Mike Lenhart (bio)

The guys (and girl) from Pixar told of how many hours it took to render some of the scenes in those animated masterpieces - as long as 500 hours for a few seconds of film. There are many, MANY departments that work together in the process of making these movies, and most of the folks in those departments don't see the final result of all their hard work until the film is screened. I don't think I could take it. I need a little bit of instant gratification - OK a lot.

They're way talented at this place, and they all seem to love what they do. I just don't think I could spend an entire month of working 10-hour days on one scene in a film. Only then to pass it on to the next department not to be seen until a few years later. And, some of the hard work done and scenes made won't even make it to the final piece!

They gave us a short visual tour of Pixar which is spread out in an immense, low-rise building that houses offices and working spaces, of course, as well as their restaurant, lounges, game and exercise rooms, screening rooms, and their rendering room which houses the multitude of computers that work very hard all day and night to get those frames of film to the detail that we love to see on the big screen. (Long sentence, I know. But that's how big it all felt in my mind.)

I love the movies that Pixar has put out over the years. They're the only original and creative films that seem to get produced these days. I truly will appreciate the amount of work that goes into these movies the next time I'm at the theatre watching one of their films. I'm just glad that someone else is putting those things together.