The hard knock life of an American VFX slave
The animation guild has published an anonymous e-mail, allegedly from a 40-year old vfx artist:
I had two heart attacks by the age of 37 in this business. I got caught working 100 hour weeks on some summer blockbuster. On the 75th straight day of work (mandatory 7 day weeks/17 hour days) I fell asleep at the wheel and did two 360’s on the 10 freeway hitting 3 people. That was my only day off. I didn’t mind at the time I was making like $1000 a day.
(…) I’m a 40-year-old, shit-kicking VFX artist, who has no health care in a job that is literally killing me……I’m the lowest you can go……….I have nothing to lose.
No, my friend, you’re not the lowest you can go. Earning fricking ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS a day and NOT GETTING HEALTH INSURANCE makes you the BIGGEST MORON you can be. I don’t care if you almost died twice or almost killed three people on the freeway. There’s a certain threshold where you forfeit the right to whine and are responsible for your own life. If not with a 30,000 dollar check at the end of the month, then when?
Tags: Gedanken
