Ed Catmull || The Soul of Pixar

The Psychology Podcast

iHeartPodcasts

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2021

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today it’s great to chat with Ed Catmull. Ed is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and former president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah and is the author of Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children.

Topics

[1:04] Ed’s childhood growing up in Utah in the 50s

[3:57] Ed’s entry point into the field of animation

[7:30] The evolution of computer graphics

[12:20] How Ed broke barriers in his field

[15:21] Ed’s encounters with Silicon Valley and emerging technologies

[20:29] Ed’s interactions with Steve Jobs

[34:36] How to create a sustainable creative culture

[43:22] Ed describes his leadership style

[46:01] How to protect the creative process and handle internal conflict

[56:33] What it means to take risks at Pixar

[1:03:32] The core principles that make Pixar so creative

[1:10:17] How to lead an effective team

[1:13:13] The appeal of anthropomorphic characters in animation

[1:16:20] The impact of the pandemic on Pixar

[1:24:40] Ed’s opinion on cancel culture

[1:26:30] Ed’s thoughts on the future of animation

[1:33:00] Diversifying Pixar

[1:37:32] Ed’s complete inability to visualize (aphantasia)

[1:40:38] Ed’s thoughts on the field of education

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, it's great to chat with Ed Katmo on the podcast. Ed is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and his former president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation.
0:24.0	He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for Lifetime Achievement in the field of computer graphics. Ed received his PhD in computer science from the University of Utah and is the author of Creativity Inc. Overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration.
0:41.0	He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children and so excited to chat with you today.
0:46.0	I'm really happy to be here.
0:49.0	So many potential starting points. We have so many mutual interests, including, you know, creativity is a big mutual interest. We have in the creative process.
0:59.0	But I really want to kind of get more of like the humanity out of you a little bit to begin with.
1:04.0	You were, you were child growing up in the 50s in Utah. Is that right?
1:09.0	That's right. I was born in West Virginia, but I, as soon as the war was over, my father came out and got my mother from where she was in West Virginia and moved out to Utah.
1:22.0	I spent my life there.
1:25.0	I spent half of your life there. And even as a kid, you were inspired by Disney movies, right? And it made you want to be a Disney animator someday.
1:36.0	That was the early days of television back in the 50s.
1:41.0	There was the Disney Land.
1:45.0	All by the wonderful world of color.
1:49.0	But it's a weekly event to watch well Disney as well, of course, to see the movies that were produced.
1:57.0	Do you, did you watch Fantasia when you were a kid? The original one?
2:02.0	Yes. I watched all of them.
2:05.0	And for me, they were very inspirational.
2:09.0	There was also a phenomenon which I didn't discover until many years later.
2:14.0	But I'd probably say the two most impactful films on me as a child were Pinocchio and Peter Pan.
2:24.0	Now, the phenomenon I noticed as an adult was that I went back and watched them after not having seen them.
2:32.0	Remember for a long time, there wasn't a video or DVD.
2:35.0	And they had this thing of scheduling their films every seven years for the after release.
	...

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