Sketches//2013//1

Some sketches from the last few weeks.
It's been a while, but I'm back into it.
Oakland//Palm Springs//Piedmont.

J

JULIAN//TEASER

Julian Teaser//2013 from J Robertson on Vimeo.

JULIAN

2012//NewPixarMovie//TimeOff//Writing//Julian

Been a busy year. I decided to bite the bullet and make films. I've been writing, and have several scripts  at various stages. 

Before diving into a whole 10 minute plus short, I decided to shoot a trailer for one of the scripts I'm writing, in lieu of a traditional inspiration reel. 

We shot the trailer in a weekend in DEC- living in Edit/Score Mix Grade right now.

Here's a selection of still used to decide on color/tones. First kick at the can.

JULIAN-trailer

Starring Cassandra Clark///Pamela Gaye Walker.

More soon.

JRR

30 DAY SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE-PT 1

It's been a while since I posted here, I've been keeping busy writing and developing some side projects of the live action variety, but it has been a while since I sat down and put any work into a sketchbook. To that- at work recently a challenge was proposed in the story dept: to fill a sketchbook in 30 days.  I accepted this challenge, and LO!, completed the sketchbook three days ahead of schedule.  Here's the first batch, pulled from those pages.

Enjoy,
J

SWEETPEA

As some of you may know, my good friends Emma Coats and Shion Takeuchi are making a film called Sweetpea. It's going to be an amazing western in the vein of Raiders, and the Searchers.

Movies aren't cheap, so to lend a hand with raising funds to bring this story to the screen, I've made a series of "Outlaw" watercolour paintings which are for sale on the Sweetpea kickstarter site. I hope you all enjoy them, and decide to support Sweetpea.

SWEETPEA tumblr dft.ba/-outlaws

SWEETPEA Kickstarter page http://kck.st/niML1y

I'll be back soon, with more sketches, photos and news about my upcoming projects.

James

Sketchcrawl 31- For Japan Relief

As you may know, on Saturday April 16, 2011 the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl was held to benefit those affected by the disaster in japan Through the efforts of Enrico Casarosa, a story wiz here at Pixar, the event raised $3655 for japan relief.
I participated in the event and to keep the ball rolling, I've decided to offer my sketches from the day, and a few other selections from the same sketchbook for sale, with all the proceeds going to directly to Give2Asia, an aid organization here in San Francisco. Dice Tsutsumi, an amazing art director and master organizer here as Pixar has started a fund through Give2Asia called the 'Artists Help Japan Fund', with artists from all over contributing to it.

Here are the sketches. They're all from a Moleskine Reporter, done in pencil/marker/and ink.
Please contact me directly if you're interested at J(underscore)mrobertsonATmeDOTcom. Suggested prices are underneath each image, but if you feel like giving a little more, feel free to do so. I will be paying for shipping, for US residents.

Underneath the sketches is a letter/number. If you're interested, please email me with the letter/number combination (ie. A4).

UPDATE: 5/20/2011

All the pieces sold!

SOLD A1- Ritual Patrons /40

SOLD A2- Ritual Work /40

SOLD A3- SF Street Scenes /50

SOLD A4- Sf Street Scenes 2 /40

SOLD A5- Barista & Patrons /40

SOLD A6- Drummer /40

SOLD A7- Marker People /60

SOLD A8- Ritual Laptops /40

SOLD A9- Curls /50

SOLD A10 -Four Barrellers /50

SOLD A11- Remedy /50

SOLD A12- Bart Reader /50

Thanks!

James

Sketches! In Pencil!

Some sketches from my recent sketchbook. I've been mainly sketching digitally on the iPad, and posting them here, so there will more frequent updates at that blog, for those interested.
These are done with the new palomino blackwing, which I've been enjoying.
Check them out.

2010-TOY STORY 3

2010 was a big year for me. As most of you know, I was fortunate to work on Toy Story 3 as a story artist, a film I'm incredibly proud of. I spent almost three years on it, giving everything I could as often as I could to a project I believed in and was deeply committed to. The reception for the film has been overwhelming, really, and recently Disney has started stumping for the film to be considered for Best Picture at the academy awards. In that effort, they've begun to run a series of one sheets to garner support for the film, and to my surprise an image from a sequence I worked on was chosen to represent the film.
As 2010 comes to a close, I'd like to again thank everyone who made it all possible for me you all know who you are. If working at Pixar the last 4 years has taught me anything, it's that you're only as good as the team you're on, the friends you make, and the people you depend on, and that can depend on you - story, life is truly a team endeavor.

2010 Movies- List

As the year comes to a close, here's a look back at the films I got excited about in 2010; best films I saw this year.

Having not seen everything this year, this list is not a complete best of. It's a list of films that inspired me to make movies of my own, to pursue loftier goals in my Pixar work, made me wish I had made them. The jealousy barometer is the one I most closely trust nowadays, so here goes. The 'I wish I did that' list of 2010, in no particular order.


Social Network
A movie about greed, ambition, and the cost of their pursuit using YOUR favorite social networking app as the medium for it's exploration. Fincher and Sorkin knock it out of the park here. I love 'relationships as plot' films and this is one of the best examples I can think of. The film functions as a social commentary, a historical document and an astute observation of the human condition and it's paradoxes. It's talking about real stuff here. There have been disputes about it's factual accuracy, but that is hardly the point, demonstrating once again the difference between fact and truth. A movie I love, respect and admire. David Fincher's best film IMO.


Black Swan
I'm a huge Darren Aronofsky fan. I saw Pi in college, it blew my mind and my thesis film from that year wears it's influence on it's sleeve. Black Swan is his most accessible film so far, despite being set in the notoriously insular world of modern ballet. The ideas at work are very similar to The Wrestler- how far are you willing to go to pursue your art?, where the Wrestler wins over Swan, is the Wrestler screenplay answers in very definite terms WHY, whereas Swan is content to shorthand that a bit. Despite some issues I've heard and can agree with in relation to the script, I think Aronofsky's inspired and brilliant direction more than makes up for them, and in some cases turns the potential weaknesses into strengths. The opening scene HAD me, and the film never let me go. Natalie Portman is staggeringly good in this film, giving one of the best performances I've seen in a while. Aronofsky is a modern American master director and one of the original voices working in film today.


True Grit
If you were to make a list of stuff I like in movies, The Coen Brothers, Westerns and revenge movies would figure prominently. So...yeah. Loved it. It isn't what I expected AT ALL; I figured I was in for 'No Country for... Young...Women" or something, and I got the Big Lebowski in western gear. Which...is awesome by me. The Coens are the best filmmakers working today, bar none.


Winter's Bone
Another film featuring a tough,driven female heroine taking on a traditionally male role and nailing it to the wall. This is the film I think I most admire this year, all things considered. Brilliant and authentic, gritty but from a uniquely female perspective that gives the movie a really unique and refreshing quality. The 'you'll have to kill me to stop me' trope so often infused with simple macho bravado in lesser movies operates with such real, deep pathos and peril in Winter's Bone, that it takes a potentially standard chase, investigation film and turns it into exploration of identity, family, responsibility and personal sacrifice. A film about what we give up to become whole. Loved it.


How To Train Your Dragon
Great film, beautifully made, and well told. Elevated pretty well trod subject matters and themes with great visuals, interesting character dynamics, sublime animation and brilliant filmmaking. The film earns so much love from me for really taking it's time to build the relationship, and invest us in it.
The best film Dreamworks has made.


Toy Story 3
Super biased for this, but bear with me. More than anything, I always respected the ambition of the film to speak plainly and honestly about accepting one's mortality, and that to love fully means sometimes saying goodbye. These themes are at the heart of the conceit's central analogy and are absolutely universal; one of- if not the main- criteria I use to think about films. We ALL die, we ALL lose loved ones. What do we do about it? That's what Ts3 is shooting at.

I should say haven't seen the kings speech, 127 hours, blue valentine and a few others people are going nuts over.

I should also say that I loved Tangled and Inception for honorable mentions.

All in all. Great year for movies I thought.
What did you see/like/love?

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