Ed Catmull is my Hero

A week from last Monday Ryan and I attended the Ed Catmull, the head of Pixar, even over John Lasseter, lecture at the U. There were over 500 people there with only 200 in the room he was lecturing in, while the rest of us were piled all over a 200 seat classroom.

Pixar is incredible, and he discussed how to promote a creative and beneficial workspace. He was eloquent and told us a lot about Pixar being bought by Disney. So Ed Catmull is now, not only the President of Pixar, but of Disney Animation as well.

We all know I dislike Disney for its insane marketing scheme, but Pixar doesn't have that. And I feel like it may be lessening for Disney as well. The reason why? Well, why would you make toy figurines for a movie that fails in the box office?

How they create the stories and the animation is incredible, they follow all of Hume's guidelines on how to be a good critic. I will add more details on that later.

So I took notes and the next day read the article, my notes don't even compare to the article, and I'm glad. The lecture went over, but no one seemed to mind as a few shorts were shown and the story teller in front of us had us all captured under a spell.

After the lecture, the reception was held in the Catmull Lobby of the Warnock Building.

Ryan talked to him and I talked to Ryan's professor's and I really am impressed with the U's program.

A few things, I asked them why another University would have their students focus on only one aspect of the cgi program for 4 years and they said "It is better to start out and find a job quick, but is dooming them to burn out sooner".

Because the U has all the students do their entire projects, they have little portfolio work to show incoming students, but that does not mean that their program isn't amazing, because I think it is.

I think the program has connections where connections are needed and because of those the program would know of available interns before the public.

Its always really empowering to me to see the alumni donate so much to the campus, and I'm sure that is true of everwhere, and that makes me really excited for higher education.

Lectures and other events held all over campus are the reason why it can be so beneficial to be in programs. For example, while I was in Latin, I knew of all Latin plays performed across the valley and could attend special lecture series where the Lecturer debunked the myths of what modern society idealizes roman life to be and what it truly was like.

Its made me very opinionated on topics I feel I have adequate knowledge about, and that is a turn off to others as I have been dubbed "a hater of all things popular", which is not the case, I just demand more from products up front than others and because of that reject those of a lesser quality. Call me a literary snob, or unable to shut my brain off, but I believe quality over quantity is better. We don't see many movies, and the books I read better be good or I will lambast them, as I feel it a duty to praise those of higher value.

Pixar's creative team supports this, several times throughout the lecture there were slights of companies mass producing and losing quality (WALMART) and all the soapboxes found in their movies are their because of the team on the project. So, I believe if Ryan goes to Pixar, instead of loathing it as I loathed all things Disney, I feel a change of heart and look forward to what that future may bring.