What Brexit means for European VFX firms

European facilities with well-established track records with Hollywood studios are primed to ramp up capacity should expensive visas with unrealistic minimum salary thresholds significantly add to UK facility operating costs.

“We expect more work which would’ve gone to the UK being assigned to EU-based VFX houses after Brexit,” predicts Volker Woerz, business development at Prague studio Dazzle Pictures.

Germany’s Rise FX and Scanline VFX and Buf Compagnie in Paris, all with regular shot orders from Disney, are the most likely to benefit in terms of film VFX.

Outside of London, Amsterdam is Europe’s main creative hub for commercials finishing. If, as is predicted under a no-deal Brexit, the UK’s economy nose dives so too will the country’s advertising sector, in which case brands can be expected to shift their budgets elsewhere.

Any boost in investment will also increase the opportunities for smaller houses, facility start-ups and will spread the talent pool.

No-one, however, expects an exodus of work from London nor a brain drain of creative talent. That’s not to say there will be no displacement of projects with artists who are already heading overseas.

“We’re getting calls from talented heads of VFX and CG at several companies in London, and especially…