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Photo Exhibit Honors
Movies for Television Directors
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Taylor Hackford, John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich. (Photo: Joe Coomber) - click image for larger view |
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DGA Special Projects recently hosted a three-hour discussion on the art of directing for animation.
Moderator and DGA National Board Member Taylor Hackford, stressed that directing is about passion and articulating that passion, whatever the art form, and said, “This is something which [speakers] John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich do with consistency. Whether live action or animation, it’s all about the story and the characters.
Lasseter is a two-time Academy Award–winning director whose credits include Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and A Bug’s Life and who executive produced the recent hit Monsters, Inc. Unkrich, a graduate of USC’s film school, made his directorial debut as a co-director of Toy Story 2 followed by a co-directing credit on Monsters, Inc.
During the evening, Lasseter meticulously illustrated Pixar’s motto “you can’t rush art.” He went over the four-step process all Pixar films, and essentially all animated films, go through: 1) development, where the storyline is created; 2) pre-production where the specific technical challenges are addressed and dealt with; 3) production where the film is made; and, 4) post-production where the film is ‘polished.’
One of the points Lasseter stressed is that the computer is just a tool. “Lots of pre-visualization is necessary in animation and we’re in a very exciting time now as computer capabilities are constantly evolving and expanding,” Lasseter said. “A great example of this is the way Sully’s hair is blown and lightly dusted with snow in Monsters, Inc., something which less than a year earlier would have been impossible to show so believably. Art challenges technology, and technology challenges art. What is impossible today may not be tomorrow as animators, who constantly push the envelope, are repeatedly illustrating.”
Lasseter and Unkrich agreed that animators are not striving to create a real world, but rather a believable world, and there are many intricacies to keep in mind at all times with animated films. For example, the most important element of animating a character is their eyes, or in the case of Monsters, Inc., an eye. Details may be so precise that often the audience doesn’t notice them, which is precisely the point.
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