Pierre Speaks - Fantomette... the day after

I mentioned how after seeing the first few episodes of Fantomette, our bosses were worried that we might quit right there and then.

But we did not.

Although, I did not stay on Fantomette until the end.

I also mentioned how Bob Morane changed my carreer.

Thanks to Bob, I would get about a job offer a month. Many people tried to work on Bob, and having worked on Bob was seen as quite an achievement at the time.

So by the time I reached the end of working on the Fantomette series, I would would no longer get about a job offer a month.

I would get one or two job offers each week.

So as I was reaching the end of my contract on Fantomette, I went to meet with the main producer of the studio (by then I had had enough meetings in my carreer with various producers/directors/company presidents that I was confortable enough to schedule a meeting not only with the director or producer of a given project, but even with some producers or higher ups in the studio or even in some cases the president of the company) and asked her what her plans were concerning me after Fantomette.

I was told that they did not have anything to offer me at the time.

Since I started working in animation, I no longer saw what I did as a job, but as a career. So I was a busy bee building up my career, and the idea of being out of work did not fit with my career plans of the time.

I had taken a month or two off waiting for Heavy Metal because I really wanted to work on it. Because it seemed like a good career move at the time.

But by the time I got to the end of Fantomette, not working was not an option in my book.

So before the end of the project, I started meeting some of the people who were offering me some work at the time. I had over half a dozen meetings, and I was in a place that made some people green with envy.

I had reached a point where I could pick and choose on which project I wanted work on. And thanks to having Bob Morane in my CV (and Heavy Metal too to some extent) I no longer needed to make a test to convince people to hire me.

So after many meetings, I went to see my boss on Fantomette to let her know that I was offered work elsewhere after Fantomette.

I was surprised by the panic I saw in her eyes, and right there, she called one of the producers telling her that I was quitting. I was surprised by how quickly the producer ran (literally) to my bosse's office also with a look of panic on her face.

I learned then that they were planning to have me work on another project after Fantomette called Marsupilami.

But somehow, for some reason, no one told me that before. And I guess they had not shared their plan with the producer I had met earlier.

I suspect that I was actually their number two choice, and they may have been waiting for an answer from their number one choice. But when I told them that I had other work elsewhere after Fantomette, I forced their hand and they could wait no longer and had to offer me the job right there and then.

But I will never really know if that is correct, or if I just need to take some medication to treat my delusions. ;)

A funny story about the producer.

Remember how I mentioned that people often have a "preconceived notions of who they think I am" in an earlier Blog?

Well she was another example of that.

She had in mind that I was some sort of very macho/pervert guy, and she also was very intimidated by me. So when she needed to tell me something, she could not come and tell me. She would tell it to my boss, and my boss who knew me since I had worked with her before on Bob would come and tell me.

But all that changed when I did a short story called Hunter for a magazine called "Exil" (I actually did the story while I was still working on Bob, but it took all that time for the magazine to actually see print).We did some sort of "soiree" to launch the magazine and mostly everyone from the studio showed up. I went to the "soiree" with my girlfriend of the time, and introduced her to everyone, including the producer who was intimidated by me.

When she saw my girlfriend, it was all it took to completely change her opinions about me.

She somehow thought that I was some sort of macho/pervert, and that I was going out with some sort of very superficial Bimbo/Barbie.

The pervert part was because in most studios, there is always a guy, heck sometimes even a few guys, who would draw some sketches of very sexy women, if not hardcore porno stuff.

We had one such guy in the studio, and he would put his drawings on the wall in the area where we were working. Somehow, she had assumed that I was the one making those drawings. And some of them were..... very hardcore.

So when she met my girlfriend, she was very surprised and very relieved to see that my girlfriend was a very sweet and sincere person. So that was where she realized that she was completely wrong about me.

Also later she found out that I was not the one making those hardcore drawings.

Later in another office party, she told me that and admitted to having misjudged me.

Although while Fantomette did not turn out quite like we expected, I was fairly happy working at that studio.

So I decided to stay and work on Marsupilami, and turned down the other job offer I was planning to take. Remember, I had reached a point where I could choose.

So I chose to work on Marsupilami.

But that meant that I could not stay on Fantomette until the end since production on Marsupilami had already started.

So I finished the episode I was working on, and that was it with Fantomette for me.

Which was OK with me since I did not like the final result anyway.

That's it for now.

More soon. ;)