Gary Rydstrom, director of Pixar’s short film, Lifted (2006). He’s funny. In a good way.

When you gather Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Brad Bird and other Pixar writers in the room together, it's like watching the Harlem Globetrotters play, says Arndt. It's very fun, like a jam session, with everyone riffing off one another. Director Chapman adds that people leave their egos outside the door. It's a feeding frenzy, where everyone tackles ideas together, picks up the ball and tosses it back and forth. They are not defeated or discouraged as they misstep along the way. They figure it out as they go -- like climbing a mountain blindfolded, slowly picking their way to the top. (Talk about mixed metaphors!)

Rydstrom, who recently directed Pixar's Academy Award-nominated short film, Lifted (2006), has been working in sound design for the last 20 or so years. He describes the process of writing like "getting on a bike again, and instantly being hit by a truck." Rydstrom appreciates the collaborative nature of the Pixar story development process. The "positive feedback machine" of the other writers and directors helps to improve the story.

During development, it's also important to keep certain trusted people away from the story, so they can review it objectively at some point later in the process. This "brain trust" can see the story with fresh eyes and offer their honest perspective to spark further refinement. There is no back-stabbing, no political wrangling or jockeying. No one is worried about losing their job or spoiling their relationships. It's liberating and refreshing to get constructive feedback in such a mutually supportive environment. Everyone's focus is on helping to make the best movie possible.

Here, then, are some of Pixar leaders' foundational tenets:

• They make movies that they would like to see. They are moviegoers first and filmmakers second. They like being able to take their whole family to the same show.

• They shy away from story formulas. If one appears, they abandon it.

• Animation is a medium, not a genre. Be original. Dare to be stupid. When discovering your story, you have to be in a creatively safe environment.

• They do not pretend to be better than others in their ability. They band together to fix their mistakes. Their intent is to "just make good movies." In crafting their films, the regard is always what is best for the movie -- not the individual, not the studio.

• They try to cultivate the cheerful reaction that Walt Disney inspired through his animated films, to appeal to the sense of wonder in people's minds, stimulated by imagination.

Story artists Jim Capobianco, Ronnie Del Carmen and Jason Katz (left to right) are paid to listen to the voices in their heads.

Writing With Pictures
Writers and directors work closely with the storyboard artists to visually interpret the script. The story artists are handed script pages and, over the course of a few months, their job is to tell the director's story back to him or her as they envision the storytelling in their heads.

When Bird was working on The Incredibles, he wanted to duplicate the Pixar mojo. However, there is no magic potion to imbibe, no blueprint to follow. When he realized, though, that he would have three times as long to work on development as he did for The Iron Giant, he thought, "Great! Let's do three times the boards!"

The story room is like a war room, a dysfunctional family. Bird passes story artist Andrews in the hall and quips, "Final battle -- see you later." One person has one idea for a scene; another person has a different idea. The team fearlessly throws around ideas as they work out the guts and mortar of the film. They are the front lines of the movie as they watch the screenplay in their mind's eye and write it out with pictures. The story artists draw like the wind, feeling out the story by instinct. Their visual language captures the texture and cadence, the emotional core, of the story. Even if their work is not immediately apparent on screen, it is the foundation on which the entire movie rests. This is why Pixar looks not just for story artists, but storytellers.

Bird knew what was best to explore visually when working with his script. But, there are so many ways to imagine the same scene; it is all up for grabs. The artists board the story and hash it out. Everyone watches the reels together, as they continue to rework and refine things. They take one step forward, and twenty backwards. The key is to trust the process. Have patience. Just as rewriting is essential, so is re-boarding. That's why they call it "sto-re-boarding." For example, the Yeti's Cave scene in Monsters, Inc. went through 20-25 different passes in story reels. Every movie has its "Yeti's Cave."

The right story can take a long time to come together and find its voice. While technology helps the process to get done quicker, the focus is on figuring out what works best. There are a lot of great ideas and moments, but they can't all stay in the film if they are not serving the story. It's the difference between "eye candy" and "eye protein" -- that is, something that looks good on paper or on screen, versus something that contributes to the meaning of a story and enhances its telling. A simple test is to turn down the sound when viewing the reels to see if you can still understand the flow of the story.

At the end of the day, of course, the buck stops with the director. Pixar's films are not made by committee or focus group, and the director must make all decisions in remaining true to his or her vision.