Art Directors Guild makes designs on ‘previs’ workers

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The Art Directors Guild is stepping up its efforts to extend union benefits to the men and women who create computerized images that enable film and TV directors to previsualize their movies before production starts.

The guild this week launched a new informational website (www.directactionartist.com) called Artists for Direct Action to provide so-called previs artists with information on how organize their workplaces and join the Art Directors Guild. The guild, Local 800 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has nearly 2,000 members and represents illustrators, matte artists, set designers and model markers.

‘It’s a natural fit for previs talents to be represented by the Art Directors Guild,’’ ADG President Tom Walsh said. ‘Our new site will let them know what they can do to claim for themselves the rights all other ADG members currently enjoy.’

Walsh said the guild is seeking to bring previs artists into the union at a time when such workers have come to play an increasingly important role in productions, especially for big-budget features. Yet, unlike many of their peers in the art department, many of these workers do not belong to a union.

‘We want them to have access to health and welfare benefits and collective bargaining rights,’’ Walsh said. ‘Right now, they don’t have any of that.’

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-- Richard Verrier