- 13 minutes ago
Gitanjali Rao, Glen Keane, Kori Rae, Mark Swift, Pete Docter & Tomm Moore joined The Hollywood Reporter to talk about their respected animation films.
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00:09Hi, and welcome to Close-Up with the Hollywood Reporter Animation.
00:13I'm Carolyn Jardina. Let's introduce our guest.
00:16Hi, I'm Corey Ray, and I am the producer of Onward.
00:19Hello, I'm Glenn Keane, director of Over the Moon.
00:23Hi, I'm Mark Swift, producer of Crudes, A New Age.
00:27Hi, this is Gedanji Rahn, the director of Bombay Rules.
00:31Hi, I'm Tom Moore. I directed Wolfwalkers with Ross Stewart.
00:35And I'm Pete Docter, I was the director of Soul.
00:38Thank you, everyone, for joining us. I hope everyone's doing well and staying safe.
00:43I'm going to direct our first question to Glenn.
00:46Glenn, on route to becoming a Disney legend, you were trained under Disney's Nine Old Men.
00:51You designed Ariel in The Little Mermaid, and you were the supervising animator on title characters.
00:58What have you learned about what makes a great animated character?
01:04The best characters are characters that you can relate to.
01:08You see in them something of yourself.
01:11Those are the ones that audiences connect with.
01:17Even though these characters are, you know, imaginary, they, I have this strange belief that when you are designing an
01:26animated character, you are designing a character that's actually existing before you do the work on it.
01:34That they reveal themselves to you, like you, there's a moment in drawing a character where you've tried a hundred
01:44different versions until one of those drawings happens, and you feel like they are looking at you from the paper,
01:54or whatever it is you're creating on.
01:58As if they've existed before, and that's the moment that I look for, like, okay, now we are going to
02:05go on this journey in this movie, and that they live on beyond when a shot ends.
02:14The life of that character doesn't end.
02:17You just don't show more, you know, more of it, but they continue on.
02:21They're before the cut, and they're after the cut.
02:24I mean, characters have to live like that.
02:27Could you describe one of those moments you had with one of your characters over the years?
02:35Yeah, I remember I was animating Ariel in Little Mermaid, and I was about 33 years old, and, you know,
02:45I'm being a 16-year-old mermaid girl, you know,
02:50and I was, at a certain point, Ariel was swimming towards the camera.
02:56She's singing Part of Your World, and I suddenly started to become self-conscious, like I was going to show
03:07just how sentimental and sappy I was as she was reaching out,
03:12and longing to be part of that world, and as she drifts back down, and I thought, I can't do
03:20this.
03:20I mean, this is revealing too much of myself, and I tried to stop Ariel from doing that, but I
03:26couldn't.
03:27She just kept swimming closer and closer to the camera, and I learned that the character is telling you what
03:34they are going to do.
03:36Years later, I was talking at CalArts, and a student said, Mr. Keene, do you remember this moment where Ariel
03:44was reaching out?
03:45And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I remember that.
03:47Well, I was four years old in the theater, and I stood up at that moment when she's reaching out,
03:54and I put my hands out to take her hands to pull her towards me,
04:00because I knew she wanted to be part of my world, and, you know, I just said, I could kiss
04:08you. Thank you.
04:09It was, I think that's what we all want to do. Our characters, we want them to touch the audience,
04:15to break that wall that there is, they're not on the screen, they're in your life as much as possible.
04:22You all created such fantastic characters this year. Would each of you talk about the genesis of your leads?
04:28Let's start with Onward. Tom Holland and Chris Pratt voice brothers Ian and Barley. Ian is shy and insecure, while
04:35Barley is impulsive, and this was central to the story.
04:38How did you develop these characters and develop their chemistry?
04:42Yeah, it was a ton of fun, and we did have the great kind of joy of creating Ian after
04:52the director.
04:52I mean, it's kind of, Onward is based on a true story of director Dan Scanlon, and it was a
04:59touchstone.
04:59It was, it's not necessarily Dan, but a lot of the traits, the shy kind of awkward teenager did kind
05:05of come from him.
05:06So he was really our, you know, the muse for everybody, the designers and the animators alike.
05:14But it really, really clinched once we cast Tom Holland, it was tricky to find someone who had the great
05:21acting chops we needed, as well as have that, that innocence and charm.
05:26And as soon as we got Tom, the character really kind of took off, I think, and he was able
05:33to bring so much to the character of Ian in that way, and just kind of bring it home.
05:38So it was, it was a lot of fun.
05:41And Mark, in The Croods, A New Age, you introduced a new character, The Bettermans.
05:45Tell us about your idea.
05:47Yeah, obviously we're a sequel, so we kind of had developed characters, but we had three new characters.
05:53And I think for us, we were thinking, you know, The Bettermans live in isolation in a treehouse, and they
06:01don't come across anyone else.
06:03And so we started to try and think, what would that mean if you lived in isolation?
06:07And I think for us, the girl character in the, just trying to think of her, like, if you've never
06:14met another family, other people your own age, what would that mean?
06:19And we sort of pictured her a little bit as a sort of a homeschooled girl.
06:25And one of the things that was interesting, when we got the original script that we were kind of working
06:31off, there was a love triangle going on between Dawn and Yip.
06:38And they were kind of jealous between each other.
06:41And one of the things we kind of really questioned was, if you were the only girl in the world,
06:47and then some of you met another girl, what would your reaction be?
06:51Would it be one of, oh, I think I'm going to be jealous?
06:54Or would it be one of an excitement of finding a friend and having friendship?
06:59And so we kind of went in that direction with them, which we thought was kind of a more positive
07:05kind of outlook for that family.
07:07And Tom, in your case, your protagonist had to additionally take the form of a wolf.
07:12Tell us about creating the character.
07:14We started thinking of her human form first.
07:17And she was originally a boy and that wasn't working and wasn't like we had a whole draft of the
07:23script and we were drawing a little boy and trying to write obstacles for this little boy.
07:28Why would he be stopped from being a hunter in this time period?
07:32It wasn't working.
07:32And we hit on the point after the first draft that it needed to be a little girl.
07:36And it was Inktober at the time.
07:39And I just for fun drew my wife as a child in like a little boy from that time period's
07:44hunting costume.
07:45And it really clicked for me because I could feel, I could imagine my wife in it as a fierce
07:50and determined young woman going against the grain of what society was telling her she could or couldn't do.
07:55That's a trick I've always used because I think that if you can think of somebody, at least partially, that
08:01you know and love, you can live with the character for as long as it's going to take to get
08:05the movie made.
08:06And before that, I didn't really know who Robin was.
08:08And then I knew and I thought about a young Jane Goodall or even Greta Thunberg and these kind of
08:14determined young women.
08:15So that made a lot of sense and clicked together.
08:19And then we did some animation tests and we kind of got, found a little head shake that just felt
08:25right for her.
08:26And then when we did the wolf character design, we kept a lot of her kind of gangly, but elegant,
08:32long legs, kind of preteen kind of legs and a long snout.
08:36And we gave her that little head shake when it, what she did in her human form, we wanted her
08:41to do in her wolf form.
08:42But honestly, it wasn't until we cast Honor Niefsi, the voice, and she came in and just the character really
08:49existed then.
08:50Because once her relationship with her co-star Ava was sparking, you could, you know, the character was drawings and
08:58we had some animation tests and I kind of knew who she was.
09:01But she really gelled together when we recorded the voice and I felt, oh, and now I could tell you
09:05what Robin would do in any given situation for the rest of the production.
09:09And that was, that was it really.
09:11Can you tell us about Joe Gardner?
09:13Joe was kind of born out of jazz.
09:16We were looking for different occupations to, to show his sort of artist journey.
09:22And we were looking at maybe a actor, but then someone sent me this Herbie Hancock video where he told
09:29this story of playing with Miles Davis.
09:31And he said, we were on this tour.
09:32It was so great.
09:34And we were on this one concert and it was the highlight of the tour.
09:38And then I played this chord that was so wrong that I just, I worried I ruined that whole concert.
09:45And he said, instead, Miles looked at him, took a breath.
09:49And he said, he played some notes and he made my chord right.
09:53And I was like, I couldn't figure out how did he do that.
09:56And he said, he took it, took years to figure out how he did.
09:58He said, how he did it was he didn't judge what had happened.
10:02He just took it as something new.
10:04And he did what any great jazz musician should do is try to take anything that happens and turn it
10:11into something of value.
10:12And my brain just kind of went, OK, that's exactly what we're trying to say in the film.
10:18Our character knows that musically, but doesn't know it in his life.
10:22And I think that's kind of where that whole character came from.
10:26And then, of course, Jamie Foxx, as an actor, could do everything we wanted from him.
10:30He has comedic chops and dramatic chops and he could be a classical musician.
10:35He's that good.
10:37So he really brought everything.
10:39And, of course, the character grows every time you add a new contributor like that.
10:44So it was a real joy.
10:47And Jita, tell us about how you created Humble.
10:51My characters have actually lived beyond the films that I have put them in.
10:56Because Bombay Rose was the one film that finished.
10:59Two films before that, my characters were there and their stories were there.
11:04And I was trying to tell them I couldn't find the finance and the films never saw the light of
11:08day.
11:09So Kamala to me was actually somebody I had seen, not as an individual,
11:15but a lot of women that I would see when I would travel in the local trains in Bombay.
11:19There would be these young girls selling trinkets and these flower garlands in the train.
11:25And I'm very fond of them.
11:26So I would buy them.
11:27And that's where I got interested in them, their stories.
11:30She came from there.
11:32And so did the boy.
11:33The boy was always that other boy I would see in my life when I would be stuck in a
11:38traffic jam.
11:39One boy selling flowers and another girl selling flowers and then flirting.
11:43And they were living on the streets.
11:45And that's when I got interested in their stories.
11:47How do they express their love?
11:49How do they survive this difficult situation and still manage to fall in love?
11:55So that's how Kamala came to me.
11:57And that's how Sadeem also came to me.
11:59And I realized as I was making the film that the boy and his vulnerability,
12:04his trying to be macho, his trying to be masculine and the vulnerability
12:07was actually something that the audience is related to much more than the girl who was
12:13very sure of herself, who knew right from wrong.
12:17And I had people at the end of the film asking me questions like,
12:21did your hero have to die?
12:23Because he dies at the end of the film and the love is unrequited.
12:28They were very emotional.
12:30Yeah, I know.
12:31Why do you have to kill him?
12:32And I said, but it's like a Romeo and Juliet, right?
12:35You have to die for a film to be an epic love story.
12:40But of course, it's a very real love story.
12:42The death is very real.
12:44But then I realized that although she is a protagonist,
12:47what I have managed to achieve is to look at this boy from her point of view
12:53and look at him as a man, as a young, vulnerable male from a female point of view.
12:58So that even when there was a scene in which he is taking a bath by the sea
13:03and he takes off his shirt and my producer, when she saw the film, she said,
13:06oh, he's so sexy.
13:07I said, I never thought of it like that.
13:09But yes, he was.
13:11And then we pushed it because you never see the man as a sexy being in an animated film ever.
13:18So I said, OK, let me try this.
13:20And it worked to the point that when he died, people were very sad
13:24because he was a sexy young man died.
13:26So I think somewhere the characters just clicked with the audience
13:33just by being honest to them.
13:35In this case, for Bombay Rose, you wrote, you directed, you designed,
13:39and you edited the film.
13:40How unusual is it to have all of those roles in India's film industry?
13:47The truth is, in India, we don't have any kind of financing for animation films.
13:52So if I wanted to make a film, which I wanted to do back in the 1990s,
13:56the only way I could do it was if I animated it myself, if I did everything myself.
14:01And then, which is how I was making my short films.
14:05And then when I made a feature film, I did find the finance and I did work with the studio.
14:10But by then, my style had become so personal.
14:14I could do all of those roles and have a team assisting me with it.
14:19So since it was a very personal film with a very individual style,
14:22it was almost like a short film, but made on a feature length,
14:27that the entire team just adjusted with my style and with my storytelling,
14:33which is why it is not really conventional.
14:36And so on a children's film, none of those things.
14:38But I tried to make it in a situation where we are not making animation films at all.
14:45We're making 900 live action films in a year in this country,
14:49and maybe four or five of them, which is like 0.05% of the animation.
14:54So to try something new is always new.
14:57Everything is new.
14:58So I tried it and it kind of worked.
15:01And I found the French co-production, which is where my country decided,
15:06oh, it must be good if the French are interested.
15:08And that's where I got the Indian finance and managed to make the film.
15:12God for the French.
15:17Now, Glenn, Over the Moon was co-produced with China's coast.
15:20In your case, the film follows a Chinese girl named Fei-Fei.
15:25Do you want to tell us about creating your character
15:28and also how you took the story out there?
15:32Well, it was very important to go to China
15:36and experience what China is.
15:39I only knew it from, you know, whatever anybody reads about.
15:43But it's a whole different thing.
15:45Once you go there, we visited a school,
15:51and I was in the classroom, and I was being –
15:55I mean, I couldn't speak Chinese, but here's all these little kids.
16:01And I'm just looking at them, and they're living their life,
16:06and they're seeing their world from their point of view.
16:11They thought I was Walt Disney, I think.
16:15They put on a big play of all the Disney movies,
16:21particularly Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
16:23and they had this whole thing.
16:26You know, they're honoring me for being something I'm really not.
16:31But they were so excited about animation.
16:35But there was this one little girl sitting in the front row
16:40of this one classroom, and I had my sketchbook,
16:44and I'm always just drawing.
16:45And when I looked at her, I was like, that's Fei-Fei.
16:49And I did this little sketch.
16:51Her hair was kind of like that,
16:53and she was kind of giving me this victory or this peace sign.
16:57And as I was designing the character,
17:02thinking about who she is in the movie,
17:04it was that little girl, and it was the voice of Kathy Ang,
17:10who really inspired so much of the inside of the character coming out.
17:14And it was Audrey Wells' beautiful description of this girl
17:19who faces a crisis in her life of losing her mom.
17:27And her world turns upside down,
17:29and somehow the solution to her problem of her dad remarrying
17:36is going to go to the dark side of the moon
17:39to meet this famous goddess, Chang'e,
17:43that everybody in China knows about.
17:44And these are all new things to me.
17:48But what I really connected with was how smart this girl was.
17:55She knows math and science and physics and technology on one side,
18:00and she's a lot like her dad.
18:01And then on the other side,
18:03her mom fills her with these stories of imagination,
18:09and she sees what no one else can see and believes what others don't believe.
18:15And I really connected with this character
18:19and wanted to animate from the inside out,
18:24as I was taught, you know,
18:26don't animate what the character is doing.
18:28Animate what the character is thinking and feeling.
18:31And it was so wonderful to live in her skin.
18:39At one point, I was reading in the script where she's going to build this rocket to the moon.
18:46And I thought, wait a second, I've lived this.
18:50And I remember when I was seven years old,
18:53my dad, for my birthday,
18:56came into the room with a bunch of my friends there,
18:58and he said, all right, I've got a surprise for everybody.
19:01And we're listening, and he says,
19:02I have a friend from NASA,
19:04and they've developed a new rocket ship.
19:08And it's sitting in the backyard,
19:10just a small one.
19:11And if you'd like, you can go for a ride on it.
19:14Would you like to?
19:15And we're all like, yes, yes.
19:16And he says, okay, well, one at a time.
19:18And the thing is, it's top secret,
19:21so I'm going to have to blindfold each one of you
19:24before you can ride on it.
19:25So one by one, you're blindfolded,
19:28and you can hear ground control
19:29as you climb up onto the rocket ship.
19:32And he says, it's an open cockpit,
19:33because we've got a lot of kids in line.
19:35We've got to do this pretty quick.
19:37But, you know, we're going to have this countdown.
19:40And so you can hear,
19:41okay, we're ready for my countdown.
19:44Five, four, three, two.
19:47And your rockets start shaking,
19:49and you go up, and you can feel the wind in your face.
19:52And we visited, went over a lake.
19:54The wonderful thing was,
19:57you're not disappointed,
19:58by that being taken off.
20:02It's even more wonderful,
20:04because you realize this all happened in my head.
20:07And everything is possible with your imagination.
20:11And I thought, that's what I get to do
20:14with this movie through Feifei,
20:17is that the audience is going to experience
20:20this crazy, unbelievable world
20:23of going to the dark side of the moon
20:25and the Lunari and all of that.
20:27And I get to take them on this rocket ship.
20:30That's kind of what animation is.
20:33It's just kind of wrapped up in that little moment for me.
20:35And it was a wonderful realization.
20:37Pete, for Soul, which centers on the New York jazz scene,
20:40you worked with fellow writer and co-director,
20:42Kemp Powers, who will appear this season
20:44on our Hollywood Reporter Writers Roundtable.
20:46Would you talk about the effort
20:47to keep the story authentic?
20:48Yeah, I mean, when we decided to make
20:51our main character a jazz musician,
20:54you know, one of our consultants said,
20:55oh, you could more accurately call jazz
20:57black improvisational music.
20:59It was really a contribution
21:00from the African-American community.
21:04And so we thought, well, the right thing to do here
21:06is to make this character black.
21:08We didn't set out to make the first
21:11African-American character in a Pixar film.
21:13We kind of got into it
21:15by way of some of these other decisions.
21:16But then I quickly realized I am way over my head.
21:20I don't know enough about what it is to grow up
21:22either black in Queens as a jazz musician.
21:26So we really needed a lot of help.
21:28Kemp was the first guy to come on.
21:31He happened to be all those things.
21:33He was actually a jazz critic in a previous life.
21:36He's one of these guys who's already had
21:37like five hugely successful careers.
21:40He's a brilliant guy.
21:43And so then we got to talk
21:45with a lot of great consultants,
21:47people like Kirby Hancock.
21:48We got to meet Quincy Jones.
21:50I mean, I was like,
21:51if this movie doesn't work out,
21:53it was all worth it, you know,
21:54because we just had such amazing people
21:57that we got to meet,
21:58not the least of which John Batiste,
22:00who was as much as Jamie Foxx
22:02is the voice of Joe,
22:04John is the hands and kind of soul of Joe.
22:08In fact, there are a couple lines in the script
22:09where I, you know,
22:10at the very beginning he's talking to his class
22:13about a formative experience as a kid
22:16of going to a jazz club and watching.
22:18It's that fall in love moment
22:19when you first saw what it was
22:22that made you,
22:23set you on this trajectory
22:25for the rest of your life.
22:26He's talking about that.
22:27What I did was,
22:28we tried a bunch of different scripts,
22:30but what I ended up doing
22:31was just talking to John Batiste
22:33and said,
22:33tell me about
22:34what is a formative moment
22:36that you remember
22:37going to see a musician.
22:39And he just talked
22:41and I wrote it all down
22:42and that's kind of what is in the script.
22:45We had so many great consultants
22:48and people who helped us
22:49to try to grab a hold
22:52of that sense of authenticity,
22:53which as Glenn said,
22:54it's like absolutely crucial to the film.
22:56I think the audience,
22:57whether they've lived that or not,
22:59can really feel
23:00when you get it right,
23:01when you add those authentic details.
23:04Generally speaking,
23:05there hasn't been much diversity
23:06in future animation,
23:08particularly in leadership roles
23:09like directors and producers.
23:12I remember Frank and Ollie,
23:14Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson
23:15saying it takes about 12 years
23:16to start to learn
23:18to be a good animator.
23:19And then from there,
23:19you start to grow.
23:20It's just,
23:21it's a slow learning process.
23:23So you can't just grab somebody
23:25from square one
23:26and throw them in the deep end.
23:28We've been definitely conscious.
23:30At Pixar,
23:31I can only really speak to Pixar.
23:32For what, Corey,
23:33like the last five or six years,
23:35it's been a very concerted effort.
23:37And Corey has done amazing things
23:39on Onward to further that,
23:42both on screen
23:44and behind the screen.
23:45Here in Cartoon Saloon
23:47and Lighthouse Studios,
23:48we did a kind of a survey,
23:50a roundup to see where we were.
23:52And definitely in terms of gender,
23:55you know,
23:55we found ourselves
23:56like 60% female
23:59and whatever the breakdown,
24:02really 1% sort of
24:03preferred not to confirm
24:05to a certain gender.
24:06And then everyone else was male,
24:08which was amazing to me
24:09because animation
24:10had been like a submarine
24:11for so long.
24:12And I remember
24:13when we started the studio,
24:14like Nora was like
24:15the only girl in the studio
24:16for a while,
24:17you know,
24:17and now,
24:18you know,
24:18she's leading a team
24:19where most of the leadership
24:21on her new feature
24:23is female,
24:24which is great.
24:25In terms of other kinds
24:26of diversity,
24:26I think there's further to go.
24:28We had one person of color
24:29in the storyboard team,
24:31amazing guy,
24:31a director in his own right,
24:33but, you know,
24:34notably the only person.
24:35But then again,
24:36Ireland and even Europe
24:37in general,
24:38the animation scene
24:39has evened out
24:40in terms of gender,
24:41I think a lot better,
24:42but other areas
24:43we need to do more work on.
24:44And something I think
24:45about a lot is
24:46there should be
24:47more older people
24:48and more disabled people
24:50able to make a living
24:51in animation.
24:52It's a very young industry
24:53and an able-bodied.
24:55There's not very many
24:56and I don't see why not
24:57because there should be
24:58an industry
24:59that could allow for that,
25:01you know,
25:01and sometimes I do wonder
25:03where does everyone go
25:04over the age of 40,
25:05you know,
25:05sometimes there's not
25:06that many people.
25:07The studio is very young
25:09and I wonder why that is
25:10and what's in the culture
25:11that's stopping people,
25:13you know,
25:13progress.
25:14So hopefully that's going to,
25:16I don't know,
25:17hopefully that's something
25:18we can work on,
25:19you know.
25:19I can speak over here
25:21for like DreamWorks
25:22and Universal.
25:23Like all the major studios,
25:24it's a huge focus
25:25and I think it's
25:26the right thing to do
25:27to try and increase
25:28the diversity.
25:29But the other thing is
25:30it's a business decision
25:31as well because,
25:32you know,
25:33the world is very diverse
25:34and you want storytellers
25:36that come from that background
25:37to be able to tell
25:38those stories
25:39because,
25:40you know,
25:40you get movies
25:41that represent that,
25:43do great business.
25:44so it's the right thing
25:46to do
25:46but it's also
25:47a smart thing to do.
25:49So it's,
25:49as I say,
25:51it's a huge focus here
25:51to be able to increase
25:52that at DreamWorks.
25:54Your studios
25:55also create animated shorts.
25:57Do you see shorts programs
25:59as well as the opportunity
26:00to distribute
26:00on streaming platforms
26:02having impact
26:03in this area?
26:04Yeah,
26:05I know that's for sure
26:06for us.
26:06We have this program
26:07called Spark Shorts
26:08and it's been
26:09really beneficial
26:11in giving voice
26:12to people
26:12who wouldn't normally
26:15have a chance
26:16and in particular
26:17because the stakes
26:19are lower,
26:20you know,
26:20it's not the huge budgets
26:22that the feature films are.
26:24It's a smaller thing
26:25and we can just try it
26:26and if it works,
26:27great,
26:27and if it doesn't,
26:28it always works,
26:29frankly,
26:30it always works.
26:30That's something
26:31that we focused on a lot
26:32and a lot of the younger talent
26:34and they're bringing,
26:35you know,
26:35different perspectives
26:36in the shorts
26:37and then it's a great place
26:38for them to,
26:39you know,
26:39kind of get the confidence
26:40to pitch as feature
26:42and serious ideas
26:43and members
26:44of the LGBT community
26:45and,
26:46you know,
26:46any different
26:48diverse background
26:49that you'd want to encourage
26:50or able to come up
26:51through the shorts
26:51much quicker.
26:52It's a long haul
26:53to get a feature
26:54off the ground
26:55but we see more
26:56by working with people
26:57on shorts
26:57which is great.
26:58Glenn,
26:58you've recently won
26:59an Academy Award
27:00for an animated short.
27:02Would you tell us
27:02a little bit
27:03about working
27:03on Dear Basketball
27:05with Kobe Bryant?
27:06Well,
27:06just touching
27:07on the diversity
27:09part of it
27:10at one point
27:12Kobe
27:14felt
27:14that
27:17that there just
27:18wasn't enough
27:19of a Black influence
27:20in the world
27:21of animation
27:22as he said,
27:23Glenn,
27:24I feel like
27:24a grain of pepper
27:26and a salt shaker
27:27here as we
27:28would visit
27:29different studios
27:30and I think
27:32that that's
27:32an area
27:33that
27:35naturally
27:35will grow
27:37especially
27:38especially now
27:39with what's
27:40happening
27:40as an impact
27:42of this pandemic
27:43with Zoom
27:46the freedom
27:47of working
27:48with people
27:48all over the world.
27:50Recently
27:50I was talking
27:52to a young man
27:53in Ghana
27:54who
27:55I just loved
27:56his drawings.
27:58This is on
27:59in the coast
28:00where
28:00they used to
28:02sell the slaves
28:03in these little
28:06forts
28:07and here
28:08he is
28:09like
28:10a relative
28:12from those
28:13families
28:13and he's
28:14showing me
28:15some work
28:15in animation
28:16and there is
28:17no animation
28:17school there
28:18but it looked
28:19like he was
28:20trained by
28:21the guys
28:21who mentored
28:22me
28:22because
28:23the access
28:25is everywhere
28:26that
28:27there's
28:28there's really
28:29nothing that
28:30is going to
28:31stop
28:31a young
28:33person
28:33who has
28:34you know
28:35access to
28:36the internet
28:36from having
28:38those resources
28:39for
28:39for growing.
28:41The wonderful
28:41thing
28:42to me
28:43about
28:43animation
28:45is
28:46is it
28:47opens you
28:48to all
28:49sorts
28:50of tabs
28:51and it's
28:52at one
28:53point
28:53I left
28:54Disney
28:55I was
28:55explaining
28:56to Ed
28:56Catmull
28:57that I
28:57just wanted
28:57to work
28:59creatively
29:00without
29:00walls
29:03and in
29:04a world
29:04where you
29:05can contact
29:06just about
29:06anybody you
29:07want and
29:07work with
29:07anybody you
29:08want
29:08and that's
29:10what deer
29:10basketball
29:11was for
29:12me
29:12for Kobe
29:13inviting me
29:13into the
29:14NBA
29:15but it was
29:16interesting
29:17our first
29:17conversation
29:18we were
29:19trying to
29:19find like
29:20our
29:20common
29:21ground
29:21as I
29:22told him
29:22you got
29:22the worst
29:23basketball
29:23player on
29:24earth
29:24animating
29:25you
29:26and
29:27so
29:28as we
29:29talked
29:30we realized
29:31that our
29:31common
29:32ground
29:32was
29:32Beethoven
29:33I'm not
29:34sure which
29:34one of
29:35us first
29:35started
29:36talking about
29:36Beethoven
29:37but
29:38I
29:39because I
29:39had animated
29:40Beast's
29:41transformation
29:41to Beethoven's
29:42ninth
29:43and how I
29:43I just
29:44found that
29:45Beethoven
29:45really spoke
29:47to me
29:47as an
29:48artist
29:49and the
29:49emotions
29:50and the
29:50human
29:51experience
29:52and Kobe's
29:54eyes lit up
29:54he said
29:54what
29:55I played
29:57the
29:58sixth game
29:59of the
29:59championship
30:00from 2009
30:01against the
30:02Nuggets
30:02to Beethoven's
30:03fifth
30:03he memorized
30:05this whole
30:06the whole
30:08symphony
30:08and played
30:09it and
30:09structured
30:10the entire
30:11game
30:11to Beethoven's
30:12fifth
30:13and
30:13matter of
30:14in fact
30:15if you
30:16look at
30:16him
30:17walking
30:17onto
30:17the
30:18court
30:18he's
30:18got
30:19the
30:19headphones
30:19on
30:20listening
30:20to Beethoven's
30:21fifth
30:21as he's
30:22about to
30:22go out
30:22there
30:24and it's
30:25the influence
30:26of other
30:28kinds of
30:28art forms
30:29and disciplines
30:29from every
30:30angle that
30:31can really
30:32connect
30:33and take
30:34two people
30:34that are
30:35not alike
30:36at all
30:37and find
30:38that you
30:38actually
30:39are
30:39and who
30:40knows what
30:41those influences
30:42will be
30:42but I
30:43think
30:44that's
30:44such
30:44an
30:45important
30:45thing
30:46to be
30:46open
30:46to
30:47any
30:47kind
30:47of
30:49area
30:49that's
30:50going
30:50to
30:50bring
30:52people
30:53together
30:53Mark
30:54Crude's
30:55A New Age
30:56was the
30:57first
30:57studio
30:58animated
30:59feature
30:59to open
31:00in theaters
31:01amid the
31:01pandemic
31:02how is that
31:02fair
31:03tell us
31:03about that
31:04yeah
31:05come out
31:06and there's
31:0740% of the
31:08movie theaters
31:09open
31:09and
31:10living here
31:11in Los
31:11Angeles
31:12it amazes
31:13me
31:13anyone's
31:14been going
31:14to the
31:15movie theater
31:15but they
31:15in certain
31:16parts of the
31:17country
31:17they felt
31:18it's safe
31:19and okay
31:19and obviously
31:20drive-ins
31:21have been
31:21going
31:21look I'm
31:22super happy
31:23some people
31:23have seen
31:24it on a
31:24big screen
31:25for me
31:26we finished
31:26this movie
31:27kind of
31:28working on
31:28computer screens
31:29at home
31:30instead of
31:30being able
31:31to go
31:32to work
31:32and see
31:32things on
31:33a big
31:33screen
31:33we couldn't
31:34and we
31:35were super
31:36lucky we
31:36got to do
31:37our mix-up
31:38at Skywalker
31:38and they've
31:40got the best
31:40theater there
31:42experience
31:43the stack
31:43theater
31:44and it's
31:46amazing
31:46and then to
31:47be able to
31:47go in there
31:48and see that
31:48on the big
31:49screen
31:49it's fantastic
31:50so I'm
31:51pleased some
31:52people are
31:52going to
31:52experience that
31:53way
31:53I'm also
31:55happy that
31:55we're releasing
31:56it on demand
31:57so that
31:58families around
31:59America
32:00and hopefully
32:01the world
32:01will be able
32:02to access it
32:03you know
32:04in whatever
32:04way they can
32:05because right
32:06now I think
32:07we all just
32:07want people
32:08to be able
32:09to have a
32:10couple of
32:10hours of
32:11you know
32:12happiness and
32:13fun time as
32:14a family and
32:14experience a
32:15movie is a
32:15great way to
32:16do that
32:16Pete
32:18moved its
32:19theatrical
32:19release to
32:20Disney plus
32:21why did the
32:21studio choose
32:22that strategy
32:23for your
32:23movie
32:24well it's
32:25funny we
32:25were like
32:26Mark with
32:27the kind
32:27of just
32:27the studio
32:28analyzing the
32:31where we are
32:32every week
32:33you know how
32:33many theaters
32:34are open and
32:34whatnot and
32:35and we
32:36were initially
32:37supposed to
32:37come out
32:37June 19th
32:38and that was
32:39kind of like
32:40just on the
32:40surge of the
32:41worst of it
32:42well now
32:43there's been
32:43worse but
32:44it moved
32:45then to
32:46November and
32:47it was
32:48eventually just
32:49a decision
32:49made by the
32:50studio to
32:51release on
32:52streaming because
32:53of the
32:55market just
32:55not being
32:56there not
32:56enough people
32:57going and
32:58of course we
32:58have this
32:59amazing platform
32:59Disney plus
33:00which is a
33:02great way for
33:03people to see
33:04it around the
33:04world so
33:05you know I
33:06will echo
33:07Mark's
33:08sentiments of
33:09hey we made
33:10this movie to
33:10be seen on
33:11a big screen
33:11we filed every
33:12frame on a
33:14big screen and
33:15it's somewhat
33:16tragic to think
33:17this is our
33:17first of 23
33:18features that
33:20we've done that
33:21won't have its
33:21debut that way
33:22I hope someday
33:23we'll have some
33:24sort of release
33:25so that people
33:26can see the
33:26amazing work
33:27that everyone
33:28did because
33:29there's some
33:29really stellar
33:31visuals that
33:32are going to
33:33be please
33:33all I will say
33:34is please
33:35please don't
33:36watch it on
33:36your iPhone
33:37at least
33:38at least like
33:39a 12 inch
33:40at least
33:43I really
33:44echo what
33:45you just said
33:46that wouldn't
33:47it be awesome
33:49to it's kind
33:50of like
33:51it's this
33:52amazing art
33:54museum where
33:55all of these
33:56incredible
33:56paintings have
33:58been hidden
33:58and that
33:59there could
34:00be a time
34:01when all
34:03of this
34:03pandemic is
34:04over where
34:05theaters embrace
34:06all the
34:07creative work
34:08that's been
34:08done
34:09and celebrate
34:11it with
34:12huge releases
34:13around the
34:14world in
34:15movie theaters
34:16that we all
34:17of our films
34:18could be being
34:19seen it just
34:20it would really
34:21really be a
34:22fantastic way
34:23to step back
34:24into the light
34:25of freedom
34:28here
34:28or you're
34:29nodding
34:29do you want
34:29to elaborate
34:31oh yeah
34:31no I mean
34:32and I'm
34:33I'm one of
34:34the lucky
34:34ones I got
34:35what I think
34:35eight days
34:36in theaters
34:37before everything
34:38shut down
34:39so I did get
34:40a little
34:41but I just
34:41I just
34:42totally agree
34:43with Glenn
34:44that it would
34:44just feel
34:45so great
34:46to get it
34:47on the big
34:48screen
34:49even just
34:49a little
34:50longer
34:53I will say
34:53a lot of
34:54us grew
34:54up I
34:55think I
34:55fell in
34:56love with
34:56animation in
34:57the theater
34:57but I
35:00like sucked
35:01it into my
35:01soul in
35:02home video
35:02and I think
35:03a lot of
35:04kids are the
35:04same way
35:05and that
35:06you watch
35:07these things
35:07over and
35:08over like
35:08Glenn's
35:08saying you
35:09have access
35:10to all this
35:11amazing stuff
35:11all the
35:12animators that
35:12are coming
35:13in now are
35:14so mind
35:15blowingly
35:15good because
35:16they had
35:17access to
35:17this whenever
35:18they wanted
35:19they could just
35:19look up
35:20how did
35:20they how
35:21did you
35:21know
35:21Bugs Bunny
35:23how did
35:23they do
35:23that in
35:24this particular
35:24short
35:24it's it's
35:26I think
35:26that access
35:27has given
35:30not just
35:31far reaching
35:31but like a
35:32depth to
35:33to the
35:33craft that
35:34we didn't
35:35have in
35:36previous
35:36generations
35:37so you
35:38got to
35:38give that
35:38to it
35:38how is
35:39everyone
35:39feeling about
35:40the future
35:41of theatrical
35:42exhibition
35:43I was
35:44talking to
35:44a friend
35:45about this
35:45the other
35:45day
35:46when she's
35:47a live
35:48action director
35:49over in
35:49Los Angeles
35:50and she
35:50said that
35:51the cinema
35:51is closed
35:51down again
35:52there and
35:53they're open
35:53here in
35:53Ireland and
35:54Wolf Walkers
35:55is playing in
35:56a cinema that
35:56we both went
35:57to the last
35:58time she was
35:58here and
35:59it was a
36:00gorgeous cinema
36:01because it's
36:01like an
36:02old-fashioned
36:0219 I guess
36:041950s I don't
36:05know if it ever
36:05existed but
36:06there's a bar
36:06outside I
36:08remember we
36:08saw Toy Story
36:103 in there
36:10and it has
36:11like a it's
36:12just beautiful
36:12like I remember
36:13Leone Creek was
36:14over and it's
36:14called the Stella
36:15in Dublin and
36:16it used to be
36:17just this really
36:17run-down cinema
36:18that played
36:19the Rocky
36:19Horror Picture
36:20Show over
36:21and over again
36:21for people that
36:22love the Rocky
36:22Horror Picture
36:23Show and they
36:24just decided to
36:25do it up and
36:25make it this
36:26real event place
36:27with like you
36:27know really nice
36:28food and really
36:29nice drinks
36:31cocktails and
36:32stuff and you
36:33go in and sit
36:33on these like
36:34big cozy seats
36:35and there's a
36:36little blanket and
36:37stuff if you
36:38wanted and it's
36:38just an experience
36:39you know and
36:40it's really like a
36:41nice night out
36:42like going to a
36:42good play or
36:43something like
36:44that I'd like
36:45that to be the
36:46future I'd love
36:47of it became
36:47that like you
36:48know cinema
36:49became something
36:49that was really
36:50celebrated and
36:51you went and
36:52really enjoyed
36:52and indulged
36:53in and I'd
36:55love if more
36:56unusual movies
36:57got a chance
36:58to play as
36:59well because
36:59here in Ireland
37:00outside of
37:00Dublin most
37:01of the cinemas
37:02only show like
37:03two or three
37:04superhero movies
37:04and all the
37:05awesome stuff
37:06besides they're
37:08awesome but
37:08besides some of
37:09that we
37:09have to watch
37:10them streaming
37:10anyway so I
37:11would love if
37:12there was a
37:13change in
37:13cinemas and
37:14they became more
37:15of an event
37:15and more of
37:16a special
37:17experience and
37:17that people
37:18kind of embraced
37:19it like that
37:20so that would
37:20be my hope
37:21yeah which is
37:22cool when you
37:22look back in
37:23history after
37:23the 1918
37:26pandemic there
37:27was a big
37:27resurgence of
37:28film and I
37:29think a lot of
37:30it like you
37:30say like a lot
37:31of the palatial
37:32movie houses
37:33where they
37:34really catered
37:35to like this
37:35is an experience
37:36you don't get
37:37this anywhere
37:37else you come
37:38in and there's
37:38like a palace
37:39and you know
37:40food and all
37:41this I think
37:41that kind of
37:42grew out of
37:42that maybe
37:44hopefully that
37:45could happen
37:46again
37:46I like like
37:47when I was in
37:47Los Angeles
37:48we showed
37:49Song of the
37:49Sea in I
37:50think it was
37:50the Egyptian
37:51and you could
37:52feel like this
37:53is like an
37:53oh like this
37:54is the way
37:54cinema should
37:55be not like
37:56get some
37:57popcorn get
37:57in get out
37:58you know like
37:59you know I
38:00always wait to
38:01watch the
38:01credits because
38:02I often have
38:02friends who
38:03work on
38:03different movies
38:04and they
38:05often stop
38:05the credits
38:06before they're
38:07finished and
38:07you know all
38:08that stuff I
38:09think was
38:09cheapening the
38:10experience so I
38:11hope that they
38:12make a big
38:12effort to make
38:13it worth
38:14going back
38:14in the
38:15average cinema
38:16I know there's
38:16always been
38:17beautiful cinemas
38:18you know art
38:19house cinemas
38:19but they're
38:20usually in big
38:20cities and
38:21stuff like that
38:22it would be
38:22nice if more
38:23places made
38:23that I hope
38:24so that would
38:25be the hope
38:25to it
38:26Jitan I'm
38:26curious about
38:27India what
38:28how's the
38:29experience in
38:29India
38:32we are one
38:34of the biggest
38:35film watching
38:36in theatres
38:38public in
38:39the world
38:40but the
38:42pandemic has
38:42changed a lot
38:43of things and
38:44especially when
38:44I come from
38:45in a big
38:46city they're
38:47all multiplexes
38:48and they're
38:48very expensive
38:49so they have
38:50opened but
38:51nobody is going
38:52back to them
38:52it is so much
38:54cheaper to be
38:55sitting at home
38:56four or five
38:56people a family
38:57watching the
38:58films not having
38:59to pay for your
39:00parking for the
39:00shopping mall for
39:01the food that you
39:02eat because we
39:04are a culture
39:04which has these
39:05three hour long
39:06films with an
39:07interval in between
39:08where we go and
39:09get a popcorn and
39:10coffee and come
39:11back it's not
39:12like Europe so
39:13we want to really
39:14enjoy it I think
39:14people have started
39:15enjoying sitting
39:16back at home and
39:17watching the films a
39:18lot more than
39:19they used to it's
39:20looking quite bleak
39:22but it's also true
39:24that the way the
39:26theatres and the
39:27multiplexes have
39:28the corporates of
39:30the multiplexes have
39:31actually taken over
39:32the single screens
39:33cinema in India has
39:34been pursued by the
39:35working class by the
39:36people essentially the
39:38factory workers the
39:40first show in the
39:41cinemas would start
39:41at 4 30 a.m. in
39:42the morning that's
39:44where the factory
39:44night shift ends and
39:46they want to keep
39:46awake and they want
39:47to watch a film so
39:48we have had a very
39:50huge history and as
39:52I said we make
39:53about 900 films in
39:54different languages
39:55in the in the
39:56country so for us
39:57now to see this
39:58pandemic and the
39:59close of the cinemas
40:00has been extremely
40:01huge but also it's
40:03been one of the
40:03biggest one of the
40:07strangest lockdowns
40:07ever so people are
40:09have forgotten
40:10entertainment
40:11completely a few
40:12people who can
40:13afford it are into
40:14Netflix and Amazon
40:15and Disney plus
40:16hot star and things
40:18like that but for
40:19the rest of India
40:19entertainment right
40:20now is there there
40:22is no room for it
40:23we are in you know
40:25in a pretty
40:26downward moment and
40:29I don't think it's
40:31going to be as easy
40:31for us to come up
40:33back with the
40:34theatres as it is
40:35going to be for
40:35let's say Europe
40:37because of the
40:37culture of watching
40:38films where people
40:39actually make an
40:40effort and go out
40:40and watch films
40:41that's not going to
40:42happen if the tickets
40:43are too expensive
40:44and people are not
40:44earning enough money
40:45to buy them so
40:48it's going to be a
40:49little more tragic in
40:50third world countries
40:51where entertainment
40:52is cinema is
40:54essentially entertainment
40:55is not education
40:57and things like that
40:58so it's it's very
40:59different but it's
41:01it's quite bleak
41:02move to production
41:04for those of you
41:05who had to finish
41:06your movies
41:07amid the pandemic
41:09what's been most
41:10difficult about
41:11shifting to remove
41:12well for me I
41:14finished it much
41:15before the pandemic
41:15I finished it last
41:16year middle of
41:17August last year
41:18so I didn't suffer
41:20from it at all
41:21we had the last
41:22seven weeks of
41:23production so we
41:24did the most of it
41:27all together but
41:27then last seven
41:29weeks were when we
41:30were told to
41:31evacuate and
41:33miraculously the
41:34systems group at
41:36work had come up
41:37with an idea to
41:40send people home
41:41with these small
41:42boxes called the
41:43Teradici which is
41:44kind of like as I
41:45understand it a
41:46remote control so
41:47you have all the
41:47power of your
41:48computer which lives
41:50over there at work
41:51and I just have this
41:53little portable box
41:54so we were able to
41:55finish animation
41:56effects lighting and
41:59one or two other
41:59things all remotely
42:01and pretty efficiently
42:03I'd say it was the
42:04same for us we
42:05were about 50%
42:06finished when the
42:08pandemic happened
42:09and within a few
42:11days we were back
42:12up running daily
42:13sessions everyone
42:14joining in via a
42:16zoom type meeting
42:17I think probably the
42:19biggest challenge is
42:20it's again it's
42:21it's the color on a
42:23big screen because
42:24your monitors don't
42:25exactly represent what
42:26it will be on the big
42:27screen so we used to
42:29have to have a couple
42:29of people who are
42:31allowed to come into
42:31work view it on a
42:33big screen then look
42:34at it on a small
42:35screen and say it's
42:37all working but if
42:38you could just tweak
42:39these things so I
42:40think between that and
42:41the stereo those were
42:43the two issues that
42:44were probably the most
42:45challenging for us
42:46whereas everything else
42:47was was okay I would
42:49say in some ways I
42:51think because we're all
42:52on all of us were on
42:53the tail end of
42:54finishing our movies I
42:56think it's a little bit
42:56of a different
42:57experience for the
42:58people who were
42:58starting up movies
42:59were being together
43:01being in a room being
43:02able to share ideas
43:04being able to kind of
43:05you know spin out from
43:07one idea to another
43:08idea that's not quite as
43:10organic in a zoom type
43:12meeting and so I think
43:14there's a little bit
43:15more of a challenge
43:16there on movies in some
43:17ways that are earlier in
43:18the cycle yeah yeah I
43:21was gonna say exactly
43:22what Mark was saying we
43:23finished out because we
43:24all had been together for
43:26nearly three years so
43:27the last couple of
43:27months and we all knew
43:28each other and it was
43:30wasn't great but you
43:31know great IT people
43:33God bless them got us
43:34set up and we kind of
43:36finished it but Nora is
43:37in the middle of making
43:38another film and yeah I
43:40was saying to her just
43:41today like there's a
43:42very purpose for all of
43:43our listeners for a
43:44minute this is Nora Toomey
43:45who Nora Toomey is
43:46making the movie yeah my
43:48father's dragon yeah a
43:51bigger pardon yeah and
43:52she's and it's a it's a
43:53big project and it's a
43:54pity in a way like they're
43:55doing a great job and
43:56they're finding ways
43:57around it but the kind
43:58of thing I think you're
43:59gonna miss out on as long
44:01as this continues on
44:02there's a girl Sandra
44:03Anderson who's in charge
44:04of all our model sheets
44:05she's really really
44:06talented or young woman
44:07talented but when she
44:08was an intern I was
44:09just walking past her
44:10desk and she was doing
44:12some interny job in
44:13between or something I
44:14said did you draw that
44:15and she said yeah I
44:16you draw the characters
44:17really good and then she
44:18ended up like you know
44:19fast tracking to being a
44:21model sheet person and
44:22then a supervisor and that
44:24kind of just thing that
44:26happens in the workshop of
44:27being in all together in
44:28the room where you see
44:29what people are good at
44:31and you kind of keep an
44:32eye and say oh they'll be
44:33good for this department
44:33later when it's all
44:35officially presenting over
44:36zoom there's something
44:38something missing I think
44:40you know yeah I agree that
44:42there's you know you can
44:45movies they take two three
44:47years to do but they're
44:49basically made in five
44:50minutes it's always like
44:53this panic at the end
44:56suddenly it's not until
44:57the heat of pressure that
45:00the best ideas happen you
45:02know like you got five
45:04minutes and editing is
45:05got to close this sequence
45:06got to be locked and
45:08suddenly then you realize
45:09what's missing and you
45:12start scribbling on little
45:15post-it notes as fast as
45:16you can taking a picture
45:17with your iPhone sending
45:18it to editing and
45:21they're cutting it in
45:22and it's all and you're
45:23recording dialogue very
45:25quickly somebody runs
45:26downstairs to records it
45:27it has to be that kind
45:30of fluid to really lift
45:33and make and plus the
45:34film I think that in
45:37order for this kind of
45:40production to take place
45:42zoom zoom has to really
45:44grow and there has to be a
45:46whole other set of I
45:50don't know accessibility
45:52and ease of people
45:54working together I don't
45:57want to say that it can't
45:57happen it just needs to
45:59grow from what this is
46:01right now that is so
46:03true you're like we had
46:04five years why is it that
46:06everything has to happen
46:07in the three minutes
46:08before the deadline
46:09happens every time
46:21for those of you who had to
46:23record your talent voice
46:25talent how did that work who
46:28was you know in a closet or
46:30how did that work for us we
46:33had a song that we've been
46:35using a temp track to by a
46:38Norwegian singer Aurora
46:39Agnes we had recorded the
46:41orchestra and we we wanted
46:43to like have a session with
46:44her and the Irish
46:45traditional musicians and it
46:47was literally the week of
46:48lockdown she was scheduled to
46:49come over and record it so we
46:50had to do it like this over
46:52zoom and I mean it worked
46:53really well and she's amazing
46:55and she had the whole setup and
46:57everything she needed so I
46:58can't really say it didn't
46:59work out but I didn't get to
47:00meet a pop star that I wanted
47:02to meet we have a such an
47:07international cast we ended
47:08up recording most of our
47:10stuff via zoom even though we
47:13didn't have to at that time
47:14you know like recording
47:15Rachel house in New Zealand
47:17it would have taken us like a
47:18week to get there you know
47:19for a three-hour session so
47:22what it seems like it the
47:24the process favors certain
47:26actors who like Tom Hanks is a
47:28guy you can see as he's
47:30reading it the whole movie is
47:32taking place in his head
47:33other actors are much more
47:34reactive like they need
47:36someone else to read against
47:37so I think this particular
47:40system that we're in now where
47:42we're recording people in
47:43their closets really favors
47:44people with very active
47:46imaginations who can kind of
47:47create this whole reality for
47:49themselves and we were lucky
47:52that most of our cast was able
47:53to do that quite well I think
47:55for us it really showed which
47:57of the actors had some kind of
48:00IT chops and which of the
48:01actors did not have IT chops
48:03and you know you could really
48:06tell the difference and people
48:08were comfortable figuring it
48:09out because we were figuring
48:11out as well we were sending
48:13them microphones and recording
48:15devices and you know as you say
48:17some people recorded from the
48:18closet we had another recording
48:20where it was in a kitchen and we
48:22could hear everything and we
48:23had to re-record and re-record to
48:26be able to get the quality we
48:27needed but it was it was fun in a
48:30way.
48:31Who were some of the actors that
48:32you were working with in that
48:33way?
48:35We had to record every one of our
48:37casts you know we were still
48:38doing pickups I mean we had most
48:40of the lines done but there were
48:41like seven or eight lines for
48:43everyone so every one of our cast
48:45Peter Dinklage, Nick Cage, Ryan
48:48Reynolds you know everyone had to
48:50kind of record in their house in a
48:53room that worked the best and yeah
48:56it was a challenge for some but
48:57others they were easy and
48:59fantastic at it so.
49:01When we were recording before the
49:04pandemic you could see the
49:06difference when we have this one
49:08person that laughs really loud and
49:10we're behind glass but her laugh
49:12would penetrate the glass and
49:14people would hear that and well
49:17let me try it again and so she
49:19tried to get her to laugh again so
49:21we we just moved ourselves on the
49:23inside so that there was no glass
49:26between us.
49:27Yeah when you're recording with you
49:30know on Zoom you don't you really
49:32don't get back that's one of those
49:35little extras that you'd have to
49:36overcome.
49:38You mentioned that you know you had
49:41to record Talon who was in New
49:42Zealand for example when this period
49:45is over do you see a scenario where
49:47some of these remote tools will
49:49continue to be used in order to
49:52reduce travel or I mean were there
49:54other advantages you found?
49:56Yeah most likely I mean it is
49:58surprising you know we used to fly
50:00ourselves everywhere for certain
50:02meetings and so on and you you'd
50:05say well could you do it remotely and
50:07it just didn't seem possible and now
50:08of course we have to and so it it's
50:10surprising how often it does work.
50:13That said I still think like we're
50:16drafting off the coattails of years of
50:19working together you know at Pixar and
50:21so we have these productions like Tom
50:24was saying they the next film up for us
50:27is called Luca it's directed by Enrico
50:30Casarosa they started and will complete
50:32animation entirely from home and I think
50:36again it's only possible because all of
50:38these animators have come from Seoul and
50:40from Toy Story 4 and other films on to
50:43on to working together on this one and
50:46and that shared camaraderie and brain
50:48wave sharing that happens I really feel
50:53bad for anybody who's starting that's
50:54new that doesn't have that already you
50:57know having spent time in the same room.
51:00Yeah Pete while you were working on
51:02Seoul you were also adjusting to your new
51:05additional role at Pixar as chief
51:07creator.
51:08How did you balance the two?
51:12Well luckily there's a lot of we have a
51:14deep bench of really talented people and
51:17you know people like Corey and Dan
51:19really didn't need much of my my help
51:21they're totally self-sufficient and know
51:24what they're doing and then on home base
51:26at on Seoul you know I was working with
51:28like Kevin Nolting my editor who has
51:32edited on Up and on Inside Out and he
51:35not only can kind of read my brain and
51:37know where I want to go but he's got a
51:38great vision as well so I think just
51:40relying on other people unlike
51:43Jitan I think my job has evolved into
51:47doing less and less myself in fact
51:50sometimes I feel like do I even belong I
51:52don't actually do anything I just tell
51:54other people what to do but I think as a
51:58director that's been a something that
52:00I've gotten better at or I've tried to is
52:02understanding how to communicate to
52:04talented people tell them what they need
52:07to do emotionally without telling them
52:09specifically because if I can leave that
52:11to them then I get this all these great
52:14ideas that are way beyond what I thought
52:16of if I can tell them what's emotionally
52:18needed in the scene then I can kind of
52:21step back and and watch the magic happen so
52:24I've tried to rely on that to all of you
52:27have your experiences during this pandemic
52:29prompted ideas for new animated stories that
52:33we might see in the coming years
52:36well Dan and I have been in development
52:39during the whole pandemic so we finished
52:41onward and then took a short break but
52:45it's been an interesting kind of thing to
52:48to come up with original new ideas
52:51remotely and via zoom and there's aspects of
52:55it that have been cool there's but I don't
52:59know I maybe I'm just a I don't know
53:02maybe I'm just a dinosaur but I just
53:04miss seeing people in the hallway and
53:06talking to them about a specific part of
53:08an idea and getting some feedback and so
53:11there's some of the that that nuance that
53:13you get in the building that is still
53:15lacking even when you know we're kind of
53:17just ice in in isolation and thinking of
53:20new ideas it's miraculously it's
53:24happening we'll see we pitch a few
53:25ideas in January so knock wood but it's it's
53:30been a really interesting experience
53:32different but still possible so that's
53:36optimistic what what you're saying
53:39Corey has inspired me for an idea that
53:45I'm developing that it's it's about
53:48valuing the things that you took for
53:51granted before the little things about just
53:54bumping into people you know in a shopping
53:58mall how your kids can connect with each
54:01other it's a couple walking dogs being able
54:04to stand and talk shopping in a mall you know
54:09there's it's it's the little things become
54:12really really valuable and important
54:16um they become huge and and I think that's that's
54:21certainly something that I'm really leaning into uh now in terms of
54:27whatever it is that I how I'm going to express that what I do next
54:32yeah I think that's really beautiful I on the other side I did a piece with
54:36Greenpeace at the start of all this about the deforestation in the Amazon and I went down
54:41such a rabbit hole of how interconnected we all are and how much habitat destruction and
54:48species extinction is contributing to pandemic climate crisis and all those things so I
54:54definitely think that's the direction we need to focus on as as storytellers and
54:58keep raising the consciousness around how we end up in this crazy mess as we're
55:03falling out of balance with the biosphere so I think that's where I'll be focusing
55:07yeah I think I I agree with Tom it's it's more than the challenge to the negative things which
55:13propels up at a time like this even I have managed to make two short films uh based on the
55:20pandemic and on a political situation in the country but I was hoping to actually finish the
55:27the idea for my next feature film during this time but it's it's simply too negative and isolating
55:33to be able to think of a film which has hope at the end of it as a theme so
55:40if I do uh develop an
55:42idea also I would feel it is uh dishonest to the way I feel and I feel another year another
55:49time
55:49is where the positivity would come in so of course it's natural for me to take up the time with
55:55making
55:55an animation film but to come up with an idea for the next one I think life needs to be
56:00a little more
56:01positive uh for me personally to be able to think creatively and constructively and that it has not
56:07been for most of us this year thank you all for a fantastic conversation um and uh I hope everybody
56:17and your families are uh continue to do well and stay safe um for the close up with the Hollywood
56:23reporter I'm Carolyn Jardina
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