Though its production was formally announced in 2008, work on Pixar's forthcoming movie Brave began years earlier. Pictured here are director Mark Andrews, director Brenda Chapman and co-director Steve Purcell relaxing on a grassy hill during the company's research trip to Scotland in 2006.
Don’t you wish you could be on the multi-year-long journey it takes to make a Pixar film? Sometimes the crew ventures off to remote and distant lands (all in the name of research). They experience the surroundings in person so the team can portray it accurately on the big screen.
Well, this would be a wish come true for us! Can’t you just imagine having a chance to sit in on the Dailies (daily animation or art reviews)? To hear all these amazing minds at work creating films that are truly going to be favorites for decades to come. The amount of planning and research that Pixar does in order to make their films stand out from the rest is very inspiring! It’s no wonder Pixar employs the very best.
Time had a wonderful, but brief, article titled “Behind the Scenes of Brave” in their entertainment section that included photos and descriptions.
Director Mark Andrews, center, guides staff members in sword-fighting techniques outside Pixar’s Emeryville, California offices. Andrews served as an unofficial consultant for Chapman, who wrote the story and pitched the original idea to Pixar, on most of the action-oriented details of the movie.Brave animators (from left to right) Travis Hathaway, Ken Kim, Daniel Campbell, Terry Song and Carlo Vogele wear kilts as part of a weekly Friday staff routineBrave Production Designer Steve Pilcher and director Mark Andrews during a Master Lighting review. For this movie, Pixar has rewritten its animation system technology, which improves the motion of difficult-to-animate shapes—like the detailed red hair of the film’s protagonistJohn Lasseter, the studio’s chief creative officer, talks with
Brave Producer Katherine Sarafian and Director Mark Andrews in the Pixar atriumProducer Katherine Sarafian participates in an archery class in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif in November 2006. Pixar’s production cycles are longer than that of live-action films (about four years on average) and release dates are often pushed back in the name of attention to detail.Not all scenes get the storyboard treatment, but this one, called “The Prize,” closely matches the scene as it appears in the completed film.Merida, the film’s protagonist and Pixar’s first female lead, fires an arrow and astonishes onlookers in a still from the final scene in Brave
NOTE – Jenny Lerew (Author of the Art of Brave) noted that the storyboard treatment noted above was deemed a false statement – read the details on her blog The Blackwing Diaries. She noted that every scene does get the storyboard treatment (unlike above where it notes that not every scene does).
If you’re anything like us, this article only made you more excited for the release of Brave – as well as the upcoming release of “The Art of Brave.”
So, if you had the opportunity to go Behind the Scenes at Pixar – What would you be most excited to see or be a part of?
