Academy award winner Douglas Trumbull has announced his forward-looking ten-minute demonstration movie UFOTOG, which has been produced at TRUMBULL STUDIOS. The experimental sci-fi adventure showcases the 4K 3D at 120 fps process MAGI. The 72-year-old, whos best known for his work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, says hes figured out how to win the battle against big TVs and smartphones — from a studio on his farm in the Berkshires To the Moon and Beyond featured a 70 mm circular image projected onto a dome screen and took viewers on a journey from the Big Bang to the microcosm in 15 minutes. Two of the thousands who saw it were Stanley Kubrick, the filmmaker, and Arthur C. Clarke, the writer, who came away from it convinced that an A-level sci-fi film — which eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey — was possible. His greatest contribution to it was devising a way to create a believable Star Gate effect, representing the transformation of a character through time and space to another dimension. Even though Kubrick alone claimed screen credit and an Oscar for the films VFX, Trumbull instantly became a name in the business. A few years later, he made his directorial debut with Silent Running (1972), a well-received film that landed him deals at Fox, MGM and Warner Bros. — but all of them unraveled for stupid reasons. By 1975, desperate because you cant live on development deals, he and Richard Yuricich proposed the creation of the Future General Corporation, through which they would try to identify ways to improve the technology used to make films. Paramount agreed to sponsor the endeavor — which, to them, was a tax write-off — in return for 80% ownership. Within the first nine months of its existence, Trumbull says, We invented Showscan [a manner of projecting films at 60 fps]. We invented the first simulator ride. We invented the 3D interactive videogame. And we invented the Magicam process [by which actors can perform in front of a blue screen, onto which nonexistent locations can be projected to create virtual realities]. And yet, in the end, Paramount saw no future in the future of movies and failed to support their efforts, devastating Trumbull, who was under exclusive contract to the studio for the next six years. (The studios one gesture that he did appreciate: loaning him out to Columbia to do the special effects for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) Trumbull got out of his Paramount contract in 1979 thanks to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The original effects team that had been engaged for the highly anticipated film couldnt handle the job, something the studio realized only six months before its long-scheduled Christmas release date. The studio begged Trumbull to take over, and he agreed to do so — provided he was paid a considerable fee and released from his contract. He got what he requested and, to the detriment of his health, also got the job done on time. Newly a free agent, Trumbull continued to take on special effects jobs for others — for instance, Ridley Scotts Blade Runner (1982) — but his primary focus was on directing a film of his own that would demonstrate the capabilities of Showscan. For the project, which he called Brainstorm, he secured a top-notch cast, led by Natalie Wood, and a major distributor, MGM. Production got underway and was almost completed when, on November 29, 1981, tragedy struck: Wood drowned under circumstances that remain mysterious to this day. Since Wood had only a few small scenes left to shoot, Trumbull felt that he could easily finish the film, but MGM, which was in dire financial straits, filed what he deemed a fraudulent insurance claim because they wanted to get out of it. Then, in 1990, he was approached about making a Back to the Future ride for Universal Studios venues in Florida, Hollywood and Japan. Others had been unable to conquer it, but he made it happen — and in a groundbreaking way: It took you out of your seat and put you into the movie. You were in a Delorean car. You became Marty McFly. You became a participant in the movie. The movie was all around you. It ran for 15 years, he says, but was dismissed as a theme park amusement. He felt it was something more. This was a moment where, for the first time in history, you went inside a movie. Even though others failed to see larger possibilities, he says, That kinda kept me going for a long time because it validated that we could be here in the Berkshires and make breakthroughs that no one else was able to do in Hollywood or anywhere else. After years of work on his farm, Trumbull is finally ready to unveil UFOTOG. Its first public presentation will take place on Sept. 11 as part of the Toronto International Film Festivals Future of Cinema conference (at which Trumbull will also give a keynote address), and it will also screen days later at the IBC Conference in Amsterdam. At both venues, he says, his message will be rather straightforward: Its not rocket science, guys. Its just a different shape, a different size, a different brightness and a different frame rate. Abandon all that crud thats leftover from 1927. Were in the digital age. Get with it. Trumbulls main objective, though, is to show the industry what it is possible to do with MAGI. He says hes dying to show UFOTOG to filmmakers such as Jackson, Cameron and Christopher Nolan, whom he regards as kindred souls. But mostly, he wants to challenge the industry one more time, warning it, If you want people to come to theaters, you better do something different. youtu.be/wd6_oz7KBWk
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:14:54 +0000
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