RenegadeRocks
Legend
If they provide well for their employees, like Kojima sent everyone on paid leave for months n vacation after crunching to finish MGs4, then it makes it a bit better. But having gone through it multiple times and lost quite a bit of my health due to it, my views are pretty clear about it. When I was the lead for a DVD version of The Jungle Book, my first priority was : no overtime for my team! I managed it such that we finished it in time and except for me n one compositor no one in the texturing, lighting or compositing team had to work overtime. Its do-able. Of course, the management did not think I achieved anything special. Their project got done, one way or the other.
Crunch times are part of this industry, but displaying them as badges : it was okay when teams were smaller, comprising of self driven core creators. But now studios are big establishments and it doesn't take long to turn into a sweat shop.
Hence, my views about the overtime. We did have that ugly R* episode too when wives had to put an open letter on the internet to bring the injustice to the fore as artists kept slogging fearing loSing their job.
