A MOUSE CLUBHOUSE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
ANDREW JIMENEZ, RALPH EGGLESTON, KATHERINE SARAFIAN
talk about how Pixar's different from other studios

by Scott Wolf

Andrew Jimenez, Ralph Eggleston, and Katherine Sarafian from Pixar took the time to sit down with Peter Dimako from moviejungle.com and myself for a group interview for our websites.

Each have worked on many of Pixar's films and also Andrew directed "One Man Band," Ralph directed, "For the Birds," and Katherine produced "Lifted.

SW: How is Pixar different from other animation studios?

Andrew: I’d be here all day to tell you. It’s just a place that we feel safe and supported where the company is being run by filmmakers and you know that they have your back. The fact that it’s being run by filmmakers that are in everything that we’re doing and not just sort of over there and not paying attention to what we’re doing and they just check in every six months. It’s not like that all. So we feel very supported by them.

Ralph: It’s different than other places. When we started there was Disney. Now there’s other studios which is fine… larger studios that have made multiple films which is fine.

But, outside of that, especially during the days of “Toy Story,” it was Disney. What I mean by that is the ability to see a story reel which is like comic books on the screen and project forward to a finished film and trust it. It’s a very difficult thing to do. Most studios outside of that little group want a finished screenplay and that’s what you’re going to make. That is not taking advantage of the medium, especially the technique of animation. It needs to grow, it needs to get better, it needs to be plussed every step of the way.

I’ve run into situations where there were executives that didn’t understand how to look at a story reel. They didn’t literally understand why every few seconds a drawing would change. Then they would turn and say, “When is this going to be animated? I don’t understand this.”

Andrew: But every decision about what that film’s going to become is made while it’s in that, so if they don’t know how to look at it and they’re the one saying –

Ralph: “Yes” or “No”.

Andrew: -and what we can and can’t do and how much money we have, that’s terrifying and frightening and you’d need to quit that company right now.

Ralph: Right now, yeah.

Peter from Movie Jungle: And during that stage you expand ideas and new ideas are encouraged?

Andrew: Well, you feel supported to go all the way and try something which is why you’re in the story phase and they trust you, that you believe in it and they want to see you explore that, and then if it doesn’t work, well we’ve caught it at a time when it’s okay. We can go back and try this idea. So by the time it goes into production or that we make the film, we’ve already done the homework and poured the concrete. It’s a good foundation to build on.

Ralph: Our story reels for our films generally go thru nine or ten passes. That’s a lot of work.

Katherine: And you just know the first one is gonna kind of suck. John Walker, our Producer of "The Incredibles" always says it’s like the first waffle. It always looks a little blotchy. The next waffle is a little better.

Andrew: It’s leaking out of the sides.

Katherine: It’s leaking out of the sides… it’s sort of doughy.

Ralph: Andrew Stanton always likes to think of it as we have a screenplay but it’s a starting point. The screenplay is then set aside and you start boarding (storyboarding). Every once in a while you run into a wall so obviously you really do need to stop and write a little more, but he likes to rough it out just as fast as possible and put it up there and he calls it “showing his dirty laundry.” He’s going to stand up in front of an audience of his peers at the studio with his shorts down. It’s going to be ugly, it’s going to be rough and everybody knows that that’s fine. Just let go of it, and what’s working, what’s not working, what are they responding to and then move forward from there... and you couldn’t do that anywhere else.

SW: When you all started at Pixar, was there unique training because you’re all saying it’s not like any other studio?

Ralph: Throw ya in the deep end.

Katherine: I remember my first day. The woman who hired me was away at a Disney screening the first day so I was, “I’m here! I’m ready to work!” and there was noone around and I didn’t know what to do. So I read the Excel manual and killed some time and started talking to people, but everybody was so open with information it’s like, “Oh, meet this person… here’s what they do.”

It’s kind of an organic training process. Maybe it should be more formal, looking back, maybe I could have learned faster if it was. But it’s very open door, we even have glass windowed conference rooms so you could see in and out of conference rooms. This is not a deeply closed door environment. It’s a visual culture. It’s sort of an open, sharing culture. People decorate their offices to encourage visits.

Ralph: …cut holes in walls. (laughs)

Katherine: Yeah, so you can go in any office and ask, “How do I do this?”

SW: It sounds like what we see on the DVD’s and that their really is a lot of zaniness.

Ralph: Well, for all the funny, zaniness there is, definitely there’s also a lot of incredibly hard work.

SW: I imagine so. Lots of long hours?

Katherine: It can be, particularly right before, in a crunch. Every film goes thru a crunch period where everyone’s just chugging away all the time and then there’s other times when you can ease up a little bit.

More from Andy, Ralph and Katherine:
About Pixar's short films
Katherine's start with Pixar

See other interviews

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in the interviews are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mouse Clubhouse. Mouse Clubhouse accepts no legal liability or responsibility for any claims made or opinions expressed within.