RUN AUDIO:
‘You’ve got a friend in me’ Music from Toy Story (item 2)
PRESENTER
John Lasseter is the ‘Chief Creative Officer’ at Pixar and Disney Animated Studios, In his stride over seeing all of what is produced by Disney and Pixar. John Lasseter is acclaimed for a long side Ed Catmull developing a revolutionizing the world of animation. Lasseter is more than an auteur he’s a creative genius, he took the research and development of CGI and used his creative tenacity to give the world Toy Story. The first Feature Length CGI film. Dreaming of Disney since a young age, for the age of 5 Lasseter knew animation was where he wanted to be.
Lasseter felt the animation didn’t bring all ages and audiences together any more, he knew it need something new. This outlook and vision for animation is why he is where he is today, CGI and emotion in animation is where Lasseter excels in the film industry.
PRESENTER:
In my research i have looked at the progression John Lasseter’s creative influence on CGI and reinventing the way people see animation. I have focused on 3 key films that demonstrate this point, 3 films that have shaped feature length CGI and Pixar in the eyes of the film industry. ‘ Toy Story ‘ 1995 (Item 2) ‘ Finding Nemo ‘ 2003 (Item 3) and most recently ‘ UP ‘ 2009 (Item 1)
I shall be looking at certain aspects such as:
- How it all started, Disney and Lucasfilm
- ‘The Pixar Dream’
- Lasseter’s Creative effect on CGI
- The impact of UP
DISPLAY:
Image of the pixar and Disney logo.
PRESENTER:
John Lasseter’s career actually started out at Disney, working on a few traditional animation projects. It was actually the idea of ‘Toy Story’ that got him fired. Even from the start, when the idea of CGI feature lengths wasn’t even considered Lasseter knew it was needed. He knew Disney weren’t creating the same animation, there wasn’t the ‘Walt Disney’ attraction any more.
Lasseter got laid off from Disney in 83′ and proceeded to join LucasFilm soon after.
MUSIC/VIDEO:
Star Wars music- the death march to play to lead into a small part about George Lucas.
PRESENTER:
George Lucas, the man behind the 77′ hit Star Wars used profits from the film to fund a Computer research company. Ed Catmull, employed Lasseter to help him achieve what they all saw as they way forward. Lasseter arrived as “Interface designer” as it was a computer company after all, not animation.
VIDEO CLIP:
‘The Adventures Of Andre and Wally Bee’ (Item 7) clip taken from http://www.youtube.com 1’24”
PRESENTER:
This short is a perfect example and brilliant reason why John Lassester is an Auteur and creative genius. 11 years before even a hint of ‘Toy Story’ Lassester already knew what was needed, the animators touch. Lasseter was quoted saying this on the release of ‘Toy Story’…
“…Character animation isn’t the fact that an object looks like a character or has a face and hands. Character animation is when an object moves like it’s a live, when it moves like it’s thinking and all of it’s movements are generated by it’s own thinking process… It is the thinking that gives the illusion of life. It is life that gives meaning to the expression. As Saint-Exupéry wrote, “It’s not the eyes, but the glance- not the lips but the smile.””
Lasseter knew the dimensions and the approach to animation, he knew how to make life out of shapes. This is what gave him the edge over all the other CGI Developers and made him the successful animator.
DISPLAY:
Pixar logo (LUXO Jnr) Item 14
PRESENTER:
The Pixar dream began in 1986, when Steve Jobs a computer genius invested $20 million with the Computer Graphics team. The years past and the team, from computer designs, Lassester and Jobs all knew their clear goal. To make a full length CGI film. Lasseter bought this dream to reality along with the team, but the reason i see John Lasseter as an Auteur is down to his pure determination to prove to the world that animation was not dead.
(PAUSE)
DISPLAY:
Toy Story image (Buzz & Woody) Item 15
PRESENTER:
Toy Story was a revolutionary film, changing the industries across the world viewed cinema. John Lasseter was at the hands of a cinema revolution, animation was now enjoyed by kids and adults, loved by all ages. The dream they had all once seen was now a reality, 1994 saw the new era and a new contender to the conventional ‘Snow White’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’.
Lasseter unique story telling and attention to detail lead all viewers into the world of CGI, everyone could relate and to a certain extent interact and ‘feel’ with the characters. John Lasseter understood life in animation and that to make it believable and make it work, he had to produce something that was warm and something that had a character audience relationship.
Lasseter has been Claimed Tom Hanks “… has the ability to make emotions seem appealing.” Even with actor and voice artist choice he knew that emotion was how he needed to bring CGI from animated parts in a film to… ‘A real life toy’
The Film ranked Number 1 in the yearly overview film charts, starting off the adventurous styles of John Lasseter and Pixar.
DISPLAY
VIDEO:
Finding Nemo trailer, used for reference and as a visual for the audience. Item 14
PRESENTER:
Finding Nemo, made just under 10 years after the release of Toy Story was a new challenge for the Pixar team. The film in my opinion is relevant for its creative and again Unique style of animation.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, another animator at Pixar the film reaches new levels in terms of creative qualities. At the hands of Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar had always set out to reach new levels and push even further with CGI. John Lasseter was quoted to always mention how science would fuel creativity and creativity would fuel science.
DISPLAY:
Still image from Finding Nemo Item 17
PRESENTER:
Lasseter had already achieved the emotional response he has succumbed that barrier but set out to improve and grab an audience in as many ways as Possible. Finding Nemo is relevant to me because it’s amazing visual qualities, the colours and scenery are out of this would. Noticeable from the first shot the use of light and reflections in the water, adding a new dimension and a new ‘sparkle’ the the animation. The vivid colours and wonderful lighting are what make this film important for me, The new challenge came with the visuals underwater and Lasseter had pushed to get these amazing visuals.
Finding Nemo was in my opinion the next level for Pixar and Lasseter, John Lasseter had taken animation to the new decade and given it a new angle, pushing the team and directors to get the effect that he had strive for. Lasseter had not only entered the new decade in style but he had set high standards for the time to come. Pixar, to date have yet to have a movie that has flopped all films from day one have been a box office hit and memo was the new bench march for feature length CGI, again set by the man who revolutionized CGI, adding his own creativity and with effect took the world ‘To infinity and beyond.’ This is my eyes is the definition of auteur.
This was all reflected in the gross takings from the film, the film is still the most successful Pixar film, grossing and estimated $856 Million
VIDEO:
UP trailer, for reference and to lead into the last part of the presentation. Item 15
PRESENTER:
The recently released film ‘UP’ is one of the most relevant in the Pixar film list for me, in my opinion i think this is the film that defines Pixar and John Lasseter’s creative intuitive mind and determination to challenge conventions.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” (George Bernard Shaw)
John Lasseter and Pixar did the unreasonable with UP, the film it’s self has all the Lasseter auteur qualities. The visual styles are stunning as you can see from the clip the balloons and the colour light reflections are beyond belief .Pixar and the creative team have taken attention to detail and character emotion to a new level with this Feature length, not only is the CGI beyond impressive but the story exceeds all possibilities in regards to animation. A 78 year old and a ‘unpopular’ child as main characters set critics to believe that the film would in no way be successful, they slatted the potential for merchandise and the potential for relation to audience. But in my opinion this is exactly what the film achieved. The elegant story gives the thrills and emotion of any movie you expect to see, from a level of Toy Story to UP the film has definitely taken the emotional audience reaction to a new level. John Lasseter has always shown a story of the underdog and this film is a perfect demonstration of that narrative, this is another example of why i consider his as an auteur. As a film in total I’ve decided to use this as an example of Lasseter’s creative auteur qualities as it shows the narrative qualities and visual emphasis that the Pixar Films have. This in my opinion is the most impressive film they have made. It combines the 2 qualities that i mentioned in the 2 previous films, creating the perfect effect in cinema CGI.
DISPLAY:
UP Still image from the film used for a pause break and visual material for the audience.
PRESENTER:
UP, was a shock to most critics they all expected the film to be a massive flop. Instead the opposite happened, following in theme with Pixar the film was the first CGI to open the Cannes Film Festival, once again taking CGI feature lengths to a new era and changing the way people see animation. Pixar and John Lasseter have been at the center of all the major impact CGI has had on the film industry, John Lasseter is not only an auteur with his visual styles and story telling, exaggerating the underdog and making the impossible seem possible. He has changed the film industry and has had a major impact on technology and the world of Cinema. UP is the second most successful film, of Pixars history and is personally one of my favorite animations of all time.
John Lasseter brought life back to animation and in doing so, left his style and mark in the process.
Elliott Steel 