CREDIT: DEADLINE.COM
The people responsible for turning this blue sack into a living, breathing tiger are in deep trouble.

What do your favourite summer blockbusters of the past few summers have in common? Chances are, they’ve got some heavy visual effects work behind them. Even in films that aren’t big-budget sci-fi opus magnums, VFX comes into play with needs such as digital set extension, prop creation, and, probably most famously, creature animation.

Yes, whether you liked it or not, Life of Pi was a landmark film in the area of visual effects, thanks to its hyperrealistic animation of the tiger Richard Parker, Pi’s eponymous lifeboat castaway companion. Yet, despite the acclaim (from critics and the amount it made at the box office), the studio behind the film’s visual richness, Rhythm and Hues, went bankrupt shortly after.

Studio head Bill Westenhofer attempted to shed light on the troubled VFX industry during his Oscar acceptance speech but was cut short by a deliberate mic mute. The outrage that followed was also peppered by the question: What happened?

Life of Pi was a film with an astronomical budget of $120 million, and an even more massive box office haul of over $600 million. Yet, Rhythm and Hues didn’t see a dime of that gross. The broken platform on which the industry is run is explained and examined upon in Life After Pi, a documentary created in the aftermath of the “Go Green” demonstration, where VFX professionals changed their Facebook profile to Chromakey Green in solidarity in raising awareness about their plight.

Life After Pi isn’t just talk of money matters and the damaging business model that every special effects house operates under; it also features one-on-one interviews with the animators and technicians who brought all our favourite movies to life instead of leaving them shots of blue cloth and white tracking balls. While the film definitely doesn’t skimp out on the details on why the industry is the way it is, you’ll also see the enthusiasm and passion of the professionals. These just aren’t people who use computer magic to make movies happen; they’re dedicated artists who use technology only as tools to achieve visually what we could only dream of once upon a time.

It’s a documentary that’s informative and also quite angering. We as consumers of mainstream film are often dismissive of digital effects as simply part of the movie, mere “CG” made by “computers.” The reality of course is entirely different one we shouldn’t take for granted.

Life After Pi is free to watch on YouTube, and only takes 30 minutes of your time. It could be one of the most important documentaries on modern filmmaking you will ever see.