Pixar Research Task

History of the Company

When pixar was originally founded in 1979 it was launched with the name of The Graphics Group. The company was founded on 1986 as Pixar Animation Studios by Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith. The main share holder in the company is Steve Jobs who put the money into the company through Apple inc. in 1986. The Company was bought out in 2006 by the Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion.

The cartoon Luxo Jr. is a short film based around a large and small desk lamp. They interact with various objects and move around. It was produced by Pixar and Directed by John Lasseter and was 132 seconds long. Luxo Jr. was the pinnacle project for Pixar as soon as they had launched in 1986. The Luxo lamp became a predominant part of Pixar's image as it was featured on their corporate logo to this day and shown at the launch of every feature length film they screen. 
The cartoon received nominations for awards including a nomination for an Academy Award in the category Best Short Film.







Disney
Disney bought complete ownership of Pixar in 2006. Prior to this there were associations with Disney and Pixar along with multiple discussions on their arrangements with who owes what etc. The first disagreements happened between Pixar and disney after the release of Toy Story 2. The film was originally intended to be a straight to video release rather then a theatrical release it was upgraded to a theatrical release during production. Pixar demanded that the film be counted towards the three-picture agreement but Disney refused, though profitable for both. Disney handled marketing and distribution and Pixar handled the creation and production of the film. Constant Mis Judgements and disagreements led to the purchase of Pixar by Disney for $7.4 billion in a massive stock deal, 2006.

Lucas Film

Lucas Film was the parenting company of Pixar Animations before it became an independent company in 1986. Lucas Firm is the company responsible for the Starwars films as well as the indiana Jones series of films. They are also responsible for a multitude of different films coming out. Lucas Film was founded by film maker George Lucas in 1971. In January 2012 Lucas announced that his company would no longer focus on big budget block busters but rather smaller and more independently budged films.

Tin Toy

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Tin Toy is a full length CGI Short Film created by Pixar in 1988. It was directed by John Lasseter and had a running time of 5 minutes. It had a production budget of $300,000 dollars. Tin Toy was the first pixar film to win the company an Oscar. It won the Oscar an Academy Award in Best Animated Short Film category.

John Lasseter
John Lasseter is fundamentally important within the company as he was one of the key founders and funders, moreover he was involved in the initial creation of all the short films that started and created Pixar in the film industry. The films that got them discovered and the films that led up to big releases such as Toy Story. These short films being Tin Toy and Luxo Jr.

Working Culture and Environment
The working culture and environment within Pixar is designed to be very relaxed and chilled, moreover like apples culture the studio was designed with people in mind and within following this scheme its very open planned and its about interacting and creating a great working environment. For example when tours of the studios are happening the workers are often seen hanging about and although doing work, they are doing it in a very relaxed and chilled manner.