By Carolyn Giardina
Robert Elswit (Best Cinematography, 'Ripley') 2024 Emmys press room interview
John Bowers, the VFX supervisor on “Ripley,” urged the television community to support the VFX union onstage at LA’s Peacock Theater on Sunday as he and his team accepted an Emmy for the Netflix miniseries.
He argued that Hollywood is heavily unionized, but there is still no broad union for visual effects artists, who lack standard protections on everything from wages and working conditions to health care. How to achieve these protections has long been a dilemma in the community. In 2023, the first groups, such as the in-house VFX workers at Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures, began voting to unionize under IATSE.
"There's progress being made and people are working behind the scenes, and I encourage them, and I wanted everyone in the room to support that as well," Bowers continued backstage. "I actually spoke to one of the organizers of IATSE on Friday. They're continuing to work behind the scenes to bring VFX people under the same roof, under the same umbrella, as a lot of the other categories that are being awarded here tonight."
