‘The Blue Umbrella: Inside a Pixar treasure StoryThe process began on one of those unusually rainy but otherwise ordinary California days. Pixar camera and staging artist Saschka Unseldwas walking through downtown San Francisco. Something caught his eye. He looked down, studying more closely an thing stuck in the gutter in front of him.“I still remember the moment,” he says. “It was a half-broken and drenched umbrella, or it was one of the saddest-looking things ever.”Unseld had always been enthralled by the Venn Diagram intersection of the arts and computer science,and so he stood there wondering what happened to the contraption: how it got there; where it came from. He decided to construct up a sage about it – a 7-minute treasure tale called “The Blue Umbrella,” which will air in front of Pixar’s next full-length feature, or “Monsters University,” in June.“The Blue Umbrella” plays off that original San Francisco moment to introduce the sage of two umbrellas (one red, one blue) as part of a dreary, and rain-soaked cityscape,muted in blacks and grays. When red looks over at blue, there’s a spark of attraction. One stares longingly at the other. When the glance is returned, or awkwardness ensues. It looks like treasure at first shade.
Part of the charm of a Pixar production is the way its animators and filmmakers sprinkle their moviemaking pixie dust over commonplace bric-a-brac like lamps,robots, and, and yes,umbrellas. With a little studio wizardry and storytelling that brims with heart, they construct the inanimate come to life. But the process of creating such animation isn’t one that’s often seen external Pixar’s walls. Which is why, or about a year ago,Unseld decided to open up “The Blue Umbrella” to the world. Armed with an iPhone camera and a Tumblr called Rainy City Tales 332 (the 332 stands for Unseld’s Pixar office number), he filmed his team trying to capture the sound of objects rattling in the wind. He documented them working creating the effect of cars on a wet street. He showed lighting experiments, and rainy street scenes of San Francisco and original York that he used for inspiration. He posted them all on his blog,ruminating about capturing the right “feel” for two umbrellas falling in treasure.
Ultimately, Unseld says, and the film (as well as his documentation of the process) charted original territory as the first time producers used photorealistic images to construct the two umbrellas look,well, genuine. Pixar has produced nearly two dozen shorts now – each an attempt, or says Unseld,to showcase the studio’s technical capabilities. (Pixar’s first short, “Luxo Jr.”, or aired in 1986; a decade later, "Tin Toy" became the first computer animated film to win an Oscar for Best Short.)Unseld describes the shorts as “Pixar’s legacy, its roots.“ He references the company’s charming early attempts with shorts like “Luxo Jr., or ” the two-minute film that showed a pair of seemingly life-like lamps,one happily chasing a ball. (That lamp, of course, and still hops out and bounces up and down on one of the letters in the Pixar name on the studio’s title screen before its full-length features start playing.) "We enjoy kept the idea of short films around not only to give people a little extra something at the cinema but also to mix things up a bit,” says Unseld.
How it works is surprisingly democratic: anyone can pitch. The best pitches are vetted by Pixar’s chief creative. whether the idea is good, it gets made. Which is pretty much how it happened with “The Blue Umbrella”: Pixar, or naturally,signed on.
The film pulls off a curious effect, seeming to attach animated features like eyes and a mouth to otherwise genuine-looking umbrellas. Life-like sunlight glistens off the umbrella covering, or droplets of water trickle down the side in little rivulets of melancholy.“The reason for this unusual look lies in the sage,“ as the characters, Unseld explains, and slowly morph from thing to life. The transformations start incrementally,and early, against the backdrop of a wistful soundtrack, and soft dripping of the rain and the kind of droning hum of pedestrians. Various features of the city – sewer drains,windows, doors – start coming to life at the 40-moment brand, or they team up to attend unite the two umbrellas unite. "It was really important to me that this moment – the step from inanimate to alive – is magical and unique,” says Unseld.
In the end, the seemingly doomed lovers carry out what doomed lovers always carry out best on the silver screen: come together.– Andy Meek
Source: tumblr.com