Screenwriting Expo Pt 2

So I barely survive the parking hell getting to the Expo. I make it to the registration desk and find out that the main lecture hall is full and I follow a former Disney colleague to the overflow room where they have a projection screen simucast. OK. I sit down and get there just in time for Andrew Stanton to begin his journey of pain keynote speech. He's an excellent speaker. Great information and very inspiring. Andrew gets to a part where he shows a clip from a movie and the the camera man or technical director forgets to switch over to the video feed. And this is what we see.



Andrew enjoying the clip for a good ten to fifteen minutes.

I see that he likes coffee.

But I have no idea what clip he is looking at. The crowd in the overflow room has no idea what clip he is looking at. They begin to get agitated and tell someone to tell somebody to do...something. Eventually it gets fixed and we enjoy the rest of the keynote speech. Just a bump in the technical flow but it was funny timing and staging. Like I said before, I underestimated the attendance at the Expo and I guess the event staff did too.

BTW Andrew does a killer "Crush" impersonation.

Screenwriting Expo Caricatures Pt 1

This past weekend I went to the Pixar Day at the Screenwriting Expo. This was my first time attending and it will probably be my last. One word - CROWDS. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal but as Countfunkula so elegantly put it,"It's like the Comic-Con but without the Star Wars costumes!" There were TONS of people. I saw old friends from Disney, Dreamworks, former students and I even bumped into a friend from the video game industry!!! Yes it was like the Comic Con but without the costumes...and not as smelly thank God. The main lecture room filled up quickly and they had two overflow rooms with video feeds to accomodate the massive throngs. I left a babbling fool with a thumping headache. Understand that I was mainly there to support the Pixar peeps and maybe learn a secret or two about their process. But at the end of the day I learned that assloads of people can only be endured if they are accompanied by comic books, toys, and costumed Star Wars characters. Thanks Pixar peeps for coming down and sharing the secrets of your success.

Here's a little doodle I did of the "Director/Writer Relationship" seminar.
Left to right Andrew Stanton, Dave Reynolds, Dan Gerson, Lee Unkrich, Mike Arndt, Brenda Chapman, Irene Mecchi, and Gary Rydstrom. I tried to get Kiel Murray but she kept looking to her left and I didn't get a good enough look.

Bathroom Identification

This is one of my worst nightmares at work. I actually saw this the other day. I just thought it was funny that the person's ID was in plain view. But fortunately this won't happen to me because I carry my ID in my pocket AND I never use the first stall AND I always lift my feet up so nobody can see my shoes AND I never use the toilet unless it's a life threatening situation.

No Work = Robot Drawing

Work has been slow so I drew a robot.

Better Than The Previous Post

Here's a better caricature I found in the piles of paper on my desk. The lesson learned is just to go for the basic shape and move on. I think the sharpie forces that.

When Caricatures Don't Want to Cooperate

Wow look at the all the cobwebs here!

So this started out as a caricature of a friend but after a while it started not looking like a caricature so I just kept rendering it until it looked nothing like the original victim. Sometimes drawings take on a life of their own (also known as "too lazy to fix it syndrome"). Or maybe you just need to know when to stop.