David A. Price at Books Inc in the Castro June 9, 2008

Author David A. Price, will be reading selections from his new book, The Pixar Touch

It is the roller-coaster, rags-to-riches story behind the phenomenal success of Pixar Animation Studios: the first in-depth look at the company that forever changed the film industry and the "fraternity of geeks" who shaped it.

"The Pixar Touch" is a story of the technical innovation that revolutionized animation, transforming hand-drawn cell animation to computer-generated 3-D graphics. It's a triumphant business story of a company that began with a dream, remained true to the ideals of its founders- anti-bureaucratic and artist driven--and ended up a multibillion-dollar success.

We meet Pixar's technical genius and founding CEO, Ed Catmull, who dreamed of becoming an animator, inspired by Disney's "Peter Pan "and "Pinocchio," realized he would never be good enough, and instead enrolled in the then new field of computer science at the University of Utah. It was Catmull who founded the computer graphics lab at the New York Institute of Technology and who wound up at Lucasfilm during the first "Star Wars" trilogy, running the computer graphics department, and found a patron in Steve Jobs, just ousted from Apple Computer, who bought Pixar for five million dollars. Catmull went on to win four Academy Awards for his technical feats and helped to create some of the key computer-generated imagery software that animators rely on today.
Price also writes about John Lasseter, who catapulted himself from unemployed animator to one of the most powerful figures in American filmmaking; animation was the only thing he ever wanted to do (he was inspired by Disney's "The Sword in the Stone"), and Price's book shows how Lasseter transformed computer animation from a novelty into an art form. The author also writes about Steve Jobs, as volatile a figure as a Shakespearean monarch . . .

Based on interviews with dozens of insiders, "The Pixar Touch" examines the early wildcat years when computer animation was thought of as the lunatic fringe of the medium.

We see the studio at work today; how its writers, directors, and animators make their astonishing, and astonishingly popular films. The book also delves into Pixar's corporate feuds: between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg ("A Bug's Life" vs. "Antz"), and between Jobs and Michael Eisner. And finally it explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself from a Disney satellite into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown.

About David A. Price:

David A. Price was raised in Richmond, Virginia, and was educated at the College of William and Mary, where he received his degree in computer science. He graduated from Harvard Law School and Cambridge University. Price has written for "The Wall Street Journal," "Investor's Business Daily," "Business 2.0," "The Washington Post," "Forbes," and "Inc." and is the author of "Love and Hate in Jamestown," He lives with his wife and sons in Washington, D.C.

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Books Inc. is a locally owned and operated independent bookseller with 10 locations in California. Books Inc.'s origin dates back to the Gold Rush Days of 1851 when Anton Roman struck it rich in Shasta City, California and set himself up in business selling books. That small bookstore was moved, bought, sold, burned, rebuilt, renamed and became Books Inc., as we know it today, in 1946.

Today, with 10 Stores and 200 employees, Books Inc. serves as a shining example that independent bookselling can survive and prosper, even if we must dance among the elephants.

This Event is Free at Books Inc. 2275 Market St. San Francisco 94114
or on the web at www.booksinc.net and
www.myspace.com/booksinccastro

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