Technicolor Begins To Shut Down Operations (variety.com) 18
Technicolor Group has filed for a court recovery procedure in France after failing to secure new investors, putting its VFX brands, including MPC, The Mill, Mikros Animation, and Technicolor Games, at risk of closure. Variety reports: A total shutdown of MPC and Technicolor's operations would affect thousands of visual effects workers in countries include the U.S., UK, Canada and India. The turn in business has raised the alarm and sparked sadness within the VFX community. Parot's memo explains, "In each country, the appropriate framework for orderly protection and way forward is currently being put in place to allow, when possible, to remain in business continuity."
Technicolor has already started to shut down U.S. operations. On Friday, it began alerting customers and employees, sending U.S. employees a WARN notice as required by law for large companies that anticipate closings and mass layoffs. At least one recovery effort already started for roughly 100 U.S. employees of The Mill. The creative leadership and most of the creative staff that was Technicolor's The Mill U.S. is joining forces with Dream Machine FX to launch a new venture, Arc Creative, Variety reported exclusively on Monday. A statement from the artists explains they they are working to launch the new entity amid "the complexities of Technicolor's Chapter 7 proceedings."
Questions remain about how studios will finish upcoming projects that are currently housed at MPC, which include Disney's live-action remake of "Lilo and Stitch" and Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning," as well as Mikros' work, such as Paramount and Nickelodeon's upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sequel.
Technicolor has already started to shut down U.S. operations. On Friday, it began alerting customers and employees, sending U.S. employees a WARN notice as required by law for large companies that anticipate closings and mass layoffs. At least one recovery effort already started for roughly 100 U.S. employees of The Mill. The creative leadership and most of the creative staff that was Technicolor's The Mill U.S. is joining forces with Dream Machine FX to launch a new venture, Arc Creative, Variety reported exclusively on Monday. A statement from the artists explains they they are working to launch the new entity amid "the complexities of Technicolor's Chapter 7 proceedings."
Questions remain about how studios will finish upcoming projects that are currently housed at MPC, which include Disney's live-action remake of "Lilo and Stitch" and Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning," as well as Mikros' work, such as Paramount and Nickelodeon's upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sequel.
The handwriting is on the wall (Score:2)
Spelled out in black and white.
Re: (Score:3)
Good Lord, how did you manage to turn this into a DEI story in your head?
Re: (Score:2)
We have a page like that on the website of the company where I work and we just posted record year end profits. Clearly DEI is either awesome, or irrelevant to the topic, take your pick.
We'll know its really gone ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Explanation for the young [youtube.com].
Louden Wainright Dead Skunk (Score:2)
Technicolor mentioned in this song.
"All over the road.... "Technicolor"
Oh great (Score:2)
We're going back to black and white television.
On the bright side, some of the greatest films ever made were in black and white...
I am confused (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
According to the press, "the group said they 'faced financial challenges for some time, in particular due to an increase of labour costs, and the long term impact of the 2023 Writers Guild Strike which delayed projects.' They also mentioned the 'absence of viable options' in [the USA] after they looked into different funding options including sale and refinancing."
Source (in French) https://www.lefigaro.fr/econom... [lefigaro.fr]
Re: I am confused (Score:2)
This isn't the first time they have been in trouble, a string of incompetent CEOs have consistently failed worse than the previous one. The reason
Re: (Score:2)
Most companies that go bankrupt have an income stream. The question is if the income is higher than their outgoings, debt obligations, etc. Accounting has two columns in a book at a minimum and involves balancing the two.
Also why would they have "plenty of income"? You don't know anything about these projects. Disney infamously squeezes contractors for every penny while pocketing all the profits themselves, and being part of a project does not necessarily mean you're doing the entire project.
Worth noting th
Doomed to demise by MBA's (Score:5, Interesting)
Above me, Retired Chemist wrote "If they had all these major projects from large companies, why are they bankrupt?", and his arguments make sense. I know Technicolor as the name on movie credits, but not much else about it as a company. So, I looked it up. Here are two pertinent Wikipedia pages:
Technicolor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Technicolor Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The company was founded in 1916. Sounds like it was a robust viable business going into the 2000's. The post above states that 2020-covid caused the downturn. But, reading these two Wiki articles, it sounds like that was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
The thing that came to mind in reading about the company is the 2008 financial crisis and mortgage-backed-securities - same dynamics on a small scale.
Specifically, the company has been bought, sold, spun off, mantled and dismantled several times since the 1980's. At this point, I wouldn't think that anybody in that corporate superstructure much knows much or gives a shit who or what Technicolor is. For the creative workaday people doing film projects, they probably have interest and passion and technical can-do, but not much to say or do about corporate management or business development and maintenance.
It is just another example of corporate profiteering and sucking real value out of historically and technically important companies. Unlike many companies that fail by not keeping up with the times, it sounds like they were doing so, and if left alone to be a focused company with a clearly defined business, they might have continued doing well. But alas, it is yet another instance of the modern business mantra of fuck "our" business in the long run for sucking it dry now, or at best, let's pretend to do business by putting MBA pecker-heads in charge - or nobody in charge.
Re: Doomed to demise by MBA's (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and no. It's not so much corporate profiteering but rather the stad state of the visual effects industry on a larger scale. Technicolor in the USA has been subject to Chapter 15 since COVID, and was going through multiple restructures in an attempt to save itself. They cite the actual straw that broke the camel's back as the US writers strike which crippled them during their recovery attempt.
But the bigger issue is that the movie industry is morally bankrupt. Disney infamously fucks over its contractors