The Huffington Post recently released three exclusive poster images for The Blue Umbrella. Like the short, the images capture a simplistic beauty that only director Saschka Unseld and his team could perfect. Each poster perfectly evokes a different emotion from three main parts of the film – initial joy, the ensuing danger, and the beauty of love.
We can only hope that these posters will be available for Pixar employees at the Pixar Animation Studio Store, or perhaps on the road during some of the film festivals in which Unseld will be on-hand to present the film to eager audiences (details on the upcoming Hamptons International Film Festival – showing Oct 13 & 14 in New York).
During the interview with the Huffington Post, Unseld revealed how a unique misread of a storyboard changed the ending of the film in a delightful way,
“In my initial pitch and for a long time, the owners of the umbrellas sat inside the cafe and drank tea to warm up, while the umbrellas are in the foyer of the cafe, just standing there to dry…Then there was a moment where we test-screened those reels, and someone misread that, because the storyboards are sometimes so rough. So we got a note that someone in the meeting said, ‘Oh, it was such a great idea that they sit outside in the rain because of course the owners love the rain as well.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He was like, ‘Oh, I read the storyboard like that.’ It wasn’t what we drew, but it was an amazing idea. So that’s how that came to be. It was just about listening to these moments and then just knowing what to pick up and change, because it fits better to the story, and what not to do.”
Saschka also surprised fans by announcing via Twitter that you can now purchase the short film by itself on iTunes. This is the first time the short has been made available for sale outside of the existing Monsters University digital version which came out October 8 and the Blu Ray version which will be available on October 29.
Man, would I love to have those framed hanging in a row on the wall in my study! Those are fantastic, and you're right, really tell the story and capture the simplicity of the film.
Julie made the connection that they tell the moments of the story – once she told me I said, \”Wow, you're totally right\”! I took them for granted and she connected them to the story moment right away! Also – yeah, that would be amazing if they produced all four posters as a series of limited edition screen prints (like the other Pixar series screen prints – http://www.pixarpost.com/2012/11/pixar-screen-print-details-tom-whalen.html)
Finally! I have been waiting for months for this short to come out on iTunes. To me, the Blue Umbrella really feels like a homecoming for PIXAR animated shorts- breathing life into inanimate objects. This is one of the few times I actually endorse the making of more merchandise- like a vinyl printed Blue Umbrella replica or a pin or snowglobe. I'm now envisioning a meet up between Blue and Luxo Jr 😀
The idea of a Blue Umbrella pin makes perfect sense. I have way too many ideas in my head of ways to make these a great set of pins. The umbrella would also be really cool to produce broadly as well. You've probably already seen our Blue Umbrella that we have…http://www.pixarpost.com/2013/04/MU-Detroit.htmlWe were lucky enough to have received one at the MU press event at Pixar in April.
As if you needed to rub it in any more! I saw it and I am extremely jealous.I would be interested in building my own though- printing on nylon doesn't seem too difficult and I'd love a full version that opens up exactly like the short film does. Perhaps I'll start a build process on the forum page or something.
Hilarious!! Sorry, not trying to rub it in! :)-That would be awesome to see how you created that process on the Forum. I'll +1 that idea for sure!