"This story only highlights what MPC wants people to believe"
A recent article in ‘Variety’ about the London company is being met with a storm of protest from within the VFX community. Commenters complain about a toxic corporate environment and describe deplorable working conditions.The Moving Picture Company (MPC) is said to have "managed to fly high without losing sight of crucial details, notably its people."Which drew comments in response that include:"Having worked at MPC I have to say that this story is hilariously inaccurate….in fact it’s the complete opposite of reality. Within the VFX industry they are known to be treat their artists awfully.""This story only highlights what MPC wants people to believe. Anyone who has worked there or knows someone who has, knows this story to be a PR exercise and nothing more."Jennifer Wolfe writes on AWN:"The real news is the 135+ comments that have been posted in Variety’s comments section, most of them describing deplorable working conditions, including massive amounts of overtime without pay and a toxic corporate environment."And VFX Soldier comments:"MPC is sort of the Walmart of the VFX industry: It’s a powerful company that treats it’s workers just poorly enough to where they can get the most amount of work out of them."Readers who commented on the article generally regarded the story as a "puff piece". Reportedly, huge weekly workloads of between 60 to 100 hours are "always risking deadlines and quality." Commentary ranges from outrage to anecdotal evidence."100 hour and over workweeks are the NORM… not just sometimes, all the time. People blocking the exits so you cannot leave until 3am dailies are completed is the NORM. Does this sound like a decent workplace? They BLACKLIST.""Talk about management practices, blacklists, bullying, things they’ve done which is illegalsuch as not keeping track of OT""Absolute nightmare. So many broken promises. Underpaid undervalued and treated like a slave. I was ill with stress multiple times, got RSI and entered work each morning with gut wrenching anxiety.""Most of these stories are true. MPCs working hours are beyond unrealistic and disgusting.""This puff piece was just the straw that broke the camels back. If Benson already knows what it’s actually like working there and is signing off on this kind of PR fluff then that’s depressing. If he doesn’t it’s just worrying.""Talk to your employees! Talk to the staff, to the artists, to the technicians. Let them come to your office regularly, they don’t bite: you’ll be immensely surprised of what goes on. And believe me: you’ll company will finally make proper use of its workforce and make way more money."One commenter encourages the readers "to try and improve the job and an industry that, reading the comments here, you clearly still care about."Late Friday the number of comments has reached 300.
LINKS:variety.com/2014/film/news/moving-picture-co-finds-valuing-artists-is-the-best-effect-1201346561/awn.com/news/workplace-conditions-mpc-called-poisonousvfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/varietys-mpc-puff-piece-reveals-vfx-industry-woes-few-solutions/