1 00:00:11,157 --> 00:00:15,161 [Smith] Every day I'll take a right, which is the long way to get to my office. 2 00:00:18,330 --> 00:00:21,000 I'll walk by all the old drawings they have... 3 00:00:22,376 --> 00:00:25,212 in order to tune myself in to the things 4 00:00:25,296 --> 00:00:27,673 that I think those artists were tuned into. 5 00:00:32,887 --> 00:00:35,264 You look at those drawings that were done 70 years ago, 6 00:00:35,347 --> 00:00:38,976 and even though the technology has changed over the years... 7 00:00:40,061 --> 00:00:47,068 the core principles of character and the emotion that started back w-- 8 00:00:47,151 --> 00:00:49,904 Snow White are still alive today. 9 00:01:08,506 --> 00:01:11,425 I'm Marc Smith, and I'm a director of story at Disney Animation. 10 00:01:11,509 --> 00:01:15,888 I've been at Disney for 29 years. It's the only job I've ever had. 11 00:01:15,971 --> 00:01:19,100 I think the reason that I've stayed at Disney for so long 12 00:01:19,183 --> 00:01:22,103 is that there's no shortage of challenges. 13 00:01:22,186 --> 00:01:25,231 Every movie has its own difficulties. 14 00:01:25,314 --> 00:01:30,653 I've had the blessing to work on Tangled, Frozen, the first Frozen, 15 00:01:31,112 --> 00:01:33,531 Big Hero 6, Zootopia, 16 00:01:33,614 --> 00:01:36,283 and then for the last three and half years it's been Frozen 2. 17 00:01:37,326 --> 00:01:40,121 We're sort of the front line of all things visual, 18 00:01:40,204 --> 00:01:46,544 and it includes the staging, the acting of the characters, cinematography. 19 00:01:46,627 --> 00:01:50,089 We get into editing, how are the shots flowing together. 20 00:01:50,172 --> 00:01:54,385 But, I think primarily, the story artist's job 21 00:01:54,468 --> 00:02:00,558 is to really establish emotionally what's going on with the character. 22 00:02:03,310 --> 00:02:08,107 One of the things I'll do is go back to my office, and I get to shut my door 23 00:02:08,190 --> 00:02:11,152 and isolate myself from the busyness of the world 24 00:02:11,235 --> 00:02:14,155 and then just sit with the sequence. 25 00:02:15,322 --> 00:02:16,866 Some notes came back from editorial 26 00:02:16,949 --> 00:02:20,703 about having Anna when she sees this Lieutenant Mattias, 27 00:02:21,412 --> 00:02:22,747 she recognizes him. 28 00:02:22,830 --> 00:02:25,833 So she's doing the little framing thing with her hands. 29 00:02:31,881 --> 00:02:33,257 The challenging part, 30 00:02:33,340 --> 00:02:37,386 the important part, is being able to immerse yourself 31 00:02:37,803 --> 00:02:40,181 in these characters and in the moment 32 00:02:40,264 --> 00:02:44,060 and being able to feel like the drawing is alive and thinking, 33 00:02:44,143 --> 00:02:47,188 and some scenes are harder than others. 34 00:02:47,271 --> 00:02:52,360 Really sad scenes or songs where the character's really emotionally upset, 35 00:02:52,443 --> 00:02:55,905 those can be taxing on you because you have to feel that yourself 36 00:02:55,988 --> 00:02:58,866 in order to make it believable in the drawing. 37 00:02:59,867 --> 00:03:02,745 But this is a little bit more of a zen time, 38 00:03:03,371 --> 00:03:07,416 where you can just sort of get lost in the world of these characters. 39 00:03:10,002 --> 00:03:12,254 [chuckling] Look, guy's just looking at her like she's crazy. 40 00:03:13,964 --> 00:03:16,759 That's the new little moment that the directors were asking for. 41 00:03:18,594 --> 00:03:22,014 "I can think of something. Sven keep us steady, will you?" 42 00:03:22,098 --> 00:03:25,935 Another thing we do in the process is meet with our storyboard artists 43 00:03:26,018 --> 00:03:30,314 and issue them scenes to be boarded and to put in front of the directors. 44 00:03:30,398 --> 00:03:33,984 So, this morning we were meeting with Sylvia Lee, one of the board artists. 45 00:03:34,068 --> 00:03:38,823 She was issued one of the final scenes that's out there right now for Frozen 2. 46 00:03:38,906 --> 00:03:40,491 -[laughs] -[chattering] 47 00:03:40,574 --> 00:03:43,869 We read through the script pages that Jen Lee had written. 48 00:03:43,953 --> 00:03:47,331 "Exterior. Back of the wagon. Olaf sleeps cutely under an ice blanket. 49 00:03:47,415 --> 00:03:51,127 Elsa sleeps under her mother's scarf. Anna climbs up front with Kristoff. 50 00:03:51,836 --> 00:03:55,131 'They're asleep.' 'Anna? [clears throat] Anna?'" 51 00:03:55,798 --> 00:03:58,551 "'Remember our first trip like this when I said 52 00:03:58,634 --> 00:04:01,137 you'd have to be crazy to wanna marry a man that you just met?' 53 00:04:01,637 --> 00:04:03,931 'You didn't say I was crazy. You think I'm crazy?'" 54 00:04:04,014 --> 00:04:06,559 We talked a little bit about what we wanted it to look like. 55 00:04:06,642 --> 00:04:10,479 [Lee] When she says, "So, what do you wanna do?" What does she mean by that? 56 00:04:10,563 --> 00:04:12,064 -Does she wanna kiss him or... -[laughs] 57 00:04:12,148 --> 00:04:15,401 He's thinking he's going to propose to her. 58 00:04:15,484 --> 00:04:17,653 She's thinking, "Oh, he's gonna lean over and kiss me." 59 00:04:20,573 --> 00:04:25,828 The magic, I think, of animation is that we can just be looking at drawings, 60 00:04:25,911 --> 00:04:30,791 or computer stills run at a frame rate of 24 frames per second 61 00:04:30,875 --> 00:04:35,296 and believe that these are living, breathing characters. 62 00:04:35,379 --> 00:04:38,340 It is magical. It draws you in, and that's the goal, right? 63 00:04:38,424 --> 00:04:41,886 You can make people feel, then that's why we go to the movies. 64 00:04:41,969 --> 00:04:43,888 [Lemay] "You didn't say I was crazy. You think I'm crazy?" 65 00:04:43,971 --> 00:04:45,598 Like, that is just... 66 00:04:46,098 --> 00:04:49,018 The fantastic part about being in the story department 67 00:04:49,101 --> 00:04:52,188 is you get to be part of that first step, and then you get to watch 68 00:04:52,855 --> 00:04:56,609 as it goes through all the other departments down the line, 69 00:04:56,692 --> 00:04:58,819 and you just watch everything lift. 70 00:05:01,113 --> 00:05:03,491 Sometimes I'll go to the park, to Disneyland. 71 00:05:04,283 --> 00:05:09,121 All the boys and girls will get in line to meet Anna and Elsa. 72 00:05:11,916 --> 00:05:14,293 And you look at 'em, and they're dressed in the outfits. 73 00:05:14,377 --> 00:05:17,088 They're dressed as little Annas or little Elsas. 74 00:05:19,006 --> 00:05:20,549 It hits me every single time. 75 00:05:22,385 --> 00:05:25,012 And I look at these kids and how much it means to them, 76 00:05:25,096 --> 00:05:28,099 how much inspiration that can provide for that future generation. 77 00:05:30,059 --> 00:05:31,644 To be a part of creating that, 78 00:05:31,727 --> 00:05:34,105 knowing that you're gonna have work put out into the world, 79 00:05:34,188 --> 00:05:38,317 and millions of people, if not billions over time, might be able to see it. 80 00:05:41,028 --> 00:05:42,822 As an artist, how do you get any better than that?