|
|
|
I’ve been to Pixar once before, when I was invited up for the INCREDIBLES DVD release. I found the place to be just as magical as you’d expect. Sure, Pixar may be an incredibly important corporate asset for Disney, but when you’re there, you can see that it was built to inspire real artistry, and that it’s all designed with one goal in mind: the production of films that are genuinely special.
This time, I flew up very early on a Friday morning, and then caught an insanely expensive cab ride into Emeryville, where the Pixar campus is located. Randy Nelson, the dean of Pixar University, was waiting to take me around the campus again for a tour. I met him during my last trip, and he’s one of those guys who exemplifies what Pixar is all about, in my opinion. He’s got the same sort of measured enthusiasm as Fred Rogers, the same sort of innate decency and interest in everything. He is the first face that most guests to Pixar encounter, and I can see why. As he talks about the way the company works, you know you’re not being hard-sold. Instead, this guy is just a true believer. He’s seen the effect that the Pixar system has on artists and writers, and he knows that he’s working for a company that treats its creative people as special, that values everyone in the building equally. Even if you’re an accountant at Pixar, you’re still able to participate in a very real way. Every employee is allowed to take classes at Pixar University, allowed to work on animation skills or sculpting skills or filmmaking skills. They want every single person there to understand the process so that when an animator asks for money for an extra shot or a reshoot of a sequence, that accountant knows what that’s all about. It creates a united front instead of an adversarial relationship, something other studios could learn to do.
Posted in | »
|
|
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I
Posted in | »
|
|
|
