Ronnie del Carmen on Up, Dug's Special Mission
Pixar Animator Discusses Pete Docter, Bob Peterson Film
Oct 27, 2009
One of the benefits of Disney Animation's Shorts Program is that it gives junior and mid-level animators the chance to try their hand at directing a short before they move on to feature films.
Ronnie del Carmen, the story supervisor for the Disney/Pixar hit Up, recently tried his hand at directing 'Dug's Special Mission.' The hilarious short – included as a bonus in the DVD, due November 2nd – follows the talking Yellow Lab through his day, prior to his fateful meeting with the film's protagonists Carl and Russell.Suite 101 chatted with del Carman during the 2009 Ottawa International Animation Festival, and he revealed his idea behind the short, and what a story supervisor really does.
S101: How did you end up working for Pixar?
Ronnie del Carmen: “One of the story artists I used to work with, Ted Matthau, had gone to Pixar and told me stories about this place, this Shangri-la of moviemaking. (laughs) He told me, ‘Maybe you should send in your portfolio.’ So I showed them my portfolio in 2000, and hoodwinked them into hiring me. Ever since then, I’ve been waiting for them to wake up to the reality that they might have made a mistake. (laughs) I was hired to work on Finding Nemo, and that was the best thing that could have happened to me.”
S101: You were the story supervisor for Up. What does that mean, for someone who doesn’t know movies?
RdC: “That’s a difficult question! (laughs) I know, even in the studio, writers would come in and ask (whispering), ‘What the heck does he do?’ Is he supervising the story, as the title says? Well, the story supervisor draws, and he has these story artists working under him, who dramatize the story and try to communicate it through pictures, throwing in writing and voices and characterization.”
S101: He gives a rough guide for the rest of the animation crew.
RdC: "Yeah. Because animated features began with Walt (Disney), he would have people draw the story, not write them. The reason it works is because it’s animation: you have to see the behaviour of your characters. You can’t shoot actors and count on their craft to show up on the screen. Where do you go to make your characters behave?
“It's the story artist who tries to create these moments: fun moments, dramatic moments, putting them up on a reel so the animators can watch them onscreen. It’s a way of testing if your movie works before you actually animate. That’s what a story artist does, and I’m the most senior member of that crew, so I can ferry the ideas from the director to the story crew and back.”
S101: From there, how did you get to directing the bonus short, ‘Dug’s Special Mission?
RdC: “The idea came from that scene in the movie where Dug shows up, and he talks about the fact that he’s on a special mission; he had this other life before we met him. I was always curious, ‘What was the special mission?
“Working from that, I tried to string together a series of events in the life of Dug before he meets up with Carl and Russell.”
S101: What was it about Dug that made you want to do that?
RdC: “He seemed like an odd member of the pack. He doesn’t look like all these other Type-A dogs who are laser-sighted, energetic and militaristic. Dug’s just this lovable Yellow Lab that wants to be your friend, doesn’t have the same agenda as all the other dogs.”
S101: How did that work into your vision for the character?
RdC: “Well, he seems to be a dog that’s just looking for affection from his master, which would be Charles Muntz. And he’s not getting it; he’s the one dog in the pack that’s always on the outs. And I felt bad for him, and I thought, ‘What would that character want out of his life?’ He never says it, because he’s ready to go do anything–“
S101: He wants to please.
RdC: “Yeah. I thought that was very charming.”
(In Part #2 of this interview, 'Partly Cloudy' director Peter Sohn joins Ronnie, talking about his short, and what it was like to inspire one of the characters in Up.)
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