Oscars and VFX

http://io9.com/5987131/why-the-visual-effects-industry-protested-the-oscars-and-how-the-academy-insulted-them-in-return


Bill Westenhofer, a VFX supervisor for Rhythm & Hues, delivered his acceptance speech, but just as he began to thank all of the VFX folks who worked so hard on the film and highlight R&H's financial woes, theJaws music played to usher him offstage, and eventually his mic was cut off. Now everyone who went over their allotted time got the Jaws music, but SF Gate notes that just 43 seconds elapsed between the time the winner was announced and when Westenhofer got the Jaws music, and 112 seconds between the announcement and the mic turn-off. Compare that to the 131 seconds spent on the Avengers cast setting up and announcing the award, and 158 seconds on Ang Lee's Best Director speech, with nary a minor chord sounded. On a day when the VFX community was asking for respect, many took this as a slap in the face.
Lee's Best Director speech, in which he failed to thank the VFX team or mention Rhythm & Hues also attracted significant ire. It didn't help that when Lee was asked about the Rhythm & Hues bankruptcy last week, he said, "I would like it to be cheaper and not a tough business." In response, the VFX community issued An Open Letter to Ang Lee, noting the many reasons the VFX industry is an expensive one and asking directors to pay attention to the financial conditions in which these VFX houses are attempting to survive.

I can't help but feel that as an industry, people are prone to being exploited, but this is indeed quite terrible. Especially as I read an earlier story on this claiming that the reason the artists can't fight back is because there's a hundred dumb kids ready to replace them if they leave, as they would love the opportunity to work for Hollywood and the big film industry. I am probably one of those kids.
The problem lies in that the industry demands these artists to work extremely long hours for long at a time without paying them for the extra work. If the company don't do it, they are simply blacklisted by filmmaker groups and not used, and so they go out of business.
This is especially unfortunate for the case of Life of Pi, though, because it was so heavily reliant on CGI. Without the CGI, the film would be much, much less than it is, and so the artists are getting much less credit then they deserve. This is an unfortunate dark side to the realm of the filmmaking  / VFX industry, but one I think we should all be aware of.