Union BECTU has launched a campaign to ensure all VFX artists working on TV dramas and feature films are given credit for their work.
The union has published a petition aimed at the CEOs of the major motion picture studios, asking them to resolve the widespread problem surrounding the lack of recognition granted to VFX workers. BECTU says the treatment of VFX workers is a “cruel cut”.
According to BECTU, often, less than half of the people who worked on the visual effects of a film will get a mention in the credits.
It says a crew of 600 worked on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at lead vendor Double Negative but fewer than half – 277 – were finally given a credit.
“For too long now, visual effects artists and facilities have been getting short changed by the film studios on credits. Again and again, the big studios have refused to credit all the people working on the visual effects for their films,” said Paul Evans, assistant national secretary, BECTU.
“Talented visual effects professionals go uncredited even though they may end up working for months, or even years, on these visually stunning and astonishingly profitable films.
“When we spoke to colleagues in the US about this issue, they had a clear explanation for why VFX artists are overlooked when every other part of the film crew get prominent credits to reflect their contribution,” Evans added. “We were told that VFX is easy to sideline because artists are less likely to be unionised than other craft areas.
“If BECTU was recognised in the UK, we would be pushing to ensure that VFX houses would be insisting on full credits for all of their workers as part of the contract that they sign with the major motion picture studios. The studios would not be refusing a credit to a sector that was unionised and we intend to fix that.”
