Ed Catmull

 Ed Catmull talking about the way Pixar works. Really interesting how clued in he is to how people's heads work, and how to work with that. Watching him it's clear that he's the real genius behind Pixar. The director's might make good movies, but Ed is the foundation that put it all together and makes sure it all flows, makes it work as a group project instead of rising and falling on the individual personalities.

He talks about how they build change and xxx into the system so that they don't get complacent, they assume that the problems they are having now, they aren't even aware of them. "Which means the things that are happening now that are wrong at Pixar are already happening and I can’t see them. And I have to start with that premise."

He talks about how the successful director's are the ones who can accept help. That every time there comes a point where the director is just completely lost, and that's when if they are a good director they can accept help from others and together find a way out.

I think the big secrets that Ed and team have is that they encourage everyone's feedback, so everyone has ownership of the piece, because if it's your project you're going to put everything you can into it. And they encourage individual vision, like Pete Doctor's UP, a very personal thing he wants to say, which makes it unique and at the same time more universal.

Ideas are not scarce. It is more important to have a team functioning creatively then to have one person who doesn't work well with others but has brilliant ideas. Someone who has the vision is rare, but more then that they have to lead the team well and draw out the best from all the team members.

Director lead means that the director has to be leading, so if the team says that they are not following, then it's time to replace the director.