This week, as our team prepares to attend the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, we are taking the opportunity to reflect on the unsung heroes within the film industry. We posed a challenge to Efosa, our team member, to uncover a remarkable story of an individual who played a crucial role in saving a well-known film from disaster. Today, we share a tale that highlights the importance of often-overlooked contributions in filmmaking, and we invite your thoughts.

Shamir

P.S. Dont forget to check out the Extras section at the end of the article for insights into other projects we are exploring, plus an invitation to dine with us if youre attending NAB.

Having been with Pixar since its inception, she had worked on iconic films like Toy Story and A Bugs Life and had gained a reputation for her calm demeanor even in the most chaotic situations.

Additionally, at that time, Galyn was a new mother, which meant she was working from home more frequently. This turned out to be a fortuitous detail: she had a complete backup of critical files on her home computer.

In 1998, the logistics of working from home meant physically copying the films files onto her personal machinea far cry from todays cloud storage solutions. With trust in her hardware and the hope of saving the film, Galyn sprang into action.

The Race Against Time

Upon realizing that her backup might be the last refuge for Toy Story 2, Galyn and a colleague dashed out of a studio meeting. They jumped into her Volvo, racing home to retrieve the vital data.

In a scene that could only be described as cinematic, her home computer was secured in the backseat like precious cargo. We must remember the technological limitations of the time; it isnt easy to comprehend how a home computer could possibly hold the extensive data required for a feature film, especially one as ambitious as Toy Story 2.

It took the effort of eight people to help transport her home computer from the car into the Pixar studio, a testament to the sheer volume of data they were dealing with.

Against all odds, it worked. The files were intact. The movie had been savedat least partially.

To clarify, the recovery wasnt a simple restoration of a complete movie file; rather, it consisted of the character database, which contained essential code and models for the films characters. Without this foundation, the entire production would have had to be rebuilt from scratch. The team still faced the daunting task of manually reviewing and restoring over 100,000 files line by line, but thanks to Galyns foresight, the film had been given a second chance.

The Legacy of Galyn Susman

This story serves as a powerful reminder of the invisible labor that often goes unnoticedthe unsung heroes who manage backups and verify systems, ensuring that everything runs smoothly.

Though managing backups was part of Galyns job, the fact that a $100 million Hollywood film hinged on a home copy of a character database illustrates how fragile the production pipeline was in 1998. Without modern cloud solutions and automated backups, the entire filmmaking process relied on trust and meticulous manual efforts.

In subsequent years, studios adopted more robust backup strategies, with whole departments dedicated to data security and workflow efficiency. Following the crisis surrounding Toy Story 2, Pixar even established a dedicated IT department to prevent such disasters from occurring in the future.

However, after the crisis had subsided, Pixar executivesincluding John Lasseterdecided that much of the film needed to be scrapped and reworked entirely. Despite Galyns successful recovery, the studio believed that the movie did not meet their standards. Most of Toy Story 2 was re-conceived and produced within a year, ultimately leading to the film that audiences cherished.

This narrative, while deeply rooted in a specific time, has valuable implications for the future of filmmaking. The advancements in technology and data management we have today owe a great deal to the lessons learned from situations like this.

In 2023, it was revealed that Galyn Susman was laid off from Pixar, along with 7,000 other Disney employees. Her departure was met with little fanfarea stark contrast to the monumental impact she had on the industry. The irony remains that the guardian of one of the most treasured animated stories of our time did not receive a proper sendoff.

Nonetheless, Galyn's legacy endures. You may not see her name in bright lights, but the enduring success of Toy Story 2 was, in many ways, a product of her relentless dedication and quiet heroism.