Pixar in Vancouver

[Kodii]

Pixar to open Vancouver studio

By Marke Andrews, VANCOUVER SUN May 7, 2009 8:58 PM

VANCOUVER - Pixar Animation, one of the world’s leading computer animators and a multi-Academy Award winning studio, will build a 20,000-square-foot facility in Vancouver to produce its popular short features.

Walt Disney Studios, with whom Pixar merged in 2006, is scouting locations in the city, concentrating on the downtown area. It hopes to have the new studio up and running by this fall.

The studio will hire 75 to 100 people, most of them Canadians, and will make all of Pixar’s three-dimensional, computer-animated short films, which usually run three to five minutes. All Pixar theatrical features will continue to be made at its main studio in Emeryville, Calif., which employs almost 900.

Amir Nasrabadi, who will run the Vancouver operation as studio general manager, said Vancouver was attractive to Pixar for a number of reasons. It’s an English-speaking city in the same time zone as Los Angeles; the B.C. production tax credits are attractive to an American company; and the city, with its numerous animation studios and quality schools, is a good source of talent.

“There’s a huge, very robust, and mature talent pool in Vancouver that we’d like to tap into and continue to develop,” Nasrabadi said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he has been vice-president of operations and finance for DisneyToon Studios, a direct-to-DVD studio.

“I don’t have a particular number [of employees] in mind, but I can say the majority will be locals.”

Pixar has grown from a small studio making award-winning computer-generated short animations — Luxo Jr. (1986), the tale of a small desk lamp which, when shown in theatres, got as much buzz as the feature it preceded, and the Oscar-winning Tin Toy (1988) were its first titles — to a large operation which has produced nine major animated features: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and Wall-E. A 10th feature, Up, will be released on May 29.

The company’s most popular short features include Knick Knack (the story of a snowman stuck in a snow globe), One Man Band (about fiercely competitive street performers), and Presto (a hapless magician frustrated by an unfed rabbit).

The company uses short films as springboards for its feature animations, and that will be the role of the Vancouver studio. A Pixar short takes six to 12 months to produce, and the production team can range anywhere from 20 to 75 people.

“First and foremost for us is to concentrate on Pixar legacy characters,” said Nasrabadi, citing Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, and Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars as four of its legacy characters. “We want to keep these well-known and well-liked characters alive without creating a distraction to those working on the full-length motion pictures in California.

“The types of products we produce will be niche products, such as short films, whether they are standalone or episodic in nature,” said Nasrabadi, a 12-year veteran of the digital entertainment business. “They will be helpful to all of Disney’s ancillary businesses, such as television, compilations on DVD, Internet broadcasting, as well as theatres.”

Nasrabadi, who will oversee production and business strategy at the Vancouver operation, said the company has a couple of projects in mind for the Vancouver studio, but nothing is firm yet. He also said that all post-production will continue to be done at the main studio in California.

John Lasseter, chief creative officer at both Pixar and Disney Animation, is not expected to spend much time at the Vancouver studio.

Pixar will not be the city’s biggest studio. Rainmaker Entertainment, which houses Rainmaker Animation, has 75,000 square feet at its two buildings, and employs 250 to 400 people, depending on the production cycle.

mandrews@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Source: The Vancouver Sun -- http://www.vancouversun.com/Pixar+op...458/story.html

[jlousa]

Not bad, wonder if that's the studio that had been rumoured about moving to Vancouver or if there is another one.

Microsoft today also annouced it's buying out Vancouver based BigPark Inc, they were a games studio started by some ex EA people, not sure how much the deal was for.

[NetMapel]

This is awesome news. I love Pixar and really would want to work for them one day. Maybe this is a sign...

[giallo]

Great news!
I'm seriously over the moon over this. Pixar is my favourite animation (movie, even) company by a country mile.
Vancouver strides closer and closer to being a digital/computer production juggernaut.

[hollywoodnorth]

this is great news

[excel]

finally some good news!

[sono65]

Wow. This is great news! This will do wonders for the local industry!

[CBeats]

Pixar is awesome! A great addition to Vancouver.

[mr.x]

Awesome!

lol, i'm surprised that they need a studio just for producing those short animations.

[djmk]

great news!

however, here are two quotes from article,

The studio will hire 75 to 100 people, most of them Canadians

and

“I don’t have a particular number [of employees] in mind, but I can say the majority will be locals.”

is the reporter making up numbers?

[Hed Kandi]

I wonder where the studio will be located.

[SpongeG]

close to downtown - maybe at that place on east broadway?

[SpongeG]

Disney/Pixar launching new studio in Vancouver

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Woody and Buzz are heading north.

To accommodate a growing slate of nonfeature projects, Disney and Pixar will launch an animation studio in the fall in Vancouver.

The focus will be on Pixar's established characters, including Buzz and Woody from the "Toy Story" films and Lightning McQueen and Mater from "Cars."

"The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition ... for several different divisions of the Walt Disney Co.," Disney/Pixar president Ed Catmull said.

Pixar general manager Jim Morris said he expects the staff to reach 75 to 100. He added that feature work and all stereoscopic 3-D work will still be done at Pixar's headquarters in Emeryville, California.

The venture is the latest example of a company opening a visual effects (VFX) or animation facility in Vancouver. Other residents include Rainmaker, an animation company; CIS Vancouver, a Deluxe-owned VFX business; and Moving Picture Co., a Technicolor-owned VFX facility.

Tax incentives, a local talent base and proximity to Pixar contributed to the decision. Pixar will receive incentives offered for animation production and research and development.

"Canada, and Vancouver specifically, has had terrific tax incentives for this type of work," Pixar general manager Jim Morris said. "I think they have a desire to grow this sort of business activity and get a critical mass. This will allow us to do more with the budgets that we have."

Morris said Pixar would step up production of its character-based ancillary content at the new venue.

"We have a somewhat unfulfilled demand," he said. "We wanted to do various things with 'Toy Story' to keep the characters alive. People like to see them somewhat regularly." He pointed to Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter, who would like to do more with the "Cars" characters.

Pixar has a full slate of upcoming titles -- some sequels and some introducing new characters. "Up," the studio's 10th computer-animated feature and first to be released in digital 3-D, opens May 29 and introduces new characters, including elderly Carl Fredricksen and young wilderness explorer Russell.

The 3-D releases of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" bring Woody, Buzz and the toys back to theaters October 2.

Current film projects at Pixar are the 3-D features "Toy Story 3," "Cars 2," "The Bear and the Bow" and "Newt." The studio also is developing a series of shorts based on the Mater character from "Cars" as well as theme park projects.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

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