这两天李安有些郁闷了。虽然自己的《少年派》在奥斯卡拿下4项大奖,却无法满足所有人的愿望。因为为他制作特效的公司却要面临破产的现实。昨日又爆出,其中一名特效师Phillip Broste在其“脸谱”个人主页上向李安写了一封公开信,针对其致辞表示不满,他称,“你原本只需简单地向这些人致意,就可让大家正视他们的贡献,但你没有,你让大家失望了。”

李安在致辞中表示特效制作成本太高,希望还能更便宜点。最佳摄影奖得主Claudio Miranda也没有对3D艺术家们表示感谢。

李安的弟弟就此事替李安说话,“他得奖已感谢3000名剧组,就包含特效。他已多次感谢特效人员,且对特效公司破产难过遗憾,但今天特效公司破产不是因为《少年派》才发生的。就是很单纯的技术合作,又不是李安把他们公司搞砸的。” 其实不仅仅是R&H特效一家公司,去年,已有多家美国特效公司陆续宣布破产。

(特效公司的支持者在抗议)

后期特效师Phillip Broste致李安的公开信:

Dear Mr. Lee,
亲爱的李先生:

When asked about the bankruptcy of Rhythm + Hues, the visual effects house largely responsible for making your film Life of Pi as incredible as it was, you said:
当你被问及你那不可思议的影片《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》的主要后期制作公司宣告破产时,你说:

“I would like it to be cheaper and not a tough business [for VFX vendors]. It’s easy for me to say, but it’s very tough. It’s very hard for them to make money. The research and development is so expensive; that is a big burden for every house. They all have good times and hard times, and in the tough times, some may not [survive].”
“我希望费用能更便宜,希望对于视觉特效制作方而言不是个难办的生意。我说起来容易,但这非常困难。他们很难赚钱。研发费用十分高昂,这对任何公司而言都是一笔很大的负担。他们有辉煌也有艰辛,在那些艰辛的岁月时,有些公司可能会无法存活。”

I just want to point out that while, yes R&D can be expensive and yes it takes a lot of technology and computing power to create films like yours, it is not computer chips and hard drives that are costing you so very much money. It is the artists that are helping you create your film.
我要指出的是,的确研发非常昂贵,的确要制作一部你这样的电影需要很多技术和运算能力,但花了你这笔钱的不是电脑芯片和硬盘。是这些特效师们帮助你创造了你的电影。

So when you say “I would like it to be cheaper,” as an artist I take that personally. It took hundreds of hours from skilled artists and hard-working coordinators and producers to craft the environments and performances in Life of Pi. Not to mention the engineers that wrote all of that proprietary code and build the R+H pipeline. That is where your money went. I’d say, judging from the night you just had, you got one hell of a deal.
所以当你说“我希望费用更便宜”时,作为一名特效师,我觉得你是针对我们说的。为了制作出《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》中的场景和表演,这些技术精湛的特效师们和辛勤工作的协调人、制作人花了成百上千个小时。更不要说那些写出专有代码,建起R+H流程的工程师们。这是你花钱的地方。我得说,从刚过去的那个晚上来看,你实在赚大了。

(老虎设计图)

Incidentally, those were the same gorgeous sunsets and vistas that your DP Claudio Miranda took credit for without so much as a word of thanks to those artists. And the same animated performances that helped win you the best director statue. Nice of you to mention the pool crew, but maybe you could have thanked the guys and gals who turned that pool into an ocean and put a tiger into that boat?
巧的是,你的摄影指导Claudio Miranda同样将这些壮丽的日落和景观、这些助你赢得最佳导演奖杯的动画表演归功于自己,只字不提向这些特效师表示感谢。你提到了水池里的工作团队,这点很好,但你是否还能向那些将水池变为汪洋大海、在船上装了只老虎的大家表达谢意呢?

It was world class work, after all. And after a fabulously insulting and dismissive introduction from the cast of the avengers, at least two of whom spent fully half of their film as a digitally animated character, R+H won for its work on your very fine piece of cinema. And just as the bankruptcy was about to be acknowledged on a nationally-televised platform, the speech was cut short. By the Jaws theme.
不管怎么说,这是一部世界顶级的作品。在《复仇者联盟》主演们令人震惊的侮辱和轻蔑的介绍后——他们中至少两个人在电影中有一半时间都是数码动画合成人物——R+H凭借对你电影的精良制作获得了奖项。正当我们打算在这个全国直播的平台上宣布破产,我们的致辞被《大白鲨》主题曲打断从而被剪短了。

If this was meant as a joke, we artists are not laughing.
如果这本来是一个玩笑,我们这些特效师可笑不出来。

Mr. Lee, I do believe that you are a thoughtful and brilliant man. And a gifted filmmaker. But I also believe that you and everyone in your tier of our business is fabulously ignorant to the pain and turmoil you are putting artists through. Our employers scramble to chase illegal film subsidies across the globe at the behest of the film studios. Those same subsidies raise overhead, distort the market, and cause wage stagnation in what are already trying economic times. Your VFX are already cheaper than they should be. It is disheartening to see how blissfully unaware of this fact you truly are.
李先生,我相信你是个考虑周到而智慧的人,也是一名才华横溢的电影工作者。但我同样确信你和任何一个和你同等级的人都对你们对我们这一行带来的痛苦和混乱一无所知。在电影工作室的要求下,我们的人拼命在全球争取非法电影赞助。这些赞助过多扰乱了整个市场,从而在这个萧条的经济下我们仍不时停发工资。你的视觉特效制作费用已经低于应收的费用。看到你幸福地丝毫不了解这样的事实,这令我们很失望。

By all accounts, R+H is a fantastic place to work; a truly great group of people who treat their employees with fairness and respect. Much like Zoic Studios, the fabulous company that I am proud to work for. But I am beginning to wonder if these examples of decency will be able to survive in such a hostile environment. Or if the horror stories of unpaid overtime and illegal employment practices will become the norm, all because you and your fellow filmmakers “would like it to be cheaper.”
人人都说R+H是一个很好的工作地点。有一群很棒的人,公平地、尊重地对待他们的员工。很像Zoic工作室,我很骄傲为这家公司工作。但我开始怀疑在这样一个充满敌意的环境下,这些正面例子还能否存活。或者,那些无薪酬加班、非法雇用等可怕的事情会不会成为常态,一切只是因为你和你的电影制作同事们想要“费用更便宜”。

I for one won’t stand for it. Please join me.
仅表达我个人观点。请关注我。

Warmest regards and congratulations,
送上最诚挚的祝福和祝贺!

Phillip Broste
Lead Compositor