After a pre-Oscar protest by Rhythm & Hues visual effects employees and supporters, and the winner of the visual effects Oscar having his mic cut off just as he was about to mention their issues, VFX Soldier has an open letter to Life of Pi director Ang Lee who mentioned after winning the directing trophy that he wished special effects were cheaper. The writer says yes it “can be expensive and yes it takes a lot of technology and computing power to create films like yours, it is not computer chips and hard drives that are costing you so very much money. It is the artists that are helping you create your film. So when you say ‘I would like it to be cheaper,’ as an artist I take that personally. It took hundreds of hours from skilled artists and hard-working coordinators and producers to craft the environments and performances in life of Pi. Not to mention the engineers that wrote all of that proprietary code and build the R+H pipeline. That is where your money went. I’d say, judging from the night you just had, you got one hell of a deal”.