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| Ed Catmull photo © Deborah Coleman (Pixar) |
Julie rose out of bed this morning with a little extra pep in her step. Although it was 5:45 AM (EST), she knew she wouldn't want to miss out on Ed Catmull's live question and answer session hosted by The Guardian. The format was simple - type your question for Ed in the comments section of the post and he would respond back with a reply. Catmull answered many questions during the hour-and-fifteen-minute session - he shared insights from his book, anecdotes from Pixar and even had a fun quip about the famed-yet-false Pixar theory. Below are a few of our favorite questions - including two of our own questions that Ed answered. (Side note - T.J. loved the fact that Ed seemed to be intrigued by our first question.)
Pixar Post: A main topic in Creativity, Inc. is about overcoming obstacles and affecting change. Do you have any thoughts on affecting change in an organization if you're not among the management or senior-level ranks?
Ed Catmull: This is one of the most difficult questions and a really excellent one! The best that I know how to do is to try to set an example for what is means to manage a creative organization and hope that the quality of our work influences other people to at least pay attention to some of the principles that we've used.
Pixar Post: There have been enormous advancements in animation technology, what do you see on the horizon which will be the next technological leap for the industry?
EC: I've learned that I'm not terribly good at predicting the future. However, I do feel that when technology and art are combined in a healthy way it takes you off in unexpected directions, so the way we think about it is to make sure that the artists and technical people are integrated together in the common goal of telling good stories and what that does is it opens us up to new technology as it changes.Read more »