In recent months, we've been hearing a lot from unhappy VFX artists about their experiences working with Marvel Studios. It's unclear whether it's a vocal minority or the vast majority who feel that way, but Gizmodo has now shared another damning report about the Disney-owned outfit.
Back in 2019, Avengers: Endgame was supposed to be released on May 3, but Marvel Studios surprised and delighted fans by announcing it would arrive early on April 26.
However, those in the VFX industry weren't quite so happy.
"The worst was when Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame were coming out," an anonymous VFX artist said. "They actually bumped up that release 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."
This artist went to his supervisor, who also hadn't heard about the release date change, and when Marvel Studios finally got back to them, they were told the studio had "forgotten" to notify them of the change. "So we found out from a press release that we had one less month to work on all these shots."
The report mentions that unpaid overtime and working through the weekends have become commonplace for those working on MCU movies. Marvel Studios' approach to filmmaking - which means they can change big and small details right up until the last minute - has also proven particularly problematic.
A good example of that as it happens is 2016's Doctor Strange. Apparently, after the movie opened in the UK on October 25, the VFX work wasn't finished until October 28 when it arrived in theaters. Now, with more Marvel Studios projects on the horizon than ever before thanks to Disney+, the pressure on VFX houses doesn't look set to go away any time soon.
What are your thoughts on these latest comments?