When we left off yesterday, Visual Effects Society Tom Atkin has just mentioned that the second floor of Pixar was now open for those party guests who wanted to explore.
Oh really?
As soon as we heard that, Nancy and I raced up the stairs — taking them two at a time — and discovered … that party guests weren’t actually being allowed to tour the studio’s production areas (Rats!). But we were free to roam the studio’s gallery space. Which was still pretty cool.
Why for? Because Pixar had just mounted its “Behind the Screams: The Art of Monsters, Inc.” show. Which featured dozens of the model sheets, concept paintings and maquettes that were used in the development and production of this motion picture.
Among the more intriguing items on display were:
A great three dimensional model of the rooftops of Monstropolis that had been put together by “Monsters, Inc.” production designer Harley Jessup. (Interesting bit of trivia here: Acording to a billboard that was prominently featured in Jessup’s model, Monsters, Inc. [the company] is actually a division of Scare Co.)
A series of five different Sully maquettes which show how much this character changed over the course of “Monsters, Inc.”‘s production. (Just for the record: “MI”‘s main character started life as a fat, two footed devil – complete with horns and pointy tail. Then he was a hang dog character who had tentacles for feet [This was for the version of the film when Tim Robbins was supposed to have provided Sully’s voice]. And then — finally — the character mutated into the Sully that we know and love from the finished film.)
There were also a sampling of gags that didn’t make it into the finished film:
A sign from a Monstropolis shop: “Adhorrible Pets.”
A monster in a tattoo shop is getting something tattooed in his arm. But — instead of “Mother” — he’s got the skin artists inking in “Mothra.”
But — as we wandered through the gallery space — we continued to see signs that suggested what a fun workplace Pixar must be.
Take for example, this sign that Nancy saw posted outside Lola Gill’s office. Lola evidently works with Pixar’s Renderman program. However — perhaps as a spoof on the alleged sexism involved with the naming of this program — Gill posted a sign outside of her work space which reads “Renderwoman.”
Me personally? I particularly enjoyed peeking into Pixar’s trophy case. Not because it was exciting to see all those Oscars, Annies and Clios up close. But — rather — for what else was in the case: a crude drawing of Mike that had been done by P.J. Lasseter, John Lasseter’s son.
It was seeing P.J.’s drawing displayed in such an unlikely place that made me realize that Pixar Animation Studio isn’t just a fun place to work. But that the people who work here actually have their priorities in order. That they have their heads screwed on straight.
That … and the display of torsos sculpted by Jerome “Joe” Ranft (Veteran Pixar storyman AKA the voice of Heimlich from “A Bug’s Life” and Wheezy from “Toy Story II”) as well as the series of wax baby heads that had been done by Jan Pinkava (director of “Geri’s Game”). This is what demonstrated that the folks who work at Pixar actually have lives outside of the studio.
Sure. Winning awards is nice. And so is being associated with blockbuster films. Movies that make $200 – $300 million. But that isn’t everything, people.
What’s really nice about the crew at Pixar is that — in spite of all the success that they’ve had — it’s clear that the folks there don’t take themselves all that serious. Take for example, the display that Pixar employees had put together in the upstairs gallery. Which was sort of a tongue-in-cheek history of the company’s move from Port Richmond to Emeryville.
Here are several of the alternate sites that Pixar staffers suggested for the company’s new headquarters:
The old Chevron plant. Artists could set up their studios inside the old fuel tanks. Where the danger of explosion (from all the fumes) would add to the creative energy. Plus cool flames could shoot out of the smokestacks.
Brother Island Lighthouse. The key advantage of this location was that Pixar staffers could see Disney executives coming.
But what was even more intriguing (at least to me) was the tale of the hacksaw blade.
“And what – pray tell – is the tale of the hacksaw blade?,” I hear you saying. Well, how many of you remember when Pixar missed the mail-in deadline for the 2000 Academy Awards? Which meant that the studio then couldn’t submit “For the Birds” for Oscar consideration ’til 2001.
Well, according to a story I saw posted as part of the textural history display of Pixar’s move to Emeryville, this missing-out-on-the-Oscar-deadline for Ralph Eggleston’s short wasn’t actually an isolated incident. That — for all its success — Pixar really seems to a problem whenever Academy Award nomination time rolls around.
Here’s the story as I wrote it down that night:
In order to qualify for an Academy Award nomination, ‘Luxo Jr.’ had to be shown in an LA County theater before a certain date. I believe it was November 30th. John Lasseter gives the office a call from the other side of the country to say that he thought that we forgot to ship the print down. Ralph Guggenheim was also out of town. So was Lynn DeKeyes, who had the print in her filing cabinet.
It was, after all, the Thanksgiving break. It fell to me and John Snams, who worked for us at the time, to find the paperwork (that was the easy part) and get the print shipped to LA.
Across the parking lot, the old hardware store was in the throes of closing before becoming a Circuit City. John and I went over looking for a hacksaw blade. The store didn’t have any … except for the one the employees were using at the time.
‘We don’t care. We’ll take it.’
‘But we don’t have any hacksaws to put the blade in …’
‘We don’t care. We’ll take it.’
At this point, the hardware store employees decide that they’d rather not deal with two guys who are so desperate for a hacksaw blade. So they get very quiet and very polite and sell it to us. At a discount, so I recall.
We wrap tape around one end and took turns sawing the lock off the wooden filing cabinet. When we opened the drawer, it was the wrong one.
So we spent more time sawing open the other drawer. The print was there, we mailed it to LA, and the rest is history.
That hacksaw blade was prominently displayed at the party when Pixar celebrated ‘Luxo Jr.”s nomination for an Academy Award. It’s completely true that this nomination never would have happened without that hacksaw blade.
— Craig Good writing to Amy Trachtenberg – November 15, 2000
Funny story, don’t you think?
At this point, Nancy and I had finished exploring Pixar’s upstairs gallery space. So we returned to the VES party in the lobby. Looking over the buffet tables, it was clear that this was really a crowd full of visual effects people. The pile of desserts had been decimated (sugar… of course), while the assortment of raw vegetables (the healthy stuff) were virtually untouched.
Nancy and I eventually gravitated to Pixar’s game room. Though the party was supposed to break up at 9:30 p.m., it seemed like no one — like us — really wanted to leave. So we ended up playing pool (Minnesota Fats, meet New Hampshire Flab) as the studio support personnel repeatedly flicked the light on and off, trying to shoo all of us dweebs out of the building.
Which Nancy and I were understandably reluctant to do. After all, who would want to leave such a friendly fun factory?
Intrigued by Jim’s tales of the Visual Effects Society? Would you also like to get in on this behind-the-scenes fun? Then follow this link to VES’s home page, where you can learn more about “VES 2003: A Festival of Visual Effects” which is being held at the Los Angeles Film School, June 27 through 29th.