From sketch to screen - how The Good Dinosaur was developed with Kelsey Mann and Meg LaFauve

Tonight I get to go see Disney-Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur. I am so excited because I was able to go to The Good Dinosaur press junket last month (read more about this trip here) and learn a lot about the movie as well as meet many amazing people that were behind creating it. Two more of those people are Screenwriter Meg LaFauve and Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann.

They told us how the story got developed and boarded and then Kelsey taught us how to draw our own Arlo! I was amazed at some of the things they did that made it so much more efficient for them, and allowed them to develop the script. Another thing I loved was that Peter Sohn, the Director, started in the story department at PIXAR. Over the years he has done a lot of voice acting and would read the script to help with the scene development.

For our interview with Meg and Kelsey, we were able to go into the room that they actual made the movie in. The Story Room was a nice space with big windows and it was really fun. I was able to actually sit in Peter Sohn’s chair. They worked in that room for years. Kelsey was able to tell us some fun stories about things he remembered and he told us that the Story Room is his favorite place in all of PIXAR. He said it was honest and true and where everything happens. They shared true emotions that they could feel and be able to put on the screen as part of the story.

They used to do hundreds of little drawings and post them on boards for the story. Kelsey said that “they take the written word and translate it into a visual medium – which is film”. They draw the whole movie and it is edited with sound and music, and then it is show in the PIXAR theater. They watch it over and over again. It is like a draft of the script but instead it is a whole drawn movie. They watch it over and over so that they can make it better and better.

Fun Facts I learned:

As far as drawing the stories, things didn’t change for years. In the early days of PIXAR they worked similarly to the way Walt Disney did when they made films.
Once they acquired the technology of being able to draw with the computers, it has really changed the way they make the movies.
They are doing thousands of drawings. If they draw something to small when they are using paper – they have to enlarge it on a copier to make it fit. The computer makes it so much easier and faster.
One of the drawbacks of the computer, is that is it not very portable. Paper can go anywhere.
They wanted to combine the old and the new so they created the Story Room where they had everyone work together in the same area so that they can learn and play off of each other. They were able to work on the movie together instead of separately.
The collaboration and ideas really flowed because everyone was together. Having them together as well, allowed Meg to be able to keep them all together in the story line how it was supposed to be.
Each department takes the story to the next level – they keep “plussing” the film to make it it’s best.

Before we were done, we also got to learn how to draw our own Arlo’s with Kelsey Mann guiding us. It was a lot of fun – he is a great teacher. Here is how mine turned out

Just learned how to draw my own Arlo, from @thegooddinosaur, with the Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann. So much fun! #GoodDinoEvent @disneypixar #pixar

A photo posted by Coralie (@coralieseright) on Oct 1, 2015 at 3:17pm PDT

This was a really fun part of the trip – I always love getting to learn how to draw one of the characters from the film. Kelsey and Meg had great stories about the movie and I loved getting to know more about it.

You can learn more about The Good Dinosaur on:

Like THE GOOD DINOSAUR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PixarTheGoodDinosaur

Follow THE GOOD DINOSAUR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegooddinosaur

Follow THE GOOD DINOSAUR on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegooddinosaur/

Follow THE GOOD DINOSAUR on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/disneystudios/the-good-dinosaur/

Visit Disney/Pixar on Tumblr: http://disneypixar.tumblr.com

Follow Disney/Pixar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyPixar

Visit the official THE GOOD DINOSAUR website here: http://movies.disney.com/the-good-dinosaur

Here is the trailer so you can watch it with your kids: