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The year 2011 has barely begun and Pixar is already finishing production on the short we can expect to see with Brave in 2012. Day & Night director Teddy Newton and producer Kevin Reher sat down with Animation World Network to discuss their recently released film. It is an insightful interview that is a must-read, not only for its in-depth look at Day & Night, but also for the very brief mention of the 2012 short that we have not heard about until now.
The interview, which also includes Dean Wellins, director of the Disney short, Tick Tock Tale, takes a look at the genesis of Disney and Pixar’s newest shorts. Newton and Reher started by talking about the process of pitching Day & Night:
Teddy Newton: Well, I had pitched some shorts in the past at Pixar and had actually boarded them so thoroughly that I thought it was a sure thing. It was like, “This is it.” You can see the whole thing as it’s going to come out. And that actually worked against me in a lot of ways. What happened was that I was developing it with a small group of people that didn’t include John [Lasseter]. Once he became involved, it was like it was all done and he didn’t feel a part of what this pitch was. So the next time Kevin said you should pitch another short, by this point I was saying, “Nah, I don’t think they want to do my kind of humor, there’s something missing there, it’s not going to happen.” But he just kept on me. He kept on me to the point that I said, “Well, OK, I’ll come up with something.” At the time, they were doing some 3D experiments, trying to make these 3D movies happen and I thought, “I have this one idea that’s kind of like a cutout but it’s sort of a negative space cutout of a keyhole as a character.” I decided not to flesh it out any more than just a few ideas around the concept. And that’s how I pitched it. It wasn’t a complete story, it was just a lot of concepts we could do with this effect. There was a test as well.
Kevin Reher: There is an underground network at Pixar. You find a TD who’s got some time, and all of a sudden there’s a test on this short of how it could look. And that sold John right there.
Animation World Network also put up a few images from the film’s production, which can be seen throughout the article. As a fan of the behind-the-scenes process, I was especially captivated by the video tests from the production process that AWN put up, which can be seen here.
The interview gets even more interesting when Reher briefly brings up the short that will be attached to Brave:
Kevin Reher: It’s funny, the new film we’re finishing production on now, which will be attached to Brave in 2012, it’s three characters and two sets, and man, how easy it is. It’s different, there’re no gags…”
It’s beautiful, it’s lyrical, it’s very different from all the other ones. It’s amazing how easy it can be when you just have 3 characters and 2 sets.
Obviously, not much to go on at this point, but we know it will involve three characters. That is more than we knew before, right? Yes, yes, we are easily excitable.
I thought Day & Night was a fresh idea, which is why I believe it was even more breathtaking. Hearing Reher say that the new short will be “very different from all the other [shorts]” gets me deeply excited.
To read the entire interview (I have shared very little here), head on over to Animation World Network and check it out.
