Let’s be very clear about something to start, ok? Whether it’s a TV show, a movie, a video game, a music album, or something in between, there are a LOT of people who put in a LOT of work to give you the things that you enjoy entertainment-wise. And even if you don’t like the results, which is your right and opinion, that doesn’t mean that those who worked on them shouldn’t be appreciated for the work they put in. But if you listen to VFX artists, the worst possible client they could have…is Marvel Studios.
Yes, it’s true, and in fact, it actually backs up what has been said by fans in recent Marvel movies in that there are a lot of VFX shots that “feel off” or just straight-up look bad. You might recall the first She-Hulk trailer causing controversy because of the “uncanny valley” effect with Jennifer Walters. Thor Love and Thunder (read our review!), Multiverse of Madness and more were called out for serious VFX problems, and the VFX artists came together on Reddit to note why this is.
In short, Marvel Studios works them too hard, doesn’t pay them enough, and has deadlines that are frankly insane.
“I am quite frankly sick and tired of working on Marvel shows”, Reddit user Independent-Ad419 expressed their frustration with the studio. “Marvel has probably the worst methodology of production and VFX management out there”, they write. “They can never fix the look for the show before more than half the allocated time for the show is over. The artists working on Marvel shows are definitely not paid equivalent to the amount of work they put in.”
“On Thor they ask for a complete mini-sequence 2 or 3 weeks before deadline”, says samvfx2015.
Mickeym00m00’s account is much the same: “I request to not work on [Marvel] movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, they’re becoming our biggest client. They expect a smorgasbord of options so they can change their mind three more times.”
Raistlinuk agrees: “It took me over six months to recover from WandaVision’s crunch. It’s not worth it. Not when there’s better run projects that look just as good out there.”
Not what you were expecting from Marvel Studios, was it? But it’s apparently true, and it makes you wonder what else is going to happen to VFX artists and the quality of their products as more and more don’t want to work with them.
