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Saturday Night Live Visual Effects Workers Unionize, Win Recognition with Unanimous Support

Full quotes from SNL VFX workers follow this Press Release

NEW YORK, NY — Visual Effects (VFX) workers for Saturday Night Live (SNL) are unionizing with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and have won official recognition of their union, IATSE announced Monday. The group includes sixteen VFX Artists and VFX Leads who unanimously signed cards indicating their support of unionizing with IATSE and whose labor is central to making Saturday Night Live’s pre-recorded digital shorts pop.

Saturday Night Live (SNL), is a television program in its 50th season that blends sketch comedy, satire, and music performance and has become a cultural institution for its humor and social commentary. While SNL is known for its live televised segments, it also features several pre-recorded “digital shorts” which require editors and VFX Workers to work under extremely tight time constraints and deadlines. In 2017, Fast Company reported this can be as little as 12 hours. Some examples of VFX-heavy SNL digital shorts include the February 2023 HBO Mario Kart Trailer, and just this past week the My Best Friend’s House music video featuring Ariana Grande.

“Over the six seasons I’ve worked at SNL, I’ve seen the VFX department evolve from a small group to a tightly integrated, highly organized operation capable of delivering hundreds of demanding shots over a 24-hour period. It’s an intense, collaborative, and extremely fun environment that constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences,” said VFX Artist Richard Lampasone. “Our work, like that of everyone else above and below the line, is critical to the show’s success. We look forward to celebrating Season 50 by joining in SNL’s decades-long tradition of supporting union labor, and to helping negotiate a contract that reflects the substantial value we add and makes ours a more accessible and sustainable career for years to come.”

Danny Behar, VFX Artist for SNL since season 47 said, “Working here is tremendously fun, chaotic, and hugely rewarding. We work 15 hour days every Saturday, delivering renders before cast & crew start rehearsals, and ending after the show has finished broadcasting. Our department is essential to the show’s success. For that and a multitude of other reasons, we deserve to have a seat at the table. We are the only department that currently does not have one. If we’re going to continue working on the show, it is necessary for us to receive the basic entitlements offered to other units like pay equity and stable healthcare.”

Hannah S. Kim, VFX Lead with four years at SNL said, “This is the best and most rewarding production I’ve ever been on. The creative challenges posed to the team are made fun and possible by the wonderful individuals that work within SNL’s impossible time frame every show week. It is a great honor to work side by side with all my VFX teammates, and this is why I firmly believe we must unionize to build a more sustainable work environment for the humans behind the art. I want our expertise and roles to be recognized as an integral part of the SNL production, and not ignored.”

SNL VFX workers are following in the footsteps of SNL’s editors, who similarly began their unionization campaign in October 2022, ultimately resulting in the editors ratifying their first agreement in May 2023. The editors had their union officially certified through the voluntary recognition process after an independent arbitrator confirmed support for the union through a card check. This week, NBCUniversal management agreed to a similar process for recognizing SNL VFX Workers’ union after SNL VFX workers presented signed authorization cards demonstrating 100% support for unionization.

“We deserve what every other department at SNL has, we deserve to be protected, we deserve to be represented, and we deserve to be on equal footing with the people we work directly side by side with,” said VFX Lead David Torres Eber, who has worked on SNL since season 46. “SNL is a very stressful show to work on while also being a very enriching experience full of creative problems to solve. We should be focused on those problems each week and not whether our insurance has lapsed or when we can schedule a doctor’s appointment after the summer hiatus ends.”

The effort to unionize VFX workers at SNL is part of a broader campaign by IATSE to bring representation to VFX workers across the entertainment industry that’s decades in the making. While positions like Production Designers/Art Directors, Camera Operators, Sound, Editors, Hair and Makeup Artists, Costumes / Wardrobe, Script Supervisors, Grips, Lighting, Props, and Paint, among others, have historically been represented by IATSE in motion picture and television, workers in VFX classifications historically have not.

IATSE has made significant strides in recent months, securing union recognition for VFX workers at companies like Marvel, Disney, Avatar, DNEG (Canada), and AppleTV. As the campaign to ensure VFX workers have access to the same rights and protections as other workers in the film and television industry, those interested in joining the movement should visit vfxunion.org for more information and to get in touch with IATSE organizers.

Full Workers’ Quotes:

 

Hannah S. Kim, VFX Lead, 4 years at SNL (since season 46)
“This is a special group of not only talented and hard-working folks, but one of the most kind and generous people. Each and every person on the VFX team at SNL is a joy to work alongside; each and every person who deserves fair pay, respect, and year round healthcare. This is the best and most rewarding production I’ve ever been on.

The creative challenges posed to the team are made fun and possible by the wonderful individuals that work within SNL’s impossible time frame every show week. It is a great honor to work side by side with all my VFX teammates, and this is why I firmly believe we must unionize to build a more sustainable work environment for the humans behind the art. I want our expertise and roles to be recognised as an integral part of the SNL production, and not ignored.

The show depends on the VFX artists to make the pretapes what they are and grant SNL the means to put up memorable parts of the show. With the majority of our SNL colleagues already within IATSE, we simply want to join them at the bargaining table to have our voices heard.”

 

David Torres Eber, VFX Lead, since season 46
“I’ve been a part of the SNL team for about 5 years and the time I’ve spent here is the most rewarding I’ve had in my career. The people on this team work hard and are proud of the work that we do. I would stake my reputation on the work of any person on this team and not a single show has gone by that I am not amazed by the quality of work we produce while also enjoying working alongside one another.

We deserve what every other department at SNL has, we deserve to be protected, we deserve to be represented, and we deserve to be on equal footing with the people we work directly side by side with. SNL is a very stressful show to work on while also being a very enriching experience full of creative problems to solve. We should be focused on those problems each week and not whether our insurance has lapsed or when we can schedule a doctor’s appointment after the summer hiatus ends.”

 

Danny Behar, VFX Artist, since season 47
“Joining the SNL VFX team has been the most fulfilling opportunity I’ve had in my professional career. Working here is tremendously fun, chaotic, and hugely rewarding. We work 15 hour days every Saturday, delivering renders before cast & crew start rehearsals, and ending after the show has finished broadcasting.

Our department is essential to the show’s success. For that and a multitude of other reasons, we deserve to have a seat at the table. We are the only department that currently does not have one. If we’re going to continue working on the show, it is necessary for us to receive the basic entitlements offered to other units like pay equity and stable healthcare.”

 

Richard Lampasone, VFX Artist since season 44
“Over the six seasons I’ve worked at SNL, I’ve seen the VFX department evolve from a small group to a tightly integrated, highly organized operation capable of delivering hundreds of demanding shots over a 24-hour period. It’s an intense, collaborative, and extremely fun environment that constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences. There’s nothing else quite like it in the industry, and I’m always thrilled to be a part of it.

About the only thing that hasn’t changed during my time on the show is our department’s lack of a seat at the bargaining table. But our work, like that of everyone else above and below the line, is critical to the show’s success. I look forward to celebrating Season 50 by joining in SNL’s decades-long tradition of supporting union labor, and to helping negotiate a contract that reflects the substantial value we add and makes ours a more accessible and sustainable career for years to come.”

# # #

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or IATSE (full name: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada), is a labor union representing over 170,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, including live events, motion picture and television production, broadcast, and trade shows in the United States and Canada.

For more information please contact:
General: comms@iatse.net
Press: press@iatse.net

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