Journey 3D, FX Artists of Former Meteor Studios seeking $1 Million in Back Pay

JOURNEY 3D - Unpaid, Digital FX artists seek back pay of $1 million from Discovery Communications and Evergreen Films

For Immediate Release
HOLLYWOOD, Calif./EWORLDWIRE/July 9, 2008 --- When Journey To The Center Of The Earth Movie 3D, the blockbuster and ground-breaking 3-D stereoscopic film starring Brendan Fraser, is released Friday, July 11, a group of digital effects artists from former Meteor Studios who worked on the film will continue a half-year later to wonder where their paychecks are.

According to David Rand, special effects artists worked for Meteor Studios, a company established by Discovery Communications of Virginia (Discovery) (owners of the Discovery Channel) and Evergreen Films of Pacific Palisades (Evergreen). During October, November and December of 2007, artists worked without pay; some put in 100-hour weeks and stayed loyal to the project with the promise of pay as soon as the accounting glitch was fixed. Most of the artists who applied their talents to the creation of the film have families, and half are American freelance artists like Rand, whose hope for a bright Christmas was extinguished when all artists were laid off without pay in December upon delivery of the film.

Over $1 million is due from Discovery Communications of Virginia and Evergreen Films of Pacific Palisades.

Dave Rand's is particularly vocal about, what he calls an injustice, because accordding to Rand, he was asked to keep his crew working without pay."A million dollars is not money - money is what you take to the supermarket to buy some bananas. A million dollars is power, and it shows a company's true character. Being a family-oriented network, Meteor, Discovery and Evergreen should be ashamed of themselves."

Discovery and Evergreen initiated bankruptcy proceedings for the studio, formerly known as Meteor Studios of Montreal, leaving artists without jobs or back pay. The action extended damage to other studios with less than deep pockets; Canadian banks refused lines of credit or stopped existing ones. Rand says many artists had to leave Canada and seek work in other countries.

Rand also reports a new company has been formed at the former Meteor Studios' location named, "Lumiere VFX," and that former Meteor Studios' artists have reported being offered back pay to come on board at Lumiere. He has discovered many of the same management team are in place or have become partners in the new studio, and Rand states that several artists have commented on work to be done for the former owners, Discovery or Evergreen. "Although there are claims that Meteor's payroll was insured," said Rand, "this action - of hiring - may be interpreted by the insurance company as a reason not to pay. The payroll insurance company is believed to be fighting the claim."

The Meteor Studios' artists have up to this point contacted:

. The Governor General of Canada responded six months later with a form letter that did not answer any of the questions asked.

. The Labor Board of Canada has been unable to get any results to date and cannot help foreign artists who worked on the film. Statements have been made indicating that causing trouble for American companies is not in Canada's best interest.

. Brendan Fraser. Speaking with his manager's office has not produced a response from Brendan.

Rand suggests that examining the timeline of the FX industry reveals that FX artists are going through the same problems the rest of talent in the industry experienced decades ago. "This action (by Discovery and Evergreen) should receive the attention of the small animators unions and will hopefully see its ranks grow as it provides a perfect example for them," stated Rand.

While viewers might imagine Journey 3D without Fraser, "you cannot imagine it without FX. We are very important to the product - all top-grossing films now contain extensive effects work. However, we usually end up at the bottom of the credit list, if at all. Meteor studios did extensive work on the film 300, and not one of the artists received a credit. Now, not getting paid seems to have become the practice," added Rand.

Rand said one young writer with the Canadian Press reported on the story last week ([link]). Rand also affirms that Variety's David Cohen, who has written many articles on this topic, tried to submit an article to his editors only to have it rejected on the grounds that FX house closings and artists not getting paid are no longer headliners.

"We think this is news. Unlike the recent writers' strike where writers were looking for more money on the back-end, we just want to get paid for the work we performed. We have been looking for a writer with influence who has not lost the nerve to write for change to this valuable part of the film and television industry.

"We want the public to buy tickets and see the film because we are extremely proud of the FX work done on the film. It is a wonderful film exhibiting a new technology," concluded Rand.

Please email these reporters with your thoughts

david.cohen@variety.com
Carolyn Giardina cgiardina@hollywoodreporter.com
Anabelle.Nicoud@LaPresse.ca
Anabelle wrote the article posted here. You can translate it online with google if you do not speak french.


More discussion on this topic can be found at the CGTalk forums here ([link]age=1&p=15)


I think that as artists, we should all be able to understand their frustration, and this kind of fiasco is unacceptable. Meteor Studios' parent company, Discovery, makes millions of dollars a day. There's no reason why this should still be happening. Meteor Studios was shut down -last year- and these artists that poured their time and talents into this movie as still struggling for payment and work.

Please help spread the news by sending an email to the aforementioned people, or at least posting a link to this article in your journal.