Screenwriter Meg LaFauve and Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann: How to Draw Arlo #GoodDinoEvent
There is always a bit of sadness when you come to the realization that you are writing your last post from a press trip. Well ok, it isn’t my last post for the whole trip, but my last one for ‘The Good Dinosaur’.
This post is about what we learned from Screenwriter Meg LaFauve and Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann.
Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann
While we were in San Francisco at Pixar we were able to listen to one excited Story Supervisor! If it wasn’t enough to have the chance to listen to Director, Peter Sohn we were able to listen to Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann, another person who helped in the making of ‘The Good Dinosaur’. I thought I had heard from the most excited person at Pixar when we listened to Peter Sohn, but Kelsey, well he is right up there with Peter. Just listening to him got me excited. Can you imagine going to work every day just as excited as the day before? I am sure that is how it is for Kelsey and Meg, well probably anyone that works on the Pixar movies.
What can I say about Kelsey Mann? Wow! He was so much fun to listen to and his energy was out of this world. First of all, Kelsey told us that normally when they talk to people they do it in a screening room. Instead, we were able to sit where they actually made the movie (well where the story team would sit while making the movie). How they came to this room, went all the way back to Walt Disney. Back in those days the writers all sat together and pitched ideas and bounced their ideas off one another. But the big part of this was that Pete wanted all of the writers to work together. Instead of hibernating in their offices he would rather ‘tear down the walls’ and make it all one big room.
Kelsey told us about how it used to be for a movie to be put on a storyboard. They had to draw it on paper, then if they made a mistake they had to resize it on a copier. Then they had to cut it out and paste it into the area where they made the mistake or if they wanted to change it a bit. Which as Kelsey said wasn’t ‘terrible’, just time consuming.
Now with thousands of scenes that need to be done he is happy to have his picto-graph machine(like a computer that he uses to draw his ideas) that he loves that helps him do the job much easier. The primary job is to take Meg’s written words and draw the movie, her script. During this time together the story artists are drawing, Meg is writing, Pete is watching a movie. If everyone is having a good outcome with their parts of making the movie you then get to see it on the screen to see if it all works out together.
Now the process.
The story room isn’t about presentation. It is about the process. This is about how do we write and where to begin.
Meg and Pete in the story room. Then there is Kelsey and Eric Benson talk about what they want the movie to be. Meg was pulling out what Pete wants. Being Pete’s movie she has to own it enough to help him get his story across. She has to ultimately let it go back to Pete because it is his vision, his thoughts. They go back to Pete on what is important. They use a dry erase board, to keep it charted and this is how they go about talking about how their ideas work and if they are what Pete has in mind.
Kelsey and Meg would say this color will help with emotions or that color will help show the ups and downs (danger, fear, excited and so on for the characters in that scene. Then you start building towards progression and not flat lining. This can take lots of charting. They will be out of sequence and that is where Meg does her magic and takes the parts to make the script. As a group, they go over what is good and throw out what doesn’t work at all. Then they go on from there.
Screenwriter Meg LaFauve
Meg is the screenwriter for The Good Dinosaur, I will admit her demeanor is a bit more laid back and collected. But that is what I would expect from someone that has all of the ‘ideas’ running around in her head. She was so calm and just explained to us how she was there to help Pete get his story ideas out there. She would listen to his thoughts and where he wanted this movie to go. Then she would start writing. “It’s always about Pete and what his vision was and how she could build upon that and get it out into words.” Meg sat on the counter area while she spoke to us. It was funny because they had a picture of her when the whole story team was in the room, and there she sat in the same exact place.
How they Work Towards the End Result
As a group, they keep working on the process until Pete says this is good. They only work on the dialogue part, this does not involve any ‘background’. Just what happens in the scene, more or less creating the characters by their behavior.
Meg does this by creating the character in her head, how she sees it. This is when Meg is in a process of discovery. She is also able to make versions, all in her head and go from there. Weeding out what she thinks will work and what she doesn’t think will be a good match for that character.
Meg was the only writer for “The Good Dinosaur”. She also worked on Inside Out. She couldn’t keep up writing both, so Pete also could write over someone too which would help out with the work load. Storyboarders are also writers and can add to the ideas. They are able to add a whole funny sequence or a joke or an alternate ending to see if it works.
Since it is Pete’s movie, they are all just trying to dig out the ideas to help. Once the script is ready, Pete hands out the script. Then you can see how Pete wants the character. Like he will tell them that he wants to make Spot tenacious, and someone will run with that idea to see if it works for Pete.
Pete is all about “bringing your heart to the table”. He wants the scenes to be acted out by the writers so he can feel the emotions. They all wear different hats during this part of the process. They are writers, actors, and are able to put their ideas into motion. Pete wants to see them bring it and not hold back.
Kelsey went through a scene with us on how it was portrayed and acted out. It had to do with Arlo, Spot, and gophers, but that is all I am going to tell you. You will have to see the movie in order to know what I am talking about. [insert smile here].
Another fun part of our get together with Kelsey and Meg was that Kelsey had us draw our own Arlo. In my mind I was like yeah right. I have never been great at drawing anything, so I was a bit hesitant. I will say that he was great at his directions. Below you can see how mine turned out.
If you would like to draw your own Arlo, I will give you the directions below and hopefully it will make sense.
How to draw Arlo:
You can use anything to draw Arlo, but we used plain paper and a black sharpie.
- First thing is simple. Draw a circle near the top of the paper.
- Another circle right next to it.
- Two more circles then color them in.
- Then a straight line straight down.
- On the top of that line, draw like a half circle up over and connect it to the eye.
- Then eyebrows a little darker line thickness.
- Next you will go up and around like the front of a shoe.
- Connect to here for a smile. He is a happy dinosaur.
- Scoop up and around (gives a nice smile). This is when Kelsey gets to laughing.
- One circle and color it in, then an oval and color that one in too. Now he can breathe.
- Right about there come in and scoop it down. Now you have drawn Arlo.
I hope you can draw your own Arlo and see that you too can draw a movie character.
Now don’t forget “The Good Dinosaur” is coming to a theater near you on Wednesday, November 25, 2015. A perfect movie to go to Thanksgiving Eve. You will really enjoy this heartfelt movie with your family.
Follow The Good Dinosaur on their Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/PixarTheGoodDinosaur
https://twitter.com/thegooddinosaur
https://instagram.com/thegooddinosaur/ (#GoodDino)
https://www.pinterest.com/disneystudios/the-good-dinosaur/
https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyPixar
http://movies.disney.com/the-good-dinosaur
The Good Dinosaur Trailer
What's Your Reaction?
