Today, we’re continuing my recent conversation with visual effects supervisor Jeffrey Okun about the direction of his industry and how he and his fellow artists are dealing with the changes and uncertainty currently roiling through that industry.

(You can hear part I of our chat here.)

In part 2 of our conversation, we pick up with Jeffrey looking ahead to the future role of visual effects, and what the implications of that role are. His theory is that since it is, and will likely continue to be, difficult for visual effects artists to attain all the rights and credit and compensation they are rightfully entitled to for the foreseeable future, it would behoove them to instead look at themselves as filmmakers, rather than role players, and start taking advantage of new distribution channels and techniques and technologies to advance their work and themselves in order to attain what he calls “our rightful place.”

Jeffrey concedes it won’t be easy in an environment where economic conditions almost always take precedence over artistry these days, at least as far as studios are concerned, but he passionately urges “a conversation” on these topics. Always happy to oblige, we today present part 2 of my discussion with Jeffrey Okun. I hope you find it interesting.

Jeff Okun Part 2 from ProVideo Coalition on Vimeo.