Walking into a room filled with some of the brightest and most creative minds in animation to critique early edits of your new film, still in its infancy, can be quite intimidating for a director.
But that process has helped Pixar produce a steady stream of box office smashes, including the Toy Story series, Cars, Monsters Inc, Inside Out and Finding Nemo.
"It can be a fairly brutal room, not because people are trying to be mean, but they won't pull their punches if they think something isn't working," says Jim Morris, president of Pixar Animation Studios.
"That said, everybody in that room is eventually in the hot seat in that room, so everybody gets it that it's meant to be constructive."
Mr Morris gave Fairfax Media an insight into the exhaustive process that goes into each of the films made by the animation hit machine, which was bought by Disney for $US7.4 billion in 2006.
'Brain Trust'
Known as the "Brain Trust", the small group of Pixar's creative leads helps its directors to refine their vision throughout the production process, from storyboard to final cut.
"We make very rough versions of the film six or eight times before we actually finish it, on storyboards originally, so you can see the whole gesture of the movie and see what's in play.
"Every time we make a version, we screen it, and the Brain Trust watches it, and we have a notes session afterwards where everybody comes in and gives their thoughts and comments," said Mr Morris, whose resumé includes work on Forrest Gump, Terminator 2, Die Hard 2, Back to the Future 3 and Jurassic Park.
Those critiqueing the film are expected to also have possible solutions to help the director work through any problems they may have.
"Somebody goes away from the Brain Trust with a huge list of notes, they are sometimes contradictory notes to one another, but they're the responses of this group."
New films can take up to five years to complete, with the first year spent on writing and starting design, another two years working on the story once a script "passes mustard", and two more years of production.
Collaboration
Mr Morris said that over the last few years Pixar has begun to work more closely with Disney's international arms, showing them film material sometimes more than two-and-a-half years before it is released, not only to inform them about what's coming up but to share ideas on films being produced and what may work, or not work, in certain markets.
Disney Australia managing director Catherine Powell said the collaboration has allowed for local arms to have greater input and have a better resonance with their respective markets.
"There is a mutual trust, we understand what they're giving us and how different it will be, but there is product that we can start to think about in market, who our partners would be, how we want to date it, and also there's a chance to feed back if there are concerns," Ms Powell said.
"The studio team will go out to the US and talk to the film makers and see some product. They will then spend some time with the international group, it's very useful for us to hear what our colleagues in other territories are thinking."
Important pillar
International is an increasing important pillar of revenue for Pixar, with growth outside the US more than making up for a loss of revenue due to declining DVD sales thanks to direct download, Mr Morris said.
Since joining Pixar in 2005 from Lucasfilm, which is now also owned by Disney, Mr Morris said the biggest change has been the increased rate at which the studio pushes out films.
"Right around the Disney time was when we decided we want to try and get to three movies every two years."
Moving forward, Mr Morris said he was optimistic that audiences would continue to enjoy the animated film experience, despite a myriad of viewing options. However, part of his job will be to bring in a new generation of Pixar talent.
"The directors who started it are getting older, they're still making films right now, but talking 10 years or 20 years from now we're going to have a new crop of directors that are a little bit from a different time and space, and trying to make that work, balancing the tradition with new ideas."
