Many animators have complained about the way they are treated by major studios, despite the industry’s rising profile. However, Seth Rogen and Jeff Rowe, the film’s producers, say they tried to buck that terrible trend with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Rowe told Insider how the company encourages its employees to strike a balance between work and personal life.
Rowe said, “That was the thing that was really important to us on this film, and I learned it from Seth and Evan [Goldberg], because in getting to know Seth, I’m like, ‘He has a really good work-life balance and everyone at Point Gray does,'” referring to the actor’s production company.
“Well, when you’re doing live action, sometimes you’re on the set for 40 days in a row, and it is exhausting and tiring,” Rogen reportedly told the director. To keep it from being all-consuming, and to give our people a break from it,”
After hearing the complaints, Rowe said he made the decision to make the movie “ethically.”
The director says the animators were consulted about how they wanted to see the film made, and their input was taken into account. Some workers favored three-day workweeks, while others favored being able to choose their own hours and locations.
I never want another teammate to be in more discomfort than I am. The other guys aren’t getting paid to take it on themselves like I am as captain, so hopefully I’m taking it harder than them,” Rowe said. It’s vital that we maintain the status quo. Better work is produced when people get enough sleep and have satisfying personal lives.
It was recently revealed that the animators who worked on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were so exhausted by the film’s production that they swore they would never work with producer Phil Lord again. Former Marvel animators all agree that the studio is a “horrible client” that regularly drives its employees to burnout.
On the other hand, Rogen enjoyed more creative control as a producer on Mutant Mayhem.
We were able to shape the system and the procedure to our liking in many ways. Because “we are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process,” he told Polygon, he is hesitant to work on a Marvel film.