Televisual asked CTOs and technical leaders at the major UK post and vfx houses and in-house post operations to give us their opinions on the burning issues uppermost in their minds. The survey that follows covers their views on the current state of post and vfx technology and what they see as the upcoming challenges and opportunities
WHO’S WHO?
The survey was sent specifically to the chief technology officers or senior technical leaders of significant vfx and post houses and in-house post operations in the UK.
Those responding to this survey are Chief Engineers, CTOs, Technical Directors and Directors of Post, Heads of Operations, founders or MDs and COOs and Directors of Resources at major companies throughout the UK. 80% of those responding have been in the business for 15 or more years with over a quarter working in post and vfx for over 25 years.
The respondents come from businesses that work across the disciplines – in companies that take on predominantly long form work and those that specialise in the commercials world.
Those in long-form cover the full range of genres from studio and indie features to terrestrial and streamer drama, comedy, entertainment factual and docs.
And the respondents to the survey are generally the ones who make the big decision when it comes to the technology their companies employ. The vast majority either take the lead when it comes to decisions about which vendor or reseller to buy from or they are a major voice in those decisions.
We left it up to respondents whether they’d like their individual answers to be on the record or anonymised.
TEAM TALK
When discussing this survey, Televisual was informed that declining team size was an increasing issue for many technical leaders. When asked if their technical team was increasing or decreasing, more said the team size was increasing (50%) against decreasing (35%) with 15% saying their team size had stayed the same. But only 16 respondents said they currently had the right-sized team to do their job.
Says Mark Maltby, CTO at The Look: “I think we get by, but I would appreciate more time for strategising and innovation and not day to day firefighting. Fortunately, a lot of our operators are quite technical and are happy to be part of the innovation process.”
Recent lean times in post have meant technical staffing levels have often been challenging. Says one respondent: “Margin drive from accounts is a huge factor in struggling with staff. This is a false economy as it can lead to mistakes or delays where having sufficient staff numbers means accuracy is better.”
Others say that the “decreased size of the technical team was a response to slow trading and dim outlook at the start of the year. Freelancers have backfilled where needed but lack in-house knowledge. The outlook is improving but revenue certainty is not sufficient yet to commit to increasing headcount.”
One respondent notes that the “continued lack of consistency in the market is leading to high levels of burst periods followed by fallow periods, maintaining a team of the size to meet these requirements and the financial requirements of a business is very difficult.”
For others, “we had to downsize the team in the past 12 months due to industry pressures and now utilise freelance technical staff to cover when needed. This is not ideal as quite often the technical support is needed when least expected and last-minute use of freelance work isn’t always possible.”
Another respondent adds that “recruitment is increasingly difficult in a market stalled by a lack of investment and squeezed budgets. Years of underfunding have already caused a brain drain, leaving fewer experienced people in the talent pool. Now, with impending cultural and technological shifts such as AI and cloud-driven workflows, the challenge is twofold: we must attract new skills into an industry that has historically struggled to pay for them, while also retaining the creative and technical expertise that remains.”
Jon Creamer
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