(classical music) - A good story. It had all the things I love in a book, great characters, an interesting world, a compelling plot, but I'm sure it didn't
start out this great. Sometimes a Pixar story
will start one way, and by the time it
reaches the final version you see onscreen, it's become something really different. Did you know, in early
versions of Toy Story Woody was a ventriloquist dummy and not the nicest toy in the box. - All right, all right, all right! Save your batteries people. - Or that Sulley was an aspiring dentist in the first version
of Monsters University. In early versions of Coco, our main character wasn't called Miguel. He was Sam, and he
didn't even play guitar. The film wasn't even about music. Good stories don't just pop
out of our heads fully formed. (silly music) Great stories take many tries
and often a few false starts. (silly music) Every single Pixar story is the result of imagining and re-imagining,
drawing and redrawing. But, how do you know if
your story's working? At Pixar we start by pitching, or telling, our story, early and often
in the filmmaking process. We tell the story to
ourselves in the mirror or as we drive to work. - The cowboy and a robot
and maybe another cowboy. - We pitch to that girl
from the gym whose name we're pretty sure is Nadine. We pitch to other artists. - There's the bad boy with the cat. - Pitching is a little like standup comedy but with pictures. And like standup comedy, we can gauge how our stories are doing by the reaction of the audience. Do they look confused? Do they understand what's
going on in our story? We ask for feedback. Not everyone will get
what you're going for. - I don't really get it. - Some people will really
like what you've done. - You know, I really love the cowboys. - And you may hear two
completely different opinions about your story. - Have you thought of
just having one cowboy? - By doing this process of pitching and refining our stories
we make them better. Could a drawing be clearer
or more entertaining? Does the order of the
shots need to change? We ask these questions
and edit our stories. At Pixar we always say
we don't draw movies, we redraw movies. Sharing and rethinking our
stories is a part of the process. As you start making stories of your own, don't be afraid to ask, what if? - What if there was a dog in this? - And keep pushing for the
best story you can make. (old Hollywood music)