Mendelson
07-30-2009, 09:31 PM
Eric Haseltine is his name and I met with him for work (not Disney related). After Disney he went to a high level at the NSA, so his work history is fascinating to me, to say the least.
We talked briefly about his time in Imagineering. He said when he got there Imagineering primarily supported the parks but he ramped it up to support the entire company. He was there for the opening of AK, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
He talked a bit about the movie side and how they typically didn't want help from Imagineering and then he told two stories that get to the heart of how R&D efforts don't always equal success in any given company.
While at Imagineering he developed something for the animators that he called the Imagine-easel. It allowed the animators to draw directly onto a computer screen that would immediately put the image into the computer so no scanning or extra steps. They could even put a paper on the screen so they could still have that drawing-on-paper feel. They bought several and gave them to the animators. But then he heard nothing back from them, despite expecting to hear lots of praise. Everytime he called to check in he was politely told that the animators loved them, but he was still suspicious they weren't being used. Finally he went to the animators area and talked to someone there who sheepishly admitted they weren't using the easels at all. What his mistake was was not observing their area, work habits, culture of the environment, etc...he didn't realize they had a factory of sorts, and he stuck something foreign into the factory without proper buy in.
So he asked the head of animation (whose name I forget now) what he could do to help. He was told that a device that helped get the colors right would be great....so the colors the animators want/use in their drawing is what actually would show up in the movie. So he developed some computers that when looked at with a simple pair of glasses would ensure the animator would see a color that would ultimately show up in the movie. And just when it was ready to be rolled out he called the head of animation who told him he was leaving that post....and it died there.
Anyway, just sharing. Thought it was interesing (though some of his stories from the NSA were much more so...but scarier!).
We talked briefly about his time in Imagineering. He said when he got there Imagineering primarily supported the parks but he ramped it up to support the entire company. He was there for the opening of AK, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
He talked a bit about the movie side and how they typically didn't want help from Imagineering and then he told two stories that get to the heart of how R&D efforts don't always equal success in any given company.
While at Imagineering he developed something for the animators that he called the Imagine-easel. It allowed the animators to draw directly onto a computer screen that would immediately put the image into the computer so no scanning or extra steps. They could even put a paper on the screen so they could still have that drawing-on-paper feel. They bought several and gave them to the animators. But then he heard nothing back from them, despite expecting to hear lots of praise. Everytime he called to check in he was politely told that the animators loved them, but he was still suspicious they weren't being used. Finally he went to the animators area and talked to someone there who sheepishly admitted they weren't using the easels at all. What his mistake was was not observing their area, work habits, culture of the environment, etc...he didn't realize they had a factory of sorts, and he stuck something foreign into the factory without proper buy in.
So he asked the head of animation (whose name I forget now) what he could do to help. He was told that a device that helped get the colors right would be great....so the colors the animators want/use in their drawing is what actually would show up in the movie. So he developed some computers that when looked at with a simple pair of glasses would ensure the animator would see a color that would ultimately show up in the movie. And just when it was ready to be rolled out he called the head of animation who told him he was leaving that post....and it died there.
Anyway, just sharing. Thought it was interesing (though some of his stories from the NSA were much more so...but scarier!).