Tuesday, August 11, 2015

My 9 Takeaways of "Inside Out Talk With The Directors"

Pete Doctor & Ronnie Del Carmen...

The Director & Co-Director of Pixar's Inside Out was in town (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) last week for an Interactive Talk with industry players and students. Tqs Hasnul and MDeC for organizing the event!



I like to keep my blogposts short and simple so here are my top 9 takeaways:

1. At Pixar we always expect the first idea to be lame
- That encourages their team members to be creative and contribute ideas

2. The pre-production was 3 years (production was 2 years)
- Ive always known and agreed that 'Content Is King'
- Discussions, writing, drawing, reviewing... then discussing, writing, drawing, reviewing... then discussions, writing, drawing, reviewing... for 3 years does really mean that the company has the persistence to make the best project possible.. and what a marvellous movie it is :)

3. Research
- Pete Doctor: After presenting the idea to John Lasseter.. his feedback is.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research.. 
- Pete Doctor: When we meet him again, his feedback is.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research..
- It's amazing to see the level of research that Pixar does for their movies - Inside Out consulted brain specialists.. some teams are lucky like the UP team went to Venezuela.. but the Toy Story 3 team went to garbage processing waste areas for research (this point was actually taken from the Toy Story 3 talk i heard a few years back)

4. About Pixar's growth from Toy Story till now
- When you grow, you need to create more leaders
- For example, when you were a team of 12 and had 2 leaders... when you grow to a team of 26 you need probably 6 leaders
- It's always true that great leaders create more great leaders

5. Ideas can come from your surroundings 
- Pete Doctor : Inside Out was inspired by his 12 year old daughter that was going through puberty.. He asked himself... what emotions is my girl going through.. and from there - the idea was proposed to John Lasseter and he said.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research :)

6. When your big enough.. run multiple projects.. but when your starting... Focus!
- Pixar started with focus on that one project first - Toy Story
- Now they have many teams that have project leaders and are making many great movies (at the same time)

7. Pixar started as a hardware company
- Yes, they didn't start as an animation content IP company
- Each company has its own history and story - and that history actually shapes the core values and personality of that company

8.  They tell the story - beautifully...
- I would probably say that this is the biggest WOW i had that day...
- Their presentation was really really good. Once Pete and Ronnie were both at the stage together.. it was like watching a Pixar movie.. the storytelling.. the slides.. the way they hooked us.. the jokes that made us laugh.. the way they presented was really really amazing. It really inspires me to make my presentations as good as theirs... or maybe even better :)

9. I want to be like John Lasseter or at least have an office like his one day.. Full of our very own merchandises! :D



Sinan Ismail | Co-Founder Digital Durian | Director Didi & Friends | PHD (Passionate Husband & Daddy)

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