PGA
AT YOUR
SERVICE
PGA
AT YOUR
SERVICE
72
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73
June | July 2022
Lightyear
Galyn Susman, p.g.a.
Disney and Pixar’s Lightyear, the latest
spino from the wildly successful Toy
Story franchise, is described as an
origin story, with Buzz Lightyear and
his crew stranded on a hostile planet
with the mission to get them all safely
home. Tim Allen, long the voice of the
bu, Herculean-jawed astronaut, has
been replaced by a younger model:
Chris Evans. The original Toy Story
(1995) was the first feature-length
film created entirely with CGI, and it’s
safe to say that Lightyear producer
Galyn Susman has witnessed the
form’s phenomenal growth first-hand
over the years, having joined Pixar in
1990. She’s a CGI pioneer in her own
right, having participated on the team
that created a short film on Macintosh
computers in the late ’80s when she
conducted graphics research and
development at Apple. Lightyear is
due out on June 17, the first theatrical
release for Pixar Animation Studios
since Disney and Pixar’s Onward in
March 2020.
SAVE FOR THE CHARACTERS,
LIGHTYEAR
FEATURES AN
ASTONISHING LIVE-ACTION,
CINEMATIC LOOK—ALBEIT ONE
WITH THE KIND OF SPECIAL
EFFECTS WE ASSOCIATE WITH
THE
STAR WARS
FILMS. HAS
IT GOTTEN TO THE POINT
WHERE THERE’S NO LEVEL
OF PHOTOREALISM THAT
CAN’T BE ACHIEVED WITH
COMPUTER ANIMATION?
I’m not sure that photorealism is really
the boundary condition. We have been
able to achieve photorealism in FX for
live-action films for some time now. I do
think that we are no longer limited in the
stories that we can convincingly tell with
animation. We can now create worlds and
characters that an audience can invest
in and feel concern for, and we have the
cinematic tools to apply the wealth of
live-action cinematography lessons to
telling complex stories. We are fortunate
that, as sci-fi lovers, we have been given
the opportunity to use all of these tools to
make Lightyear.
The question really isn’t “why
animation?” anymore. Animation is a
medium, like any other medium, not a genre.
HOW LONG DID THIS
PROJECT TAKE FROM THE
INITIAL RENDERINGS TO
THE FINAL PRODUCT?
(Director) Angus (MacLane) and I have
been working on this film for over five
years. That includes all of the time in
development, script, storyboarding, etc.
When you say “initial renderings,” if
you mean from when we first pitched
the concept, that would be five and
a half years. If you mean from when
we started “shooting,” i.e., when we
began building shots in the computer
with characters in environments,
that would be the fall of 2020.
THIS IS THE SORT OF LAVISH
PROJECT WHERE YOU’D EXPECT
AN ARMY OF PRODUCERS,
AND YET YOU ARE THE
SOLE CREDITED PRODUCER,
MARKING TIME
Clockwise from top: Alisha Hawthorne (right),
Lightyear’s comrade in arms, voiced by Uzo
Aduba, gets married to a same-sex partner
and raises a biracial family; Lightyear with Sox
(Peter Sohn), his robotic sidekick; Susman on
the set of Lightyear
ALONGSIDE TWO EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS.
WAS THIS A CASE OF FEWER COOKS IN THE
KITCHEN, THE BETTER?
That’s how we do things at Pixar. The executive producers
are generally creatives that can be more objective partners
for the director in developing the story and can wear the
studio mantle for determining when creative thresholds
have been met. I work closely with an associate producer,
in this case Michael Warch, who is more intimately
involved in the staffing and the day-to-day management
of the budget and schedule, along with our production
manager, Sara Wilson. As the producer, I am the director’s
partner for getting his vision onto the screen within
constraints set by the studio. I think it’s helpful that we can
work this out together, that he has one point of contact for
the overall strategy of the film. I certainly enjoy this model,
as it keeps me as close as possible to the filmmaking.
LIGHTYEAR
FEATURES A SAME-SEX,
BIRACIAL MARRIAGE. MIGHT THIS BE A FIRST
IN THE DISNEY-PIXAR UNIVERSE?
I believe we have alluded to same-sex relationships in some
of our prior films. I’m not sure about biracial, though we have
been definitely striving to be more diversely representative in
our films for some time now. I do believe this is the first time a
same-sex relationship has played such a significant emotional
role in one of our films. There is so much I could say about the
role of this relationship, the choices we made, etc., much of it
being unnecessary spoilers. Suffice it to say that I am thrilled
to show a healthy, long-term relationship that is central to
the arc of our characters, and more specifically, to Buzz’s arc. I
hope our audiences find it meaningful.
Day Shift
Shaun Redick, p.g.a.
The upcoming Day Shift, an action thriller set in
the Southland that combines domestic drama, the
supernatural and comedy. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx
(Ray, 2004) plays a blue-collar everyman struggling
to hold his marriage together while raising an
8-year-old daughter. His night job? Vampire killer.
It marks the directorial debut of stuntman-turned-
filmmaker J.J. Perry. Shaun Redick, a former literary
and packaging agent who comes to the producing
profession by way of WME and ICM, played a key
role as producer on Jordan Peele’s game-changing
directorial debut, the horror feature Get Out (2017),
and Spike Lee’s provocative BlacKkKlansman (2018)—
Producers of two upcoming films
share their insight on making the
projects that earned them the
Producers Mark certification.
PGA
AT YOUR
SERVICE
74
producersguild.org | PRODUCED BY
both films that combined social consciousness with sly
humor. Day Shift premieres August 12 on Netflix.
GIVEN ITS MIXED-GENRE ELEMENTS, WHAT DID
YOU ENVISION FOR THIS TONALLY? AND HOW
DID YOU AND YOUR TEAM NAVIGATE THESE
SEEMINGLY DISPARATE ELEMENTS?
Our goal was to produce a fun action thriller with a buddy-
comedy element. Bud (Foxx) is a character our audience can
identify with. He’s trying hard to save his marriage, his family
and his business but can’t seem to get a break. At the same time,
it’s a love letter to the San Fernando Valley.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE IN A NUTSHELL HOW YOU
DIVVIED UP PRODUCING DUTIES WITH YOUR
WIFE, YVETTE, AND YOUR OTHER PRODUCING
PARTNERS, JASON SPITZ AND CHAD STAHELSKI?
Yvette and I develop properties together and discovered Tyler
Tice’s screenplay and developed it further with him. We brought
it to J.J. Perry, a top name in action films, to direct. He’s close
friends with Chad Stahelski (the Wick franchise), so we all
teamed up and continued to collectively develop the script
around our filmmaker’s vision. Our whole group built a dream
cast and crew, and our Netflix team is strong, stayed close and
really helped (us) producers get everything we needed. Chad
and J.J. are elite action (veterans) with nonstop, wild, fun ideas.
Day Shift has been a blast to prep, produce and post, and the
marketing campaign, starting soon, is very exciting and cool.
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM-SOLVING
CHALLENGE THAT YOU ENCOUNTERED
DURING PRODUCTION?
Navigating COVID in 2021 was a big challenge, but we became
very good at producing with extra safety measures in effect 24/7.
Producing as well as communicating on set through zones, masks,
plastic shields and text messaging to reduce contact is not easy.
FEW ACTORS COMMAND THE SCREEN AS
CHARISMATICALLY AS JAMIE FOXX. WHAT DOES HE
BRING TO THE TABLE THAT YOU DIDN’T EXPECT?
I’ve always been a Jamie Foxx fan since In Living Color, and this
was the first time I got to work with him. He’s a total movie star.
Every day on set was like a stand-up show or a concert, and we
had front-row seats. We hope to get a sequel and do it all again. ¢
Certification via the Producers Mark indicates that a producer
performed a major portion of the producing functions on
a specific project. Criteria, its definition, the process for
earning the mark and other particulars can be viewed at
producersguild.org.
Jamie Foxx, left,
plays a pool
cleaner who
moonlights as
a vampire killer
in Day Shift, on
which Shaun
Redick is a
producer.
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