VFX professionals denounce working conditions at Marvel studios: “It's not normal”

On the 12th, VFX professionals (acronym used to refer to visual effects in productions) at Marvel Studios voted unanimously in favor of the unionization of their category. Now, these workers are part of IATSE (International Alliance of Film and Theater Workers). Last Tuesday, the 19th, the IndieWire portal published interviews with several workers addressing both unionization and the working conditions proposed by Marvel Studios.

Unacceptable and inhumane

Alexandra Rebeck, a visual effects professional at Marvel Studios, who contributed to productions such as “Loki” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, recalled some of the abuses faced by workers. According to her, during the production of the series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, the artists worked for 75 consecutive days, leading many of them to suffer nervous breakdowns at the end of that period.

For Rebeck, this situation is unacceptable: “I don't want anyone who goes into visual effects to end up going through what I had to go through on that show, because that's not human. That's not normal,” vented the professional. Furthermore, the unfavorable conditions proposed by Marvel Studios have had negative consequences, as the latest productions, such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, “She-Hulk” and “Secret Invasion”, were harshly criticized due to the product end does not meet expectations.

^{IATSE announces the unionization of Marvel Studios VFX workers (Photo: reproduction/Instagram/@iatse)}

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Unionization and abuses

According to several employees, Marvel Studios has imposed unrealistic demands with extremely tight deadlines. This leads workers to extend their working hours beyond the hours stipulated in their contracts, resulting in consequences like those revealed by Rebeck. Furthermore, the complaints also point to the lack of effective targeting of demands, which negatively impacts the quality of the final product.

In an interview with Variety magazine, Thomas Barnard, visual effects coordinator at Marvel Studios, explained that unionization represents a historic milestone that he believes will raise the quality of productions, in addition to offering protection to workers. He stated: “It will be a great advance in caring for the anonymous individuals who contributed to the construction of this industry”celebrated the coordinator.

Featured photo: Scene from “Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, one of the series that were mentioned by the workers. Reproduction/Instagram/@falconandwintersoldier

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