Any tips on how to break cliches and when to use them when coming up with a concept?
Write the cliche first, then recognize you just wrote a cliche and rewrite it. Repeat until your scene works. Our secret here is that we make 8+ lousy versions of every film that we change until we think it's good enough for you to see it.
What exactly does a director of an animated film do?
Around here, a director usually comes up with the concept and then shepherds that idea along all the way until its done. He/she may write, draw, animate, or do voice work, but the primary job is to be able to communicate to the 400+ amazingly talented people who do the actual work. I have to clearly state what it is I'm looking for from the animation in this shot, or what the fire effects should look like in this other shot. Because animation is done in pieces, you seldom have the benefit of seeing what the movie (much less an individual shot) will look like until it's all done, so you have to have a good imagination. But more important than all of that -- I'd say the majority of my job is creating a story and characters that people care about. Of course no director does that by him/herself -- there's a core group of collaborators we work with -- but the director is in charge of all that.
Are you a Woody or a Buzz man?
I like Buzz, because I'm delusional.
I've noticed that Pixar relies a lot on replicating key physical mannerisms and appearances of the voice actors. Could you expand on that? For instance, are you present at the voice recordings? Do you have the human actors actually stage the scenes?
Thanks -- and glad you liked UP. (Good cover, by the way. I usually use "There's something in my eye.") We usually have the characters designed and a first draft or two of the script before we even think about casting. We cast actors who we think will "fit the suit" of the character we have. But then, when we record, we grab on to things the actor brings and we adjust the character to fit the actor. Usually the actual design stays the same, but we may pick up on mannerisms, or take advantage of the way an actor speaks. Our goal is to make our design and the actor merge in a seamless way that makes you just accept them as a person, without even thinking about who did the voice. We have been lucky to work with some pretty amazing actors!
What is your process for coming up with that first idea?
Ah, good question. Every film is different, but there's always some hook that gets you into the project. On Monsters it was the thought that maybe monsters are real, and that they scare kids for a living -- it's their job. That simple premise lead to everything else. On UP it was a combo of doing something with a grouchy old man character (which just seemed fun) and my own feelings of wanting to escape the world. Nobody warned me that as a director basically all I do is run around and talk to people all day, and I'm not an extrovert... so by the end of the day I usually wanted to crawl under my desk. That feeling of getting away from the world lead to the story of UP. On my next film, it all started with-- oops, I'm not supposed to talk about that one yet.
Was the goal of UP to make every single person in the world bawl their eyes out?
Yes. Seriously, we had to make you really care about Carl's desire to fly his house to South America because -- let's face it -- that's pretty weird. If the audience didn't cry about Carl having lost Ellie, they wouldn't have rooted for him through the rest of the film!
Do you have a Pixar movie you would have liked to work on and why that particular movie? In hindsight, do you think it turned out better the way it did?
Glad you liked the door chase! As soon as we came up with the idea of using doors as portals from the monster world to the human world, I immediately flashed on where they would store all these doors. The door chase was a lot of fun, and Lee Unkrich (who was codirecting on MI) really pushed the action to another level.
Is there any particular way you go about setting up and showing characters in your films?
Ideally, we try to introduce our characters in some way that makes them distinct and memorable -- sort of like the way you might tell someone about a wild friend of yours. You know, something like, "He's the kind of guy who calls you at 3am, not even realizing you're asleep!" We try to make characters that have a definite view on the world. Geez, talking about characters is tough... I keep typing and erasing -- it's kind of an instinctive thing. You just do what feels truthful and real, and try to exaggerate that.
Working in the Production department at Pixar has been my dream since I was 12. I applied to the summer internships last year and was rejected, but I'll be applying again for this upcoming summer. My question is:
what common trait do you see among those lucky individuals who get selected for internships? How can I get my foot in the door? The process seems so competitive that I frequently find myself feeling like my dream is slipping away! Having some sort of edge would certainly boost my confidence!
[Not by Pete]: As a previous intern to numerous big animation studios, and also a friend of two previous Pixar interns (one that is still working there as a PA) - the one thing I noticed about my friends that interned is that they had worked EVERYWHERE else before Pixar accepted them. Nick, Sesame Street, DreamWorks, Disney etc. Pixar likes experience, and many of their interns are grad students or have been everywhere in a short time. My suggestion (though I know you're addressing Pete) would be to make sure you're applying everywhere, not just Pixar. You can learn from everyone, work your butt off (my friends that got there are the most dedicated & hardest workers I know) and that will prepare you to be truly ready for Pixar.
[Pete]: Glad you like our films!
Pixar is an amazing place to work, but it didn't exist when I was starting out at school. Keep your eyes open for opportunities that may come up along the way -- you never know where life might lead you if you're open to it. And keep trying!
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/14qiqm/i_am_pete_docter_director_of_monsters_inc_and_up/
