During pre-production on Looney Tunes: Back in Action, I met with director Joe Dante about the animation director's position. While talking to Joe and the producers, I expressed my opinion that they should storyboard the movie before building any sets to avoid making anything they would not use. The producers laughed smugly, telling me they had five sound stages rocking out sets as we spoke. Ha ha! And furthermore, they will have only two months to board, but that's okay because they're going to throw a lot of bodies at it.
"The problem with that," I said, "is there's no time to think."
Joe, a nice, laid back kind of guy, suddenly slammed his fist on his desk. "YES!" he said. "They NEVER give you time to think!"
I didn't get the job. Thank GOD!
Time to think has become more and more scarce as computer technology allows work to be done faster. But don't blame technology! This is the same bean counting game producers have played for years, but CG has given them a great excuse to push it beyond reason.