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Comment RSSTensions On ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ Set
15.10.09 # News # 5 Comments
I don’t think Wes Anderson is known for being difficult to work for, but that is exactly what the crew on his new animated fable The Fantastic Mr. Fox are saying in a piece from the LA Times.
[When asked about Anderson's decision to direct remotely via e-mail] “It’s not in the least bit normal,” director of photography Tristan Oliver observed at the production’s East London set last spring, when production on “Mr. Fox” was about three-quarters complete. “I’ve never worked on a picture where the director has been anywhere other than the studio floor!”
…
“Honestly? Yeah. He has made our lives miserable,” the film’s director of animation, Mark Gustafson, said during a break in shooting. He gave a weary chuckle. “I probably shouldn’t say that.
Anderson decided instead to live in France, even though he wasn’t needed there, and direct the movie via detailed e-mails and video clips. In his defense, the stop-motion film did take two years to complete.
Anderson banned the animators from using CGI or green screen and instead made them employ materials such as plastic kitchen wrap to stand-in for water, cotton balls as puffs of smoke and green terry cloth as grass.
When asked about the attitude from his crew Anderson shot back with:
“It’s not the most pleasant thing to force somebody to do it the way they don’t want to do it,” Anderson said. “In Tristan’s case, what I was telling him was, ‘You can’t use the techniques that you’ve learned to use. I’m going to make your life more difficult by demanding a certain approach.’
“The simple reality is,” Anderson continued, “the movie would not be the way I wanted it if I just did it the way people were accustomed to doing it. I realized this is an opportunity to do something nobody’s ever seen before. I want to see it. I don’t want afterward to say, ‘I could have gone further with this.’ “
Personally I’m with Anderson on this one. He’s the director. On his film, what he says goes. And given what we have seen of the film so far, it certainly seems unique, though the low-tech look has divided critics.
Source: LA Times
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I don’t know what his crew are moaning about. If you don’t have the same vision as the director then why work with him?How many people are queueing up to get into the movie industry? They should thank their lucky stars and do as they’re told.
I guess after years in the film industry for many it becomes just a job like anything else, less about artistic collaboration, more about finishing work at 6pm and going home to the kids. A two year stop motion project, which is seemingly like watching paint dry, probably would get to some.
After seeing the finished product (in trailers) I can totally understand what Anderson was going for and applaud him for it. It seems like these people are complaining more about how hard the job was to complete than about how much of a prick Anderson was. I agree with Thom…I can name dozens of personal acquaintances with talent and skills who would have lunged at an opportunity like this. The fact is, this is their job, and Anderson is their boss. You don’t like how your boss wants you to do things? Too bad – he’s the boss. That’s life. And a lot of us have to deal with that harsh reality without all the perks and creativity that one can expect from working in the film industry. Suck it up and do your job.
It’s irritating to see the line about Wes not allowing greenscreen or CGI being trotted out again and again. There’s a lot of digital vfx in the film. There was an in-house vfx team on the show for months and months, and at least 2 external vfx houses were engaged to help finish the job too. That the production (and tacitly, I guess, Wes) pretends there was no greenscreen or CGI “allowed” is mendacious, and disrespectful to the digital designers who worked hard and long on the film.
Artistically, this is awesome. For the crew that just wanted to make a living as easily as possible, I get why it sucked. Though I think they are pansies.
In regards to directing via email, that does suck and seems very very unkind and unprofessional. If you are going to put your crew through the paces then you better go through those paces with them.
Of course, there might be some other reason for it that we’re not seeing.