Feb 27, 2019

"Bohemian Rhapsody" VFX Freelancer owes tens of thousands after Halo VFX goes bankrupt [Update]

Vfx freelancers in the U.K. who worked on multiple projects for the now-bankrupt Halo VFX Limited, including the multi-Oscar-winning musical drama Bohemian Rhapsody, are still owed thousands of pounds, according to the U.K. media and entertainment trade union BECTU.

Following Halo's collapse, a group of four vfx freelancers were not paid wages totaling £53,000 (approx. USD $70,500). The company had recently provided visual effects on big-budget projects such as the series A Discovery of Witches and Curfew,, as well as the aforementioned Bohemian Rhapsody, on which it was one of multiple vendors. [UPDATE: An artist who has been unpaid by Halo pointed out in our comments that there are more than four people who haven't been paid by Halo. The four unpaid people in this story are the ones represented by the BECTU trade union.]

BECTU is attempting to collect the unpaid fees and seeking to meet with company directors to discuss how the affected freelancers will be compensated for the failure to pay them. The union is advising members not to accept any work from Halo's other subsidiaries unless weekly compensation is guaranteed.

“I've never had a situation where individual BECTU members have been hit this badly and it is not something we can't just shrug our shoulders and move on from,” BECTU assistant national secretary Paul Evans said in a statement. “This is a hugely profitable industry and the productions that our members worked on were successful. It's not acceptable for vfx artists who have contributed to the success of multi-million pound features to be the ones to carry risk and to go unpaid for their hard work and talent.”

Evans noted that the industry has created an unsustainable model where companies can launch subsidiaries that are unsuccessful and then leave workers to fend for themselves with no repercussions to the parent company. In the case of Halo, even though it shuttered its vfx division, its other film production services continue to grow.

“The incentives are all wrong in vfx,” Evans said. “A lot of the risks end up on the shoulders of freelance workers who have to cushion the industry by accepting long periods of unpaid overtime work and working-hours that are very sub-optimal in terms of creativity and productivity. It's an industry that drives talented people out.”

The problems with the vfx industry are discussed at length in the documentary Hollywood's Greatest Trick, which is available to view online.

BECTU is additionally calling for an industry code of practice to better protect vulnerable freelancers when employers go bankrupt. Barring any action from the industry, Evans said that the union may be forced to take matters into its own hands, and “invest in some publicity to warn people against working for any vfx or post production company as a limited company, or in any status that doesn't ensure that they have full employment rights.”

BECTU represents 30,000 staff, contract, and freelance workers in creative fields in the U.K. Its purpose is to protect jobs and improve industry-wide pay and working conditions.