#pixar rules

Male Headquarter: She's giving the sign! She's giving the sign! [Red light alert] [Permission to make advances] Male Fear: Are we reading it wrong? Is she gonna slap? Male Joy: Ugh come on Fear! Gotta go for it! Go all the way!!! *pushing lever* [Permission accepted] [No slapping reaction detected] [Ho(r)ney Islands activated]

Female Joy: Hands on the boobs! Hands on the boobs! Female Disgust: Ugh but not the move I want! Female Joy: Come one guys! He's gonna learn fast! Male Fear: Why is she not making a sound? Is this the right move? Male Joy: You're the King! Everyone out! I'm in control of the control board from now *pushing lever to max*

Male Headquarter: [Launching the P. ship] [Permission to penetrate] [Waiting for signals from female headquarter]

Female Headquarter: Female Joy: Wow here it comes the P. ship! Female Sadness: But I expected bigger! Ugh I'm so deflated now! Female Joy: No Sadness! You stay in the circle, OK? Female Sadness: OK, I guess... I'm gonna go touch some memories from the last times while waiting... Female Disgust: Ugh that thing in my mouth? No way! Female Joy: I told you guys! This is my time! I'm gonna take control from now on. *Pressing buttons and pushing levers*

[Penetration completed] Headquarters: Could you just stop dancing and pounding now Joy? Joys: Can't stop while the P. ship has been launched! But this is fun isn't it? *Keep dancing*

[Red light alert][P. ship to reach destination in 3, 2, 1...] [Mission completed]

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

AND I'M GONNA TELL YOU WHY! 

Because they care. Plain and simple. They make high qualities products that they spend at least four years working on and it shows. 

Every movie they have put out is beautifully done and genuinely funny and brings joy to the world (except Cars, which brings joy to anyone between the age of three and twelve). 

Every other production company willingly puts out shitty films to make a quick buck because they don't actually care. But Pixar spends an incredible amount of time perfecting computer animated characters and sets and story boards because they were built on the impression that they had one shot to make a perfect movie or they wouldn't be able to keep creating. And I really think that message and followed them all this time because when you see a Pixar movie you sit in the theater for an hour or two and you're completely immersed in this world of monsters or fish or toys and you don't leave thinking 'My god I just spent eleven dollars on a dumb animated movie' but you leave laughing through your tears and reminding yourself that you didn't watch these movies over and over again because you had nothing better to do but because you were genuinely entertained. 

And that's why I want to work for them. I want to be around creative people that love what they do and do it every single day because that's what they want.