In the modern production environment, Visual Effects have become a necessary tool at every budget level. Year after year, the dependency on VFX has grown, often making it the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive part of the Post Process. This panel aims to dissect why this is the case. We hope to explore:

- how VFX budgets are determined initially, how the decision is made to shoot something practically vs. planning shots as VFX
- why there is a gap in understanding between the initial VFX budget and the process it takes to turn that budget into costs
- why there are so many shots treated as VFX that were not planned as VFX in every production
- what happens behind the curtain in the creation of VFX (how many artists work on a shot, and for how long? Why do some shots cost more than others? How do we deal with seemingly endless notes coming from showrunners? How does the VFX schedule affect the overall Post Calendar?)

In order to create this understanding, we have one person who works in each stage of the VFX planning process on the panel. Our goal is to give filmmakers a better understanding of the VFX process to assist them in planning, so that they aren’t left in a difficult and sometimes prohibitive situation when it comes to post. We hope to bridge the understanding gap between budget and final product so that filmmakers can better understand how a VFX budget translates into VFX shots.