A Day of Excellence

As expected, Pixar day at SCREENWRITING EXPO 5 this past Saturday was intensely educational, insightful and informative. The four panels that where presented gave those in attendance a rare glimpse into the inner workings within the premiere animation studio in North America and perhaps, the world.

Highlighted by the excellent morning keynote speech by writer/director and Pixar VP Andrew Stanton, and bookended by the writer/director Brad Bird and Story supervisor Mark Andrew's rambling yet hilarious trench stories from the making of The Incredibles, the day proved once and for all that the reason for their success lies within it's people and their talents. The brainthrust including the writers and directors all the way to the animators and technicians at Pixar have a genuine love for animation and share a passion for good story and furthering the medium. No bull.

It's painfully simple what they are doing but why isn't their system causing other studios to follow suit? As explained by Andrew in his keynote; ...we are in it for the long haul. No one in their brainthrust is out to protect their behinds and their jobs. There is simply no turnover ensuring that the integrity of their product remains intact from start to finish. Also, they make films they WANT to see and the stories and ideas are guarded but nurtured while their respective creators are given carte blanche to explore those ideas to it's limits.

Story is king. And they make no bones that it is a long and hard process. The faint of heart and the meek need not apply. But as intense as their story process is, it all comes from a good place. I don't think anyone will question things with the track record they have amassed.

In his keynote, Andrew Stanton enumerated the Pixar philosophy of making films:

PIXAR DOES NOT MAKE FILMS FOR KIDS
They make films they would like to see which have good stories. In turn these films appeal to everyone. As Andrew explains: ... we want to preserve the "family" movie going experience.. we want the kids to watch the movies with mom, dad, grandpa and grandpa..

NO FORMULAS
If a great idea is pitched but is a formula, they simply toss it. No matter how clever the idea was. Only real characters in real worlds please...

ANIMATION IS A MEDIUM, NOT A GENRE
This quote comes directly from Brad Bird. It is a means to tell a story. In their case it is told via the magic of computer graphics. But that's where the novelty ends.

LOVE AND RESPECT FOR ANIMATION AND THE GENIUNE DESIRE TO FORWARD THE MEDIUM
One would think that this is inherent for people working in the animation industry but at Pixar, it is truly a priority.

I'm a big fan of films that have a philosophical slant. It's something that I try and include in my own work by sharing profoundness and meaning to an audience. These stories are much harder to tell and ones that I truly agonize about and in fact, i've yet to truly succeed with it. However I am deeply encouraged that my views are shared by the good people at Pixar. The reason their stories ring true and resonate with audiences is because like life, there are no absolutes. It's this abstractness that makes daily life interesting perhaps because the answer to what commonly vexes us is sometimes....

... another question.

Sorry for the crappy photo coverage. Taking pics was prohibited but I took some anyway. I couldn't get close so as not to attract attention. Here's Ron's caricature as part of the four man story supervisor panel

from left to right: Mssrs Mark Andrews (Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille), Big bro, Jason Katz (Finding Nemo, Cars), Jim Capobianco (Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life, Ratatouille)

Brad Bird (left) and Mark Andrews (right) go toe to toe.. A lot of good natured ribbing bantered about plus one lucky attendee was obliged a short performance of Edna Mode

As expected, a who's who of animation was in attendance including a legion of story artists from the various television and feature productions in town. Here's IDT/Film Roman's Chris Roman and Ira Sherak. Others in attendance included Teen Titans director Glen Murakami, Lucasfilms' Justin Ridge, Disney's Barry Caldwell, Blue Sky's Rafael Zentil and animator Donnachada Daly from Dreamworks Animation.

***** UPDATE! ****** UPDATE! ******* UPDATE! *******

Click HERE for a more in-depth breakdown of Andrew Stanton's keynote speech as posted by Kevin Koch of The Animation Guild (Info courtesy of Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew)

Click HERE for Ronnie del Carmen's personal recap on TIRADE.