Our industry and the world at large is faced with a very tough challenge. Massive obstacles are nothing new to our industry although this is a new situation faced by all of us. During my 26 year career in animation, I have been through two recessions, changing consumer requirements, earthquakes and the integration of a global workforce. All of these took their toll on me and my colleagues but we all learnt to adapt and find new ways of doing work to meet the new requirements of a changing world.
The first recession hit in the early 90’s. Back then, I was working primarily in Advertising VFX. The film industry in the UK was very small as it was pre-Harry Potter days so all the large post houses were going for advertising revenue, which was still significant before the recession. The recession caused a complete slowdown in advertising and I started to look into other mediums. Longform broadcast VFX was in its infancy but it became a good way of keeping the crew working whilst also increasing our reach. This work was more suited to a generalist skill set as it was of high production value and to super tight deadlines.
The second recession around 2008 was a lot worse. By this time I had already transitioned to TV and Film but it was very early days working with our Indian facilities. The size of the workforce was significantly smaller at the time and the pool of talent not as big. Client expectations remained the same but on tighter deadlines and to restricted budgets.
Through sheer determination and a mix of UK and Mumbai talent, we managed to get good workflows in place, utilizing the skillsets of each location to enable us to achieve what most other VFX houses did not think possible. This has only grown more cohesive over the years and now we have a large number of world-class artists in Mumbai.
The VFX industry has always had to adapt to the world around it. We are all fighters in our industry and the current challenge is one that we can overcome. We will adapt, evolve and be all the stronger for it! Stay safe everyone, support each other and we will get through these global challenges.