We\u2019re well into August, and summer blockbuster movie season is heading into its home stretch. Even with the writers\u2019 and the actors’ strikes, Hollywood news isn\u2019t slowing down. This week finds Barbie continuing to dominate the box office (with a nod to Oppenheimer’s success), Seth Rogen being a great guy, promising updates on the Ayer Cut, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As always, Atom Insider brings you a few hand-picked stories we think you\u2019ll like. Ready? Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, VFX artists for Marvel voted to unionize, continuing the summer of labor action across Hollywood. Writers and actors have already been on the picket lines for a while, and it was only a matter of time before animators and VFX crew followed suit. Stories of VFX workers burning out, being underpaid, and putting in massively unhealthy hours for big, CG-heavy tentpole films have been rife for the past few years, and it’s long past time that studio and streaming execs address the industry burnout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To that end, it’s nice to hear stories of animators being treated well. Thanks to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem<\/a><\/em> director Jeff Rowe and producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, we have one of those stories. In an interview with Insider<\/a>, Rowe revealed that Rogen and Goldberg pride themselves on maintaining a good work-life balance, and it extended to the animated Mutant Mayhem production: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was the thing that was really important to us on this film, and I learned it from Seth and Evan because in getting to know Seth, I\u2019m like, he has a really good work-life balance and everyone at Point Gray does. And I asked him about that and he is like, ‘Well, we\u2019re like when you\u2019re doing live-action, sometimes you\u2019re on a set for 40 days in a row and it is exhausting and tiring. And we want to make sure that our people have time away from that and that it doesn\u2019t become their entire lives.’ I really took that to heart and wanted to make sure that when we made this film, we did it ethically.<\/p> I never want the team to be suffering more than I am. And I also hopefully am suffering more than the team because I\u2019m the captain and I\u2019m paid to absorb that, and they\u2019re not. It\u2019s important to preserve that. People just do better work when they\u2019re rested and have home lives.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n To that end, the staff and crew worked 3 days a week, with some of the animators choosing to work from home in their native Scotland. It’s a nice change of pace from the horror stories that normally come out of Hollywood involving how overworked animators and others on a VFX crew are. Considering the excellent reviews it’s been getting, Rogen & Co. may be on to something. Mutant Mayhem<\/em> is showing that when a movie crew is happy and cared for, they do great work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n