Writer-director Bret Parker’s new short Pete centers on an eight-year old with a dream of playing baseball like all the other kids on the cul-de-sac in Winter Park, Florida, in 1975. However, Pete is a bit different from the other kids on the team. We had a chance to chat with Bret (a voice actress and animator, who has worked on Ratatouille, Brave, Inside Out and Incredibles 2) about her project which won jury awards at Annecy and Chicago’s Intl. Children’s Festival, among others. Here is what she shared with us:
Animation Magazine: Can you tell us when you decided to make this short film?
Bret Parker: I guess I don’t remember exactly, but it would have been around fall of 2019. It was a story that we had been kicking around for a little while, and it finally just seemed like the right time to try and make it.
What was the inspiration for the short?
That is easy to answer, because “Pete” is my wife, and our film is based on a moment that happened when she was a kid. She is the consummate storyteller, so this was a story she told many times … but I think the more we talked about it, the more we realized that there was really a broader story to tell within this moment — and that is a story about identity, change and acceptance.
What would you say were your biggest challenges?
This film was made through the Pixar Cooperative, which was both an amazing opportunity and our biggest challenge because it meant that everyone working on the short were volunteering their time after they were “done” with their day job. It’s sort of tricky to ask someone who is volunteering their time to “volunteer faster,” but actually there was a lot of great energy around the project, and it was really a labor of love. The other biggest challenge was developing the look of the film. Ink and watercolor are not part of the Pixar wheelhouse, so we really needed to be scrappy and dive outside any traditional animation pipeline in order to create our final look.
What do you love about working in the short form?
Honestly, one thing I love about working in the short form is it feels attainable. It gives you a container where you can really explore and flesh out a story that doesn’t need some of the complexity that a feature demands. I feel like there’s also the opportunity to play and try things out — explore new looks or technology or even story that could potentially lead to further development.
How many people worked on the film and which animation tools were used?
It is always amazing to me how many people it takes to make an animated film, and it really goes to show what a collaboration film making really is. For our seven-minute short we had about 72 people who worked on it. As I mentioned previously, Pete was made through the Pixar Coop, which basically means that if you have a film that you want to make on your own time, once approved, you can use the resources at the studio, including software and people, to make the film. It’s an incredible opportunity, because I am surrounded by talented artists who opted in to work on the film, and was able to use our state of the art animation software to do it. Part of that talented group were also the engineers who literally developed new tools for us so we could both create and control the ink outline I wanted on the characters.
How did you finance the project?
Funding for the project came through artist donations as well as a post-production grant.
Can you talk about the visual style and influences of the short?
Since this is based on a true story about my wife Pete as a child, and takes place in 1975, much of the visual inspiration is from the art and colors and books that we grew up with. For art direction, for example, I was really inspired by the original Winnie-the-Pooh watercolor illustrations by E.H. Shepard as well as Bill Watterson’s watercolor paintings for Calvin and Hobbes. I grew up with Winnie the Pooh, and I really wanted to marry the look and style of the animation with the story. So even though the animation is done in 3D, we animated in more of a 2D style and flattened the look to feel more like a watercolor painting that came to life.
Developing the look of the film was one of the hardest aspects to figure out. There was still was more I wanted explore, but I am really happy with where we landed.
Who are your animation idols?
That’s an interesting question, because I didn’t start animating from a typical career path and didn’t come into animation knowing who my idols were. I was initially hired at Pixar in 1996 for a three-month temp job as a production assistant. I remember I even quit another job to take it, and my mom was really worried about that decision. At the time, I had some production experience, but no animation experience, and had definitely never thought about animation as a career. My background was in dance and theater, but once I was at Pixar, I quickly realized the similarities — timing, choreography, acting, movement analysis — and I think the moment I realized that I could have a job in the arts where I could create art and actually make a, living I was all in.
So, from that moment, I just started staying late at work and learning the principals of animation as well as the technology… I had some amazing mentors helping me along the way — so really for me, many of my animation heroes are some of my fellow colleagues! A few who stand out you’ll probably know — Mark Oftedal, Alan Barillario, Tony Fucile, to name a few. Without a doubt I would not be where I am today or have been able to create Pete without standing on the shoulders of the talent I was surrounded by during my career. I would also like to call out some of the early women pioneers in animation whose work I studied after I started working and were an inspiration for me, like Mary Ellen Bute, Caroline Leaf and Evelyn Lambert.
What do you hope audiences will take away from your short?
When kids are left to their own, acceptance and inclusion comes easy. We hope through Pete, we can continue to inspire change and erase the notion that difference equals exclusion. Pete is based on the true story of my wife, so as an inspiration, change doesn’t always have to be grand — it can happen on a small sandlot in Winter Park, Florida and forever change a community.
What kind of advice can you offer first time short-film makers?
To summarize, I’d say to be clear about your intention and what you want to make, and the framework you have to make it in. I’ve seen students come up with what is supposed to be a one-minute short, and you look at the boards or read the script and it’s easily a 10-minute short. That’s exactly how films don’t get made. I also find it really helpful to start with a clear logline. When you are forced to sum up a project in two to three sentences, it helps you focus on what the most important aspects of the film really are.
For more information, visit petethefilm.com. Watch the full seven-minute short on YouTube here, the trailer is posted below.
