Back in November, something really cool happened to me, and I want to share it with you! This post is really, really long by the way, but I hope you take the time to read it all, and maybe experience a little of the same magic I did. For another note, some of the information on concept ideas may be incorrect, because this all happened so long ago that my memory of exact details is getting fuzzy. Anyway, on to the story.
One day in early November, my teacher in the Computer Graphics class I was taking made an announcement. He had somehow made arrangements for a Pixar animator to come to our school as a guest speaker!! (This teacher has some connections with Pixar. I’m not telling you what they are.) Naturally, the whole class was shocked speechless. After all, Pixarians are always really busy, and our school is on the other side of the country from California! It sounded too good to be true! I thought he was joking at first! He didn’t just find a no-name Pixarian either. He asked Doug Sweetland to come over and visit. Doug Sweetland! The man who animated almost every Pixar film to date. The man who directed Presto. The man who designed Woody!Amazingly, Doug agreed to stop by, and he even offered to pay for his own airfare and do the presentation for free! That didn’t sound like a big deal at first, but then I realized that those people who visit elementary schools to read books to the children charge several thousand dollars per visit (and most of the ones that visited us were only from the next town over!). The fact that Doug was doing it out of the kindness of his heart really touched me. I couldn’t wait for his visit!
In the weeks leading up to the presentation, CG class seemed to turn into Pixar class! We watched The Pixar Story and learned about the history of Pixar. Posters featuring Pixar characters popped up around the walls of the classroom. Finally, the day came. The auditorium was packed because almost every teacher in the building wanted to see the presentation (and had to bring their students with them.). 
Luckily, my class was the first in the auditorium, so I got a front row seat. Sitting there, waiting for the presentation to start, I was so excited I felt like I could explode! Then, the lights dimmed, and the presentation started…
As soon as Mr. Sweetland started talking, I knew I was in for a good time. He has an amazing personality, and is, without a doubt, the funniest person I’ve ever met (and probably ever will). He was always saying funny things throughout his presentation, and he was so good at capturing our attention that his 2 hour presentation felt like 30 minutes. He was just so animated and full of life, and I can tell he imparts some of that life into the characters he animates. His presentation was mainly about the process of creating Presto! Doug directed the short, animated parts of it, and did all of the voices. He started his presentation by showing us the short, then talked about the cycle of creating a good story. Creating the story for Presto! was the hardest work he’s ever done at Pixar because he had to scrap ideas that he liked in order to impress the Brain Trust. (In case you didn’t know, “The Brain Trust” is a group of the most important people at Pixar. In order for a film to go into production, they have to approve it). In 7 months, he drew over 3,000 storyboards and went through about 10 different storylines! He showed us several storyboard reels for scrapped ideas, but since they didn’t have any sound, he made sound effects with his voice. His sound effects were amazingly accurate aand hilarious! The whole auditorium was practically rolling on the floor laughing! After seeing our reaction, he said “Thank you for laughing at that, because the Brain Trust didn’t.” From what I can remember, one of the storylines was about a rabbit bothering the magician for his autograph, and another one may have involved 2 rabbits. I do have a quote from Doug when he was talking about the search for a good story. “All the time I worried that we were failing with the story, we were actually successfully searching.” That’s because various elements from different drafts found their way into the final version. For example, one of the early drafts was heavily based off of vaudeville, which became the theme for the credits in the final version. Overall, it was a very nice presentation, and funny, too!
When Mr. Sweetland was finised talking, we had some time left over to do a questions and answers session. I knew I would never get a chance to speak to someone like this again, so I got up in front of the mic…
and asked him something really stupid. I couldn’t think of a good question, so I just said the first thing that popped into my head. I’d seen a hoax video on the internet that supposedly shows Wall-e poking his head up from a trash can in the background of a scene from Toy Story. I asked him, of all things, if that was real. (He said he didn’t think the concept for Wall-e existed at the time). I really don’t remember anyone else’s questions, although one student did ask what kinds of computers they use at Pixar. According to Doug Sweetland, it doesn’t matter what kind of computer is being used, the only thing that matters is the animator using it. A touching statement, but I can’t say it answered the question. When everyone was filing out of the auditorium at the end, you were allowed to go down and interact with Mr. Sweetland some more. Maybe get his autograph, shake his hand, ask a question, etc. I told him that Alec was the cutest thing that ever came out of Pixar. I said something else too, but it was probably fan-babble (Something along the lines of “You work for Pixar, that’s so cool!”) Overall, Mr. Sweetland was the best guest speaker I had ever had the pleasure of being spoken to by. But I’m not done yet…
About a month after the presentation, I came home from school to find a long, triangular-shaped package addressed to me on my front porch. I remembered that I had sent Doug Sweetland a letter, thanking him profusely for his visit. (The letter was for a writing assignment in school, but let me assure you, the thank-yous were genuine!) I knew that it’s not uncommon for people to send replies to thank you letters, but I wasn’t exactly expecting a huge box! I opened the box, and pulled out a very nice handwritten letter from Mr. Sweetland, thanking me for the letter. This wasn’t written on the default Pixar stationary that people usually get, it was just a piece of paper, which makes it even more special because I know it probably came from his desk. He also sent me a really nice, high-quality poster that was made for Presto! Its’ about 1 foot wide by 2.5 feet tall, so it’s fairly large. It has my name and a special message (Many Carrots, Doug Sweetland) written on it in shiny gold ink! It’s so cool! Here’s a picture of it:
It was a blast to get to meet Doug Sweetland. It’s a day I know I’ll remember forever! If you have any questions about the presentation, ask me and I’ll see if I can remember enough to answer it! 
