead and block the film from your mind.
>There's also Fortress (1992, sci-fi, action) where the prisoners or the titular Fortress underground prison frequently have erotic dreams that always result in the prison warden using manmade horrors beyond our comprehension to beam his voice into their minds, announce to them that dreaming is illegal and then electrocute their intestines as punishment. Corporation-owned cyborg prison wardens reading your mind and torturing you for having dreams, an involutnary process, is pretty fucked up and fits the dystopian tone of the film pretty well in my opinion, so I think it's a good use of sex scenes.
>It really depends on what the film does with them and how they're executed.

As for pic rel: Sex sells, but when you oversaturate the market it loses its luster. Gen Z basically grew up in an age of sex-positivity where it went from "Sex is a thing, get over it" to a bunch of corporate bodies going "SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX SEX!!!" for shock value and attention. Sex used to be taboo, it was the "adult thing", but now it's so fucking prevalent in like every form of media and everywhere online that Zoomers probably just don't give a shit about it anymore. Not in the 'asexual' sense, but in a capacity like you mentioned– it serves no purpose. It's hamfisted. You shove sex into something for shock value, coomer attention, or to pad the runtime. It's like the "Stop posting about Among Us!" shit expect it's "Stop trying to shock people with sex scenes!"
It's not even puritanism, it's just that even Zoomers are fucking sick of it. Which is ironic given that a few years ago they were mocking Boomers about this. Acceleration of material dialectics in motion, generations are getting tired and having existential crises faster and earlier.

>>37270
>almost half

or in other words 'most gen z want more sex on screen or are happy with the current level'?

>It's not even puritanism, it's just that even Zoomers are fucking sick of it.

why can't people understand statistics???

>>37270
Every aspect in contemporary movies is lazily done because it's a consumer product. Sex and violence just stand out because they are inherently kind of uncomfortable and feel like they require justification to include. The problem is that movies aren't any good in general.

>>37271
>It's dichotomous and has to be either yes or no
<'most gen z want more sex on screen or are happy with the current level
Nice strawman.
47% of Gen Z asked thought there should be less sex scenes and that they were unnecessary. Only 15.2% of the surveyed teens disagreed with the majority’s preference for friendship over romantic relationship-centered content and 33.8% remained Neutral. So the MAJORITY of those surveyed were not for the status quo, with the others being split in twain.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/25/gen-z-less-sex-tv-movie-trend
>why can't people understand statistics
Says the reddit-spacing retard seething over someone criticizing sex scenes while having no real argument and misrepresenting the argument

>>37272
>Sex and violence just stand out because they are inherently kind of uncomfortable and feel like they require justification to include. The problem is that movies aren't any good in general.
That's very true; movies in general are shittier in this day and age, but the examples given refer primarily to movies from the 90s and early 2000s and how they use sex scenes, because sex scenes and violence, as the most distinct (visually) aspects are also the ones easiest to fuck up.

>>37273
15.2% + 33.8% equals 49% (I guess the remainder is don't know) so no, the majority of people surveyed did not say they thought there was too much sex on TV.

>reddit spacing

lol

>>37274
>no, the majority of people surveyed did not say they thought there was too much sex on TV.
Yes they did, because you're lumping 2 different categories, people that are neutral (this is not the same as happy with the status quo) and people that are against it. Thus the largest number of those surveyed were for fewer sex scenes, and a much smaller number were against this and a relatively smaller group was neutral. What you stated prior, is misrepresentative of the data. If people were to be interviewed on if they're right-wing, left-wing or neither, and 47% replied with left-wing and 15% as right-wing, you're not going to lump those that affiliate with neither with the right-wing, capiche?

>lol
poor formatting is cringe, your screencap is irrellevant.

>>37275
your claim was that 'zoomers think there is too much sex on TV', according to this survey only 47% said that so your claim is clearly wrong

>>37275
also your teacher told you when you were 10 years old that paragraph breaks make text more readable, why didn't you listen to her?

>>37276
>your claim was that 'zoomers think there is too much sex on TV'
Ah ah ah re-read that sentence, carefully.
1) YOU state that "Zoomers think there is too much sex on TV" Not that all, or MOST, but that in general they do. Going by the statistics, the largest unitary vote (47% vs 33% and 15%) is indeed against excessive sex scenes in TV.
Let me remind you that this is your assertion that you've strawmanned about my argument because; 2) I specifically stated "even Zoomers are fucking sick of it" and I explained the material reason for the statement in pic about Gen Z growing up in a sex-prevalent socio-economic environment.

Thus
1) Going by how these statistics are categorized (Against, Nuetral, For), the largest number is with those Against excessive sex scenes.
2) I didn't claim what you accuse me of claiming, you're projecting this claim onto me, when that wasn't what I said.

>>37277
>paragraph breaks means using double spacing on every sentence!
Yeah no, that kind of spacing for single-sentence posts is the sort of shit you get a demerit for, idiot. You clearly weren't listening to your teacher about the nuances and specifics of when paragraph breaks are necessary or not. Read literature and you'll find most novels do not have massive spacing every sentence or so, because that is wasteful and pointless for an adult reader that isn't half-blind.

So would this movie melt half of Gen Z's brain?

I'm not even a zoomer and it sure melted mine

>>37273
I'm torn.

On one hand, I agree with the Gen Z sentiment that there's a lack of exploration re: platonic relationships in a lot of media, and it would be nice to see more of it. It's bad writing to use sex as a crutch.

On the other hand, the right for art to be frank in depicting sexuality was a hard-won battle, and to be honest, I think as a culture we're kind of all in danger of forgetting that. This doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, and while I do think that based on what the researcher says in the article, Gen Z seems smart enough to realize that, it's easy to imagine that capital will learn the wrong lessons from this, and foster a sterile, puritanical artistic environment in which such a backlash fuels a whitewashed unwillingness to be honest about something that people do experience.

>>37273
>“As a member of gen Z myself, I wasn’t surprised by some of what we’re seeing this year,” Rivas-Lara told IndieWire. “There has been a wide-ranging discourse among young people about the meaning of community in the aftermath of Covid and the isolation that came with it. Adolescents are looking to media as a ‘third place’ where they can connect and have a sense of belonging – and with frightening headlines about climate change, pandemics and global destabilization, it makes sense they are gravitating towards what’s most familiar in those spaces.”

So basically, Gen Z is making the same godawful mistake us millennials made, which is to project all our loneliness and alienation into a content machine that will never love you back. God help us.

>>37295
What do you think everyone has been doing since the TV was invented?

Every generation thinks they invented sex and every generation thinks they invented living vicariously through the glowing screen

>>37296
It was a bad move when the silents and boomers did it, and it's still a bad move now. We're already the same as the damned TV-addicted boomers we mock, regurgitating half-assed opinions from paid sensationalist bullshitters acting like it makes us "informed." Just look at all the terminallly online weirdos on /ISG/. That's all our final form, just a bunch of content zombies screaming pre-digested soundbites.

>>37270
no one that's seriously discussing this should be taken seriously

>>37298
>Translation: I have no argument and can't read
I think 4/tv/ is more your speed.

>>37301
what? i read the post. why is that even a contention

>>37297
>>37296
>>37295
>>37293
Everything should be done in measure. Violence can be necessary or depicted well, but when it's gratuitous it just becomes mindless and either loses any impact or smothers other qualities of a film. It's why so many people were so forgiving of Deadpool even though it's just as capeshitty as any other capeshit.

The same applies to Sex scenes but even more so, sex is primarily a private act between 2 people unless its rape. You don't need to graphically demonstrate it to get the point across unless its necessary to the story or plot because at best it'll just be boring softcore porn and at worst it'll be vulgar. And of course there's the aspect of corporate interest to consider, as playing to low-brow desires, to bread and circus, rather than creating art is cheaper and more efficient to instill into the next generation of consumers.

The Terminator does this well - it has a sex scene that is softcore by modern standards, but it has plot relevance, it's the beginning of the paradoxical existence of John Connor as well as a moment of love and passion, rather than hollow lewdness for the sake of it.

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-to-kill-a-superhero

>They have four options—and they are four kinds of ugly

You delay the film, hoping for a better market environment in the future.

You send it back for rewriting and more filming

You cancel it entirely, and write off the investment

You release it—sinking another $50 million, more or less, into marketing—and then watch it collapse at the box office.

>Disney is getting a sour taste of strategy number four this week.

>They launched The Marvels on Friday and quickly set a record—for the lowest opening day and weekend ever for a Marvel film. It wasn’t even close.

>The Marvels fell 15% below the previous all-time worst Marvel opening, The Incredible Hulk from 2008—and we’re not even adjusting for inflation. What makes this worse is that the previous disaster was back in the days before Marvel hit the box office big time. How could Disney possibly fall below the levels of 15 years ago?

>That’s what saturating the market does to you.

>A box office dud heading into Thanksgiving is bad news. But Disney’s problems run far deeper.

“The majority of Disney’s big budget movies over the past two years have failed in theaters,” reports Bloomberg.

The recent Indiana Jones film turned theaters into actual temples of doom—collapsing 50% from the previous franchise installment. The film is expected to lose $100 million.

The Toy Story franchise may also be broken, after Lightyear also lost $100 million.

Strange World, launched a few months later, did even worse at the box office—and could lose up to $197 million.

Haunted Mansion was a real-life horror show killing another profitable franchise. The film took in an embarrassing $117 million worldwide, failing to pay back its budget.

Even films that make money are lagging behind previous installments—as, for example, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with ticket sales 23% below its 2018 predecessor. This film had the worst second week decline of any Marvel film to date.

>These are terrible numbers, but the risk here is much bigger than box office receipts indicate. That’s because Disney isn’t just releasing bad movies, but actually destroying key franchises that drive the entire corporate strategy.

>Walt Disney may have built his company on creativity, but his successors have replaced it with an empire based entirely on brand extensions. These are now crumbling.

>It takes a special kind of stupid to kill off Indiana Jones or Toy Story or a Marvel superhero, but that’s exactly what’s playing out right now in the Magic Kingdom.

If Disney implodes in on itself I'm going to throw a fucking party.

>>37650
>Some folks grumbled that Warner Bros only saved $20 million on their taxes by cancelling a $90 million movie. But even that inadequate write-off is probably better than pumping more cash into a dubious project. It doesn’t help that the studio is losing money and sitting on $45 billion in gross debt.

Haha holy shit

>>37651
it's the same old story of CEOs going on mad acquisition sprees to create short term growth and justify their bonuses.

>>37653
how can a company function when its $45 B-B-B-Billion in fucking debt

>>37654
the same way people can when they're $500k in debt on their house or student loans lol. the bank feels that they have enough assets (either directly financial or more like earning potential) that they'll likely get their money back.

of course other times it doesn't work and the company goes down in a horrible inferno like this video about nortel i watched recently

>>37654
by being an industry titan with a lot of resources that can be used to promise they'll pay it off. it's not like that's the net value, just the gross debts. Their net valuation is about $25 billion in the black.

>>37650
no one wants capeshit anymore
even the mouthbreathing middle class masses have a limit at some point

>>37660
I think it's also the title, 'The Marvels' sounds so dumb and gay.

Like people are invested in the heroes they already know when it's just a grab-bag of generic shit like this, no.

It doesn't help that the movies just reuse stories from 10 year old comic books only worse.