Editing Rejected (section)

==Production==
Hertzfeldt's first film after graduating from college, ''Rejected'' was photographed on a 35mm [[rostrum camera]] he purchased in 1999.

''Rejected'' features simple hand-drawn artwork, featuring mostly black pen animation on a white background with occasional use of color. As the film progresses and the fictionalized animator begins to fall apart, the drawings become more crude and the animation becomes more erratic. As the film concludes, the paper the animation is drawn on begins to crumple and tear, and the characters are seen struggling to evade the destruction.

Besides the iconic ''Allegro ma non-troppo'' from [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's 9th]] that plays in the text introductions to each segment, a particular segment with the "Fluffy Guys" uses background music from the [[Sweden|Swedish]] Christmas song ''[[Nu är det jul igen]]''.

===Inspiration===
[[File:Rejected (2000) consumer whore frame.png|thumb|right|''Rejected''<nowiki/>'s advertisements poke fun at [[consumerism]].]]
Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt has never done any advertising work,<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/may/02/don-hertzfeldt-animator-beautiful-day Don Hertzfeldt: the best animator you've never heard of|Film|The Guardian]</ref> he did receive many offers to do television commercials after ''[[Billy's Balloon]]'' received international attention and acclaim. In appearances, he would often tell the humorous story of how he was tempted to produce the worst possible cartoons he could come up with for the companies, run off with their money, and see if they would actually make it to air. Eventually, this became the germ for ''Rejected'''s theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown.

Hertzfeldt has never accepted "real" advertising work and has stated numerous times on his website and in public appearances that he never will, as he feels advertisements are "lies" and he does not want to lie to his audience.<ref name="Bitter Films' FAQ">{{cite web | url=http://www.bitterfilms.com/faq.html | title=Bitter Films' FAQ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104192317/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/films_of_the_decade/index.html?story=%2Fent%2Fmovies%2Ffilm_salon%2F2009%2F12%2F31%2Frejected | archive-date=4 January 2010 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>