For the past several months, we've been hearing reports that the MCU projects are suffering from behind-the-scenes problems, particularly on the visual effects side as a lot of artists have been complaining about being underpaid and mistreatment due to working overtime to finish their work for the film.
One of the main factors that are being blamed is Marvel Studios' staggering output for the past couple of years as they're now working on multiple films, TV shows, and TV specials at the same time. While the studio has yet to address the issue, we do know that they are now re-evaluating their future slate due to Disney's recent "franchise recession" mandate.
The studio's recent VFX issue became more apparent with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as most criticisms were given to its visual effects due to its wonky and bland look. After all, the majority of the film is set in the Quantum Realm, a world that is CGI-created.
You might be wondering why Quantumania's VFX work was more lackluster than what we're used to seeing in most MCU projects. A recent report from Vulture laid out some details about the behind-the-scenes issue that the film experienced and it looks like some of the blame is being put on another MCU movie.
According to the VFX artists that were interviewed for the report, the work on Quantumania suffered as Marvel Studios prioritized and gave more focus on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever since both films were in post-production right around the same time.
Since the same company worked on the VFX for both projects and Wakanda Forever was given more proper resources, not enough people were working on Quantumania and they were also given an unbearable deadline to finish the work. In addition, the studio also asked for a lot of revisions.
"This was like a second wave of what happened with James Cameron on Titanic, where the compositors were basically taking naps under their desks, because there wasn’t enough time between shifts to go back home, then come back," one of the artists said.
"Now, the entirety of the industry that has been touched by Marvel is permanently seared, and that’s what’s causing the most burnout."
Jim (not the real name), one of the visual effects technicians that were cited in the interview, laid out some details regarding how Marvel Studios' priority for Wakanda Forever in the VFX affected the results of Quantumania.
"In terms of priority, Wakanda Forever was definitely at the top of the list. All the money went to that. All the best resources went to that. It’s understandable given the context — with Chadwick [Boseman] and everything and how well the first film did. But it did diminish the ability to carry Ant-Man all the way through," he shared.
"For Ant-Man, there were a lot of editorial changes happening toward the latter third and fourth of the project that were just too late. There’s a point of no return. Why certain things were changed, why certain notes were nitpicked longer than they should have been — that’s on Marvel. But it definitely did cause a lot of tension, turmoil, and weight on everybody at [company name redacted]."
The technician also revealed that shortcuts were done in order to cover up some of the incomplete work due to time constraints.
"Unfortunately, it is noticeable that there were shortcuts. Certain things were used to cover up incomplete work. Certain editorial cuts were made to not show as much action or effects as there could have been — likely because there just wasn’t enough time to render everything," he added.
"There was a lot of shortening and rolling of shots (rolling is when you don’t shorten or lengthen a shot — you just move it a few frames in the cut). It really did feel like certain scenes were trimmed or otherwise altered to either save money, save time, or cover up the inability to get it done."
It is unfortunate to hear stories such as this and hopefully, this won't happen again in any of the future MCU projects. Hopefully, their plan of spacing out their films and TV shows will also mean that they can dedicate more time to the VFX instead of rushing them just like what happened in the recent film.
Also Read: Ant-Man 3 Star Will Reportedly Meet Their Demise in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is showing in theaters everywhere. You can check more details about it here.
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