A finished scene was cut many weeks after picture was locked, the order of commercial sequences was constantly shuffled around, more was cut out, more was reshot, and every moment of dead time was thrown out the window. The film's first cut - clocking in at over twelve minutes - was radically retooled and fine-tuned down to one and two frame edits. With no way to view any of the finished footage, the entire movie was instead spliced together blind, with proper editing sessions later taking place in the dead of night on the Warner Bros lot when nobody was looking. A projector was purchased in an attempt to be able to view and edit the film in-house, but the idea crashed and burned quite literally in impressive plumes of white smoke - the projector was broken on delivery. Most of Don's animation was completed before the camera gear was purchased and the movie was then photographed before any of the editing equipment was in place. Making things difficult on a technical level, 'Rejected' was meanwhile the first film produced at Don's then-new 35mm studio. Were redesigned, shuffled around, and significantly reconstructed right up to the last day of sound mixing. Little resemblance to its original outline.īig finale wasn't conceived until midway through production, while individual scenes The movie went through drastic changes straight through the end of post-production, growing stranger and more experimental until it finally bore Was Don's most behind-schedule and wildly out of control project. While not his longest running production, at the time 'Rejected' (2000) Production began on Mawith the final cut completed and sent to the The Family Learning Channel rejected all of them upon review, The cartoons were completed in five weeks. 'In the spring of 1999, the Family Learning Channel Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival 2001

Stick figure animator oscar