La Luna, the latest short film from Pixar Animations Studios, has already been nominated for an Academy Award®—and it will finally get a theatrical release when it precedes Disney•Pixar’s Brave starting on June 22. The tale of a young boy discovering his family’s wonderfully unique line of work was directed by Enrico Casarosa—who wanted to keep the look and feel of the film as close to a classic children’s storybook as possible.
Recently, D23 had the privilege to visit Enrico and his team and witness a “day in the life” at the Pixar campus in Emeryville. Take a look at what goes into making an award-winning Pixar short! It’s hard work, but it’s a lot of fun, too…
A brisk bike ride to work in the morning sets the day in motion for La Luna director, Enrico Casarosa. He pauses for a moment in front of the company's famous Luxo Jr. lamp statue.
Time for production meeting no. 1: an edit review with La Luna editor, Steve Bloom.
There's no better way to have a captive audience than by taking your director hostage---playfully, of course! Here, Enrico demonstrates an obscure method of roping to animator Robb Denovan.
New age music inspires creativity? Possibly---but these stone chimes are actually an elemental part of the sound mix. Sound designer, Justin Pearson, demonstrates their particular melody for Enrico in the "Soundhenge" mixing room.
Once the sounds have been recorded, they must be added into the film. Here, Enrico and Justin tweak the audio to perfection.
The crew may consist of characters, but so does the film! Enrico, character designer Ed Robbins, and supervising technical director, Daniel McCoy, review the cast of La Luna.
Enrico clears his mind---it makes for better brainstorming---with a little office yoga. (That's a pretty intense pose, right?)
Sweep! C'mon, sweep! Enrico coaches animators Juan Carlos Navarro and Javier Moya on proper broom technique, a crucial skill for La Luna animators to perfect.
Take 149: Enrico and editor Steve Bloom record temporary gibberish for the reels-in-progress. (The actors may have changed, but the gibberish remained a major part of La Luna.)
"Nice hammer." "Oh, you like this?" "Yeah, draw me a picture of one so I can show the guys at the hardware store what I want..." This could have been the conversation---but it's really a "sets review" between Enrico and supervising technical director, Daniel McCoy.
Here's Enrico "jamming" with the lighting team: Brian Boyd, Charu Clark, Afonso Salcedo, Esdras Varagnolo, Kyoung Lee, and Mathieu Cassagne.
Finally, production manager AJ Riebli, Daniel, Enrico, and producer Kevin Reher think back on a busy, productive day...
Photos by Pixar’s Deborah Coleman. Article by D23′s Courtney Potter.
