Disney Way Strategic Planning with Storyboarding

The storyboarding process is like building a house; it requires a logical progression. Just as a house begins with the architect’s conceptual rendering and then moves through the various stages—foundation, sub-flooring, walls, and roof—the storyboard process starts with the “concept,” or the problem to be solved, and moves along in a creative exchange of ideas and suggestions until the desired solution has taken shape.

Walt once said, “We don’t allow geniuses here.”  And, Walt did not feel that creativity was just for right-brainers.  He felt that everyone was creative.  All we have to do is invite people to a session in which they can unleash their creative energies to solve a problem in a team atmosphere.  Storyboarding helps you do just that.

Taking the time and effort to plan early is well worth the investment.  If you change something in the planning stage, it costs you a dollar. If you change something in the design phase, it costs you ten dollars. If you change something after the product is built, it costs you a hundred dollars.  

In your annual strategic planning process, don't forget to construct a planning storyboard. Think of what dreams and goals you and your team wish to accomplish, and let the storyboarding process help get your collective creative energies flowing!

Storyboarding - Chapter 10 - The Disney Way

Pixar Brings the Magic of Walt Disney Back to Disney: Part 2 - True Love

by Bill Capodagli

President of Disney and Pixar Studios, Ed Catmull, and John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of the Studios have scored the highest accolade for Disney Animation – Best Animated Feature Film – with their smash hit Frozen.  This is their first such award since it was created in 2001.

The overall message in Frozen is that an act of true love conquers all.  In the final moments of the film, The Snow Queen of Arendelle – Princess Elsa – accidentally freezes the heart of her younger sister, Princess Anna.  Sadly, unless Anna’s heart is thawed by an "act of true love", she will become frozen forever.

A few scenes later, Anna realizes that her beloved Prince Hans is ready to kill Elsa, and refuses to let this happen.  As she hurls herself between the two to save her sister Elsa, she instantly freezes solid.  Anna’s decision to sacrifice herself to save her sister is indeed an "act of true love."  At last, Elsa’s pain turns to joy as Anna begins to thaw right before her eyes! 

Early in Pixar’s history, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter had made a decision that may have sacrificed the very existence of Pixar.  During the creation of Toy Story, their partner, Disney (this was prior to Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006) wanted Woody to be sinister and the movie to be darker.  Remember back…this was Pixar’s big break!  Until Toy Story, Pixar was struggling to keep its doors open.  The project was the opportunity of a lifetime…Disney would produce, co-finance, and distribute the film.  

Based on Disney’s demands, John and his team began to make the film darker and darker.  Then one-day, John said he realized that he wasn’t making the film of his dreams and that he was allowing the Disney executives to steal his passion.  Finally, John and his team decided to push back and challenge their demands.  When the Disney executives realized John’s indignation, they told him to pack up and move his entire team to Disney’s Burbank Studios.  But, John begged for just two more weeks to fix all the things that the Disney executives felt were wrong with the film.  John and his team literally worked around the clock, but they resurrected the original storyline.  Disney was truly amazed, and the results were magical! 

In the same spirit as Princess Anna, John threw himself in front of the Disney “bullies” in order to save the story of Woody and Buzz that he wanted to tell.  Without that act of “true love”, I doubt that Pixar would have been able to produce their string of phenomenal blockbuster hits, nor would they have had the opportunity to bring the magic back to Disney Animation with the Academy-award winning Frozen. 

Bill Capodagli to Keynote Innovate Kentucky! - based on the book Innovate the Pixar Way

1st Annual Idea Festival Bowling Green: Creativity and Innovation - Keynote Topic:  Dreams and Dreamers:  How to Innovate like Walt Disney and the Pixarians - Feb, 2014

Pixar Keynote Review

"Bill, you were awesome and the evaluations rated you a 5 out of 5 so, thank you very much for closing our conference in such an upbeat and dynamic way!"

Mike McLaran, Oregon State Chamber of Commerce and Washington Chamber of Commerce Executives Joint Conference Chair

PIXAR KEYNOTE REVIEW

Bandon, Oregon COC Director Julie Miller:  "Capodagli is a skilled speaker who offers big-business perspectives that work for any size business."

Innovate the Pixar Way Review

www.youngupstarts.com/2012/10/18/review-innovate-the-pixar-way/

Bill’s Upcoming Keynote for the Oregon State Chamber–Dreams and Dreamers: How to Innovate like Walt Disney and the Pixarians

http://www.oregonstatechamber.org/

Innovate the Pixar Way and Bill in E! Online Article

 

http://www.eonline.com/news/331520/finding-nemo-2-toy-story-4-has-pixar-run-out-of-ideas

Bill Capodagli–Featured Keynoter for Manufacturing Innovation 2012

 

Bill Capodagli will be a featured keynote speaker at Manufacturing Innovation 2012 (MI2012) in Orlando on May 9th. This 4-day event is produced by Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and brings together over 700 manufacturers, industry experts, and MEP field staff to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies facing U.S. manufacturers. This event is designed to truly bring the “voice of manufacturing” and “voice of government” to an open, educational and sharing environment that makes a measurable impact on U.S. manufacturing.

Innovate the Pixar Way for Filmmakers

The PIXAR Method: Tricks of the Hit Machine

By John Ott

photo by: JD Hancock

At the time of writing, PIXAR has released its 12th number one box office film, Cars 2. In an industry that expects one out of ten releases to be hit films, their critical and box office track record is unprecedented. Not even the early Disney studio had such a run of success.

You could credit the talents of people who work there, from Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter on down. They are immensely talented people, to be sure. But there are plenty of people with talent in Hollywood. Why has no other studio had the same success?

I believe that PIXAR has certain unique methods that help them craft superior films. And the good news is, because PIXAR began as an outsider company, many of these methods are well within reach of the indie filmmaker. Here are a few new tricks from the old toys…

Perturbate the Model

While a single writer/director is usually the prime creative force behind each PIXAR film, all of the films are regularly subjected to “brutally honest” critiques while in development from a group known as the Brain Trust. The original members of the Brain Trust were Lasseter, Pete Docter (Up, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and the late Joe Ranft. The group now reportedly includes other directors and creatives like Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt). As you can see, the story must withstand scrutiny from a collective with a massive movie IQ.

Finance wizards have an expression: to perturbate the model. They test how models of markets would react in this or that extreme situation. The creative wizards at PIXAR do exactly the same thing. Before they ever start animating a story, it has been rigorously tested. Does this or that plot point make sense? What are the characters’ goals? Is this unique and original? While the ultimate creative decisions rest with the filmmaker, the ones that survive the perturbations from PIXAR’s Brain Trust ultimately result in a stronger story.

But what can an isolated filmmaker do without access to the PIXAR Brain Trust? Start your own. Regularly focus-testing projects with other filmmakers whose opinion you respect is invaluable and now, thanks to social networking, simple to do. Go to some local film festivals or filmmaker events meet other filmmakers and start your own Brain Trust.

Be Willing to Set Projects Aside

If you put years of your life into developing a project, but it just wasn’t ready, would you be willing to put it aside? Walt Disney did this — many times. As someone with the privilege of going through Disney’s archives, I’ve had a chance to see many projects that were delayed or never came to fruition. Disney often resisted commercial pressure to rush a film into production, and guess who else has this habit? John Lasseter, Disney worshipper.

“I’ve got Disney blood running through my veins,” he has been quoted as saying. “I do what I do because of Walt Disney.” [The Sunday Times October 2009] Even before PIXAR had a track record, he threw out the original story for Toy Story and started again from scratch, even though doing so jeopardized a deal with the Disney Studio to help release it. We know from our perch in the present that it all worked out, but at that time, the pressure must have been enormous.

Following Walt Disney’s lead, Lasseter and other executives at PIXAR have taken steps to make such a hard call a easier. They keep a lot of projects in development. This is expensive, but it means they get a choice of projects when the production pipeline is ready.

Most successful indie filmmakers do something similar, if on a smaller scale. They “keep irons in the fire” and are “willing to kill their babies” if it serves the ultimate creative goal: making a great movie.

Play in the Sandbox

When bestselling business authors Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson analyzed the corporate culture of PIXAR, they observed a childlike sense of fun in every aspect of the company. One of the keys is the way collaboration is used to constantly “plus” projects. PIXAR employees build on each others’ ideas like kids working to build a massive sandcastle.

Their takeaway: “Innovation does not come from a miraculous revelation … it comes from habitual, nonstop collaboration.” As PIXAR employees eat breakfast cereal (provided free), they can sit around like kids at the breakfast table and bounce ideas off one another. Then they can adjourn to a secret room with a hidden door that opens by pressing a button under a statue (I’m not making this up) as they continue to work on it.

As a filmmaker, you have to feel free to experiment, unleash the imagination that was so strong in childhood. I’m not saying a bowl of Frosted Flakes is the best way to do that. But whatever sort of environment is a creative sandbox for you, make it happen.

There are plenty more PIXAR methods that deserve to be cloned by filmmakers, but I’ll leave it here for now. See you in the sandbox!

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the website Making the Movie

MasteringFilm, powered by bestselling Focal Press authors, leading filmmakers, industry experts, and our editorial and marketing team (who live and breathe film every day). We believe creativity has an endless shelf life, and we are passionate about providing you the best resources that help give a longer shelf life to your creations.

Focal Press has been a leading publisher of Media Technology books for 70 years. We provide essential resources for professionals and students in many areas including: film and digital video production, photography & digital imaging, audio, animation, broadcast, theatre and web.

We are committed to publishing high quality books filled with practical hands-on information, dealing with cutting-edge and converging technologies from the experts in the field. You will find practical solutions to problems, examples you can apply to your work, and valuable insights that will help you keep up-to-date in these highly competitive fields.

We deliver to you the techniques that have proved successful for professionals, and inspire you to go further with your craft. Our books demystify ever-changing technologies and help you gain success.

Focal Press – learn, master, create

“Dreams and Dreamers” SHARE Keynote Review

 

On Monday, August 8, SHARE President, Janet Sun took the stage to welcome SHARE attendees and introduce keynote speaker Bill Capodagli of Capodagli Jackson Consulting.

Bill surprised attendees by riding into his presentation on a scooter, which he then gave away to an audience member. This set the tone for a discussion on the importance of building a creative workplace and embracing your inner childlike spirit. Bill’s engaging presentation addressed many of the findings from his latest book, titled Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Corporate Playground, which is the definitive account of Pixar’s creative culture. Bill’s approach to the workplace served as a glimpse into the opportunities that can arise from a professional culture where mutual respect, trust, collaboration and fun can produce phenomenal results.

SHARE was proud to host over 1,000 Enterprise IT professionals in Orlando, Florida, August 7 – 12, 2011, for a week filled with deep-dive discussions into the latest industry developments, engaging networking events and new professional connections. SHARE attendees selected from over 500 technical sessions offered during the week, engaged with over 40 industry exhibitors in the Technology Exchange Expo and mingled with fellow IT users to discuss mutual interests and solutions.

BILL CAPODAGLI’S VIDEO FROM THE 13TH World Human Resources Congress in Montreal

Finally….we have a link to clips from Bill’s Sept, 2010 keynote in Montreal:

http://www.portailrh.org/StudioRH/fiche4.aspx?p=444886

Words of Welcome from Canada’s Prime Minister

I am pleased to extend my warmest greetings to everyone attending the 13th World Human Resources Congress, organized by Quebec’s Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés.

The human resources management sector has certainly been affected by the deteriorating global economic environment in recent months. This slowdown is suited to a period of reflection, encouraging us to explore new avenues adapted to current realities. The holding of this event is of particular relevance, providing a unique opportunity for human resources specialists from throughout the world to address these issues.

This three-day congress will enable participants to share with their colleagues and discuss innovative measures to help recovering economies face today’s challenges. I have no doubt that this conference will touch on new approaches and markets that will help stimulate the economic recovery and strengthen the critical human resources management sector.

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congratulate the organizers on their outstanding work. I wish all the participants a very productive congress.

The Prime Minister of Canada,

Steven Harper

CUNA REVIEW of BILL’S KEYNOTE - DREAMS AND DREAMERS: HOW TO INNOVATE LIKE WALT DISNEY AND THE PIXARIANS

Excerpt from: 

My Top 5 Takeaways from the CUNA HR/TD Conference/www.creditunionmagazine.com

By Michelle Greear, vice president, learning and development, for Technology Credit Union, San Jose, Calif.

April 29, 2011

Number 4. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach.

Bill Capodagli’s presentation on innovation was inspiring and timely. He highlighted the importance of the story, setting, role, and backstage as we partner with our corporate enterprise to achieve goals and improve efficiencies.

HR/TD can help whittle away departmental silos by advocating for cross-functional mentors, coaches, and subject matter experts who can see outside the lines and play nice in the sand box.

Working with adults is similar to working with kids. Kids like toys, and so do adults. Kids like to move around, interact, and see how things work. So do adults. Kids like stories, color, and visual stimulation—so do adults.

Note to self: learn Prezi.

Innovate the Pixar Way Featured in Credit Union Magazine

Dare, Do, Dream - How to innovate like a Pixarian.

By Bill Merrick

March 25, 2011

Pixar Animation’s John Lasseter faced a Herculean task as he embarked on the production of the movie Toy Story 2: How could he possibly make it as good as the original?

Daunted by high expectations and intense media interest in the sequel, Lasseter vowed not to let his standards slip, consultant and author Bill Capodagli told the 18th Annual CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Conference.

Lasseter took several steps to ensure the quality of Toy Story 2 remained high.

First, he selected employees who were as passionate about the film as he was, and who exhibited these traits:

• Proficiency. People who are very good at what they do and who exhibit remarkable tenacity.
• Depth. People who have a wide variety of interests outside the workplace.
• Communication and collaboration. People who will work with others to achieve a common goal.

“Pixar goes to great lengths to make sure employees are a group of creative people who are, first and foremost, collaborative teammates,” Capodgli says. “That means they try to accomplish a common goal based on a lot of different skills. Team is everything.”

Lasseter also:

• Focused on quality. All Pixar employees were allowed to take four hours of education per week in classes ranging from drawing to self-defense. When asked why accountants should learn to draw, Lasseter replied, “We’re teaching them to be more observant.”

"Quality is the best business plan," he once said.

• Embraced fun. One day, Lasseter brought his son’s scooter to work and rode it around the building. The following weekend, some Pixar staff scoured local garage sales for used scooters and brought several to work the next week.

“The scooter became Pixar’s symbol of fun,” Capodagli says, noting that such efforts boost an organization’s creativity and create a fun work atmosphere.

• Embraced risk-taking. As children, we learn by exploration and discovery: We try something, fail, and try again, Capodagli explains.

“Organizations need to do that,” he says. “They need to embrace risk and try new things, but be able to make adjustments so they ultimately can be successful.”

Lasseter ultimately achieved his goal: Toy Story 2 earned $120 million more than the original and became a classic among animated films.

“Pixar’s ‘dare, dream, do’ philosophy is alive and well,” Capodagli says. “You need to dream like a child, believe in your playmates, dare to jump in the water and make waves, and unleash your childlike potential.”

EBSCO Reviews Innovate the Pixar Way

Today, many American companies are highly risk averse and are taking a short-term view of business. Greater focus on innovation is needed to make companies more competitive. In Innovate the Pixar Way, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson discuss how leaders at animation giant Pixar have cultivated an innovative culture. They identify numerous ways that organizations can create their own “innovation playgrounds.” While researching the sources of Pixar’s innovative genius, the authors examined the company’s culture, leadership, teaming, and training. Organizations that are both innovative and profitable require a delicate balance between two very different characteristics: 1) childlike dreaming and 2) task-driven execution. Pixar has been successful at achieving this balance.

EBSCO Publishing is an experienced information solution provider and the largest aggregator of journals and periodicals in the world. In addition to providing resources to support the complete information technology needs of the world’s largest corporations and government agencies, EBSCO is:

• One of the 200 largest private companies in the United States, as reported by Forbes
• A chief resource used in the top twelve ranked MBA programs, as reported by Financial Times
• A leader in providing outstanding information technology solutions for the world’s most-recognized companies and industry leaders for more than 60 years

With a combination of creative editorial, technical, and business skills and operations, EBSCO Publishing provides an outstanding collection of resources. This includes proprietary content, as well as book summaries and reports for learning professionals with selected articles from top magazine and journal publishers.

Innovate the Pixar Way Book Cover Wins Design Award

The Justify Blog Review of Innovate the Pixar Way

It’s been a while since we’ve talked book reviews, but we finished reading “Innovate the Pixar Way” by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson this weekend. To summarize in a few points as possible:

• The book was pretty light on the history of Pixar
• The artwork, pull-quote text and some chapters come across almost condescending, but mostly it sounds like they’re trying too hard.

The whole premise of the book when I picked it up was to get an inside look at Pixar Animation Studios, to really have in-depth interviews with their staff or past employees. It wasn’t so much that as it was a compilation of quotes and tidbits compiled from other video and text interviews conducted with key staff over the years. And while it wasn’t the job of this book to run you through the whole history of Pixar, the amount of text supplied to educate the reader on Pixar could be picked up from Wikipedia.

To be honest, I didn’t like this book. It read very vaguely with whispy high-flying ideas on how to innovate and be creative by having fun at work and letting employees be creative with their office space and not getting tied up in your failures. All good ideas, but not practical if your business has less than a few million in the bank.

One good takeaway was a look at Disney and Walt Disney himself, alongside Ed Catmull and Jon Lasseter of Pixar. The concept of scrapping work that was merely “good enough” to take advantage of “great work” is valid, important and arguably the most important lesson of the book. The authors give good examples, accounts and stories to further this concept well.

In all, a pretty light book on Pixar from a detail standpoint; there’s nothing new to be read here that can’t be surmised from articles, videos and interviews already on the Internet.

 

Bill and Lynn say, “He’s right about the book being ‘pretty light on the history of Pixar.’  (If you want to read a book about Pixar’s history, pick up droidMAKER or The Pixar Touch.)  He’s wrong about needing ‘a few million in the bank’ to practice the principles.  In the early days of Pixar, they were operating in the red and STILL found ways to jazz up their offices, keep team spirit soaring, and encourage fun in the workplace. Lastly, the purpose of this book was not to provide a Pixar cookie cutter approach to developing an innovative culture, but rather to spark one’s imagination for producing a dream, believe, dare, do culture that is right for each reader’s organization. As Bill says in his keynote presentations, ‘Innovate, don’t Imitate.  It’s hard work.  There’s no instant pudding.’”

Business 901 Review of Innovate the Pixar Way

The past few weeks I have been heavily immersed into Kaizen, Kanban, Agile Project Development and as a result Scrum. I have found it quite interesting but somewhat overwhelming along with a few other things I am doing. I have taxed my learning absorption level to say the least.

What did I do? I took a little time off and sat back with a good book and a little Jackson Browne(Just like Bach to me). The book; Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Corporate Playground. It was written by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, the pair that wrote The Disney Way, Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company.

It wasn’t long into the book that they discussed stories and development that my mind drifted to agile and scrum comparisons. What they really brought home was the importance of collaboration and building a team. They even discussed the great lengths they go to hire people who are interested in working in a “network” type environment in solving problems, building and supporting each other. Here is a short excerpt from the book; the definitions of a set of proficiencies by Bill Nelson of Pixar:

Depth – demonstrating mastery in a subject or a principal skill; having the discipline to chase dreams all the way to the finish line.

Breadth – possessing a vast array of experiences and interests having empathy for others; having the ability to explore insights from many different perspectives; and being able to effectively generate new ideas by collaborating with the entire team.

Communications – focusing on the receiver; receiving feedback to ascertain whether the message sent was truly understood. Realizing only the receiver can say, “I understand!”

Collaboration – bringing together the skills(depth, breadth, and communications), ideas, and personality styles of an entire team to achieve a shared vision. Fostering an attitude to say, “Yes, and…”, rather than “No, this is better.”

Collaboration is critical to the process of generating ideas and problems in any organization. When you review the principles of Kaizen and Agile, your ability to succeed really comes down to how good of a team you put together. Very few times in an initial read of a book, I started reading this for pleasure, have I never stopped so soon in a book and reread an entire chapter.

The rest of the book proved to be just as valuable and I think the authors did a very nice job of displaying the brilliance and the imagination that is taking place at Pixar. I encourage you to read the book before you put together your next team.

Business 901 provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that profoundly impacts the success of small and mid-sized businesses. We have designed our services and product offerings so that they are implementable systems that work in the real, not enough time, not enough people world we operate in. Tools that simplify the marketing process, not complicate it.

HOLLAND AREA ARTS COUNCIL SPONSORS DREAMS AND DREAMERS BASED ON INNOVATE THE PIXAR WAY!

See www.hollandarts.org for tickets to Bill Capodagli's presentation: Dreams and Dreamers: How to Innovate like Walt Disney and the Pixarians! April 20, 2o1o from 4-5:30pm at the Pinnacle Center in Hudsonville, MI

HOLLAND AREA ARTS COUNCIL BRINGS INNOVATE THE PIXAR WAY SEMINAR TO WEST MICHIGAN

Listen to WGVU's Shelley Irwin interview the Holland Area Arts Council's Executive Director, Lorma Freestone to learn about the Holland Area Arts Council's wonderful contribution to the culture of western Michigan. The Holland Area Arts Council's 4th annual Creative Speaker Series features Bill Capodagli. The keynote will be held at the Pinnacle Center in Hudsonville, Michigan on April 20th - "Dreams and Dreamers: How to Innovate like Walt Disney and the Pixarians"

http://www.wgvu.org/wgvunews/index.cfm?id=tmsdetail&sty=6396