Marvel Reportedly Addressing Issues Surrounding VFX Crunch Culture

Marvel Studios has gotten a lot of heat lately for its reported crunch culture when it comes to visual effects artists, and although many in the industry continue to speak out with criticisms for the studio behemoth owned by Disney, it seems there are some changes being made for the better behind the scenes, as well.

“[P]rolonged periods of crunch, extremely limited resources, and a seemingly endless cycle of rewrites and reshoots that pushes outsourced VFX studios to the limit” was the overall portrait painted in a new expose by IGN. The article cited VFX artists who spoke for the piece on anonymously, with one individual reportedly having worked “over 80 hours a week for months at a time during some Marvel projects.”

This all comes as part of a larger conversation about problems arising in the VFX side of production for Marvel movies, like Thor: Love and Thunder, and Disney Plus shows, like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and has included some VFX artists calling for unionization. Further problems were delineated in an article in The Guardian earlier this month, in which bullying was described as a persistent problem at the House Mouse. Other VFX artists have taken to social media platforms, such as Reddit, to vent their frustrations about the poor working conditions, as We Got This Covered previously reported.

However, a glimmer of hope was also apparent in the latest IGN article, with many of the VFX artists they sourced indicating “Marvel has already started dividing the work more fairly among different studios.” According to one source:

“It’s famously the third act in most Marvel movies. If you have the third act, you are in for the most pain. Everything will change in a very drastic way, which means the most amount of work. And if one studio had more than just the third act, you’re in for it. Now, it seems like they’ve kind of split things up in a more logical way… Divvying up the work that way gives people a better chance to succeed. That’s one thing that’s been positive.”

The article went on to explain that, in some cases, Marvel has begun to assign a studio solely the third act, rather than making that just one item in a long list of duties. However, some of the VFX artists also said more meaningful labor changes, such as unionization, still need to take place.

Though Disney did not respond specifically to IGN for comment for the article, She-Hulk head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao did express support for artists unionizing at a recent Television Critics Association press tour, especially for a show where the main character is computer-generated. She said in part,

“[I]t’s terrible that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel that the workload is too massive.”

via Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios has gotten a lot of heat lately for its reported crunch culture when it comes to visual effects artists, and although many in the industry continue to speak out with criticisms for the studio behemoth owned by Disney, it seems there are some changes being made for the better behind the scenes, as well.

“[P]rolonged periods of crunch, extremely limited resources, and a seemingly endless cycle of rewrites and reshoots that pushes outsourced VFX studios to the limit” was the overall portrait painted in a new expose by IGN. The article cited VFX artists who spoke for the piece on anonymously, with one individual reportedly having worked “over 80 hours a week for months at a time during some Marvel projects.”

This all comes as part of a larger conversation about problems arising in the VFX side of production for Marvel movies, like Thor: Love and Thunder, and Disney Plus shows, like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and has included some VFX artists calling for unionization. Further problems were delineated in an article in The Guardian earlier this month, in which bullying was described as a persistent problem at the House Mouse. Other VFX artists have taken to social media platforms, such as Reddit, to vent their frustrations about the poor working conditions, as We Got This Covered previously reported.

However, a glimmer of hope was also apparent in the latest IGN article, with many of the VFX artists they sourced indicating “Marvel has already started dividing the work more fairly among different studios.” According to one source:

“It’s famously the third act in most Marvel movies. If you have the third act, you are in for the most pain. Everything will change in a very drastic way, which means the most amount of work. And if one studio had more than just the third act, you’re in for it. Now, it seems like they’ve kind of split things up in a more logical way… Divvying up the work that way gives people a better chance to succeed. That’s one thing that’s been positive.”

The article went on to explain that, in some cases, Marvel has begun to assign a studio solely the third act, rather than making that just one item in a long list of duties. However, some of the VFX artists also said more meaningful labor changes, such as unionization, still need to take place.

Though Disney did not respond specifically to IGN for comment for the article, She-Hulk head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao did express support for artists unionizing at a recent Television Critics Association press tour, especially for a show where the main character is computer-generated. She said in part,

“[I]t’s terrible that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel that the workload is too massive.”