TEDx Talk: Pete Docter

The Pixar writer-director talks storytelling and what the movie Up is really about.

Given how obsessed I am with Pixar Animation Studios and the stories they create, I am shocked I had never seen this TEDx Talk delivered in 2011 by the company’s writer-director Pete Docter. I love many of Pixar’s movies, but Up is my very favorite and in this video Docter provides interesting insights not only into the creation of the film, but also keys to storytelling in general.

Some takeaways from Docter’s talk:

• Advice given to him by fellow Pixar filmmaker Andrew Stanton about the most important storytelling commandment: “Make me care.” Me, of course, being the audience.
• Docter follows up this piece of advice with an observation about the story-crafting process: “You fall in love with these characters and I think you have to. If you don’t, you haven’t fully invested in the story and I don’t think I can get you to care unless I care.”
• In developing Up, Docter came to this realization about the story: “What is adventure? Is it about fantastic travel to places no one’s ever seen? Or is it the seemingly mundane, ordinary relationships with people all around us? That was really the heart of the film.”

This is a photo Docter took of some brainstorming on a whiteboard he and other Pixar storytellers had done. Notice the contrast to Muntz (Nemesis) and his obsession with “the next big adventure out there” compared to the realization Carl eventually makes: That adventure is about relationships.

Think of the process this way:

• Discover what is personal to you about the story.
• Find that personal connection to the story’s characters.
• That is the path to “make me care.”

Like this:

Looking forward to seeing Docter’s latest Pixar movie: Soul.

Remember: Make it personal. Make me care. And the way to do that… is through the story’s characters.