The hardships and tragedies of the VFX staff who won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in “The Life of Pi: 227 Days Away”

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2019.08.19Takayuki Oguchi

Tragedy after the movie was completed

After an unprecedented effort, ``The Life of Pi: 227 Days adrift with a Tiger'' was completed. Naturally, the VFX received high praise and was selected for Best Visual Effects at the 85th Academy Awards. However, 11 days before the award ceremony was held on February 24, 2013, R&H filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 254 employees were dismissed for non-payment of wages.

In his speech at the award ceremony, Westenhofer was scheduled to talk about President John Hughes, who was in dire straits, but his microphone was suddenly cut off and his voice was cut off as the Jaws theme song was played. It was drowned out.

No such sabotage occurred during Lee's speech. However, he only thanked the Taiwanese and Indian film crews, but did not say a single word of gratitude to the VFX staff, and furthermore, he said, ``I wish it would be cheaper,'' which infuriated the entire VFX industry.

Problems in the American VFX industry

People in the American VFX industry rose up to protest, and a town hall meeting was held on March 14th of the same year to commemorate Pi Day (3.14), where industry workers discussed issues.

The cause of R&H's bankruptcy lies in the overall structure of the Hollywood film industry. Normally, when a major movie studio selects a VFX production company, it chooses the company that offers the best terms in the bidding process. Of course, there are technical strengths and weaknesses in some areas, so price alone is not an absolute requirement, but it tends to become a bargaining war.

Furthermore, recently, cities and countries around the world are trying to revitalize their local video industries through tax breaks. Examples include Vancouver, Montreal, London, New Zealand, Singapore, and India. In Canada and the UK, 30% tax goes back to the studio.

Therefore, VFX production companies are creating satellite studios in these cities and receiving subsidies. However, setting up a new studio costs at least $1 million, and requires relocating staff and hiring and training new staff locally. Of course, all of that cost would be taken out by the VFX production.

However, even after all this effort, the budget does not go to VFX production at all. This is because major studios set their budgets in advance by subtracting the amount they receive from subsidies. VFX production companies must complete their satellite studios and move their core teams before they can even bid. R&H also had branch offices in Vancouver, India's Hyderabad and Mumbai, and Malaysia's Cyberjaya, but their main studio was in Los Angeles, so they were working on the edge of making a profit.

The contract was to make 500 cuts for $10 million, but the director's opinion frequently changed midway through. Staff in the live-action field tend to think that ``anything in VFX work can be easily redone.'' That's why even when a huge amount of simulation calculations are required, we don't discuss things in detail, and only make concrete decisions after seeing the finished footage. Naturally, this was despite the fact that the VFX staff showed intermediate checking footage over and over again. This fruitless repetition continues, and as time passes, labor costs continue to increase.

In the end, the project was completed 20 months later than planned, and R&H incurred a deficit of approximately $24 million to $32 million, which was borne by R&H.

President John Hughes had been negotiating with an Indian company (4) until the last minute in order to obtain a loan, but the negotiations failed and the company was declared bankrupt. In the end, R&H was acquired by an affiliated company of Prana Studios (4), which sold for $17.8 million at auction. Currently, he is mainly working on commercials and TV series.

While R&H faced a tragic outcome, MPC, headquartered in London, achieved rapid growth thanks to tax incentives. Currently, it is a huge VFX production company that represents the world, with branches in Vancouver, Montreal, Bangalore (India), Amsterdam, Paris, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York, and Mexico City.

and `` The Jungle Book '' (16), `` Tarzan: Reborn '' (16), ``Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle '' (17), `` Alpha: The Return '' (18), and `` Dumbo '' (19). , ` `Detective Pikachu '' (2019), `` Godzilla: King of the Monsters '' (19), and `` The Lion King '' (19), he has an unparalleled ability to express animal and creature CG. Until now. It can be said that the company has completely taken over the industry position that once belonged to R&H.

[References]

(1) “ Cinefex No.28 Japanese version ” Born Digital (2013)

(2) Takayuki Oguchi: “ History of Computer Graphics – The Imagination of 3DCG ” Film Art Publishing (2009)

(3) YouTube “ LIFE AFTER PI ”

(4) Prana Studios Affiliate Seals R&H Deal

Text: Takayuki Oguchi

In 1982, he became the director of Japan's first CG production, JCGL. After working as the head designer for the IMAX Dome 3D video "Universe 2 ~Sound of the Sun~" at the Fujitsu Pavilion at EXPO'90, he became a freelance video creator. Won an Emmy Award for the NHK special ``Life: A 4 Billion Year Distant Journey'' (1994). His most recent work is the storyboard for the NHK special ``Space Spectacle'' (19). He is also a video journalist specializing in VFX, CG, 3D movies, art animation, exhibition videos, etc., and has contributed numerous articles to film magazines, theater pamphlets, the web, etc. In addition to being a visiting professor at Digital Hollywood University, he is also a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Animation, Waseda University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, and Japan Electronics College.

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"Life of Pi/227 days adrift with a tiger"

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