Hollywood film Sausage Party’s directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon are facing flak for allegedly mistreating the animators in the film. The Directors have been accused of subjecting them to overtime work without pay, in addition to not including their names in the credits.
Tiernan and Vernon were interviewed by Cartoon Brew, where they bragged about keeping the costs of creating the $20 million animated film under budget. Now, it has been suggested that the reason they managed to keep the purse strings tight on the Sony Pictures comedy was due to making staff work overtime for free.
On the comments section of the post, there were anonymous commenters who alleged the way animators in the film were mistreated. Ironically, one of the film’s promo clips satirizes poor treatment of animators. The comments posted by members of the animation team, spoke of the ‘animosity and mandatory unpaid work on weekends’.
“The production cost were kept low because Greg would demand people work overtime for free. If you wouldn’t work late for free your work would be assigned to someone who would stay late or come in on the weekend. Some artist were even threatened with termination for not staying late to hit a deadline. The animation department signed a petition for better treatment and paid overtime. When the letter got to Annapurna they stepped in and saw that artist were payed and fed when overtime was needed. Over 30 animators left during the coarse of the production due to the stress and expectations. Most of them left before the paid overtime was implemented. This was met with animosity and was taken as a personal insult to the owners. Their names were omitted from the final credits despite working for over a year on this film,” wrote a user named Uncredited Supervisor.
Another commenter noted that as much as half of the animation team was not credited. Sausage Party’s IMDB page lists 83 animators, but the film’s own credits only include 47.
“Almost half the animation team was not credited. The team believed in this film and poured their hearts and souls into it. Despite this, more than half of it was not credited. You can see the full team on IMDB, which contains 83 people (and I am certain there are some missing). The film’s credits, however, contains 47,” wrote another user called Another Uncredited Animator.
The team also had to fight for fair compensation. A lot of the artists ended up quitting due to unfair practices and poor management. The studio had lost a massive portion of the team by the end of the production (more than half) that they had to resort to hire recent animation graduates to finish the film. “What we currently see in the credits are the students as well as animators who have stayed until the end of the production, and a couple who have left the production. Most of the animators who are not credited have been on the show for more than a year and a half, which is most of the production time. These are the people who have worked hard to set the style of the show and have their work used as promotion for the film,” wrote a user.
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Sausage Party was produced in Canada by Nitrogen Studios. The production company and the makers of the film are yet to comment on the issue, with many of the comments posted being discussed on Reddit.
The film was officially released on 12 August, with actors Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco, Michael Cera, Danny McBride, and Paul Rudd lending their voice for the adult animation comedy. It is currently ranked Number 1 at the US Box Office with $222.9 million.
Feature Image Courtesy: SausagePartyMovie.com