Making the Animated Short: An Interview with

Andrew Jimenez, Pixar Animation Studios

Andrew Jimenez went to San Diego State University. His first big break was on The Iron
Giant after which he moved to Sony Pictures to work on the first Spider-Man movie
as a story reel editor and storyboard artist. That job led to a move to Pixar with Brad
Bird to be a co-director of photography on The Incredibles. Most recently, Andrew, along
with Mark Andrews, directed the Academy Award–nominated short, One Man Band.

One Man Band, directed by Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews, Pixar Animation Studios

Q: What makes a good story for an animated short?

Andrew: Feature films and shorts are two completely different types of stories. When
Mark Andrews and I were trying to come up with the idea for One Man Band, even when
we were considering very un-fleshed-out ideas, it was clear that, OK, this idea belongs in
a feature film and then this idea belongs in a short film.

It’s a strange analogy to make, but a good short film is like a good joke. It has a great
setup, gets to the point, and pays off right away. And it doesn’t demand too much in
terms of where the story has to go. It gets to the idea right away. You get it. Even if it
takes you somewhere different from what you expected, it gets there right way, too. It’s
just very simple. And it’s about one idea. It can have multiple characters, but it has to
be very clear, because in 3 or 5 minutes you don’t have time to really develop all these
side stories and other plot lines.

To use the “joke” analogy again, if my timing isn’t perfect and I go on a little bit too
long, I can ruin it. I also think it’s almost a little bit harder to tell a short film story,
because you don’t have the luxury to develop anything deeply, but yet it should be as
meaningful.

It’s funny because so many short films aren’t short anymore. I think the biggest pitfall is
that they are always the first act of a feature film, or they seem to be used as a vehicle

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for: “I’m just making this part of my bigger idea, but I’m using this to sell it.” I’m always
disappointed when I find out a short film has done that, because it ignores what is so
wonderful about making short films.

Q: When you’re building the story, how do you stay focused on

one idea?
Andrew: One of the most important parts is the pitch. When your students or any new
storyteller tells somebody else the idea, whoever is listening and/or the person pitching
should really pay attention to how he or she is pitching.

I’ll use One Man Band as an example:

There’s a guy on a corner, and he’s playing music. He’s pretty good, but not really
that good, and there is another musician that he is going to battle, musically. That’s the
story. That’s it. The second I start pitching and telling, or describing events to the story
that sort of breaks out of that little quad that this movie takes place in, that’s the point
where I start to get a little worried. The entire pitch should never break from that initial
setup.

I think you should really be able to pitch your idea in 15 seconds. Even in One Man
Band, the film never really breaks out away from what’s presented in the first 15 seconds
of the movie.

And it gets back to the joke analogy, which is a silly analogy, but I think it really makes
the point well.

If I’m telling a joke, every beat of the story has to be right on the spot. In the feature
film I can wander a little bit, lose you a little bit, I have time to get you back, but in the
short film, if I lose you, there is no time to get you back. In the short film, if I go one
beat too long, I can ruin it.

For example, if I start setting up giving too much background and explaining too much,
then you, as an audience, start getting bored, and by the time I get to the punch line,
it’s like, uh, OK, that wasn’t funny because you gave me way too much information.

I keep using the analogy of telling a joke. That is not to say that a good short film has to
be funny. It’s just a way of illustrating how important timing is in the short film format.

Q: Is it hard to be funny?
Andrew: Yes, absolutely. I know if I’m really trying to be funny, then I should stop
right there. Stories are just like people. The funniest people never really try to be funny,
they’re just really funny. And in story, the funniest stories come out of the situations.
66 Making the Animated Short: An Interview with Andrew Jimenez, Pixar Animation Studios

In One Man Band, we never really tried to be funny, or tried gags. I think some of the
funniest moments came out of story beats and really great animation because the situa-
tion was funny in an honest way and always character-based. We never really set out
to make a funny film.

The only thing with One Man Band that we started with before we created the story
was that we knew we wanted to tell a story about music. There was a theme about what
people do with talent and how people view other people that may have more talent
than they do. Humor came out of story development but we never tried to do humor
before we even knew what our characters were doing in the story. It is what the char-
acters do—the acting—that makes it funny. Of course their designs played a big part
of that, too.

Everything comes out of story. Whether you try to be depressing, or sad, or funny,
or humorous, or make a statement, I think the second you try to do that without
arriving at that through your story, then it’s kind of like telling your punch line before
your joke.

Q: What was the hardest part of making One Man Band?

Andrew: For One Man Band the hardest thing—it’s true for the features, too—was that
after we got the green light just to come up with ideas (and we were so ecstatic about
that) was to actually come up with the ideas.

There’s no science to coming up with a story. You can’t say, “All right go—come up
with a story.” So, Mark and I started having lunch every day. We started talking about
things we had in common, things we liked, things we didn’t like in other movies.

I had this book I called “The Idea Book,” and I wrote down all the ideas we came up
with, about 50. One of the common themes in all these little ideas was music—and
competition. I have been an avid film score collector since I was a child and have always
wanted to tell a story where music was our characters’ voices.

So we started developing and working around that theme. That time was the hardest
part of the entire production of One Man Band—really getting that theme through the
progression of the story. Because if you don’t have that locked down and perfect, no
matter how good the CG is or the acting is, you’re never going to save it.

Don’t worry about your perfectly rendered sunset, and shading and modeling of the set.
It’s the characters and their story. People will forgive so much if they really believe and
love your characters and your story. When Andre and Wally B. was shown at Siggraph
for the first time many years ago, most people in the audience didn’t realize it wasn’t
finished because they were so involved in the characters.
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Q: What advice do you give to animators making their first short?

Andrew: My advice would be: don’t overcomplicate it. Just find one idea that you
want to tell, stick with that, and trust it. If it’s not working ask yourself why. Don’t think
you have to pile a bunch of other stuff on top of it to make it work and make it longer.
Students, especially, will pack so much stuff into the film to try to show what they can
do and to make the amazing film. I know I learned so much more by making several
shorter films in the span of a year instead of making only one gigantic opus.

I know at Pixar, when we look at other short films, the thing we respond to the most is
a short, simple idea that grabs us, that we get to react to it, and then it lets us go.