Blitz-journey into the wonderful world of Pixar: an interview with the president of the studio

The president of Pixar studio Jim Morris in his interview with RBC spoke about the philosophy of Pixar, the features of the studio’s workflow, cooperation with other leading brands, and how ideas are chosen for each new work.

Jim Morris (Jim Morris) began working in the studio Pixar ten years ago. It was he who led the creation of the animated film Ratatouille, which was nominated for 5 Oscars nominations in 2007, and was the producer of the cartoon WALL-E, which became the first picture of the studio, in which the actors were involved. Since 2014, Jim has served as president of Pixar.

According to Jim Morris, the creators of cartoon films of Pixar studio do not try to predict what the audience wants to see, because, as a rule, people themselves do not know what they want and what they like until they see it. Therefore, all the pictures are built on the basis of bright original ideas that are interesting to the creators of cartoons, then they are passionate about these ideas. That's why the films are good. Pixar is currently one of the most successful animation studios in the world. Her most recent work is the “Puzzle”, which has collected more than 851 million dollars with a budget of 175 million.
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This year, in addition to "Puzzle", the light will see another cartoon studio called "Good Dinosaur." This is the first time in the company's history when two animated films are released in one year, but Jim Morris says that in the future, Pixar intends to make it a tradition.

Also, Mr. Morris talked about how the studio set up work on each cartoon from the very inception of the idea to the release of the picture into the light - usually this process takes about five years. Usually considered at least three ideas for a new cartoon. And here the most important thing is to choose the right idea, because a mistake can lead to huge losses (this case Morris called the most expensive part of the production). During the first year, a team of three people - a director, a screenwriter and a “person responsible for the story” - works on a script application, after approval of which a more detailed study of the script begins. Another year is given to the creation of an illustrated version of the future picture - a team of 8-10 story planners is working on it. Then a draft of the character dubbing and cartoon music is recorded. So a draft of the future picture appears, which goes to the court for a group of directors and top managers proudly featured in Pixar's Braintrust (Braintrust). Those, in turn, reveal shortcomings and give advice, but the author of the film is not obliged to follow all their wishes - the freedom of choice remains behind him.

In the process of working on a painting, about eight drafts are created year after year - each one is better than the previous one. Somewhere in the fourth year of work, the production of the film begins directly - a team is involved, which is engaged not only in the creation of scenery, but in the characters themselves. And then there is post-production. After the release of the film, the studio also conducts its analysis and a kind of work on the errors, trying to identify the bad moments and the elements that the audience liked to use this knowledge in the future.

In addition, Jim Morris shared an interesting practice of sharing experiences and advice between the studios owned by Disney - and this, for a moment, such giants as MARVEL and Lucasfilm. According to him, brand cooperation benefits the final product, because in all studios there are professionals who can evaluate the picture from the outside and propose fresh solutions.

Pixar in the summer of 2016 will release a sequel to the cartoon "Finding Nemo" 10 years ago - the picture was called "Finding Dory". Also, according to Morris, the studio is working on the creation of another Toy Story and the next Wheelbarrows. In addition, Pixar is working on the film "Coco", which reveals the currently popular theme of the Mexican Day of the Dead.