Amidst being greeted by a thunderous applause whose echo drummed against the dark, thick walls of a packed CDM Theatre two Saturday evenings ago at DePaul University, Mary Coleman, a Senior Development Executive for Disney Pixar, made her way onto the stage, taking a seat across from Scott Myers. Before engaging in a panel discussion with the current host of GoIntoTheStory.com, a renowned screenwriting blog for The Blacklist, reflecting upon her experiences working for, and helping to build, what is currently considered to be the most iconic computer animation film studio in Hollywood.
Tall and self-possessed, while boasting an elegance that imparted an aura conceived out of a soothing blend of meditation and reserve, there seemed to be a sense of unassuming wisdom that filled the air, as Coleman, in a voice tender and graceful, breathed honest, yet uplifting words. Words that had a particular way of shaping themselves to fit the way each of the young ears they found their way into, needed to be heard, and understood. An understanding, an introspection, that only grew to resonate louder with entrancing force, as Coleman reminisced with nostalgic, near photographic recount, the travail and labor kindled to forge the success of projects such as "Up", "Monsters Inc." and "Finding Nemo" -- to name a few among the arm's length of iconic films the studio executive is responsible for pioneering.
Yet, for all the 18 years of cinematic tour de force Coleman has brought to Pixar, her rise to the upper echelons of story development was a rare, and without pinch of doubt, an unconventional path. Unlike Kathleen Kennedy -- who started off as Stephen Spielberg's secretary before her timely ascent to the office of President for Lucasfilm -- or Mark Canton -- who worked in the mailroom of 20th Century Fox before his star studded rise to Chairman of Columbia Pictures -- Coleman landed in Emeryville, the headquarters of Pixar, without any previous experience in the film industry. She had never interned for a production company or a major studio, or provided a single word of coverage for one movie script. Coleman even remarked to Scott Myers in a delight of sarcasm how she even told Pixar, when they first contacted her, the she harboured a general distaste for cartoons. A response unprecedented, yet predictably, met with laughter that spilled out from tongues and the backs of throats tickled by the prick of a simple, yet profound irony.
Coleman's entertainment origins began on a stage no different than the one she sat upon in the CDM Theatre. An English major in college, she went on to graduate from the University of California, San Diego with an MFA in Theatre, emphasizing on Directing. However, she quickly found herself overwhelmed by the sheer, demanding, and sometimes unfair, rigours of preparation needed to adequately run a stage production. But among the circumstances fraught with unending toil, therein lies within the travail itself, small glimmers of levity, of simple joys meant, above all us, to be enjoyed. For Coleman, this was discovered in the reading room, where she was afforded time to work in close proximity and collaboration with writers, actors, and directors to determine how to orchestrate a creative vision that would not only fill empty seats, but keep them occupied with awe, and every conceivable emotion braying from within the chambers of the sometimes callous, but ever more fragile, human heart. Writing about this in a production note, it wasn't long before the spark in the timber caught fire, and burst into a light that burns ever brighter today, when this record found its way into the hands of a high-ranking Pixar associate.
Currently attached to develop three upcoming projects, one of which will be the fourth "Toy Story" movie, Scott Myers pressed Coleman, hoping to squeeze her for what little drops of spoilers the movie executive might be generous enough to divest to an eager audience. None of which likely escaped childhood without being touched, or affected in some emotional capacity, by at least a handful of Pixar films. However, Coleman, sitting back in her chair, retreating into her graceful, sage emanation, betrayed just the tiniest pinch of what could be called a smile. But behind lips that hardly curled, an economic clemency that expressed just enough to deliver a stroke of heartwarming deference, there remained inaccessible, Coleman's mind and vision that had accessed so many times before, and looked up from the highest hieghts of cinematic endeavour only to climb even higher. It was a mind and vision cast aflame with courage to plunge deep into the unknown. Towards the unlikely. And pulling it up, and taking it by the hand and waist, begun, was a swing and sway. A dalliance. A waltz that carried the audience off into a realm of remote, entrapping timelessness. A timelessness as not yet conceived before. A timelessness unexpected as the watch that forever reads present whilst strapped around the masterful hands that conduct the symphony of Mary Coleman's career at Pixar. A symphony that is very much today, as it was yesterday, music that enchants the ears.
