Pixar's success recipe

When movie studios became to gain popularity giving birth to massive studios like hollywood they developed a recipe which was called star-system, this consisted of keeping the same team for every movie (actors, writers, directors, producers, etc.) over the time this recipe came to be bothersome rather than successful due to the fact that people got bored of seeing the same topic movies with the same actors and same stories, so, how do we keep the same production team and keep people entertain? Pixar seems to have find the solution: Environment, people and creativity.

Wherever we find creative people or the best technology we must not forget the thing that surrounds them all or were ideas will emerge, the working area or environment which works due to the space, facilities and comfort. So, enterprises seem to believe that if they've got the best equipment it won't matter were they use it but they are wrong, Pixar has even developed a special building in which the common areas seem to be centered, the place works like a circle in which you will inevitably encounter co-workers increasing relaxation and brain-storming when talking with others. On the other hand, facilities work an important part on creating the perfect environment, if we wan't to make people enjoy what they are doing we have to give them the sensation of being at home, in the Pixar way by providing them with cafeteria service, and other home-facilities needs which would led us to the third environmental factor which are facilities. They (Pixar) would secure you are having conferences in comforting chairs, rooms, even lighting and color's play an important role in creating the right and comfortable environment.

Already having the required environment we need to move on to the people that would be using it but recalling that in the Pixar way they do not call them workers but family due to the process which enables them to do so. Pixar works over the principle that in order to secure workers work and confidentiality camaraderie works ten times better than creating confidentiality restrictions via contract. They would using their environment (which already makes them feel at home) manage to overpass even this camaraderie part by making people bond in a level of respect and friendship in which teams of work would evolved into friendship gatherings in which the best ideas would always raise and even more important than ideas are ways to secure that when the idea is ready people won't feel intimidated to point out which are the parts that need to be improved in the Pixar way by keeping complete confidentiality whenever gatherings are held sending replies via mail and by making everyone feel part of the process, even workers that are not closely related to the part of the process Pixar is working on, they would be able to attend conferences and give out their point of view.

Finally, what Pixar takes mostly in account and what would secure that stories change and keep audiences from all ages keeping attention to what's happening is their creativity view which would form part in every aspect of the movie and not just the principal elements. Creativity would need to be enrolled in the way the movie is promoted or even the extra elements it contains and by assuring a way to make people relate to what they are watching. From a Pixar's view talented people are not those that out stand due to their abilities but rather those who out stand due to their hard work, their ability to transform even the worst idea into something good or come up with a new and better one, the most important quality being letting people think freely and teaching them to stop being afraid of thinking wide, that's why most of the great ideas never come out to see the light, and that's why Pixar creates even "schools" in which new-comers are teach those values and protocols to be able to secure a place in the "family".

In conclusion, Pixar's recipe to success has being able to maintain the star-system alive due to their view of the company as a live organization that would be able to overcome obstacles due to their people's creativity, their relationship record and their comfortable environment making it clear for common studios that the system is not the problem but rather the way we see it or manage it is, and as Ed Catmull says "Pixar does not rules under this operating principles, but rather see them as a way of life".

Lola Rennt

You look at the publicity of a movie, there's only a girl with red hair running on the cover but just because of that it drags immediately your attention, why is she running? So you buy it to discover why is she running so desperately about, but trough almost all the movie the thing we see the most is this girl called Lola, just running, both things you already knew or guessed by just reading the cover, nevertheless, since the beginning the movie would maintain you captured by the history, by the up-coming outcome (or in this case possible outcomes), of getting to know if she’s going to make it or not trough the end. Thus by maintaining the same events and characters and time, making the developments in each plotline happen in a different way, hence making it the special thing that makes us wait for each of the three plotlines different outcomes.

First of all, we have to talk about the fact that time seems to change all events. Even tough, in the movie we know Lola had the same amount of time trough the three plotlines still in each one of them, time seems to either slow down (making us, watchers, waiting for the outcome almost unbearable at times), like the plotline in which Lola waits for the baker to go fetch the money that is missing to full-fill her requirement amount and then walking out of there, or rather making it [time]seem it went so fast, hence like when she arrives to the store to meet with her boyfriend Manni who has just stole the money they needed from there and end up [both of them]being tracked down too quickly by the police. Clearly then, time would eventually fit or adjust to circumstances making the father of Lola unaware trough a plot that he’s not the father of a baby his lover is having or would stretch in order to let Lola gamble her way out of her money troubles.

On the other hand, as time seems to affect people’s decisions in the end people would be also affecting other people’s outcomes. In other words, people’s decision and time changes would be essential when talking about an outcome, for example: when Lola goes out of the door in the three of the plotlines we see a child with a dog, both in the stairs all the time, in one plotline the kid would interfere by kicking Lola in the foot, in the second one the dog would bite her or in the third one Lola would eventually avoid them, nevertheless, time would change from that moment, that little or almost no time lost would make every different outcome different. The dog bite or kid kick would make her go slower or faster to encounter the man in the car either by avoiding him or totally jumping through his car, jumping trough the stairs would make time change in order to avoid hitting the lady on the street (changing her life outcome by only that encounter), answering something to the guy in the stolen bike, or shouting to the bank woman (all of them changing their life outcomes, which we find out trough pictures of their soon-to-be life).

Finally but not last, the main issue holding the three outcomes together is the fact that we know destiny would never change, destiny would always maintain its balance. Even if time events and decision making can change; there are some facts that would always remain the same. Someone would have to die in the development of the plotline, Lola dies in the first plot, Manny in the second, and the guy in the ambulance in the third one seems to be heading that way. Moreover, trough the plot eventually someone will crash a car, here we can mention the ambulance going through the glass or the guy in the car (whom we later learn is a friend of Lola’s father) crashing into another car. Besides that, objects would have also an important role appearance, therefore in each plot a gun would be shot one or several times (when stealing the shop, threatening the father or the vagabond) and money would be acquired (by stealing the store, stealing the bank or gambling to get it).

In conclusion, what makes Run Lola Run a fantastic movie that would be able to keep you interested in knowing what’s going to happen next is the fact that time, and events would always maintain their self so that besides we know what are the factors involved around each developing story we will still want to know the possible outcome or change in variables that would make them [the characters] rather succeeded or fail in their goal of delivering the money they had just lost and maintain their selves alive.