Never in a million of years would I have ever thought I would have experienced the behind the scenes making of a Disney/Pixar movie, like I did during the Wreck-It Ralph Press Day at Animation Studios. This was during my Disney’s Oz The Great and Powerful & Wreck-It Ralph Red Carpet Event in L.A. I was walking into the doors where literally the magic happens. Most of you know that I am a huge technology geek. I have been known to watch all the extra makings of the movies on my DVDs just to learn about how they make movies.
You know how big of a deal it is when you walk in and you have one guy telling you that you must turn off all your phones and not take any pictures. My Disney PR Rep then llet us know it was OKAY but to make sure we are ONLY taking pictures of Wreck-It Ralph! You are walking past images, proprietary story boards, and so much more. I was definitely taking it ALL in at one time!
I didn’t feel like I was in an office at all. It was a play land. Toys everywhere, amazing art and art structures and displays of all my favorite films! I seriously had video games sitting out with coffee and yummies when I wanted it. Everyone walks around the building with a smile! This doesn’t happen in the corporate world! 🙂
I attended 6 blogger pods where they taught us everything we needed to know to make our own Disney Quality film. Okay, not EVERYTHING, it was definitely a class for those mommies that didn’t know much (like me)! I am going to summarize the summary for you :). LOL!  Remember, making a Disney Movie is as easy as 1-2-3-4-5-6!  😉
Session 1: Digital Copy Demonstration by Anthony Mutalipassi and Nicole Elmes.
–I am the worst at downloading my digital copy to my computer and media player, but I plan to get as many installed as possible! I always get my Movie Rewards posted in my account for the freebies. After attending these sessions, I could kick myself on why I haven’t been installing them earlier. It is so easy, plus I can watch them from my phone, laptop, or even my apple-tv. I don’t even need the DVD anymore. With having a 3 year old, this would save me so much time. Plus, if you have multiple kids it is a HUGE advantage.
Session 2: The Story by Raymond Persi
–Raymond had the opportunity to show us some deleted scenes and talk about why they had deleted them. I watched them, and I thought they were awesome. But the experts had their reasoning! He talked about how they decide what to keep and what not to keep when making these movies. They also just throw in props in their beginning scenes and know that they will want to go back and change them later. One of my favorite things that Raymond mentioned was that when they are brainstorming on ideas they just place tons of toys on their huge long conference table and play with them as ideas come to mind. I want to play with toys at my job! LOL!
Session 3: Visual Development by Mike Gabriel and Bill Schwab
–I loved attending this session! Did you know that Wreck-it Ralph was looked at as possibly being a Cave Man? I can see it now! They went through an amazing slideshow of all the different thoughts and ideas as developing characters. Even talk to fashion experts to help them come up with what the characters should be wearing. We went through tons of hilarious early pictures of Wreck-it Ralph. Tons made us laugh out loud. I loved the fact that some of the designers would start out using pen and pencil (or even paint) and others would use Photoshop (I love photoshop)! It really felt like I was learning about the evolution of Wreck-it Ralph.
Session 4: Rigging by John Kahwaty
–I learned a new software program. It reminded me of adobe but MUCH better and advanced. Rigging is when they turn the characters into 3-D images. They give them a bone structure. Then they use Maya (the software program) to decide which way to move them around. Check out my awesome Rigging film I made with my 5 minutes of training. Am I an expert yet?
Session 5: Capture Stage by Evan Goldberg and Team
–Learn about my Capture Stage experience and watch the video that I posted a week ago. –>Â Wreck-It Ralph Motion Capture Video Experience during Press Junket
Session 6: Animation by Amy Smeed
–Amy was awesome! I wasn’t allowed to take pictures during this session but will just summarize what Amy gets to decide what the animation does. The character voices record the lines by saying them several different ways. Then Amy pics and acts out all of the different ways they say it. Then she lets the characters resemble her moves during the scene on which acting looks the best.
