\u00a0\u201cIf something has happened to you, and you have real questions about it, chances are people in the world are gonna have similar questions even if they don\u2019t have the same story.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n -Dan Scanlon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That bit of insight perfectly encapsulates Pixar\u2019s films and according to Dan, are also why they have stood the test of time. He added that the new SparkShorts program allows filmmakers to tell stories that are unlike anything the studio has done before. <\/span>Onward<\/span><\/i>, his second directorial feature, is yet another Pixar first.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was so fortunate to visit Pixar for the third time last October to learn about the making of the film and to cross paths with more passionate storytellers. One of my favorite things about this event was the filmmaker conference with Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae.<\/span><\/p>\n The Onward Long Lead press days, including a press conference with Kori Rae and Dan Scanlon, as seen on October 30, 2019 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman \/ Pixar)<\/p><\/div>\n The two have a genuine camaraderie that makes them a winning director-producer duo, and it\u2019s no surprise that they teamed up once again after <\/span>Monsters University<\/span><\/i> in 2013. One other <\/span>MU<\/span><\/i> alum on <\/span>Onward<\/span><\/i> is story supervisor <\/span>Kelsey Mann<\/b>. We got to see a photo of the trio on Day 1 of <\/span>Onward<\/span><\/i>, where there was just a single lonely post-it on a big stretch of whiteboard. As Dan recalled: \u201cIt\u2019s just so tricky to come up with something from nothing. Kelsey and Kori and I went back on that first day and I don\u2019t know what we did other than pin up that one thing and it\u2019s terrifying.\u201d His words echoed Kelsey\u2019s about the terror of a blank page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Onward Long Lead press days, including Madeline Sharafian and Kelsey Mann, as seen on October 29, 2019 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Marc Flores \/ Pixar)<\/p><\/div>\n But of course, that page is filled eventually, and Dan is helped by a team of dedicated story artists, led by Kelsey. In a presentation with him and one of the story leads <\/span>Maddie Sharafian<\/b>, we learned all about the storyboarding process for <\/span>Onward<\/span><\/i>. After clearing the initial hurdle of the blank page, the fear began to dissipate. As Kelsey noted, he and Kori Rae were there to help Dan through the process, which Dan was quite vulnerable about:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s a really scary thing and it\u2019s a very private and lonely thing<\/b>, even though you do have a lot of help, <\/span>you do have to dig into yourself and your life and talk to people, talk to your friends…it\u2019s like therapy<\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kelsey Mann\u2019s involvement at the start of the project is actually unusual. Most of the time, it\u2019s just the director or the director and the producer in the early stages of the film. The three of them were joined by a handful of others to put the story up in cards and just talk through the scenes and story beats. Dan and his co-writer Jason Headley wrote a script which was then handed to the story artists. They all read it individually and then came together as a group to discuss what worked and offer critiques about what didn\u2019t. When a scene is finished, the temporary voices are added, and it\u2019s sent to editorial, which mixes in the sound effects and music. Now the artist\u2019s initial pitch is strengthened by the music and atmosphere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Screenings are held for 35-40 scenes in the studio\u2019s theater, and there are brain trust screenings for the crew, along with people who aren\u2019t working on the film. And what\u2019s really cool is that people will help out on the ideas for the film even if they\u2019re working on other projects. The collaborative spirit really does animate the studio\u2019s artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the real exciting part of this whole process are the storyboards. We actually got to see them for one scene in the film! And this was after the film screening we had viewed with all the finished animation. The boards were just as compelling. For the film crew, watching each artist\u2019s storyboard pitch is similar to watching the actual movie. Kelsey described it as a play with multiple people presenting the scenes they worked on in succession.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s definitely quite a challenge to find the right story, but what I really appreciated learning about this process was how certain decisions strengthened the story and the journey of Ian and Barley. We got to see how the story artists think through those decisions, with their writing and drawings. Kelsey and Maddie actually demonstrated for us how they do this by drawing on their iPads so we could see how the storyboarded scene was edited. A tiny glimpse into one of Pixar\u2019s story rooms!<\/span><\/p>\n Onward story team members, including Madeline Sharafian, Louise Smythe and Rosana Sullivan, work in the “fishbowl,” a common work space for everyone to be together while working, as seen on November 8, 2016 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman \/ Pixar)<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Onward story team members work in the “fishbowl,” a common work space for everyone to be together while working, as seen on November 8, 2016 at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman \/ Pixar)<\/p><\/div>\n Dan also praised <\/span>Onward<\/span><\/i>\u2019s story artists for their ability to understand Ian, who was a tough character to figure out. Because he\u2019s so much more comfortable in the background, it was difficult for the team to find something \u2018playable\u2019 that they could all work on. He mentioned how a story artist was able to turn Art from <\/span>Monsters University<\/span><\/i> into a character everyone was familiar with, all thanks to the iconic line, \u201cI can\u2019t go back to jail!\u201d For Ian, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until we got to the more blundering awkward stuff that Tom Holland does so well, that we said \u2018he\u2019s all of our horrible 16 year old selves\u2019; all of us artists who want to hide and not be seen; he\u2019s every awkward moment you\u2019ve ever had embodied in a character and then he\u2019s also the opposite of Barley. Barley is super confident and wild, he\u2019s everything we wish we were in some way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking of Barley, we even got to draw him with some help from Maddie!<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.wasabisys.com\/upcomingpixar\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20191030OnwardLongLeadPressDay34.jpg\")
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