It's gonna be wonderful and it's gonna make a lot of money this weekend.

Ok, let's talk film. Let's begin this blog with a excerpt from Popular Mechanics. They have an article on what I have been wanting to talk about all week. The article is titled "Why Pixar is the Apple of Hollywood". In my translation, the article should read, why everyone hates Pixar. I think it is simply because they have found a way to manufacture Lightning in a bottle. Now maybe I am giving them too much credit, cause everyone knows you cannot manufacture LIB. But, you have to admit that Pixar comes close. If anyone could be accused of manufacturing LIB, it would be Pixar standing accused.

Well before I ramble on, here is the quote. Edwin Catmull, the co founder of Pixar talks to PM and says this "We have a style for the way the creative works which is unique within the industry. The Pixar films aren't like the films from the other studios, and it's a consequence of the way we approach it," Catmull says. "The underlying philosophy always was, you hire people who are smarter than you are, you do things that are challenging and risky, and you don't try to over-manage things."

Now let's dive into this before I ramble again. If you look at the true internal mission statement of any Hollywood exec, this is not their approach. Real execs at Warner and Paramount, etc. do not think like this. Why? Because Hollywood is a magical place. It is place of illusion and make believe. Let's look at the old westerns in Hollywood. I am talking about the old John Wayne westerns where the early settlers lived in those wooded houses. Those houses are facades. They only had one side to them. But the camera angles made you believe that they were three dimensional.

The Hollywood Execs...

You see Hollywood execs think they are three dimensional because they are in Hollywood. They are not. Execs are Marketing and Accounting majors who are one dimensional. Yet, because they are shrouded by lights and cameras around them, they think they too are creative. They are not, FilmFans. They are not talented and the good thing about one of them, Steve Jobs, the owner of Apple and Pixar knows he doesn't have any in depth talent when it comes to films. So he does what he does best, he hires the right people to do the job and takes a back seat. It's an amazing thing I know.

But you have these other execs like Gale Ann Hurd, who think they have talent like James Cameron or Andrew Stanton of Pixar. This is what is killing Hollywood. These executives who think they know it all. They think they know it all because they live in a fairy tale land. They see the scripts come in and they want to change stuff based on a whim. It's insane. If you took all the execs out of Hollywood and let Spielberg and Jobs run the whole town, you would see nothing but good film. But as long as we have millions of dollars up for grabs in Hollywood, you will always see facades in expensive suits trying to be Hollywood players. But that is not you, I know that. You are a smart Hollywood player who knows where the talent is. You know your own limitations and you listen carefully to people's ideas. You're the Hollywood player who put together great ideas whether they get green lit or not, because you won't sell out to have your name on the big screen, just to have no one really see it cause after the film is over, people are looking at their cell phones once again and not the screen.



So why is Pixar so successful and everyone else is not. They are the same breathing, feeling, loving, humans as we are? What makes them so special. Let's use another analogy, metaphor, what have you. Ok Let's pretend the 2008, Newly greenlighted schedule, is like the school science fair. The different students in this fair represent the major studios. They are all there. They are all making projects for the science fair. Ok well there is a formula for this. Most studios would look and see what projects have won in the past. They would make their decisions based on that. The Model of the nine planets won three years in a row, let's make that. The other studios will interview tens of kids and see what they would like them to make for the science project, (ie Focus Groups). Those are what the other studios would do. Pixar would read the science book and find out what inspires them.

Mind you they also don't have to pump out seven films a year, they only do one a year, but it's a working formula. I honestly with all my heart believe that only five films should come out every year and they all should be excellent. Ha Ha, sorry, perfect world syndrome here. But we don't have that. Pixar has that luxury. Pixar takes the time and fully develops the story with people who have talent. I am not saying that Mr. Jobs doesn't have any talent, he just know people who are better than he. They storyboard and computer animate. They watch it over and over again, until they get it right.

And guess what happens? They get it right. In other studios, they hire script writers who pump out a story in three months. a cheap, novice director fresh off some stylized action movie (ie Transporter, Underworld, though Die hard 4 was good)and hire young, big name actors. That's what they bring to the screen or the proverbial science fair. Pixar is the science student that takes its time and thinks of a a new idea for the fair and spins idea around till it is perfect.

Well this Weekend Pixar will demolish all competition. Wanted, Hancock, whatever it is. Any other film besides Wall E will suffer. Pixar dominates any opening weekend because its worth the money and we as an audience like to watch a Pixar film because it will be something we haven't seen before. In other words it will be the opposite of the last hour of Incredible Hulk, to where we have seen that all before. Even the climax of Iron Man wasn't that original.

Future Warner Bros. Executive

Wanted, Hancock, all things we have seen before. You think Hollywood would take a hint or two from Pixar. Most of Hollywood is very happy with handing in C or D work to the Science Fair. Until Monday! Let's talk film!