Inside the VFX Union Brewing in Hollywood

The latest in pop-culture news, recaps, and reviews, plus close reads, profiles, interviews, and more from Vulture.com. [Brand Logo]( the industry [Inside the VFX Union Brewing in Hollywood]( Visual-effects technicians have never been more vital to movies and TV. Can studios like Marvel accept that? Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty The problems were myriad from the start. After Mark Patch (a veteran visual-effects technician with a long list of credits including Tenet, 2016’s Ghostbusters, and Starz’s American Gods) was offered a short-term position working on VFX for a Marvel series on Disney+, he says the studio balked at paying him his going rate — demanding to first see a pay stub from his work on Tenet proving his market value, then undershooting Patch’s quote by several hundred dollars a week. Then came the nondisclosure instructions he says were issued by Marvel’s VFX and postproduction president Victoria Alonso and staff VFX producer Jen Underdahl in a telephone meeting, requiring that Patch keep his employment at the company a secret and avoid any social-media posts that might indicate he was affiliated with a Marvel Cinematic Universe project. “I was like, ‘Okay, I can’t even tell my family where I am?’” he recalls. “What is this — the Manhattan Project?!” [Read More]( Devour pop culture with us. [Subscribe now]( for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. The Latest TV Recaps • Abbott Elementary: [Zara vs. Joya vs. Janine]( • The Real Housewives of Miami: [Page Six Six Six]( • Ghosts: [Hashtag #GhostBoss]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Stories We Think You’ll Like [Oscar Futures: Who Got a Boost From the Globes and the Guilds? Who’s on top as Oscars voting begins?]( [Everything We Know About YSL’s RICO Case Gunna and seven other defendants have been freed from prison after agreeing to plea deals.]( By Zoe Guy [Scary Movie Dolls, Ranked by Best-Friend Potential What’s a little murder between friends?]( By Jordan Crucchiola [Citizen Detectives, Get Sleuthing Yellowjackets is already leaving us with more questions than answers about our favorite not-not-cannibal girls.]( By Rebecca Alter by Roxana Hadadi [Tom Hanks, P!nk, and More Remember Lisa Marie Presley “Our hearts are broken,” Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, wrote in a joint tribute.]( By Jennifer Zhan [Plane Good Plane is a movie for your lizard brain — the part of you that craves basic sensations. The part that expresses itself in grunts.]( By Bilge Ebiri [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Vulture Recommends We consume it all so you don’t have to. Photo: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns Listen to the music of [Jeff Beck](, who died this week at 78. Beck would go on to play with the Yardbirds during its most successful incarnation. He soon left the band to form the Jeff Beck Group. In both, he was the very incarnation of the British rock star. [Read more from Vulture]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe](link.nymag.com/manage/588/optout-vulture?email={EMAIL}&hash=39357a76f6d08b16239fd2ffa65e9c6f) | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023, All rights reserved