Making Movies is Hard Fun: Building Tools for Telling Stories

Making movies is a complex, collaborative, creative activity. At Pixar, we don’t pretend to know exactly what we’re doing, but we do have a process—one that we constantly test, prototype and refine based on the stories we want to tell and the people who want to tell them. Technology and art go hand in hand at Pixar—each challenges and reinforces the other.

Senior Technologist Michael B. Johnson, a Pixarian since 1993, has been involved in most of Pixar’s feature films and short films. He will share his perspective on the Pixar film-making process; one which involves both creative story tellers that want things they don’t always understand how to make, and flexible technologists who want to empower them. Come along as Michael tells stories from inside the studio and illustrates how Pixar always manages to keep their eye on the big prize—a compelling story, well told.