![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thesprocketship.com\/vfxpdx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/wolfcop-beer.jpg\")
<\/a>It was a good run. Time to raise a well deserved glass.<\/p><\/div>\n
Four score (er, well, 6 years) and precisely 123 episodes ago, Portland got it\u2019s shot.\u00a0 Rather than take the easy out and ship the work off to our neighbors to the North (BC) or South (CA) as so many have done, the forward thinking Producers of the NBC\/Universal show Grimm<\/em> did something unique.\u00a0 They looked at our raw ingredients here in Portland, and saw a spark.<\/p>\n Coordinated through the office of Oregon Film and masterminded by then-Executive Director, Vince Porter, the team behind Grimm agreed to a \u201cPepsi Challenge\u201d of sorts.\u00a0 Several prospective companies, near and far, submitted Grimm like transformation (Woge<\/a>) pitches done without logos or branding of any kind.\u00a0 Portland went up against more established vendors in larger VFX markets.<\/p>\n The taste test proved without a doubt that the Portland shops were ready.\u00a0 Hungry.\u00a0 And that solid VFX work could be done right here, alongside production, at a stone\u2019s throw away.<\/p>\n And work we did.\u00a0 Grimm was the gift that kept on giving, and as they teed up challenge after challenge, you all rose to the occasion and proved time and time again that you have what it takes to knock it out of the park.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally- a show not afraid of (but that actually embraced, and designed for) our clouds and rain!\u00a0 Ha.\u00a0 And VFX heavy, too?\u00a0 Amazing.\u00a0 It’s the role Portland was born to play!\u00a0 Ripples of the creatures, characters, and shots of all types continue to permeate and pervade the demo reels of the shops and artists involved, and it\u2019s been a source Portland pride to say the least.\u00a0 Dare I say it\u2019s given us an identity.<\/p>\n But yes\u2026\u00a0 all good things come to an end.\u00a0 By my (unofficial) estimate, about 40<\/strong> CG\/VFX\/Post Production artists between the two Portland vendors on the show are being \u201crolled off.\u201d\u00a0 Does this compare to, for example, a recent Intel layoff of 800?\u00a0 That day when a key account broke ties with W+K, an account that had employed 400+ on it\u2019s own?\u00a0 Perhaps not in raw numbers, but certainly in spirit \u2013 consider another unofficial estimate:\u00a0 1\/3<\/strong> of Portland\u2019s working, studio based artists primarily doing VFX are now out of a job.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re a glass half full or half empty type:\u00a0 that stat is Hexenbiest scary on several levels.<\/p>\n In many ways, forming this user group was a response to the momentum Grimm brought to the table as we elevated above being labeled a \u201cone shop town\u201d in the press and industry circles.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been great to show off each other\u2019s work, talk shop over a beer\/coffee\/what have you, and mix it up occasionally.\u00a0 But \u2013 for better or for worse,<\/em> as they say\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 just as we did when this thing started \u2013 right now we need to step up, pull together as a community, and take action.<\/p>\n We’re organizing a night of networking and interviews with local companies and studios on the rise, that can put your skills and experience to work.\u00a0 Take advantage.\u00a0 Details here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All good things come to an end, and today was Grimm’s day. Four score (er, well, 6 years) and precisely 123 episodes ago, Portland got it\u2019s shot.\u00a0 Rather than take the easy out and ship the work off to our neighbors to the North (BC) or South (CA) as so many have done, the forward… Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-grimm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Cfrz-wL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2050,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vfxpdx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}