Mistakes,Live-Action in WALL-E
Writer/Director Andrew Stanton Discusses His Disney/Pixar Film
In the previous part of this roundtable interview, WALL-E writer/director Andrew Stanton talked about Pixar's working atmosphere, and why his film isn't a message movie.
In this installment, he discusses the importance of making mistakes, and the lure of live-action.
In the creative process, how do you separate ‘Wow, that’s a real challenge’ from ‘Wow, that’s a bad idea?’
“You just try it out. That’s the one nice thing to having 4 years to work on a film, is you get to try out all your bad ideas. You spend most of the 4 years with your movie broken, not looking right, not doing the thing you’d hoped, and you’re racing to try and fix it all. My motto has always been: ‘Be wrong as fast as you can.’ Which tells you that the process involves messiness and risk-taking, because that’s what art is.
“Art is not doing the same thing twice, art is not playing it safe; art is taking risks. So hopefully you’ll discover a fresh way of appreciating an old value or insight. And the only way you’re going to find that is if you take risks and you’re messy.
“The one thing that I’m very proud of about Pixar is that it’s not some Willy Wonka chocolate factory where everybody walks around with great ideas and we just make them. It’s a bunch of hard-working guys who know it’s all about getting on your bike and falling over as often as you can. So Pixar really makes it a supportive atmosphere to make mistakes. The process is dependent on you making mistakes. And that’s how we find a lot of freshness to things.”
But even without dialogue, some of those scenes between WALL-E and EVE are so powerful –
“I sat with an editor and with drawings – it wasn’t even animated yet – and I had sounds that (sound designer Ben Burtt) had done and sat for 2 days and said, ‘Add 6 frames, put 10 frames here, do this’ and that’s the fun part. It’s a very God-like way of working with actors because you can go, ‘Okay, you hold that pause a little bit longer, you look him in the eyes next take.’”
So how was it directing live actors?
“When I worked with Fred Willard and a couple of extras for that commercial bit, I definitely got the bug. I think I was seduced simply because I shot it and finished it in the same day. I was like, ‘Wow! That’s amazing!’ (everybody laughs).
Because everything we do takes weeks and months, so spontaneity has nothing to do with animation.”
Was there any point that you felt yourself going off the rails –
“All the time.”
And how did you get back on?
“You surround yourself with really talented, really smart people who have the guts to say you’re wrong, and have the guts to say you’re right even when everybody else thinks that you’re wrong. You surround yourself with people that you creatively trust.
“So I was fortunate enough to have a lot of guys and gals who were willing to try a lot of bad ideas with me, you know? (laughs) And I went too far on a lot of things, and we had to pull back.”
Who was really important to getting you back?
”I have a term for my group, I call them The Director’s Circle, the people who are in charge of all the other departments: my cinematographer, my head of story, my co-writer, head animators, all the technical heads. They represent every branch of moviemaking and I get them together a lot and they’re very honest with me (laughs).
Is this the last unproduced idea from the famous lunch?
(Writer's note: in 1994, while they were working on Toy Story, John Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter and the late Joe Ranft had a lunch meeting where they hashed out ideas for A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and WALL-E)
“We didn’t have fully-formed ideas; there were many lunches and breakfasts and dinners since then, believe me.”
Finally, would you care to confirm the rumours that you are working on John Carter of Mars?
“I will confirm for the record: I am writing John Carter of Mars right now.”
This concludes our Andrew Stanton interview, let us know what you think in the comments section below. WALL-E debuts June 27th.
