Oscar Shortlist Interviews: Director Bret Parker Shares Her Favorite Shot From ‘Pete’ (Exclusive)

We invited the filmmakers behind each of this year’s 15 Oscar-shortlisted animated shorts to share their favorite shot from their film and explain why it’s special to them. The pieces are being published in the order that materials were received.

In this piece, we’re looking at Pete from filmmaker Bret Parker, a 26-year Pixar vet who has worked on many of the studio’s iconic films, including Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Inside Out, and more.

Pete is a true story about gender identity, Little League Baseball, the people who inspire change by being themselves, and the superheroes who allow that change to happen. It competed at Annecy and Tribeca and won best animated short at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and best family short at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

Below, Parker shares her favorite scene from the short and tells us its significance:

This shot stands out to me as one of my favorite in the film for several reasons.  It’s a shot where the marriage of the narration and the visuals come together harmoniously to support the emotional impact of the scene.  Emotionally, this is where Pete feels most alone.  I added the kids walking away at the head of the shot to reinforce this point.  They are no longer surrounded by their friends on the culdesac, and for the first time out in the world as “Pete,” they have been rejected.  I wanted to support that cinematically, so we decided to start the camera just close enough so we could read the expression on their face, and then do a slow pull back into a wide shot, allowing the audience to feel their isolation on the bench.  Visually, the watercolor wash of the sky envelopes them.  To further support the emotional beat of this moment, we muted all of the colors and cut the music, so as the audience, we are left simply with Pete and their narration of that moment.

Read the other entries in the series:

• John Musker on I’m Hip
• Flóra Anna Buda on 27
• Tal Kantor on Letter To a Pig
• Dave Mullins on War is Over!
• Yegane Moghaddam on Our Uniform
• Karni Arieli and Saul Freed on Wild Summon
• Rita Basulto on Humo
• Jared and Jerusha Hess on Ninety-Five Senses
• Stephen Vuillemin on A Kind Of Testament
• Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, and Yannick Jacquin on Boom
• Priit Tender on Dog Apartment
• Stéphanie Clément on Pachyderme
• Lucija Mrzljak and Morten Tšinakov on Eeva
• Dan Abraham and Trent Correy on Once Upon a Studio