Saturday Night Live Visual Effects Workers Unionize, Win Recognition with Unanimous Support

Visual Effects (VFX) workers for Saturday Night Live (SNL) are unionizing with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and have won official recognition of their union, IATSE announced Monday. The group includes sixteen VFX Artists and VFX Leads who unanimously signed cards indicating their support of unionizing with IATSE and whose labor is central to making Saturday Night Live’s pre-recorded digital shorts pop.

While SNL is known for its live televised segments, it also features pre-recorded “digital shorts” which require editors and VFX Workers to work under extremely tight time constraints and deadlines. In 2017, Fast Company reported this can be as little as 12 hours. Some examples of VFX-heavy SNL digital shorts include the February 2023 HBO Mario Kart Trailer, and just this past week the My Best Friend’s House music video featuring Ariana Grande.

“Over the six seasons I’ve worked at SNL, I’ve seen the VFX department evolve from a small group to a tightly integrated, highly organized operation capable of delivering hundreds of demanding shots over a 24-hour period. It’s an intense, collaborative, and extremely fun environment that constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences,” said VFX Artist Richard Lampasone. “Our work, like that of everyone else above and below the line, is critical to the show’s success. We look forward to celebrating Season 50 by joining in SNL’s decades-long tradition of supporting union labor, and to helping negotiate a contract that reflects the substantial value we add and makes ours a more accessible and sustainable career for years to come.” Read more here!