By Sigal Ratner-Arias
NEW YORK (AP) --When the filmmakers at Pixar watched a documentary about the Venezuelan rain forest, they wondered at first if that place even really existed on Earth.
Looking for a location to develop their next animated feature, they decided to travel to that magical place. Not only did they hone their story there, but they found another “character” — the landscape itself, much of which inspired the film’s dreamlike locations.
“Up” opened Friday with Venezuela as one of its main characters, as director Pete Docter and story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen told the AP in a recent interview.
AP: What places that you visited can we see in the movie?
DOCTER: We pretty much focused our trip around the tepuis (a table-top mountain) in Venezuela and Brazil … We went in a helicopter to another tepui … and then went to the Angel Falls. We changed it a little bit in the movie.
AP: How did you decide to focus on that area? DOCTER: We were looking for places to put our characters in and put them stuck together. We thought a tropical island … (But) we saw a documentary by Adrian Warren and he came to Pixar to show us some other places … We said, “We need to go there!” This place is unique, very specific, we really needed to experience what it’s like to put it in the movie.
AP: Seeing those landscapes, what did you think?
DEL CARMEN: That was the most magnificent trip that most of us would take in our lifetime. The only thing that I can compare it to is that moment in “Jurassic Park” that the line goes: “Welcome to the Jurassic Park.” You land there in a helicopter but you couldn’t put yourself in context with Roraima. You find yourself being so small in front of this magnificent mountain. It takes your breath away and you stare at it for a long time. Is a memorable moment not only to stand in front of a tepui, but a tepui you are about to climb.
AP: How much did the location change the story? DOCTER: We spent three days drawing, painting, taking lots of photographs. It really affected the film both on the images and the story … Really, a lot of ideas grew out of this mysterious rock shapes that look like people. That’s real and we put it in the film: that’s how we introduced our character “Dug.”
DEL CARMEN: We had ideas of what we would be doing but not what they’d be feeling … And also how the rocks looks like, how slippery the road is, how big things are: (the characters) can walk, but is gonna be hard. We got to know the characters more and how they would behave in this landscape. My feeling is that the location is also a character in the movie.
AP: How do you expect the movie to affect those places in terms of tourism? DOCTER: I think, boy! When people see this … When we have a feature of the documentary on the DVD they will want to go. I hope everybody is respectful of the location and don’t ruin them ’cause they are really beautiful places.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More