A Must Read for Animation Writers
CREATIVITY INC.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
For all those future Show Runners or out there or those who want to create their own animation production company this is the book for you. If you are an aspiring Hollywood screenwriter, this book is still worth a read to provide insight into the most professional group creative process possibly ever developed.
The book Creativity, Inc. should be required reading for anyone who strives for originality and excellence in their craft. The book chronicles the rise of Pixar from its early beginnings as a software developer to the studio that came to dominate the box office and dethrone Disney as the premier animation studio. Pixar has produced such movies as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner 30 Academy Awards. This book takes the reader on the journey of the rise of Pixar and then inside its creative process.
For the first third of the book, we learn how Pixar started and finally came to be an animation studio. This part is interesting from a business perspective and might be even more interesting if you are starting a company in Silicon Valley. But the next two thirds of the book are dedicated to the creative process of Pixar and how that developed. This creative process may serves as a model for anyone seeking to be a show runner or run a writers’ room and anyone else who wants to start their own production company. Having worked both, in writers’ rooms and as Development Executive in production companies, I can tell you that the ones that get the creative process right are the ones who succeed. Whereas, those who are founded on ego and power are usually the shows and companies that fail. They may succeed for a short time, but they won’t hold up longterm like Pixar.
What this provides for aspiring writers is the professional creative process model to emulate but also professional standards to hold yourself up to or others that you work with. No one wants to work in a hostile environment but many in Hollywood will tell you that is the norm, just ask Ellen Degeneres. Pixar provides a model for an open creative process based on professionalism and respect. For writers this means respect for others ideas and creativity but also respect for self, to know to no tolerate putting yourself in such a hostile environment.
Even if you have no such aspirations as a writer to become a show runner or own a production company, there is much to learn from Ed Catmull’s book. Knowing the creative process of the best in the business is important for every writer as well as knowing what it actually takes to make movie and how long that journey may be.