{"id":6778,"date":"2019-01-20T10:05:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T15:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/?p=6778"},"modified":"2019-01-20T10:05:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T15:05:54","slug":"the-blue-umbrella-the-pixar-short-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pixarplanet.com\/blog\/the-blue-umbrella-the-pixar-short-of-the-week\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blue Umbrella – The Pixar Short Of The Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d celebrated its 5th<\/sup> anniversary last year. It played before Monsters University in 2013, and is one of Pixar\u2019s most photorealistic shorts to date. It\u2019s a simple \u2018boy meets girl\u2019 love story, except: our two love-struck characters are umbrellas, and blue and one red. Because why not?
\nYes, there are plenty Pixar projects that focus on bringing inanimate objects to life. But \u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d does this in a wonderfully smart and observant way. Director Saschka Unseld highlighted that this is one of the main drivers of animation \u2013 breathing life into things that are usually lifeless.
\n\"\"
\n\"\"
\nThe photorealism is partly the crew deservedly showing off their skills in effects, animation, and lighting. But it\u2019s also a deliberate choice. Unseld wanted to show the audience a real world \u2013 convincing enough that you could easily be fooled into thinking it was live-action \u2013 before bringing the city to life. One minute the viewer is staring in awe at how real <\/em>it all looks; the raindrops, the wet pavements, the way the traffic lights and car lights make everything glow; and the next minute the drain pipes and mailboxes are blinking <\/em>and smiling. <\/em>This enhances the magic of the short hugely.
\nYou can tell the crew went out to the streets to find as many faces in inanimate objects as they could. The faces haven\u2019t been lazily tacked on to them. Instead, naturally placed screws, bolts and openings form facial features that you could imagine pointing out in real life. It\u2019s fun to find patterns in everyday objects and project personalities onto them, and \u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d does exactly this but in a very thoughtful, restrained way. The umbrellas, however, have simple but iconic faces composited onto them.
\n\"\"
\nAs with all Pixar films, a lot of creativity went into the making of \u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d, and this is obvious from seeing the finished product. Even the screenplay was written like a poem and is beautiful in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the middle of them
\nis a bright blue umbrella.
\nHe looks around and with him
\nwe see that
\nit\u2019s not only the umbrellas that are happy.
\nEverything in the city
\nthat is made for rain
\nis cheering.
\nThey all love the rain so much
\nthat together
\nthey start to sing a song.
\nRooftops,
\ngurgling rain pipes,
\nbus stop shelters\u2026
\n\u2026all together
\nthey sing a song
\nto celebrate the rain.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The city and the rain create a love song for the blue and red umbrellas. The music for the short really helps create this feeling. Composer Jon Brion incorporated steady raindrop sounds into the suite, and together with vocals by Sarah Jaffe, the piece has this immensely relaxing, heartening effect on the listener.
\nPixar encourage employees from all sorts of departments to pitch short film ideas. Unseld, who started off in the cinematography department, was inspired to pitch \u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d when he saw a broken umbrella laying on the side of the street. It made him feel so sad: the material sagged, the way the broken metal supports stuck out at weird angles almost resembled broken bones\u2026 Unseld stood there feeling sorry for this poor inanimate object while everyone else continued to walk by. It\u2019s fitting that he went on to create a story that made thousands of people around the world feel so strongly for one blue umbrella.
\n\"\"
\nSome fun facts about \u201cThe Blue Umbrella\u201d:<\/p>\n