The documentary's animation department became another flashpoint in its troubled production. Ellen Besen supervised the animated sequences, which initially totaled about twenty minutes, but additional animation was requested when the interviews made the film too long. According to Besen, Mann had no clear plan for the new material and did not understand the storyboarding process. By March 1987, she said, “the whole production was spinning out of control”; producer Haig and executive producer Martin Harbury were occupied elsewhere, and Besen found herself unable to reach Mann for direction. After returning from a wedding and a week-long vacation, she discovered that she had been fired. Mann then sought assistance from art directors Gerlinde Scharinger and Steven Lewis, although he later claimed that he performed much of the remaining work himself. The episode illustrates how the documentary's loose, improvisational style also produced severe organizational conflict behind the scenes.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The Animator’s Firing as Comic Book Confidential Collapsed Under Its Own Ambition
Comic Book Confidential / 1980s
The documentary's animation department became another flashpoint in its troubled production. Ellen Besen supervised the animated sequences, which initially totaled about twenty minutes, but additional animation was requested when the interviews made the film too long. According to Besen, Mann had no clear plan for the new material and did not understand the storyboarding process. By March 1987, she said, “the whole production was spinning out of control”; producer Haig and executive producer Martin Harbury were occupied elsewhere, and Besen found herself unable to reach Mann for direction. After returning from a wedding and a week-long vacation, she discovered that she had been fired. Mann then sought assistance from art directors Gerlinde Scharinger and Steven Lewis, although he later claimed that he performed much of the remaining work himself. The episode illustrates how the documentary's loose, improvisational style also produced severe organizational conflict behind the scenes.
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