Visual Effects Society Urges Employees to Work From Home
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The Visual Effects Society urged its members to allow employees to work from home as the coronavirus crisis continues to impact the entertainment industry.
“We understand the concerns around security to protect proprietary work product, but right now is the time for the utmost flexibility towards VFX artists and all practitioners as we try to figure our way through this crisis. Many companies are trying to take action, and we are optimistic that studios and vendors can find and enact workable solutions,” the statement said, citing the need for flexibility.
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Security remains a key concern for post houses working remotely, and VFX members issued a set of best-practice tips and recommendations in order to optimize workflow while working away from the office. Those tips included guidelines on (secure) remote desktop solutions, where to conduct peer-to-peer discussions, studio and facility guidance, and cloud solutions. Read the guidelines here.
Post-production houses have been working to find ways to keep delivering assets to studios. Just last week, Rising Sun Pictures managing director Tony Clark started moving his crew to work remotely. “The world of visual effects is a global one, so working remotely is nothing new,” Clark said.
Goldcrest Post Productions had also started looking at solutions for working remotely as soon as the coronavirus pandemic hit Italy. Managing director Domenic Rom had his engineers transition colorists and staffers to work from home. “We had to make sure we had a strong internet connection in place (at each of the locations),” he said. “We looked at firewalls because security protocols are key, and we asked how to do it within three days.” By the second day, Rom’s crew was fully set up and able to carry out a full day of work on their post production.
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