Enrico Casarosa's La Luna marks a major departure for Pixar's shorts, in that it's a European-influenced piece with minimal sets and characters . . . and zero pain gags. Although the film debuted at the Annecy Animation Festival and showed at Ottawa, audiences will only be able to see it when it precedes Brave in theatres on June 22, 2012.
In this exclusive interview, La Luna producer Kevin Reher shared with Suite 101 the story of how the short was made, and the role of a producer at Pixar.
Suite 101: What’s the role of a producer on an animated short?
Kevin Reher: “Pixar producers tend to be more managerial than creative. Enrico’s very creative; he doesn’t need my help. John Lasseter’s there to give him those kind of notes; John’s notes were things like, ‘Dial the gibberish back. We don’t need to have people arguing for 5 minutes.’
“A producer’s job is to assemble a production team, represent the short to Pixar as needing these type of technical people: needing a production manager, an art department. Pulling all the resources that Enrico needs to make his short film. We also go to Financing to get the money to make the short.
“Pixar asked us to take less time making La Luna than the other shorts I produced: Partly Cloudy and Day & Night. With Partly Cloudy, we said, ‘We can’t possibly make clouds talk with less than a year’s worth of research.’ Day & Night, because it was both 2-D and 3-D, was a challenge. Because we’re not a 2-D house, we needed to find the animators who could work in that format.
“With La Luna, it was 2 sets and 3 characters; a simple, elegant story. Enrico always knew the look he wanted to get, so we took very few weeks in order to create a really cool short.”
S101: Why was La Luna given such a short production time?
Reher: “We try to do these shorts in the dips between feature films so there’s personnel available. Sometimes that window’s short, sometimes it’s longer. It’s about assembling the talent for the short and seeing who’s available.”
S101: What were you looking for when you were assembling the talent?
Reher: “Enrico had a specific look in mind. He had specific people he wanted to work with, so we had little windows of opportunity to get them. But Enrico’s an artist so he designed the little boy. It’s great to have a director who’s also a character designer.”
S101: What is it about being a producer that intrigues you?
Reher: “How did I get so far on so little? (everyone laughs) Our producers are passionate about delivering the director’s vision. Jonas Rivera loves working with Pete Docter and John Walker loved working with Brad Bird; when Brad went off to work on Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, John hooked up with Bob Peterson on his dinosaur movie. The producers run interference with Finance, working with the cast, agents, scheduling when Kelly MacDonald can come in to work on Brave between stints on Boardwalk Empire.
“I’m a little different because I co-produced A Bug’s Life, and then I started working on these shorts, and now I’m executive producer on all the Cars and Toy Story Toons that are being made in Vancouver. Terrible plug: Small Fry, one of the first Toy Story Toons, is going up in front of The Muppets and it is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s about Buzz Lightyear finding himself in a self-help group for discarded Happy Meal toys.”
S101: Do you pick your projects or do you just run interference for directors you like?
Reher: “The director generates all the projects. In my experience - and this goes all the way back to Ratatouille - is that there’s one idea these guys like most, that gets more work done, their hearts are more into it. It’s pretty obvious.
“Usually the director chooses the producer. Pete Docter really likes working with Jonas Rivera, Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) likes working with Darla Anderson . . . these combos tend to develop.”
S101: So what brought you to Enrico then?
Reher: “I fell into it. I had gone so far down the line with assembling the crew and putting together the budget for La Luna that I might as well finish this.”
S101: Did you approach Enrico or did he approach you?
Reher: “The short films are developed in Development. We have the Shorts Board, which is run by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson and Pete Sohn. So if I’m an animator with a couple of ideas for shorts, we send through that system to give them the help they need to put a pitch together, an inspiration reel or even a sculpture if they need it. So Enrico was in that system, and I head up that department.”
S101: Other than the turnaround time, what was the toughest part about making La Luna?
Reher: “The credits! (laughs) It’s the easiest short of all the ones I’ve worked on. Enrico’s original pitch to John Lasseter is what you see onscreen, which is amazing. Partly Cloudy had its challenges story-wise, Day & Night had a lot of problems so La Luna was a really easy short film to do, and it says a lot about Enrico’s storytelling.
“If a director has a really cool idea but doesn’t know what story he wants to tell, it’s more work. But Enrico really knew what he wanted so making this short was incredibly easy. If only making a feature film was that easy! (laughs)”
(Next up, Kevin Reher tells more about working at Pixar, and how they choose what films to make.)
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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