the Gold Hugo - Chicago International Film Festival 2000 Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival 2001 | available on bitter films: volume 1 |
"In the spring of 1999, the Family Learning Channel
commissioned animator
Production began on March 3, 1999 with the final cut completed and sent to the lab in June 2000. While not his longest running production, at the time "Rejected" (2000) was Don's most behind-schedule and wildly out of control project. The movie went through drastic changes straight through the end of post-production, growing stranger and more experimental until it finally bore little resemblance to its original outline. The cartoon's big finale wasn't conceived until midway through production, while individual scenes were redesigned, shuffled around, and significantly reconstructed right up to the last day of sound mixing. Making things difficult on a technical level, "Rejected" was meanwhile the first film produced at Don's then-new 35mm studio. 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. 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. 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. The film's first cut - clocking in at over twelve minutes - was radically retooled and fine-tuned down to one and two frame edits. 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. Don believed the first cuts of the film to be an abject failure and approached editing and sound design on a "rescue mission."
Over eighty hours were spent mixing and recording sound for the 9 1/2 minute cartoon, reworking scenes several times over. Don had animated the lip synch of the characters before any dialogue was recorded - and in many cases before dialogue was even written - allowing for vocal improvisation for nearly every scene. The growing experimental nature of the production left the door wide open for an almost infinite number of creative choices, and trial and error required many extra days to rework certain scenes over and over again until they seemed right. Many sequences were recorded and mixed one way and then torn down and rebuilt from scratch, often with entirely different dialogue - other times a scene played funnier when the dialogue was simply played backwards. Other scenes contain a mess of experimental layers of music, noise, and effects. A chunk of the sound mix was also concentrated around the film's finale, for which "the world's greatest crash-box" was created - a sound effects box filled with broken bottles, concrete, glass, lightbulbs, and giant rocks that was thrown down stairs, against walls, and from great heights. There was much drinking involved. Don created other sound effects for the finale by distorting his guitar amp or sampling and severely manipulating industrial sounds, engines, and motors. Like all of Don's films, no computers were used in the picture's production. All the finale's special effects were captured in-camera: Don performed experiments with the animation camera's motor to create the desired camera and motion blurs, whereas the crumple and paper effects are a simple blend of stop-motion-animated paper and traditional animation, not unlike Genre. The final result of all this in the film's conclusion is really something on the big screen. The film premiered in the Spring of 2000 at the San Diego Comic Convention to an audience of over 1,000. Don totalled his car on the freeway on the way home from the premiere but escaped unharmed. In 2001, "Rejected" was nominated for an Academy Award. To date it has received twenty-seven other awards. During the film's theatrical release a small but growing confusion surfaced over whether "Rejected" was "real." Urban legends circled around the film, particularly fueled whenever a film critic would reprint a synopsis of the film in lieu of actually watching it, going to press with false descriptions of the film as a documentary reel. The legends later found new life when "Rejected" was due for its American television premiere, uncut and commercial free, on the Cartoon Network in 2001. The air date was delayed for a year due to internal trouble with the network's standards and practices department, who finally gave the film a green light to premiere in November 2002. After a week of promoting the film, the network then pulled it 48 hours before its scheduled time, for reasons still unknown. So "Rejected" became truly rejected and more confusion over its true history grew. Unfortunately the film has still never aired on American television, despite having played on international networks now for years. The short currently enjoys a strong cult following and is probably Don's most recognizable film.
read about the film's production during 1999-2000 in Don's journal and in past interviews. Production credits
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Awards for "Rejected"
2000 |
the Gold Hugo - Chicago International Film Festival
Best Animated Film - Kudzu Film Festival, Athens GA the Lumiere Award - New Orleans Film Festival Special Achievement in Animation - Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, AL Best Animated Film - Freaky Film Festival, IL First Place - Cripple Creek Film Festival, CO First Place, Audience Choice Award: Best Short Film - MicroCineFest, Baltimore Judge's Extra Special "Too Cool" Award - MicroCineFest, Baltimore "Cinematexas Spirit" Award, Cinematexas Film Festival, Austin Second Place, Animated Film - Pacific Coast Film Festival, CA Second Place, Experimental Film - Smogdance Film Festival, CA |
2001 |
Best Animated Short Film Best Foreign Film - Reykjavik Short Film Festival, Iceland
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"Rejected" public exhibition history
2000 |
Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation tour
San Diego Comic Convention Chicago International Film Festival (the Golden Hugo) Kudzu Film Festival, Athens GA (Best Animated Film) New Orleans Film Festival (the Lumiere Award) Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, AL (Special Achievement in Animation) Freaky Film Festival, Urbana IL (Best Animated Film) Cripple Creek Film Festival, CO (First Place) MicroCineFest, Baltimore Cinematexas Film Festival, Austin ("Cinematexas Spirit" Award) Pacific Coast Film Festival, La Jolla CA (Second Place, Animation) Smogdance Film Festival, Pomona CA (Second Place, Experimental Film) AFI Film Festival, Los Angeles One Reel Film Festival / Bumbershoot, Seattle Kudzu Film Festival, Athens GA Denver International Film Festival CMJ Film Festival, Manhattan Austin Film Festival Ohio Independent Film Festival, Cleveland Hawaii International Film Festival Montclair Short Film Festival, NJ Sick Puppy Festival, CA CineVegas International Film Festival Ragtag Film Series, MO |
2001 |
Sundance Film Festival
the Don and Bill Show (touring program w/ Bill Plympton) Annecy International Animation Festival, France Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation tour Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation tour SXSW Film Festival, TX (out of competition) Reykjavik Short Film Festival, Iceland (Best Foreign Film) Melbourne International Animation Festival Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival, Korea I Castelli Animati Festival, Rome (Special Jury Prize) Newport International Film Festival, RI (Best Short Film) California SUN Animation Festival San Francisco Independent Film Festival (Staff Prize, Best Short Film) New York Underground Film Festival (Best Animated Film) Texas Film Festival (Best Short Film) Dahlonega International Film Festival (Animated Short Audience Award) Hardacre Film Festival, Iowa (Best Animation) Boston Underground Film Festival (Best Animation) Convergence Film and Animation Festival (Juror's Choice Award) Worldfest Houston (Bronze Award, Animated Short Subject) International Festival of Animation, Valencia, Spain (Second Place) Anima Mundi Animation Festival, Brazil (Third Place, Best Film) World Animation Celebration, Los Angeles Memphis Film Festival Wisconsin Film Festival Santa Barbara International Film Festival Phoenix Film Festival, AZ Filmfest New Haven, CT Taos Talking Picture Festival, NM Hi Mom Film Festival, NC Cleveland International Film Festival Edinburgh International Film Festival, UK Maryland Film Festival Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema Kansas City Film Jubilee East Lansing Film Festival, MI Newport Beach Film Festival, CA Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto "Oscar's Shorts 2000" film program, Boston Apollo Cinema's Oscar-Nominated Short Film screenings: Washington DC, Portland, and Alaska Animerte Dager, Norway Animation Festival International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands San Diego International Film Festival Canal+ Spain television broadcasts Canal+ France television broadcasts Canal+ Poland television broadcasts Canal+ Benelux television broadcasts Canal+ Norway television broadcasts Animation Creative Conference, CA Oscar Short Films Showcase, Wichita, KS Bristol Short Film Festival, UK Best of the N.O. Film Festival, LA Sydney Film Festival Antelope Valley Independent Film Festival, CA Woodstock Film Festival, NY Atlanta Film Festival USA Film Festival, TX Nashville Independent Film Festival Chicago Underground Film Festival Wine Country Film Festival, CA Florida Film Festival Lake Placid Film Forum, NY International Weekend of Animation, Wiesbaden Germany Matita Film Festival, Italy SITGES Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya, Barcelona FAN International Animation Festival, Norwich, UK Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Montreal St. Louis International Film Festival Fantasy Film Fest - Int'l Festival for Science Fiction, Horror, and Thriller Athens International Film Festival, Greece Incredible Film Festival, New Zealand Pacific Palisades Film Festival, CA Making Scenes Film Festival, Ontario New York Animation Festival Crested Butte Reel Festival, CO PISAF2001, Korea Maui International Short Film Festival, HI Catacomb Microcinema, Winnipeg, Canada Birmingham Film and TV Festival, UK Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, Brazil "Projector" - BAFTA Animation Showcase, Glasgow Scotland |
2002 |
the Don and Bill Show (touring program w/ Bill Plympton) Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation tour Cucalorus Film Festival, NC Muskegon Film Festival, MI Anthology Film Archives, NY Peachtree Film Festival, GA Fremont Film Festival, CA Asbury Shorts of New York FAN International Animation Festival, Norwich England Northwest Film Forum, WA Brisbane International Animation Festival, Australia |
2003 |
the Animation Show tour FAN International Animation Festival, Norwich England (Bitter Films retrospective) "I Castelli Animati" Animation Festival, Italy (Bitter Films retrospective) the Don and Bill Show (touring program w/ Bill Plympton) Projector Film Festival, Scotland La Casa Encendida Festival, Madrid Spain |
2004 |
the Animation Show tour Chicago International Film Festival ("best of" screening) |
2005 |
An Evening of Bitter Films: George Eastman House, Rochester NY
"Cosmic Zoom" Animation Festival, Denmark (Bitter Films retrospective) Big Muddy Film Fesitval, IL (Bitter Films retrospective) Film Fest New Haven "I Castelli Animati" Animation Festival, Italy ("best of" screening) |
2006 | Bitter Films Volume One: 1995-2005 DVD
The Sundance Institute's "Art House Project" tour Taiwan International Animation Festival Southside Film Festival, PA Udigrudi World Animation Convention, Brazil (Bitter Films retrospective) |
2007 | Canal+ Spain broadcast SFTV Swiss TV broadcast Platform Animation Festival, Portland |
2008 | An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt tour |
2009 |
An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt tour I.Sat, TBS Latin America (TV broadcast) Big Cartoon Festival, Moscow |
2010 |
Image Forum Festival tour, Japan Animator Festival, Poland Fest Anca, Slovakia |