Chatting With The Director of The Amazing Pixar Short The Blue Umbrella. #MonstersUEvent

***Disclosure: I was not compensated or paid in any way for this post. I solely was provided travel, hotel, and the opportunity to meet with the filmmakers of this film by Disney. I am sharing this for the benefit of my readers. All opinions are my own. Photos Courtesy of Disney***BU_Poster_ScanArt_b

Hey All!

As you all know I recently had the amazing opportunity to visit Pixar Animation Studios and meet some amazing talent and film makers. One of those talented folks happens to be Saschka Unseld, the director of the amazing Pixar short film The Blue Umbrella. This short opens in theaters on June 21, 2013, in front of Monsters University.

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Everything in The Blue Umbrella is animated, but the animation is very photo realistic. When you run out to see Monsters University next weekend and catch this short, you probably won’t believe it when you see it! It all looks very real. When I first saw this film I honestly thought it was animation mixed with live action. I had no idea it was completely animated. It’s truly an original and beautiful little film. It’s a Pixar masterpiece with a beautiful story.

THE BLUE UMBRELLA

Here is a short summary of the film.

It is just another evening commute until the rain starts to fall, and the city comes alive to the sound of dripping rain pipes, whistling awnings and gurgling gutters. And in the midst, two umbrellas—one blue, one not—fall eternally in love.

When we chatted with Saschka he shared about how they created this photo realistic world.

There was new technology stuff.  I mean, some of that stuff is being used slightly less photo real in Monsters, the global things, and stuff like this.  And generally on every movie that comes out.  There’s new technical innovations that are being used and especially with the short films, you can test something out without putting into jeopardize the production schedule of a feature, which is kind of, if you don’t hit the theatrical release date there, that’s a bigger problem.

He truly thought about every detail he put into this film.

You put tiny details in there.  It’s kind of like when you paint, you have certain mannerisms.  And it was kind of getting rid of those mannerisms, and really having people look at those things.  And I think that made a big difference between it looking like a normal Pixar film and looking so different.

When you see this film you will see an homage to Saschka’s favorite cities. I loved that the short looks like it takes place in New York and he gave every character in the short names. When you see the film you will see why naming these characters is unique.

There is clearly New York, because I went on two trips there to take photos.  There is some of the characters, from the city characters out of San Francisco, because that’s just, like, the very first one on the sidewalk. They actually have all names because you couldn’t say, like, you know that weird metal thing in the 15th shot?  They actually all have names.  So Lisa is two blocks down from where I live.  And Lisa was part of a test I shot on my iPhone as well.

Overall Saschka accomplished a beautiful little film. My fiance’ who recently saw it with me at Monsters University advanced screening literally said it was the best film he’s seen all year. He had more of an emotional journey in that short film than in any other movie he’s seen this year. I honestly truly love it as well. I was over the moon when Disney was kind enough to give me my own real life blue umbrella. I loved the movie so much I decided to recreate a scene when I was in NYC recently.

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How adorable is that face? When you see this amazing short you will want to recreate your own blue umbrella scenes I’m sure.

The Blue Umbrella again opens in front of MONSTERS UNIVERSITY in theaters on June 21st!

For more info on this amazing film Like MONSTERS UNIVERSITY on Facebook, “Follow” Disney/Pixar on Twitter, or Visit the website: www.Disney.com/MonstersU.

 

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