Hollywood’s Visual Effects Crisis (opens in new tab)

In the United States, where Hollywood is, giving a minor a job to do exploits them. Giving someone a job to do without paying them exploits them. Giving someone a job to do while paying them lower than a certain wage exploits them. These are all things that we all collectively are agreed are awful, and wars -- both figurative and literal ones -- were fought over them.

So, you've got the problem where people are expected to work below a living wage, and if they don't then you'll give someone else the job.

Like when the guys who did the special effects for "Life of Pi" won the Academy Award for special effects, but they also went bankrupt before they could collect the trophy.

The software for most special effects is well known and a relatively small and fixed cost. But salaries are a huge part of the cost, and in theory anyone in the world can just run the software. So, all those jobs get outsourced to the cheapest countries in the world, if you're not willing to work for similar bottom of the barrel rates.