martes, 22 de marzo de 2011

Pixar

What makes a company successful? Most companies dont make it through their first years in the market, nonetheless, there are some companies that not only survive, but get to be known worldwide. One of those companies is Pixar, which is not only famous, but one of the most successful companies today.

There is no "I" in team. Even though every single animator at Pixar has an awesome talent, they wouldn't make it through the day if they didn't work as a team. For example, from the youngest an newest animator to the most experienced ones, they all give feedback to the projects that are being developed in the studio. Also they all play a very important part in the studio. Not only do they have a lot of people, but those people are probably the most talented animators on earth which in turn work together to build one of the most important companies in the cinematographic world.

It's all about the "funky freshness". Even tough they all ready know who is the best director or which team can really work out a specific movie, they don't get clustered in the same groups of people. For example every time a new film is going to get started they give an opportunity to someone in the studio to take the lead, this in result causes each film to be different in some way which not only helps them captivate the rest of the world, but also makes them the most original animated film makers of all times. Also, they are not afraid to accept new teams of people. Sometimes they call people they know to work in a movie in which these people include their very own teams with which they have already worked and got good results, the result of this being great movies which have different styles but in the end they still captivate the audience.

Finally, they have the tools they need to get the job done. Im not only talking about the fact that they have got Apple's CEO Steve Jobs as a primary investor for quite some time now. Im not only talking about all the sweet, monstrous, super powerful computers that they use in the creation of these movies. They've got all the stuff they need: light tables, animation disks, computers, tablets, hi tech software, but most important, they have got the brains! They would not be able to produce some of the best movies the world has seen without the wits and the talent each member of the team has got.

To sum it all up, Pixar's success is built with the united efforts of hundreds of men and women that collaborate day by day, side by side. Also they refresh their own teams which gives as a result, the creation of great movies with different styles and components that made the audience want to see them over and over again. Finally they have what it takes to be the best, not only do they have the money, the computers and the equipment required to do this, but they also have the most talented and smart people in the world. These three ingredients are what made this company get over the "First success syndrome" and transform into one of the most successful companies nowadays.

domingo, 6 de marzo de 2011

Run Lola Run

Most movies  run on a single  plot line in which the whole story resolves. But in some cases the movie runs on multiple plot lines which have one or several things in common, so is the case of the movie "Run Lola Run", in which the main character literally  runs through 3 different plot lines that get connected in several ways which almost always affect the outcome of the mini plot.

First of all, I believe the timing is everything. In the beginning of all three stories, Lola gets distracted by a dog and in each time she reacts differently which causes the story to unfold differently. In the first run, she gets scared and runs away, which makes her go through the story faster than in the other two runs. This causes a very specific outcome in which she and Manni end up assaulting a store, which resolves in her getting killed. In the second run however she falls through the stairs when the dog attacks her, so she looses more time and gets everywhere a bit later, which causes the story to have different conflicts than before, which resolve in  Manni getting hit by a van.Then the third run starts, but this time she acts differently, she dodges the dog and barks back at him which scares him but takes more time. This causes everything to go wrong and now she has no way of getting the money, so she goes to a casino and gambles. Turning out to be quite lucky she wins back the money, but also thanks to her actions, Manni finds his money back.

Second of all, every action has a reaction. All this movie keeps showing us is that every decision we make affects not only us but everyone around us. Every time Lola takes a new urn, makes a new decision, or simply stops doing something, a new outcome resolves. For example when she's late in the firs part and Manni robs the store. This part here gets changed when she gets there faster and stops Manni from robbing the store. Instead of that he gets hit by a van that wouldn't be there if she had followed her first steps. Also we have the crash that she stops ..... or not. The firs run she causes her dad to crash because she distracts him, but in the second part this doesn't happen which makes her steal money form her own dad.

Finally, It's all about money. Al three plots in RLR are united mainly by money. Either from a store or form a bank or simply by getting  back what's lost, Lola and Manni are constantly trying to get money. We can see throughout the movie that both of them put their lives through risk several times to get the money they need. All the times the story restarts, Lola gets hurt in the process of getting money. From falling through the stairs  to actually getting killed by a distracted cop, she's always getting injured in some way but she always keeps going on and tries to get the money Manni needs.

So adding it all up, we have that this movie's stories are mainly defined by how Lola reacts to  the dog. From running away to confronting her fears,  the dog really makes this stories outcomes change. Also we have that every choice she makes affects directly in the outcome of the story. Every time she makes a decision something  different will change in the story, giving it a different result. Finally we have that the reason why this girl keeps running and running is that she needs money, and that she and her boyfriend Manni are willing to do anything and everything to get it.