Steve Jobs recently provided BusinessWeek Online’s David Shook with some insight about the process of making movies at Pixar Animation Studios. When he’s not at Apple, Jobs runs the show at Pixar and owns a majority of the stock, too.
Jobs said that following the success of Toy Story, Pixar was approached by people who pitched them ideas for future movies, but Pixar decided to internally develop its own ideas. That spawned A Bug’s Life and Monsters Inc., along with three new movies presently in development that will be released once a year beginning next year.
Jobs told Shook that Pixar has “more Ph.Ds working” on its films than at any point in the past, so the company is making technical advancements with each progressive film. He cited the underwater effects in next year’s “Finding Nemo” as an example.
Jobs also talked in broad strokes about production schedules and budgets for Pixar movies, explaining that he wants to cut the cycle for releasing movies from one every eighteen months — where they are now — to about one a year.
Regarding increased competition from other studios who are also doing computer animation features, Jobs said, “What we’re concerned about is trying to make the best movies we can and surprising and delighting our audiences. If we can do that, then I think Pixar will do just fine.”
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