Pixar CS Expo Event

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Pixar CS Expo Event

    Anyone attend?

    Anyone wanna spill the beans?

    EJ

  • #2
    Re: Pixar CS Expo Event

    I was there for the "Trust the Process" panel and the Brad Bird follow-up. I'm not sure what the majority of people here would want to know from it because it seemed to me like a lot of animation fans (obviously) showed up, but that's not what I personally drew from it.

    They all talked at length about how story is primary at Pixar -- how decisions are made, how stories work up and down the chain of command, how the creative selections are made and how individuals contribute to the overall process. The panel was quick-witted, sharp, funny, and interactive. I mean, you got the sense of how Pixar works just by listening to the dynamics of the discussion almost as much as the content itself.

    They showed storyboards for Incredibles and Toy Story, showed a clip of a story pitch by John Lassiter, discussed how every member of the creative team adds their own ideas in a "best idea wins" situation. Ego counts less than storytelling, so if the director or the animator has a sense of what can add to a character or storyline, then that idea will be included.

    My own gem, though... the thing I took away as a screenwriter... was to "generate pages" faster. I mean, something clicked when they talked about exploring situations and characters through quick sketches because often, something which sounds great won't play on the boards. Terry Rossio talked about this a few years ago as well when discussing Pirates. A lot of times we get locked in as writers. Pitching the boards before sitting down to write the final vision (before rewrites) can save many, many wrong alleys and starting overs.

    One thing that came up, for example, was how it wasn't really clear early on who the arch villain would be for Incredibles. I mean, how that story would play out. They talked about how months of work ended up in the trash but what they took away was a clear idea of what the antagonist angle would look like and off they went. Also, the very start of the Incredibles with the backstory about Super Heroes being sued and going underground...

    Don't be too wedded to ideas, I guess you could say. Be open to the process for the whole journey and don't be afraid to let creative juices flow. Write hot and write fast and throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. That's what I learned and what has stayed with me.

    Sorry if I've personalized this too much. Writing about the Pixar day would take hours, literally. It was... well... incredible.
    I'm like an opening band for the sun.
    -- Eddie Vedder: "Push Me / Pull Me"

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Pixar CS Expo Event

      pwrmyth,

      Many thanks for the words on the event.

      I heard the PIRATES CS podcast recently with Terry Rossio where he talked about SHREK and the 'exploring situations' - which he said amounted to a very high overall page count. Too high in his books.

      If you'd like to share anything more about this Pixar event, I'm all ears

      EJ

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Pixar CS Expo Event

        Originally posted by EJ Pennypacker View Post
        pwrmyth,

        Many thanks for the words on the event.

        I heard the PIRATES CS podcast recently with Terry Rossio where he talked about SHREK and the 'exploring situations' - which he said amounted to a very high overall page count. Too high in his books.

        If you'd like to share anything more about this Pixar event, I'm all ears

        EJ
        Right. I mean, I was at the event with Terry & Ted when they discussed the writing process and how much they learned from animation, so there are pretty clear links here. Ted talks about it at artfulwriter.com as well... Both of them claim that a lot of their professional growth came from seeing a film through till editing. We just don't realize as writers how much gets cut because it won't play. We imagine all sorts of conspiracies -- the script just isn't valued as much as the stageplay, it's true -- but the Pixar guys were pretty clear that no matter how brilliant an idea may sound at conception, they'll throw it up on a reel and gag how bad it plays in execution.

        And there's the rub. I'm digressing badly here but bear with me... Ed Solomon (Men in Black, Levity, X Men draft) mentioned at the same Expo how he doesn't allow a script to "gel" till it comes together. A script is a living, breathing thing which we "collaborate" with and bring to life. The trick is to generate without fear and not lock on to what sounds great in theory but just won't play. If what hits the blank page immediately becomes gospel, that shuts down the story's beating heart. That doesn't mean stop outlining. That doesn't mean surrender to digressive paths. It means -- stand back and let it breathe. Sketch a scene. Test it out. Is it working? Are your funny scenes funny? Is the drama working?

        I'd never really thought of it that way before. I'd always just outlined and, when I thought I had that nailed, moved to script and then went through the torture of rewriting. Not that you can avoid that. But as Terry often says -- pitch the boards and you can elliminate a goodly few rounds of frustration. Or: writing is the whole process, not just setting words on a page. When you can pitch the idea from beginning to end, when you see the whole thing in your head, you've accomplished a goodly bit of writing and yet you might not have a single damned word down in print.

        The whole script thing is much more holistic to me now. Then Tony Gilroy finished day three by saying, "Remystify the process!"

        I've gone back and read the really great scripts in my collection and darned if it isn't true. They have that magic, the breath of life in them. They feel as if they have a life of their own.

        Pixar helped me understand a bit better how that might come to be.
        I'm like an opening band for the sun.
        -- Eddie Vedder: "Push Me / Pull Me"

        Comment

        Working...
        X