Behind the Scenes: Deep Look speaks at Pixar University (Patreon)

My name is Jenny Oh, and I recently returned to the Deep Look team as one of their Digital Media Producers. I’m really excited to be back! You can watch one of the episodes that I produced about morpho butterflies here.

Last week, we had the honor of being invited by the professional development folks at Pixar Animation Studios — also known as Pixar University or "PU" for short — to give a behind-the-scenes presentation about how we do what we do: Humans Only For Scale: the making of KQED’s award-winning series Deep Look. 

Believe it or not, we'd never had this many Deep Look team members - 8 - in one place!  As shown in the above photo in front of the giant mural of Merida from Brave , here's who's who: lead producer and cinematographer Josh Cassidy; Lauren Sommer, our host and writer, who’s also a science and environment reporter for KQED and NPR; motion graphics artist and editor, Kia Simon, and the creative director at Sneaky Little Sister Films; myself (Jenny Oh);  episode producer / coordinating producer Gabriela Quirós; senior digital editor and series producer Craig Rosa; Atlanta-based composer Seth Samuel; and our resident 3D artist Teodros Hailye. 

Before we launched into our talk, we were given a swanky VIP tour of the expansive Pixar campus in Emeryville. Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings have privacy restrictions, so we can’t show you much of what we saw that day. But I can tell you that we were taken on a visually-rich, historical survey of Pixar’s classic films through drawings, paintings, color studies, clay models, storyboards and other production materials that are on display in their numerous galleries. We also were given a brief glimpse of where Pixar’s storytelling magic happens within their subterranean animation studios. Each section is elaborately decorated by the staff based on themes such as a tropical retreat, an old Western gold-mining town, a quaint alley in Japan — that reflect each creator’s personality. 

Then we headed to a large private theatre where we screened several episodes of Deep Look, and the team weighed in on different aspects of production after each video. 

First up: one of most popular videos, Praying Mantis Love Is Waaay Weirder Than You Think. Lauren outlined how to tell a familiar story with a fresh approach, while Josh and Kia recounted the challenges of filming and editing the praying mantises’ deadly mating ritual. Seth chimed in with how the score from M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi film Signs served as the musical inspiration for his work. 

With How Ticks Dig In With a Mouth Full of Hooks, Gabriela answered the number one question about her video: just how did they manage to film a tick biting a human? (Answer: one of the researcher’s students volunteered her arm to be bitten by an uninfected tick.) She and Kia also addressed how it’s not always easy to strike the right balance of overall “grossness” with our Deep Look videos. It’s an ongoing question for us producers, as we want to show detailed natural phenomena — but without scaring away our audience. Teodros relayed the complicated process of recreating the tick’s intricate mouth accurately in animated form. He worked closely with a researcher who photographed a tick’s bite in detail and provided ample reference materials for his 3D rendering. 

This Adorable Sea Slug Is a Sneaky Little Thief features nudibranchs and was filmed in aquariums, tide pools and under the microscope by Josh. Teodros talked about creating animations to show the invisible inner workings of the nudibranch, while Kia discussed how her zooms and other compositing techniques help create seamless transitions from macro to microscope footage. And Lauren noted how her writing and narration helped shaped the nudibranch’s mischievous character in the video.

We showed one last video as an encore — Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Snail Sex — before enjoying a delicious catered lunch with several Pixar employees (past and present) who wanted to continue the conversation about Deep Look. Then we had just enough time for quick stop at their store — and were gifted with some cool swag — before we snapped one final photo with the iconic Luxo Jr. and the Luxo Ball. Thanks to Pixar for being such splendid hosts, and we hope we can return again in the future for more Pixar University events!