Pixar's story
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:00 am
I guess most people have seen the documentary of read some articles. If the info is correct, this is some of the main components:
Already from the start, Ed Catmull was the man with the plan. He wanted to create a computer animated movie once this was possible. People like Alvy Ray Smith often seem to be ignored when talking about Pixar, but few are questioning their importance. Still, they arrived later and adopted Catmullæs plan when he shared it with them.
Money was another importance. The first one to support the early team financially was Alexander Schure, who gave them more or less free hands.
The second one who supported them was George Lucas, who headhunted them because he had his own plans. And Catmull and the crew accepted it because Lucas was actually working in the movie business. While at Lucasfilm, they hired John Lasseter. The computer engineers did not know how to animate, and Lasseter did not know how to program or build tools. So they cooperated, he had to tell them what he wanted them to make. He once said something like "it was very frustrating. It's like telling somene else to make the drawing you want to create, instead of doing it yourself". But gradually, the computers were adapted to deal with animation, and their only animator learned what worked and not.
When they had given Lucas what he needed, and also created the Pixar computer among other things, he finally sold it to Steve Jobs for less money than he originally wanted for it.
The reason Jobs bought it, was probably because he was partly humiliated after being fired from his own company, and because he had decided he would start all over again, doing what he was good at. His plan was to make a comeback, perhaps a revenge, by presenting the Pixar computer as a new and superior Apple computer. Having lost once, he refused to do so again, just as a guy at a casino in Las Vegas refuse to accept that he has lost all his savings, and continue to spend his whole account on blackjack, one-armed-bandits and roulette, hoping that THIS time, he will be lucky and hit jackpot.
Gradually, Jobs was forced to sell more and more of Pixar, firing people and everything that didn't made money, while finding new ways to pour in more dollars. He would probably have fired Lasseter a long time ago if Catmull hadn't talked him out of it.
The Lasseter shorts created to promote the product and get attention, did get attention, especially after first an Oscar nomination and later an Oscar statuette, and could be anoter important reason why Lasseter's presence was still accepted. According to Jim Hill, Catmull wanted to make the world aware of the potential of computer animation, hoping to make business deals where they would make commercials for different products. Not only would they get paid for doing animation for a change, they could also hire more animators (no use of wasting money on building tools if Lasseter is the only one who knows how to use them), getting more experience, improving the equipment and preparing for the next step while Moore's law was doing its job. Then they would hopefully get into television, hire and train more animators, invest even more in the studio and finally make an animated feature.
I'm not sure what happened next. After finding out nobody was interesting in spending the required budget on a TV-special, they made a deal with Disney about a feature instead. But if it was Disney who apporached Pixar or the other way around, is not clear for me. But they already had a good relationship with Disney back then, creating the CAPS-system and other stuff for them. After the success of The Little Mermaid (and maybe Aladdin too), Katzenberg, Wells and Eisner were high on animation, and wanted to expand into new areas and strike while the iron was hot. Disney's rule was to do all their animation themselves, while Pixar wanted the movie to be their own product. But since they made an exception with Tim Burton who now was a big name after Batman, and wated to buy back the rights to A Nightmare before Christmas and instead ended up making the movie for them, there was no reason to not give Pixar the same oppertunity. Just in time, since the computer company then seems to have been practically bankrupt.
In many ways, the story about Pixar reminds about the story of Disney. And no matter what people thin about the studio, there is no doubt about their impact on the rest of the animation business.
Already from the start, Ed Catmull was the man with the plan. He wanted to create a computer animated movie once this was possible. People like Alvy Ray Smith often seem to be ignored when talking about Pixar, but few are questioning their importance. Still, they arrived later and adopted Catmullæs plan when he shared it with them.
Money was another importance. The first one to support the early team financially was Alexander Schure, who gave them more or less free hands.
The second one who supported them was George Lucas, who headhunted them because he had his own plans. And Catmull and the crew accepted it because Lucas was actually working in the movie business. While at Lucasfilm, they hired John Lasseter. The computer engineers did not know how to animate, and Lasseter did not know how to program or build tools. So they cooperated, he had to tell them what he wanted them to make. He once said something like "it was very frustrating. It's like telling somene else to make the drawing you want to create, instead of doing it yourself". But gradually, the computers were adapted to deal with animation, and their only animator learned what worked and not.
When they had given Lucas what he needed, and also created the Pixar computer among other things, he finally sold it to Steve Jobs for less money than he originally wanted for it.
The reason Jobs bought it, was probably because he was partly humiliated after being fired from his own company, and because he had decided he would start all over again, doing what he was good at. His plan was to make a comeback, perhaps a revenge, by presenting the Pixar computer as a new and superior Apple computer. Having lost once, he refused to do so again, just as a guy at a casino in Las Vegas refuse to accept that he has lost all his savings, and continue to spend his whole account on blackjack, one-armed-bandits and roulette, hoping that THIS time, he will be lucky and hit jackpot.
Gradually, Jobs was forced to sell more and more of Pixar, firing people and everything that didn't made money, while finding new ways to pour in more dollars. He would probably have fired Lasseter a long time ago if Catmull hadn't talked him out of it.
The Lasseter shorts created to promote the product and get attention, did get attention, especially after first an Oscar nomination and later an Oscar statuette, and could be anoter important reason why Lasseter's presence was still accepted. According to Jim Hill, Catmull wanted to make the world aware of the potential of computer animation, hoping to make business deals where they would make commercials for different products. Not only would they get paid for doing animation for a change, they could also hire more animators (no use of wasting money on building tools if Lasseter is the only one who knows how to use them), getting more experience, improving the equipment and preparing for the next step while Moore's law was doing its job. Then they would hopefully get into television, hire and train more animators, invest even more in the studio and finally make an animated feature.
I'm not sure what happened next. After finding out nobody was interesting in spending the required budget on a TV-special, they made a deal with Disney about a feature instead. But if it was Disney who apporached Pixar or the other way around, is not clear for me. But they already had a good relationship with Disney back then, creating the CAPS-system and other stuff for them. After the success of The Little Mermaid (and maybe Aladdin too), Katzenberg, Wells and Eisner were high on animation, and wanted to expand into new areas and strike while the iron was hot. Disney's rule was to do all their animation themselves, while Pixar wanted the movie to be their own product. But since they made an exception with Tim Burton who now was a big name after Batman, and wated to buy back the rights to A Nightmare before Christmas and instead ended up making the movie for them, there was no reason to not give Pixar the same oppertunity. Just in time, since the computer company then seems to have been practically bankrupt.
In many ways, the story about Pixar reminds about the story of Disney. And no matter what people thin about the studio, there is no doubt about their impact on the rest of the animation business.