Not long ago, the 'Premiere Pixar Talks' were held at Melbourne as part of an ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) presentation. The talks coincided with opening of the 'Pixar 20 Years of Animation' exhibition downstairs. The purpose of the whole event was to explore the art and art history behind Pixar's animation.

This was more than enough to wet my appetite, so I headed on down to one of the premiere talks. The session I went to was the talk with 'Pixar Creatives'.

It consisted of three panelists from Pixar: Jerome Ranft- sculptor, Paul Topolos - matte painter/ background artist, and Elyse Klaidman - Pixar's in-house curator, and Dean of Art and Film for Pixar's University.

The talks started off with Jerome Ranft, one of Pixar's two physical sculptors. He sculpts the lead, secondary and tertiary characters based on drawings from other artists. His job is to give Pixar a first look at a character in three dimensions before it's modelled in the computer.

He was asked: Do you think of these things as static models or things that can be picked up and moved/deformed? He answered: 'No they're static'... He continued: 'Actually, you're trying to get the essence... the iconic pose and gesture, an expression that tells you who that character is.'

He was asked what the hardest part of his work was. He answered: 'Getting an approval'.... 'also, making the director happy... it's a search... we're just trying to make it work'. He said it was fun but challenging and that he felt fulfilled if he could get approval within three or four reviews.

Paul Topolos was next to be interviewed. His work as a matte painter is to paint backgrounds and sets that might otherwise be left out of the movie because of budget. Paul was asked to talk a little bit about the matte painting department. He said that he is the matte painting department.

Paul then talked about Brad Bird who wanted to do a movie where everyone would have a chance to 'shine'. He said there was a scene in 'Ratatouille' where the rat 'Remy' sees Paris for the first time. Brad kept saying: 'Yeah man your going to do this one! Your going to paint Paris!'... It was Paul's scene to shine in.

Paul also mentioned that a lot of the shots were technically difficult and he was often paired with a technical person to collaborate with. Besides the normal matte painting he does for backgrounds he also paints onto in-scene 'bill board' (plane) and simple 'Monopoly house' like objects. His role is flexible in that he's also doing some preproduction on a new Pixar film. He said that he is now starting matte painting later and later during the film production process.

Next we heard from Elyse Klaidman, in-house curator, and Dean of Art and Film for Pixar's University. Elyse also works with museums around the world exhibiting Pixar's artwork. Elyse was asked to talk a little bit about herself and how the Pixar University works. This was her reply: 'I consider myself unbelievably lucky that I fell into Pixar and I just happened there by mistake.' She said she was a 'poor struggling artist' and that one of her students who worked at Pixar recommended her to Ed Catmull who in turn hired her. She mentioned that art was a collaborative process and that it taught people how to 'see' which is what drawing is all about.

A question was asked, 'are you shooting for realism', Elyse answered that it really depended on the director's vision, Pixar are making 'fantasy worlds' that are caricatured, but believable: ' ...we use whatever amount of making it 'look real' we need... realism is not what where going for, we're going for creating these believable worlds.'

An interesting question from the audience was asked: 'Do you ever have to cut corners to meet deadlines?' The panel replied that film making was about 'budget and time' constraints. Elyse said: 'It's schedule. The bottom line is cut the corners where it's not going to compromise the story'.

Elyse said they had made Brad Bird a chart with all the things he wanted for Ratatouille and how much each would cost, with available resources represented with popsicle sticks. He would move popsicle sticks around and say 'okay if I want this then I can't have this' . This made the resources very tangible and physical for him.

Finally, the question that was bound to be asked came along 'How do you get a job at Pixar?' Elyse answered: 'luck' or 'being in the right place at the right time'. She did say that you could submit reels and portfolios on line and that having contacts can sometimes help.

The session in total lasted just under an hour and a half. A lot of great questions were asked and it was really interesting listening to all the insightful replies. It wasn't about animation as such but more about the pre-production and art departments, but I knew that anyway... and even though I'm an animator at heart, I really enjoyed listening to this session. I later went down and checked out the exhibition. On the wall I remember reading 'We spend three quarters of our time in pre-production and getting the look and feel of the movie'. That blew me away, because I had always thought it was the other way around. Going to the gallery afterwards encapsulated it all for me. In a way it kinda reminded me of Disney in its prime.

The talks in all were a good experience and I walked away from there with a great sense of satisfaction and above all a better appreciation for the art and history of Pixar.