Adrian’s Microblog

Ryan T. Anderson shares a very articulate 8m recap of why SCOTUS got it wrong on the marriage issue in the Obergefell case.

John Lasseter dedicating an exhibit on the movie-making of Pixar.In it, he shares three keys to a great film:–A compelling, but unpredictable, story,–Connectable characters, and–A believable, but not necessarily realistic, world.He also shows one of the tools Pixar developed to help them tell great stories: a “color script”. In it, panels are drawn of key parts in the movie, showing the color tones to be used, which set the emotional tone. I sorta like thinking of it as a “color score”, almost like a musical score that charts the ups and downs of the emotional arc.Bonus videos if you’d like to delve deeper:–A Day in the Life of John Lasseter–Charlie Rose interviews Steve Jobs and John Lasseter a few months after the first Toy Story was released–John Lasseter gives the 2015 SCAD Commencement Address–Ed Catmull talks about his recently published book on creating creative cultures: Creativity, Inc.

We begin life, as children, being open to the ideas of others because we need to be open to learn. Most of what children encounter, after all, are things they’ve never seen before. The child has no choice but to embrace the new. If this openness is so wonderful, however, why do we lose it as we grow up? Where, along the way, do we turn from the wild-eyed child into the adult who fears surprises and has all the answers and seeks to control all outcomes? — Ed Catmull, President of Pixar & Disney Animation, in his book Creativity, Inc.

When to Doubt a Scientific Consensus | The Stream

(via Reason and Emotion - YouTube)

Andy Greenwald interviews Pete Docter, Director of Pixar’s new movie, Inside Out.Aside from adding to my already keen interest to see this movie, this interview was great to hear craftsman and critic really tease apart the story telling and creative process.Among the tidbits shared:–Three years into the five year writing process, Pete made a massive change to the script, substituting different main characters. The willingness to pivot, the openness to follow where the creative process goes, the giving something enough space to breathe out what’s inside, these all seem core.–The editing process is critical too. Eight scripts and screenings trying to get the story right. Multiple feedbacks collected, thousands of little decisions, tradeoffs, etc. Nothing falls from the sky fully formed.–There is no formula to the creative process.–How the audio is recorded first, then the animators look to bring to life the soul of the voice actor. (Although they didn’t mention it here, I imagine they both audio and video record the voice actors, for visual inspiration too.)–’The story is discovered, not made.’(via austinkleon; related article)

by yours truly; quote from book entitled Boys to Men

He says we should stop talking about ‘addiction’ altogether, and instead call it 'bonding.’ A heroin addict has bonded with heroin because she couldn’t bond as fully with anything else.

So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.

So here you are. Standing at a place that is ‘Not Amazing’ and you’re trying to get over there to 'Amazing’. There is no shortcut except to go through the mud of 'Not Yet Amazing.’

I want to have more bad ideas, more terrible first drafts, more embarrassing design mock ups, more failures, and more awkward moments.

While that may sound like the worst Christmas List ever, what it actually means is that I want to try harder and have less fear of failure. More bad ideas, more terrible first drafts, and more failed attempts, means more work created.

Too much attention on the big, long-term goals and we despise the little daily steps needed to make progress. But too much focus on the granular, and it can be easy to feel like the ‘urgent’ things are most important. — Shawn Blanc, in his latest e-mail: Living Without Regret in the Age of Distraction