Acquisition may refer to:

Takeover, the acquisition of a company

Mergers and acquisitions, strategy of buying and selling of various companies to quickly grow a company

Procurement, the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership

* Military acquisition, the process of acquiring products for national defence

"Acquisition" (''Enterprise''), the 18th episode of the television series ''Star Trek: Enterprise''

Seismic acquisition, the artificial generation and recording of seismic data.

Acquisition (software), a Gnutella-based peer-to-peer and BitTorrent client for Mac OS X

Acquisition (forensic process), the creation of a disk image for use in digital forensics.

See also

''Acquire'', board game

Acquire (game developer)

Acquired characteristic

Acquired disorder

Acquired lands

Acquired taste

cs:Akvizice de:Akquisition fr:Acquisition ja:買収 pl:Akwizycja Acquisition refers to the first stages of learning when a response is established. In classical conditioning, acquisition refers to the period of time when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned response.

''Tired Eyes'' is a documentary film, directed by Joe McStravick. The film explores the dream patterns and experiences of people who are blind or partially sighted.

Background

When assigned to make a documentary at University, writer Alex Jarvis approached Director Joe McStravick and the rest of the production group with a concept for a documentary, based on a question he had been recently asking himself "What do blind people dream about". This was then expanded to "what do blind or partially sighted people dream about?".

Production

A local community care centre for the blind and partially sighted agreed to let the team speak with their residents and to use their faculties for the interviews.

Two members of the crew held the low-key interviews using only a standard mini disc player for recording audio - no cameras were used during the interviews. Seven people - of various age groups, backgrounds and countries gave interviews.

After the interviews had taken place the recording transcript was then used as a basis for further research into the blind, partially sighted people's lives at the Royal National Institute of Blind People. They also looked into dreams and dreaming patterns from various texts and sleep research institutions, like the Sleep Research Lab at Loughborough University, England

Due to the zero budget the crew had to use various types of mini-DV and DV-cam Camera's at various times during 2 months.

Post-production

In post-production it was decided that four of those seven people would be used in the final ten minute film.

The director approached Composer and Sound Designer Jay Enticknap (aka FM Umlaut) with a final cut. The director wanted a musical theme for each of the four people (interviewee's). For two of them, he wanted "simple" theme's in the vein of old John Carpenter score's like ''Assault on Precinct 13'', ''Halloween'' or ''The Fog''. For the other two interviewee's, Jay Enticknap used his own hip hop and funk influences to create score's which reflected their respective Middle Eastern, African and Urban backgrounds.

For the soundtrack Jay Enticknap would carry out all sound department duties himself, form Foley to design, mix and dub.

External links

Category:Short films Category:2002 films Category:English-language films Category:Irish documentary films Category:British documentary films Category:Documentary films about people with disabilities Category:Films about blind people Category:2000s documentary films

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	John Lasseter
birthname	John Alan Lasseter
birth date	January 12, 1957
birth place	Hollywood, California
occupation	Animator, film director, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering
yearsactive	1978–present
spouse	Nancy Lasseter (1979–present)
website	}}

John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Lasseter's first job was with The Walt Disney Company, where he became an animator. Next, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation. After the Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986, Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer and he directed ''Toy Story'', ''A Bug's Life'', ''Toy Story 2'', ''Cars'', and ''Cars 2''.

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (''Tin Toy''), as well as a Special Achievement Award (''Toy Story'').

Early years

Lasseter was born in Hollywood, California. His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School, and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter, was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership. Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California. His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation. He often drew cartoons during church services at the Church of Christ his family attended. As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television. While in high school, he read a book about ''Sleeping Beauty'' called The Art of Animation, by Bob Thomas, which made him realize he wanted to do animation himself. And when he saw a screening of ''The Sword in the Stone'', he finally made the decision that he should become an animator.

His education began at Pepperdine University. It was the alma mater of both his parents and his siblings. However, he heard of a new program at California Institute of the Arts and decided to leave Pepperdine to follow his dream of becoming an animator. His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and in 1975 he enrolled as the second student in a new animation course at the California Institute of the Arts. Lasseter was taught by three members of Disney's Nine Old Men – Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston – his classmates included Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick and Tim Burton. During his time there, he produced two animated shorts; ''Lady and the Lamp'' (1979) and ''Nitemare'' (1980), which both won the student Academy Award for Animation.

Disney (first time)

On graduation, Lasseter joined The Walt Disney Company, and was promoted quickly up the ranks to a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland in Anaheim. Lasseter later obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, but felt something was missing; after ''101 Dalmatians'', which in his opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, the studio had lost momentum and was criticized for often repeating itself without adding any new ideas or innovations.

In 1980 or 1981 he coincidently came across some video tapes from one of the then new computer-graphics conferences, who showed some of the very beginnings of computer animation, primarily floating spheres and such, which he experienced as a revelation. But it wasn't until shortly after, when he was invited by his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer, while working on ''Mickey's Christmas Carol'', to come and see the first lightcycle sequences for an upcoming film entitled ''Tron'', featuring (then) state-of-the-art computer generated imagery, that he really saw the huge potential of this new technology in animation. Up to that time, the studio had used a multiplane camera to add depth to its animation. Lasseter realized that computers could be used to make movies with three dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add a new, visually stunning depth that had not been conceived before.

Later he and Glen Keane talked about how great it would be to make an animated feature where the background was computer animated, and then showed Keane the book ''The Brave Little Toaster'' by Thomas Disch, which he thought would be a good candidate for the film. Keane agreed, but first they decided to do a short test film to see how it worked out, and chose ''Where the Wild Things Are'', a decision based on the fact that Disney had considered producing a feature based on the works of Maurice Sendak. Satisfied with the result, Lasseter, Keane and Thomas L. Wilhite went on with the project, especially Lasseter who dedicated himself to it, while Keane eventually went on to work with ''The Great Mouse Detective''.

Lasseter and his colleagues unknowingly stepped on some of their direct superiors' toes by circumventing them in their enthusiasm to get the project into motion. During a pitch meeting for the film to two of them, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios, Ron W. Miller, the project was cancelled, due to lack of perceived cost benefits for the mix of traditional and computer animation. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter was summoned by Hansen to his office, where John was told that his employment in the Walt Disney Studios had been terminated. ''The Brave Little Toaster'' would later become a 2D animated feature film directed by one of John's friends, Jerry Rees, and some of the staff of Pixar would be involved in the film alongside Lasseter.

Lucasfilm/Pixar

While putting together a crew for the planned feature, he had made some contacts in the computer industry, among them Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group. After being fired, Lasseter visited a computer graphics conference at the ''Queen Mary'' in Long Beach, where he met and talked to Catmull again. Before the day was over, Lasseter had made a deal to work with Catmull and his colleagues on a project that resulted in their first computer animated short: ''The Adventures of André and Wally B.'' Because Lucasfilm didn't hire animators, he was given the title "Interface Designer"; "Nobody knew what that was but they didn’t question it in budget meetings". The short turned out to be more revolutionary than Lasseter first had visualized before he joined Lucasfilm. His original idea had been to create only the backgrounds on computers, but in the final short everything was computer animated, including the characters. After this short CGI film, things would continue to grow until it became ''Toy Story'', the first ever computer-animated feature film.

George Lucas's interest in the experimentations began to fade so Lucasfilm Computer Graphics was acquired by Steve Jobs in 1986, and became Pixar. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. He also personally directed ''Toy Story'', ''A Bug's Life'', ''Toy Story 2'', ''Cars'', and ''Cars 2''.

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (''Tin Toy''), as well as a Special Achievement Award (''Toy Story''). Lasseter has been nominated on four other occasions – in the category of Animated Feature, for both ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001) and ''Cars'' (2006), in the Original Screenplay category for ''Toy Story'' (1995) and in the Animated Short category for ''Luxo, Jr.'' (1986), while the short ''Knick Knack'' (1989) was selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.

Back at Disney

Disney purchased Pixar in April 2006, and Lasseter was named chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was also named principal creative advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he helps design attractions for Disney's theme parks. He reports directly to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, bypassing Disney's studio and theme park executives. He also received green-light power on films with Roy E. Disney's consent.

In December 2006, he announced that Disney will start producing animated shorts that will be released theatrically once more. Lasseter said he sees this medium as an excellent way to train and discover new talent in the company as well as a testing ground for new techniques and ideas. The shorts will be in 2D, CGI or a combination of both. However, in a recent interview, it was revealed that all new Disney Shorts have been put on hold until further notice.

Lasseter is a close friend and admirer of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, and has been executive producer on several of Miyazaki's films for their release in the United States, also overseeing the dubbing of the films for their English language soundtrack. The gentle forest spirit Totoro from Miyazaki's ''My Neighbor Totoro'' makes an appearance as a plush toy in ''Toy Story 3''.

Other work

Lasseter drew the most widely known versions of the BSD Daemon, a cartoon mascot for the BSD Unix operating system.

He owns the "Marie E." steam locomotive, which is an H.K. Porter engine. The "Marie E." was once owned by Ollie Johnston, who was one of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men". In May 2007 and again in June 2010, the locomotive visited, and was run by Lasseter at the Pacific Coast Railroad in Santa Margarita, CA alongside the original Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad "Retlaw 1" coaches.

Personal life

Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California with his wife Nancy, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, whom he met at a computer graphics conference. He has five sons, their ages ranging from 10 to 29. The family has a Dachshund named Frank, a cat named Moocher, and Lasseter's father, Paul, also lives on the property. The Lasseters own vineyards located in Glen Ellen, where they make and sell their own label of wine. Nancy retired to take care of their children and work on their vineyard. He is an avid NASCAR fan and loves to attend the races at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University. He gave a commencement address where he encouraged the graduating class of more than 500 students never to let anyone tarnish their dreams.

Filmography

''The Fox and the Hound'' (1981) (in-betweener) (uncredited)

''Mickey's Christmas Carol'' (1983) (creative talent)

''The Adventures of André and Wally B.'' (1984) (character design and animation, models: Andre/Wally)

''Young Sherlock Holmes'' (1985) (computer animation: ILM)

''Luxo Jr.'' (1986) (writer, director, producer, models, animation)

''The Brave Little Toaster'' (1987) (storyboards)

''Red's Dream'' (1987) (writer, director, animator)

''Tin Toy'' (1988) (story, director, animator, modeler)

''Knick Knack'' (1989) (writer, director)

''Porco Rosso'' (1992) (executive creative consultant)

''Toy Story'' (1995) (story, director, modeling and animation system development)

''Geri's Game'' (1997) (executive producer)

''A Bug's Life'' (1998) (story, director, additional voices)

''Toy Story 2'' (1999) (story, director, additional voices)

''For the Birds'' (2000) (executive producer)

''Spirited Away'' (2001) (executive producer: US)

''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001) (executive producer)

''Mike's New Car'' (2002) (executive producer)

''Finding Nemo'' (2003) (executive producer)

''Boundin''' (2003) (executive producer)

''Howl's Moving Castle'' (2004) (executive producer: US)

''The Incredibles'' (2004) (executive producer)

''Jack-Jack Attack'' (2005) (executive producer)

''Cars'' (2006) (story, screenplay, director)

''One Man Band'' (2006) (executive producer)

''Mater and the Ghostlight'' (2006) (original story, director)

''Lifted'' (2006) (executive producer)

''Tales from Earthsea'' (2006) (executive producer: US)

''Meet the Robinsons'' (2007) (executive producer)

''Ratatouille'' (2007) (executive producer)

''How to Hook Up Your Home Theater'' (2007) (executive producer)

''Your Friend the Rat'' (2007) (executive producer)

''Presto'' (2008) (executive producer)

''WALL-E'' (2008) (executive producer)

''BURN-E'' (2008) (executive producer)

''Bolt'' (2008) (executive producer)

''Tinker Bell'' (2008) (executive producer)

''Cars Toons'' (2008–present) (director)

''Super Rhino'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Partly Cloudy'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Up'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Ponyo'' (2009) (director, executive producer: US)

''Glago's Guest'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Dug's Special Mission'' (2009) (executive producer)

''The Princess and the Frog'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Prep & Landing'' (2009) (executive producer)

''Day & Night'' (2010) (executive producer)

''Toy Story 3'' (2010) (story, executive producer)

''Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue'' (2010) (executive producer)

''Tangled'' (2010) (executive producer)

''Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa'' (2010) (executive producer)

''Cars 2'' (2011) (director, story)

''Winnie the Pooh'' (2011) (executive producer)

''Brave'' (2012) (executive producer)

''Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012) (executive producer)

See also

List of Pixar films

List of Pixar shorts

References

External links

Richard Verrier and Dawn C. Chmielewski, Fabled Film Company May Get a Reanimator, ''Los Angeles Times'', January 25, 2006

Fortune Magazine interview with John Lasseter – includes biographic information

KCRW's The Treatment: John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (02/04)

KCRW's The Treatment: John Lasseter (06/06)

Category:1957 births Category:American animators Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:Animated film directors Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni Category:Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Category:Disney people Category:Living people Category:People from Glen Ellen, California Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Animated film producers Category:Academy Special Achievement Award winners Category:Computer animation people

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