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Favorite Bark's story.

Started by The Black Hand ®,

77 posts in this topic

tb

tb

Posted
Posted

> So much of what writers do is recycle the same old humor. Barks was either an > original, or mining a different vein than everyone else.

 

Barks clearly had incredible raw talent, but working at the Disney story department in the 30s surely helped him polish it. I used to work for Pixar and seeing how the the story artists worked was amazing. First, like the pool of Disney artists in the late 30s, these guys were among the top talent in the world and, per definition, extremely hard working and dedicated overachievers. Second, they would be locked in a small corner for years, sweating, crying, losing sleep, and doing very litle but thinking and communicating stories. Every weak spot was pointed out mercilessly in story board meetings, rethought over and over again, and often thrown out in the end. No amount of pure, natural talent could have compensated for the experience the writers at Pixar got learning from each other. I am sure it must have been just like that at Disney around the time of Snow White. When I see a Pixar or early Disney movie, this level of quality control is pretty striking, just like a BMW distinguishes itself from a Civic. I see the same clear difference when comparing Barks' stories to those by other artists.

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tb

tb

Posted
Posted
I used to work for Pixar and seeing how the the story artists worked was amazing.

 

Hkp, what did you do for Pixar when you worked there?

 

Pixar is an amazing place, but unfortunately I can't talk much about it. There is a very strong sense of loyalty to the company and saying anything at all to the "outside" is an absolute no-no. Thus, you are not going to find any current or former employees who will talk in public. For the same reason, Pixar employees quickly get tired of bragging about working there. I worked for their R&D group, which was incredible. Walking down the hallways and looking at the doors was as close as you'll get to a "Hall of Fame" of Computer Graphics. Many people had academy awards or Oscars in their shelves. They had hundreds of job applications for every hire they made. I only had positive experiences with the company but decided to leave to join a friend from Stanford and his Silicon Valley startup.

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tb

tb

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How did that startup turn out hkp?

 

Surprisingly, not bad. The company was bought up by another that is now the market leader globally. Can't say more than that right now. On the other hand, if I had stayed at Pixar my stock options would already have been worth in the order of a Tec' 27 Allentown. Oh well... Most of the Ph.D. students I worked with at the CS Department at Stanford are either very well off today or have similiar stories to tell. One guy was officemate with one of the founders of Yahoo but politely said no to getting involved because he didn't see it going anywhere. Another guy I know was employee #80 at Microsoft but left in the early 80s when the future for the company was unclear.

 

Anyway, enough of a sidetrack...

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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Thanks for posting. Just superb story-telling.

 

Reading this thread made go and pull out a several of my CBL color albums. I'm having a blast!

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