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HITS Keynote: Pixar Vet Stresses Importance of Data

Pixar Animation Studios has been able to achieve remarkable success with its feature-length films including “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story” thanks in large part to the company’s fostering of creativity and innovation among its artists, as well as its use of data and research while developing its projects.

That’s according to Matthew Luhn, a story consultant and writer who spent more than 20 years at Pixar as a story supervisor, speaking during a keynote at the Oct. 18 HITS Fall event.

Luhn joined Pixar as one of its first 12 animators back when it was making Listerine and other commercials and short animated movies that started to win awards, including “Tin Toy” and “Luxo Jr.,” he said. Characters that he ended up animating included Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the “Toy Story” movies. But he shifted over to Pixar’s story department and has focused on storytelling ever since, he said.

Luhn, like some other Pixar artists, attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and that school’s fostering of creativity has been a “big part” of the reason why Pixar’s movies have been so successful, he said. “Creativity is nurtured. There is art and creativity everywhere on that campus. You can’t go anywhere without somebody playing an instrument, dancing, doing art — it’s everywhere,” he said, pointing out that other filmmakers who attended the school included Tim Burton.

CalArts students were “encouraged to grow, they were encouraged to take chances, make mistakes, fail” and learn, and that was later duplicated at Pixar. The studio’s culture was then blended in” with Apple’s culture of innovation after Steve Jobs bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm and renamed it Pixar in 1986. Steve Jobs “saw the potential” of Pixar and wanted to make the first full-length CGI animated movie, Luhn said. The access to money that Pixar gained via the Jobs purchase, combined with the CGI technology and fostering of innovation there are what “made Pixar so great,” Luhn said.

Even the work environment at Pixar helps foster creativity and innovation, he said, pointing out that its artists can design their own workspaces at the company’s headquarters. There are also no long, rectangular conference room tables there, but round tables, where all ideas are heard, and there are no dreary gray cubicles, he said, adding: “The whole building is a place that inspires creativity.”

“When people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce any good work,” he went on to say, adding: “I’ve noticed when I go to speak at companies, the places that end up having creative, fun environments inspire creative fun ideas and people.”

Pixar artists also tend to stay at the company for many years, he said. Artists give feedback to each other there like friends do, but “we’re never cutting each other down; we’re always building each other up,” he said. He compared it to the teamwork process used by The Beatles and the fact that the rock band always wanted to do something different.

He went on to say: “Fear in failing is probably what keeps us from pushing things forward and wanting to keep creating and innovating. But if you’re in an environment – in a culture that encourages you to take chances, then you’re going to end up pushing the boundaries. You’re going to end up doing what Steve Jobs said – putting a dent in the universe.”

Luhn conceded that Pixar has, despite impressions to the contrary, made some mistakes. “Sometimes the mistakes we’ve made have been really big,” he said with a laugh, adding: “The failures that we have made that we thought were going to work out eventually lost us a lot of money. But we kept taking chances.” One of those mistakes was the movie ‘Newt,” which Pixar spent two years working on before pulling the plug due to the director not being “ready to direct” yet and the premise being hard to communicate to kids, he said, explaining that the story called for one newt to have sex with another newt to create more blue newts.

But Luhn said: “From entertainment to technology, the great creators on this planet that have existed are the ones that take chances.” He pointed to Elon Musk, who Luhn said “keeps pushing the boundaries,” just like Steve Jobs did.

Pixar artists conduct research before making each film, he also said. That research included a trip to Paris for “Ratatouille” to make sure that they got elements of the story and setting correct in the film, he said. But research is also done to make things including characters’ hair and skin realistic, he said.

But he added: “In the end, the most important thing is what those characters are thinking and feeling.” One of the reasons why audiences connect to much to Pixar characters is because of the data and research Pixar artists collect from psychologists and psychiatrists, he said. That research has allowed them to, for example, duplicate the actual way that peoples’ eye movements work when remembering images and things they’ve felt, he said.

Produced by MESA in cooperation with the Hollywood IT Society, HITS: Fall is the largest gathering of the Hollywood IT community and its technology partners of the season. This year’s annual event hosted over 350 attendees from across the Media & Entertainment industry including CEOs, CTOs and executives from major studios, distributors and top service providers.