Aside Ben who does the screenings, the local section boards plan most of the activities, along with the Education Committee. The Awards Committee handles the Awards. I assume somebody handles the magazine publication. How is the office staff more than 2 or 3 people? Is that good use of my dues?

I learned yesterday that they've moved into new nicer offices and this year they hired more staff and all I can think is "why?" What does the home office DO? There's once guy who arranges all the screenings worldwide and he's fantastic. I can't tell you what any of the rest of them do all day.

Yeah, I've worked in Toronto, and have people I consider friends there. I'd still rather that work was in L.A. though.

My contention is that VES should have always stayed U.S. centric, and more exclusive. It was pitched to me as the VFX equivalent to American Society of Cinematographers, American Cinema Editors, Producer's Guild of America, etc. I think it would have been better and more prestigious to stay that way

Every once and a while I'll get in a conversation with a board members about how VES doesn't really live up to its potential and declining membership in some sections is testimony to that. They'll ask what to do to fix that. And I'll say too late - it should never have become international.

Yeah. There's been a push by Toronto people and others to move the headquarters out of L.A. If they ever do that, I'm out, even with free Neflix.

Filming the scene before the sky replacement: