The VFX Industry is an odd one when it comes to art. Due to the necessity of the industry, an audience is unable to differentiate between the work produced from one company to another. As a VFX company, it pays to have no unique style in order to not dilute potential clients. The caveat to this however, is that the name of a VFX company holds little weight in the world of film, therefore having no influence in attracting an audience.
Kurt Vonnegut speaks of a similar thought in the world of writing, in an essay he wrote titled “How to Write with Style”,
“Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writing.”
In an industry without style the winners are the companies that carry prestige (Awards Won) and those that provide the cheapest product/service. Those are the only factors a client has to base a decision on. Perhaps a director likes working with a certain company, but as decisions are increasingly influenced by financial reasons, the most prestigious and the cheapest will grow at the quickest rate, becoming the only ones with the capacity to do the amount of VFX work that films ask for these days.
As both the cheapest and the prestigious companies grow more and more, companies in the middle are forced to close, as there is less work available for them to win. This then means they’re forced to bid at a loss on projects, in order to keep them going until the next project.
In an industry without style there comes little leverage.
Josh