I have always been fascinated by the world of movies, specially animated movies. Just imagine, from a simple idea or a basic drawing on a piece of paper a story is developed, written, produced, animated, edited, mixed, composed and finalized. It is just thrilling! But have you ever stop and think, what goes behind the scenes? How does the director, producer and animators transform and idea and make it a reality? After having spent two wonderful days at Pixar Animation Studios, the answer to these question began to take shape. Today, I want to share with you a few anecdotes and images from our exclusive behind the scenes look from the team who breathed life into The Good Dinosaur.
Campfire Stories from The Good Dinosaur: An *Exclusive* Behind The Scenes Look!
#GoodDinoEvent
As we made our way into the Brooklyn Building at Pixar to chat with Director Peter Sohn, Producer Denise Ream, Supervising Technical Director Sanjay Bakshi and Director of Photography, Lighting, Sharon Calahan, you can feel the excitement in the air. The Good Dinosaur team, as I called them, has been working really hard to finalize the movie before its Thanksgiving opening and trust me from the extended preview we saw, their efforts are paying off big time, more on that later!
The Good Dinosaur has taken years to develop, however, to get every single detail right a lot of research took place. For example, like most of us, Director Peter Sohn is a city boy. He is actually from New York, but to be able to direct a movie like The Good Dinosaur, Peter traveled to the North West to get a feel at the grandeur of the outdoors. Peter told us “coming from New York, I had never been to a place like this. The land masses were so graphic, photos cannot capture that because everything was horizon to horizon. It is so large, it makes you feel tiny.“
Understanding how one can get lost and feeling alone was crucial for the development of the Arlo’s story. The vastness of the Great Teton’s, Colorado, Oregon areas and those feelings the team experienced during their research trips is exactly what Arlo gets to experience throughout the movie.
You may be thinking so much research for an animated movie? Well, in order to create the right environment, the correct dimensions and the feeling of being out there on your own. You first have to get the right inspiration and experience what you are trying to convey. Speaking of inspiration, when you are developing the characters in a movie, the characters have distinct personality traits. One fact that was fun to learned is how Ramsey, the T-Rey cowgirl in the movie, was actually inspired by one of the guides the team had in one of their research trips. This is what Peter had to say about that “Melissa and Ramsey, where our guides and one of our T-rex is named Ramsey, was very inspired by this cowgirl that brought us out there and she was legitimately a cowgirl where she has her horse, her dog, a saw, a gun and live out on her own in Colorado from months on end.” Pretty cool, just hearing these stories and how life changing traveling can be.
If experiencing getting lost and finding inspiration for their characters wasn’t enough, just imagine trying to understand how mother nature affects our surroundings. The team’s research trips wasn’t an one trip and be done kind-a-thing. There were actually several trips and during different seasons to understand how the season affect the environment. Those changes is what you see in the different regions Arlo travels. One thing to note, is how important the river in Arlo’s story is and researching the snake river was another important step into getting the whole picture. In Arlo’s story the river changes according to how he is feeling and understanding how the light and rocks affect water was very important. “If Arlo is feeling terrible or has just gone through something the river is boiling and becomes wild. And when Arlo’s at peace the river can become like glass.” Said Peter.
After listening and seeing a fraction of the pictures the team took during their trips, I feel like my understanding of what went into the making of The Good Dinosaur. The understanding Sharon Calahan has of how light and colors work and the eye for detail that Sanjay Bakshi has, just goes to show how this Pixar movie has achieve real life realism. I cannot wait to take my kiddos to see this movie and admire their amazing work.
The Good Dinosaur opens in theaters on November 25, 2015. Stay tuned for more The Good Dinosaur adventures. In the mean time check out the following The Good Dinosaur clips.
The Good Dinosaur Official US Trailer 2
The Good Dinosaur – Official US Trailer
“The Good Dinosaur” asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo (voice of Raymond Ochoa) makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.
Disclosure: I was provided an all expense paid trip to San Francisco to attend the #GoodDinoEvent, #MilesEvent, #Waltagram, and #InsideOutBloggers events. No additional compensation was received. I was provided with the information in this post by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.