Asylum RIP

[pailhead]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118027742

[jujubee]

Wow that sucks. I take it all the VFX business has moved to Vancouver and that's what he was referring to?

[pailhead]

People here seem to be ripping on India.
http://www.fxguide.com/qt/3161/asylu...ffects-closing

[jujubee]

It's a shame they closed that thread because I was about to comment.

In that thread, most everyone is bashing every country on the planet: UK, Australia, Canada, China, India, the list goes on... It seems as if everyone has a theory but there's no solid answer. Every desk jockey is also an apparent business/sales manager too lol.

One thing is for certain - there's no shortage of creativity and talent. So was it the upper management's "fault"? Ultimately at the end of the day, the onus lies on upper management's business-making decisions or lack there-of to hold things together. But sometimes it is almost completely out of their control.

I think a few things have happened. The Internet is now a major force in entertainment. For me at least, it's surpassed television. Other than Avatar, I haven't gone to see a movie in a theater for years. I can't speak for others but I'm sure a lot of us have had similar experiences. I think the production companies have had to diversify more and/or take on smaller jobs because the people running the shows are also having to tighten their wallets.

Also, in almost every one of those comments, I don't think a single person mentioned the economy. We've been beaten over the head for two whole years straight. Most of us are (myself included) are just hanging on by a thread. Banks aren't loaning for developers unless you put 1/2 down. The businesses that rely on those developers aren't getting the work and it's been a struggle. The tightening economy has put a lot of people out of work and has made competition somewhat fierce. A lot of people have lost their jobs. The whole food chain has taken a spiral.

On the bright side, those that make it through are going to come out stronger.

I talked with an expert in the field of reverse-engineering and scanning yesterday with a specialty in robotics and electrical engineering/chip sets. While he agreed that a lot of work has gone overseas to countries such as China, he noted that every company that does ends up encountering major issues with communication and production. He said that he has seen many shoe companies in the Northeast US move their production lines over to other countries such as South Korea and Vietnam because of lower costs. He claims that in six months, China is basically going to be dead in the water. Whether or not his prophecy comes true remains to be seen, but he's one smart dude and I have a lot of faith in what he says.

I myself worked with one board game company that shipped their production to China. Although inexpensive, managing the production overseas was a complete nightmare full of errors. I can only imagine that VFX is even more difficult than producing stills - I don't think outsourcing VFX to other non english-speaking countries is really a viable option. I'm sure that it happens, but the more complicated work still stays somewhat "local" where pathways to communication are much easier.

Keep in mind, LunarStudio ranks in the top 10 of Google for over 100 industry-related search terms. I'm not boasting - just pointing out that I'm on the frontlines concerning mail. I am the spam magnet. I used to get emails daily looking for me to outsource work to India. Within the past year, those requests have dropped down to a fraction of what they were. Then, Chinese firms started to spam me. Even that is slowing down (maybe 1 a day versus 10 at the beginning of the year.) Aside from China and India, the only other countries really asking me for work were the former Eastern Bloc countries - but that always remained somewhat low percentage-wise. As for the UK, their dollar actually went further in the US. I've been contacted to do work for them. Mostly we are on par with one another and communication is clear. Same with Canada.

Now, either China and India all stopped bothering me recently because they have enough work as-is, they're targeting developers and architects better, my spam filter improved, or they closed up shop.

Overall, I think the current economic conditions are the driving force behind some of the major players going bust. It is definitely improving/recovering within the past few months, but it has been a wild ride.

Some things are out of business owner's control, and I don't think it's fair to point fingers without fully knowing the extent of a situation.

[vasilescu_anton]

"We need to move on with some type of honor," he said. "We did not damage any job that we were working on."
McGuinness expressed his regret that artists will be left unpaid for their final week's work.

So they are talking about honor??? Where is the honor when your employees that have busted their ass for you, ignoring their families and working countless hours overtime are left unpaid while the owners of the company are thinking about not burning bridges with the companies that got them in this mess in the first place???

[jujubee]

I think it's hard to jump to conclusions without knowing the full story and only reading one interview.

Still sucks they didn't get paid - that's bankruptcy law here in the US.

[vasilescu_anton]

Nathan McGuinness: We’ve fought pretty hard for the last eight months. I didn’t exactly know that it was going to happen because I was looking at other options for people to help Asylum. I just couldn’t fathom the idea of having to basically disassemble the culture of Asylum. Anything I had as an offer was never going to preserve the way Asylum has done things for the last 11 years. It was too sad for me to do this, and at the end of the day I’d rather just give the artists the decision to go wherever they need to go.

Based on his words seems like there were other options for the 100 employees that have been left hanging without pay but culture was a priority for him!

I agree with you Jujubee that it's hard to jump to conclusions after reading couple interviews and I really hope that I misunderstand his statements but if I'm right the whole thing looks like pure mismanagement in a hard economic time. When money are plenty and jobs are coming in one after another who cares if the pipeline is broken or the management screws the artists over and over with changes and dumb requests coming only from their overzealous nature to satisfy the client? But when the times are hard all of a sudden someone else is to blame...

My heart goes to all the artists there and I really hope they all land on their feet!