Technicolor Begins to Shut Down

Technicolor Group CEO Caroline Parot sent a memo to employees, writing “due to inability to find new investors for the full Group, despite extensive efforts, [Paris-headquartered] Technicolor Group has filed for Court ‘recovery procedure’ before the French Court of Justice to give a chance to enable to find solutions.” therefore, the leadership and most of the artistic staff at The Mill have joined forces with Dream Machine FX for a new venture.

Technicolor has already started to shut down U.S. operations.  “This past Friday, we were collectively informed that after 35 years of groundbreaking artistry, The Mill would be closing its doors this Monday [Feb. 24]— a casualty of the many years of Technicolor’s well-publicized financial struggles,” the former The Mill U.S. artists explained in a joint statement. “It was a moment that stopped us in our tracks. It goes without saying, the past few days have been filled with emotions: shock, anger, sorrow, concern, and ultimately, resolve. While The Mill as we know it has shut its doors, its spirit, its passion, and its legacy live on through its amazing and talented people. After all, it was always the people that made The Mill truly special.”

Technicolor encompasses VFX giant MPC (“Mufasa,” “The Lion King”), commercial VFX brand The Mill, Mikros Animation and Technicolor Games. 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.

Technicolor has experienced several restructurings and management changes since filing for chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in 2020. The Technicolor memo states, “the Group has been experiencing difficulties linked to a variety of factors and has not been spared from external headwinds: the difficult operational situation resulting from post-COVID recovery, a costly and complex separation from the previous group followed by the writers’ strike leading to a slowdown in customer orders causing severe cash flow pressures.”

Visual effects studios play a key role in film production.

Most modern big-budget movies and television shows will rely heavily on visual effects to transport actors and audiences into outer space, the distant past or the deep sea.

And the appearance and non-vocal performances of characters and creatures, fantastic and otherwise will often be partly or fully the creation of animators and other specialist staff.

As well as purely animated films and TV, many live action releases are in large part the work of the employees of VFX studios.

Many staff work film-to-film on fixed-term contracts, so redundancies may not reflect the total impact of the business’ troubles on jobs.