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Following the publication of our article (see previous page), we received a few more testimonies. Here they are ; as requested, the people who sent them will remain anonymous, but we were of course able to check that they really did work for BUF at some point. As you will understand while reading them, these testimonies confirm, complete or add some nuances to the other testimonies.
First testimony :
I worked at BUF Paris and BUF Montreal, and I have nothing bad to say about BUF Paris: the level is way better than in Montreal, wether it is the work environment or the way the teams are managed, valued. While I was at BUF Montreal (which overlaps the period the article is focused on) I saw 5 or 6 people being pushed to resign. They were given repetitive tasks and no perspective of evolution. As for the overtime, it was used including on projects which, I think, did not need it. When I joined the team, I quickly felt uneasy, there was this constant feeling of being judged, with lots of things kept unsaid. For example, I was able to see on the screen of someone (a lead) a spreadsheet with comments on all the artists of the studio. I sometimes went to work with a heavy heart. When I arrived in the studio, I was so scared of being let go that I could feel my blood pressure rise. Lastly, I regret the low wages, equivalent to the French minimum wage (SMIC), even if other companies have the same practices, and the fact that is was hard to join another studio afterwards, due to the fact that the in-house tools used at BUF are far from what is used in the rest of the industry.
Second testimony :
I spent almost two years at BUF Paris, about ten years ago. My testimony is similar to what has been reported in the article. There are many positive things at BUF, such as the fact you can learn as a generalist, the fact that most people in the studio are normal, and I worked with many qualified and sympathetic supervisors. But a project could indeed become hard to put up with if you stumbled upon the bad supervisor/producer. Following a complaint I sent about a production director, the HR department did escalate the issue but the complaint was not taken inot account by the management: the HR were told this production director was protected by the supervisor of the project. This supervisor, who is according to me amongst the toxic people of the studio, still works for BUF.
As stated in the article, this kind of issue does happen elsewhere: at BUF but also at MPC, Scanline, Mill, DNeg, Framestore, there are problematic supervisors and young artists can be poorly treated. There is a real need for a counter-power, something that would put an end to the impunity when these toxic and dangerous behaviours take place. Especially to avoid dramatic consequences, such as what recently happened in Canada.
Third testimony :
I spent several years at BUF in Paris, but also at BUF Montreal, which gave me a good idea of the work environment and practices in both places. I lived or witnessed several issues, such as mandatory, unpaid overtime in Paris (more that 4 hours a day, every day, with threats of layoffs if you refused), the CEO shouting regularly in the Paris office, but mainly on the management and not the artists like us: this does not change the fact that this is unforgivable.
As for BUF Montreal, I can confirm there is indeed a “cleavage”, very pronounced and not limited to a single project: it is deeply rooted within the studio. I can confirm as well the testimonies of overtime being compensated with time off, without any choice being given to the employee to be compensated with an additional pay (as was mentioned in the comments of the article, in Quebec this choice is legally given to the employee, not the company, contrary to what BUF stated in their answer). I also witnessed the boss shouting (but this is much less pervasive than in Paris), as well as the unforgivable behaviour of some supervisors towards artists. These degrading, harsh and mean supervisors do exist but this is not necessarily the norm.
I would like to nuance and explain the cleavage at Montreal. For me, it is linked to the fact that many supervisors are French, and many young artists from Quebec, who sometimes lack hindsight due to their limited experience. There are therefore two cleavages: the culture is not the same, and these people are not from the same generation. I can confirme the complaints about the speed and quality of the work, mentionned in the article, but I think they are linked to this clash of cultures. There is a huge difference between the behaviour of artists in France and Quebec, as well as French and Quebecer management.
More broadly, there are indeed some well known issues, such as moral harassment, but one should not forget the scale of the studio: in 35 years, probably more than 2000 people worked at BUF.
To conclude, there are indeed issues at BUF, linked to very specific individuals. The people who harass or exhibiting those behaviours are of course the first responsibles. The management has already shown, in the past, that they could take into account the complaints and internal reports, it is therefore all the more unfortunate that they don’t act today: they can’t ignore the reality of some of these issues. Even if I did witness some of the issues highlighted by the article, and even live some situation I would not want to experience again, I learned a lot at BUF, more than everywhere else. This does not excuse any current or past issue, and I find it sad not to be able to be able to benefit from the experience of the studio without having to endure this environment and mentality.
More broadly, I think this situation reminds us how important it is to share information about employee’s rights, in order to solve some issues that, unfortunately, are quite common within the industry.
These testimonies strengthen our belief that we should discuss more often about worker’s rights.
We will therefore, in the coming weeks and months, act in light of this belief. Our goal won’t be to point the finger at one studio after the orther, but rather to offer our readers more information and reflexions about these topics. Hopefully, we contribute to move the industry, as a whole, forward.
