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Thursday, May 28

  • The Secret Behind Up and Other Pixar Films

    UpUp, the first Pixar film to be released in Disney Digital 3-D, may be thematically different than previous Pixar releases, but the creators are banking that the unique nature of Pixar's filmmaking process will help Up succeed.

    In a recent interview, director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) said:

    We have a system where people are selfless about giving up their own time, their own energy, their own comments.

    Brad (Bird) will be off in the middle of directing something and we'll drag him in to watch this movie and he'll spew out all these great ideas that I get to use and then I'll do the same with whoever comes along next. Between that and the philosophy of "If you don't make mistakes, you're not taking enough risk." We're sort of expected to fail along the way. It's expected that we're going to falter and pull the emergency cord and get everybody on board to make this good.

    In a separate interview, Docter admitted that not all Pixar films start out as winners:

    At some point or another, every one of these (films) has sucked. That's the truth. And then you fix them.

    Added producer Jonas Rivera:

    We kind of treat every film like it's the first film we've ever done and the last film we'll ever do.... We kind of approach it like, whether or not people like this one as much as the last one or the first one or the third one, we don't know. We want to do the best we can every single time. So when you go see one of these, we go to bed at night knowing that's the best we can do. That's the best we got.

    Up tells the tale of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), a grumpy man who ties balloons to his house and sails off for South America with an 8-year-old stowaway named Russell (Jordan Nagai).


    Up - Trailer 3

    Pixar Goes UP - Releasing May 29, 2009

    Posted 05/28/2009 by BrentJS

    Related: Ed Asner | The Incredibles | Monsters, Inc. | Wall-E

Tuesday, May 26

  • 3-D Effects in Up Designed To Be Subtle

    UpPixar -- the Academy Award-winning digital animation studio behind such colossal hits as Toy Story, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E -- debuts Up this Friday, its first film presented in Disney Digital 3-D.

    3-D films have not had a very impressive track record, but director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) hopes that subtler 3-D effects in Up will keep the audience engaged:

    We tried to learn from all the films that had come before us and what makes it work. The things that were important to me as a director was not to distract people with 3D. You don't want to pop them out of the movie by going "ooga-booga." We basically said, "Okay, the screen is like a window and you can see into it but let's not bring too many things out." That adds a certain sense of depth and I think, for a lot of people, they feel more transported into that world. Hopefully, it's not distracting to the point of popping you out of the film and it's a more immersive experience.

    Up tells the tale of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), a grumpy, retired balloon seller who ties balloons to his house and sails off for South America. Russell (Jordan Nagai), an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer, accidentally stows away with Carl and the two opposites encounter thrills and adventures in the Venezuelan jungle.


    Up - Trailer 3

    Pixar Goes UP - Releasing May 29, 2009

    Posted 05/26/2009 by BrentJS

    Related: Ed Asner | Peter Docter | Jordan Nagai | Toy Story | The Incredibles | Monsters, Inc. | Ratatouille | Wall-E

Monday, May 18

  • The New York Times Talks with Director Pete Docter About the Development of Pixar's Up

    Inglourious BasterdsPixar's Up opened Cannes last week and is due in theaters next Friday. The New York Times sat down with director Pete Docter and production designer Ricky Nierva to talk about the movie's four central characters. These include the 78-year-old curmudgeon Carl Frederickson and Russell, the intrepid explorer 70 years Carl's junior who leads him on an adventure. Docter said:

    Russell is like a whirling dervish. He's spinning and moving, so we designed him more like a top or a balloon. He's got multiple levels of clothing on top of each other. All of this is researched down to the detail about what weave of the cloth it is.

    Nierva spoke about how his team used simple shapes to reflect character. Since Carl is so stubborn, for example, he was represented with very square features:

    The shape symbolism is present in the photo frames within this shot to tell a snapshot story of Carl's life. Anytime you see Carl in a picture by himself, he's in a square frame. And anytime you see [his deceased wife], she's in an oval frame. And anytime you see them together, we thought of a square frame with an oval matte. So all of these things help balance his world of squares and circles.

    The full article, Well-Rounded Boy, Meet Old Square, includes an interactive feature with design photos and audio commentary.


    Posted 05/18/2009 by Rich Z

    Related: Ed Asner | Pete Docter | Jordan Nagai | Up

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