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Wednesday, 01 May 2013 10:54

Pixar

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pixar“The essence of how Pixar started was in let’s figure it out and try something different.” – Jerome Ranft, Pixar Animation Studios

In the summer of 2012, I was invited to Pixar Animation Studios for a meeting regarding my employment possibilities in their story department.  As I walked through the front doors, I was greeted by their glass case filled with their numerous Academy Awards.  The entire day I spent at Pixar was a dream come true since I am a big fan of their work and believe in the magic they bring to the screen.  What this paper seeks to do is to summarize how Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter revolutionized the entire animation industry with the creation of Pixar.  
 
It is impossible to discuss the history of Pixar without talking about John Lasseter. Before Lasseter pioneered an entire art form, he was a teenager growing up in a middle class Los Angeles suburb called Whittier.  While in high school, Lasseter discovered a book called The Art of Animation.  It donned on him that people make cartoons for a living and that’s what he wanted to do.  He applied to California Institute of the Arts in 1975, which was an animation school founded by Walt Disney himself in 1961.  John was accepted into the first program that taught Disney style character animation and notable filmmakers such as Tim Burton, John Musker, and Brad Bird were his classmates.  CalArts was the perfect place for Lasseter to develop his skills since the original animators from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), known as “the old men,” were his teachers.  Lasseter was such a believer in Disney that one summer Lasseter landed a job as a sweeper in Tomorrowland in Disneyland and was soon promoted to ride operator on The Jungle Cruise.  
 
Lasseter animated two short films at CalArts: Lady and a Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980).  Both films won impressive back-to-back student academy awards.  Lasseter landed a job at Walt Disney Studios after graduating in 1980.  In 1981, Lasseter was appointed to handle the climatic fight sequence in The Fox and the Hound (1981) but budget cuts severely hurt the movie.  One day, a film combining live action with computer animation called Tron (1982) was screened for employees at the studio.  Lasseter was amazed by the potential of computer animation while other animators became afraid, thinking computers would render their jobs obsolete.  Lasseter wanted to direct his first feature film and got approval from Disney to develop The Brave Little Toaster (1987).  During the production of the film, studio executives saw that Lasseter was a born director and his passion excelled what the studio was doing.  After the film was completed, animation administrator Ed Hansen called Lasseter into his office.  Lasseter was terminated from Walt Disney Studios, the company he dreamt of working for.  
 
The University of Utah was the only institution researching computer graphics during the 1960s.  Ed Catmull was right at the frontier of the new technology and as Jerome Ranft stated “[Catmull was a] creative computer genius1.”  Catmull made a break through with computer animation by creating 3D images of his left hand, essentially the first step in creating curved surfaces in a computer-generated world.  By 1974, New York Institute of Technology was the only place that wanted to develop computer graphics.  Alex Shuer from NYIT hired Catmull to develop art and animation using computers.  Catmull developed a software package called Tweed that allowed artists to draw and paint directly into the computer, but his ultimate goal was to create the first ever computer-animated feature film.  
 
Catmull’s work eventually led him to work for George Lucas.  The application of Catmull’s developments led Lucas Films to the next level of computer animation in live action filmmaking.  At LucasFilms, Catmull formed a rebel group for computer animation that was an abbreviation for ‘pixel art’ called Pixar.  Lucas’s special effects division, Industrial Light and Magic, couldn’t get a shot on a film using their current techniques so Pixar stepped and executed what ILM couldn’t.  Catmull knew the next step was to do character animation.  
 
pixar moviesIn 1983, Lasseter attended to a computer conference at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.  Lasseter ran into Catmull there and told him about his falling out with Disney.  Catmull needed an animator and hired Lasseter into LucasFilms as an interface designer.  Lucas challenged Lasseter to do computer-animated characters and Lasseter created characters using basic geometric shapes, much like the original Mickey Mouse.  The collaboration between Catmull and Lasseter broke ground in computer animation.  Catmull created new software allowing Lasseter the ability to create realistic effects never before seen, such as a scene in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) where a stained glass man comes to life.  The visual effects for the film were nominated for an Academy Award and industry professionals were baffled by how they created such a life like effect.  Catmull’s team developed the Pixar image computer, which was the most advanced graphics computer its day, but Lucas was no longer interested in Pixar since it was hard to make a business out of what they were doing.  
 
Pixar separated from Lucas Films and spent over a year looking for financial backing. Computer scientist Alan Kay knew of Pixar and told his friend Steve Jobs about what they were doing.  Jobs, by 30-years-old, was already a multimillionaire from his pioneering of Apple Computers and decided to visit Pixar.  Catmull told Jobs about his dream of creating the first computer animated feature length film.  Jobs bought into the dream and invested $10 million to launch Pixar.  Jobs believed in the passion and vision of Pixar and as Jerome Ranft remembers, “[Jobs was] a creative businessman.”
 
Catmull wanted to do an animated short film as a calling card to the world as to who they were.  One day, Lasseter saw a lamp on his desk and decided to move it around like it was alive.  This inspired him to create the short animated film Luxo, Jr. (1987).  It was a pure little story and the new medium allowed Lasseter to bring a new character to life.  It became the first computer-animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award and the hopping Luxo lamp became the symbol of Pixar.  Red’s Dream (1987) was their next short film about a lonely unicycle that wanted to be in the circus.  It wasn’t until their third short film, Tin Toy (1988), that they took home their first Academy Award, the first Academy Award for a computer-animated film.  In 1990, Pixar began making animated commercials for Tropicana and Trident.  Lasseter decided to expand his animation team and brought in his buddies from CalArts: Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Joe Ranft.  
 
Pixar began collaborating with the new Disney under the leadership of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Frank Welles.  Pixar was commissioned to create the title sequences for Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) using their new caption system.  Even though Pixar’s software, Renderman, was getting acclaim as the new standard for 3D software, Pixar was dealing with huge financial issues.  Their research and development was costing more money than what the company was bringing in.  Jobs had lost an average of $1 million a year for five continuous years.  
 
With the survival of the company at stake, Lasseter pitched a television Christmas special based on his short film Tin Toy (1988) to Disney, but Disney was more interested in luring him back to the studio to direct a feature.  Lasseter came up with the idea of doing a story from a toy’s point of view.  From the pitch, Disney wanted in on Pixar’s dream of creating the first computer-animated feature.  Joe Ranft said of the time, “[there was] so much excitement and enthusiasm2.”  Pixar wanted to work with Disney because there was so much they could learn from Disney, but Lasseter wanted to be different and didn’t want to do musical numbers or fairy tales.  
 
jobsThere was a desire at Disney to make Toy Story (1995) edgy.  Katzenberg would pitch for edge during story meetings.  Joe Ranft said, “[we were] working our butts off and addressing every note for [the] first year2.”  In 1993, Lasseter and Joe Ranft flew to Disney to present the completed story outline.  To their dismay, nothing was working as could be seen by the protagonist, Woody, being repelling and using insult humor.  Katzenberg asked why it was so bad and they knew it was because it wasn’t their movie anymore.  Disney forced them to lay people off but they refused.  Lasseter and his story team decided to redo the film from scratch.  So within 2-3 weeks of hard reworking, Lasseter and his story team turned a potential disaster into the movie they wanted to make.  They presented their new story to Disney and were given the green light. 
Both Pixar and Disney were blown away with the finished project and thought it would be a success, but they didn’t know how big.  Toy Story (1995) was produced on a shoestring budget and opened on Thanksgiving weekend.  It earned $350 million at the box office and paved the way for future computer-animated films.  Kids loved it, critics loved, and animators loved it.  Even Lucas was amazed by how entertaining the film was.  Pixar hit their stride and this is what they were destined to do.  The Academy of Motion Pictures honored Lasseter with a special achievement Academy Award for directing the first computer-animated feature film.  
 
Pixar was a small company going up against giants.  As successful as Toy Story (1995) was, most of the profit and merchandising revenue went to Disney.  Jobs decided that Pixar had to become a studio instead of a production company to protect their financial future.  Jobs decided to go public and a week after Toy Story’s release; Pixar became the highest IPO that year.  From Job’s original $10 million investment, he was able to raise $132 million for the company.  Disney came back to Pixar and wanted to extend their contract.  Jobs would only agree to extend with Disney if they were 50/50 partners; Disney agreed to his terms.  
 
The success of Pixar created an air of infectious enthusiasm.  Jobs was afraid of the company falling into second product syndrome, like he had done so himself at Apple.  Jobs experienced this when his freshman product, the Apple II, enjoyed success but his sophomore product, the Apple III, became a dud.  Joe Ranft became the head of story on Pixar’s second film, A Bug’s Life (1998), and learned that tricks that worked on the last movie won’t work on every following movie.  Joe Ranft commented, “It’s like getting back into kindergarten2.”  A Bug’s Life (1998) provided new challenges to the filmmakers since it had a bigger story and scope than Toy Story (1995).  The characters were organic and it was the first computer-animated widescreen movie.  A Bug’s Life (1998) was released in 1998 and became the highest grossing animated feature film of the year.  
With the success of A Bug’s Life (1998), Lasseter took a much-needed break since it was his second feature film in a row as director.  A secondary team at Pixar began making a direct-to-video sequel of Toy Story (1995).  It was to be the first project without Lasseter as the director.  Toy Story 2 (1999) began having troubles in development and Disney decided they wanted to release it theatrically.  Lasseter came into the studio, saw what was done so far and wanted to redo the film from scratch, but Disney said it was good enough for a release.  Lasseter refused to deliver the film the way it was, so he decided to jump in and take over the movie as director. 
 
Over a single weekend, Lasseter and original Toy Story (1995) team redid the entire story, nine months before it was scheduled for release.  The animators were pushed to their limits and created visual effects that rivaled feature films.  Composer Randy Newman thought it was really brave of Lasseter to do a three-minute montage for Jesse’s scene, a scene so powerful it moved both actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen to tears.  Joe Ranft commented on the scene, “[You’re] trying to find what you hope the audience will feel when they watch this movie.”  Toy Story 2 (1999) debuted on Thanksgiving and was the greatest sense of accomplishment in Lasseter’s life.  To him, it was a pivotal moment for the company because it defined who they were.  
 
Jobs was a firm believer that the most important thing is not the idea; it’s the people.  Jobs saw that their business depended on collaboration and certain factions and pactsbirds had broken off within the company.  Jobs wanted to put a stop to this succession and force collaboration, so his plan was to put everyone under one roof.   He bought a studio in Emeryville and expanded the studio so they could release a movie a year while consistently working on overlapping projects.  This workflow gave longtime story members the opportunity to direct.  Pete Docter was up to direct their next film – Monsters, Inc. (2001).  Docter had a fundamental idea, children were telling the truth whenever they said there were monsters in their closets or under their beds.  Even though Docter was thrown into the lion’s den in the footsteps left by Lasseter, he emerged as a great director.  Monsters, Inc. (2001) became the highest grossing animated film released to that date.  
 
In 1992, Andrew Stanton went to Marine World after the birth of his son and saw a shark exhibit.  He was thinking then of the possibilities of capturing this world in computer animation.  Stanton was up to direct next and his project was Finding Nemo (2003).  It became an epic journey all over the ocean and each set piece had to look different.  Stanton thought of it as essentially the same challenge as Toy Story (1995) – making a good movie.  They spent the first two and a half years just working on the story.  Jerome Ranft commented, “A lot of people don’t beat story to death the way we do.  Story makes or breaks the audiences’ experience.  The story must be compelling and must have characters you want to follow1.”  Finding Nemo (2003) became the highest grossing animated film to that date and Stanton won the Academy Award for best-animated feature that year.  
 
Lasseter brought in his old CalArts classmate, Brad Bird, to direct Pixar’s next film.  This was the first time a non-Pixar member was set to direct.  Bird had made The Iron Giant (1999), a film the people at Pixar absolutely adored.  Bird pitched The Incredibles (2004) to Lasseter and Lasseter fell in love with the family story.  Bird stated, “Any company with four hits in a row wouldn’t want to change but Pixar was the opposite.  Pixar is an anomaly2.”  Bird brought in his people from Iron Giant (1999) and this gave the Pixar team the opportunity to learn all over again.  The Incredibles (2004) marked the sixth hit in a row for Pixar and Bird won the Academy Award for best-animated feature.  
 
Pixar and Disney’s mutually beneficial relationship could only last so long.  In 2004, Pixar and Disney begin clashing over contracts.  Disney was primarily concerned with incrediblesmaking short-term financial gains, so they wanted to make direct-to-video sequels of Pixar’s intellectual properties without Pixar’s involvement.  Disney had handled Pixar’s distribution and marketing but the conflict forced Jobs to begin discussions with other studios.  Pixar feared a merger with another entity would injure their independent spirit.  In 2005, a corporate shake up at Disney led to Bob Iger replacing Michael Eisner as CEO.  Iger understood in order for Disney to be successful, it had to return to the glory days of animation, and Pixar had more of the right people than anywhere else in the world.  Iger wished to repair the broken relationship with Pixar so he began a long period of discussions with Jobs.  Iger had understood Pixar, respected their talent and culture and Jobs decided it was wise to sell Pixar to Disney.  Jerome Ranft commented of the decision, “We had to grow as a company.1” The $7.4 billion acquisition deal put Jobs on the board of Disney and made Lasseter chief creative officer. 
 
Lasseter was set to return as director with his long-time collaborator Joe Ranft as co-director on Pixar’s seventh feature film – Cars (2006).  Lasseter was inspired for the idea of the film by a cross-country road trip with his family in 1999.  Lasseter’s personal love of cars and the racing world inspired a new level of computer animation.  Cars (2006) became Pixar’s seventh hit in a row, but the victory was marred by tragedy when Joe Ranft passed away in an auto accident in San Mateo, a few months after the release.  
 
Catmull and Lasseter both look towards the future and the challenge of operating two studios.  Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer in October 2011 leaving Jim Morris to take over as the president of Pixar.  Lasseter currently oversees all of Disney parks and attractions, not bad for someone who started at Disney as a sweeper many years ago.  Legendary animator Joe Grant once said, “[that Walt] Disney knew everything ahead of time.  Lasseter is an image of Walt.”  In my opinion, Pixar is the best working studio in the industry today.  Pixar makes films with visionary directors that they can be proud of for rest of their lives.  
 
Pixar revolutionized the animation industry and there are more working animators today than ever before.  I asked Jerome Ranft what is the secret behind the Pixar magic and he replied, “Work.  Hard work.  A lot of hard work.”
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