What a Pixar Story Meeting Looks Like

What a Pixar Story Meeting Looks Like November 21, 2013

This clip’s been floating around the InterWebs, and I finally clicked on it.

Story has long been Pixar’s calling-card (though they’ve been criticized for losing a bit of their momentum there in recent years; and fairly, I think), so I’m sure the more story-anemic among us were hoping for some quick pointers. Plus, I’m not really much of a collaborative creator myself, and Pixar is famed for their creative collaboration. So I was also hoping for something that helped explain that dynamic a bit more. (I’d like to be more collaborative than I am. Truly. Maybe for Advent.)

My quick analysis of the clip?

Fascinating.

My more detailed analysis?

Fascinating, and MAN, some of those guys are young! Also, I’m …not sure why this works.  It looks fun. It looks funny. And it looks congenial. But story-producing? Not so much. Too many cooks for that.

To be fair, I don’t think what we’re watching here can really be described as a “story meeting.” This is a “we’ve got a story hammered out, and now we’re looking for cool Easter Eggs and visual tricks to add to the mix” meeting. A “Gag Meeting,” in fact. Which makes a bit more sense…but doesn’t really give us much of a peek behind that Pixar story curtain.

An Important Aside: I’m pretty sure I could watch clips of (or from) Pete Docter for just about forever.


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