A beautiful storyboard by John Musker (one director of Princess and the Frog,  Aladdin, the little Mermaid) in tribute to legendary story artist Joe Ranft, who would have been 50 years old last week, had he not been killed in a car crash in 2005. Joe epitomised the ‘story man’, working behind the scenes to bring soul and structure to the story. I wish I could have worked with him.

“Joe was really a major part of Pixar’s soul,” says Pete Docter, director of Monsters, Inc. “He was one of the key players who made all the films what they are.”

Telling anecdotes from Joe’s colorful life, some of these sketches blow me away. So immediate and powerful.

As a film maker (in my little niche) I’ve realised that I don’t care for the finished film as much as the experience of making it with good people. Then I read what Joe had written on his office door, and I really wish I’d worked with him:

‘The journey is the reward.’

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 8:42 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave your thoughts, or trackback from your own site.