Marvel has been catching a lot of heat the past few weeks for their treatment of VFX artists. First, a Spider-Man artist called working for the company a ’toxic relationship.’ Then, another anonymous artist said, ‘I’ve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying. I’ve had people having anxiety attacks on the phone.’ Finally, the most recent allegation is from a Guardians of the Galaxy worker, saying, ‘bullying is a problem.’ within the Marvel Studios franchise.
Now, another artist is speaking out against the company, claiming their VFX team wasn’t even aware of the release date for one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, Avengers: Endgame. According to reports from Gizmodo, Disney and Marvel have been less than transparent with their collaborators, and it’s only getting worse over time. One artist, who goes by David for the purpose of his interview, shed light on the disturbing practices within the industry and the shock that came from Endgame’s release date change.
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Tight deadlines aren’t something a VFX team can’t handle, but last-minute changes and bumps to release dates force workers to crunch on projects, altering what we see with the movie’s final product.
“I was still kind of nerding out a lot of times, getting to see these movies being made and being part of that whole process. But yeah, there are definitely quite a few long days… The worst was when Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were coming out. They actually bumped up that release date by a month but they hadn’t told us. I remember being on the floor with my team and one of my artists comes to me and says, ‘Hey, you see this?’ and he shows me the article saying Marvel bumped the release date up a month… So we found out from a press release that we had one less month to work on all these shots.”
Doctor Strange Had Unfinished Effects When It Released in the UK
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Doctor Strange was heavy on the effects used in the film, and artists were still making changes to the movie after it was officially released in the UK. Companies are aware that Marvel’s process consists of editing until the final moments before the premiere; however, workers didn’t believe they would still be making changes to scenes after audiences had already watched the film in theaters. Another worker, Conrad, recalled working on Doctor Strange and the bizarre release in the UK.
Gizmodo says that while the movie premiered in Hong Kong on October 13, 2016, and debuted in the UK on October 25, the film didn’t receive its final VFX shots until the United States release on October 28, 2016. With more and more studios beginning to ask for major changes closer to release, individual artists are being put under tremendous pressure. Marvel Studios is one of the industry’s most prominent and influential companies, and significant changes could happen for the better if the MCU starts to treat and pay its artists sufficiently.
“The first Doctor Strange movie came out, it didn’t actually have final VFX on it. They were still working on it after the movie had come out in the UK.”
