meecrofilm wrote:I'll never blame someone for forgetting to thank someone when they're up there after winning, especially when it's somewhat unexpected and you're always on the clock to be as quick as possible.
Yeah, there have been people who have forgotten to thank their spouses in the heat of the moment. But this one feels a little different. There was a protest going on outside the theater (400 VFX artists), the topic has been in the industry news a lot lately, the head of the VFX house which created the world of Pi was cut off by the "Jaws" theme 90 minutes prior to Lee getting his statue.
Ang Lee said before the Oscars, “I would like [VFX] to be cheaper and not a tough business [for VFX vendors]." Yet by all accounts, shady business practices are artificially driving the cost of VFX well below their fair market value...... it's already far cheaper than it should be, given the amount of research and development needed to deliver the required levels of visual fidelity.
An Open Letter to Ang LeeIncidentally, those were the same gorgeous sunsets and vistas that your DP Claudio Miranda took credit for without so much as a word of thanks to those artists. And the same animated performances that helped win you the best director statue. Nice of you to mention the pool crew, but maybe you could have thanked the guys and gals who turned that pool in to an ocean and put a tiger in to that boat?
This current turmoil hints at a much deeper problem at the core of the movie making business in the 21st century -- Traditional roles are being marginalized to a great degree. Look at the picture I posted earlier: when Claudio Miranda shot that scene of the boat, almost nothing by way of the lighting in his original shot made it to the final frame of film. But he gets the Oscar. And when the man who runs the company that effectively put itself out of business to get that man an Oscar begins talking about the plight of the modern effects house..... he was played off by Jaws.
