OK but what do we really think about the Spider-Verse Vulture article?
I checked, I searched for it first thing and skimmed through the comments. So this should be the end of it. I know you shouldn't make a duplicate post, lest make any kind of post in a different group.
(if you don't know what I'm talking about, click the link at the top, open the article in incognito mode, read.)
As young folk say, idc. I feel this is beyond the scope of the original post as industry talk deserves serious, dedicated discourse. ~talk seems to be the place for this, anything here barely gets the same engagement like ~talk posts; they garner lots and lots... I mean, LOTS of comments. Plus, the WGA writer's strike is still goin on — they been doin this shit for 2 months with tedious media coverage, and have made their presence known. If they can do that, I think I can take a page from their book and post here.
This is not a retread on the Vulture article, not necessarily about your opinions on the work culture Phil Lord creates, etc. If you feel like this post is a duplicate: Don't vote, don't comment! Ignore this post! Revive the original post — you can do it as long as it's on-topic and thoughtful.
This post is about the ripple effects of what that article says, and how it may reflect industry-wide treatment of animators, and even adjacent subcultures and sectors. Take VFX, for instance: Lots of ppl seem to criticise Marvel Studios for their overuse of CGI in their productions, blissfully unaware that Marvel Studios is a bad client to work with.
In other words; this post is meant to discuss Phil Lords in the industry that cause over 100 animators to quit (which I think is too much to ignore). This post is a launching pad for industry awareness, and should hopefully give you the idea to protest in your own way. Don't believe skipping movies will work? It doooooeeeeeeessss~~
So.... what do we REALLY think about the Spider-Verse article on Vulture? What does this truly reveal about the broader treatment of animation in Hollywood? Does Sony raise good points? What are some other instances where a producer or executive caused such upset during the production of an animated movie? What are other reasons or work culture tidbits outside people or moviegoers don't know about? What's it like being an animator working in Hollywood?? What are some labour unions or orgs to look into? What are some novel solutions or fixes that should be pushed by everyone as much as possible?
I was gonna post this on ~talk, but decided last minute not to. If you have read this far (and think this is not a duplicate post), I implore you to vote a/o comment! If this gets to at least like... 40 or 50 comments, that would be so amazing. If not, oh well. But I think it would be a disservice since no matter how small or insignificant this post is, it will help. It may inspire someone here to do something out there, and I think that's more than enough reason.
My takeaway is that art for hire is complicated and there's no ethical consumption under capitalism. On one hand, it would be nice if Phil Lord didn't insist on creating full scenes before trying to "reshoot" them, and the team could work without the crunch culture and be able to quit the team while still being able to use the work done in a portfolio and receive credit, but on the other hand, the movie made a jack ton of money, so the powers that be are appeased and "the system works." There's obviously going to be a delay for movie 3 if the reports are true, and hopefully enough noise is made that some of that time goes back to the animators, but I don't see Lord changing his methodology because some of the people that worked on the film "got upset and left." If he has to have something more than an animatic to judge scenes on, then maybe AI tools would be able to make a "good enough" sequence that human animators could recomposite into the final product, but if Spiderverse 2 is the release of the summer, then improved working conditions on Spiderverse 3 would be only a PR move and not an underlying goal.
That article made me decide not to watch the film. From everything I heard it's a great film, and I loved the first one.
But does anyone else remember the historic Dumbo movie? Where they used the elephants really harshly to put up the big top circus tent? And how they painted Dumbo as a clown and locked the mother up?
If enough of us don't act on the need to visit the circus, eventually they will die out. Even if "protesting doesn't work drrrrr", that's my decision personally.