The VFX pioneer is still looking to the future as he attempts to re-invent the movies
Today through Thursday, 3D World is at FMX 2012 in Stuttgart. Visit 3dworldmag.com to stay in touch with the conference as it unfolds, with coverage of presentations from the industry’s key figures and a flavour of what it’s like to visit Europe’s leading CG conference.
FMX has taken a lunch break, which is terribly civilised, and we’re back in the main hall with Douglas Trumbull. He’s looking forward, as ever. He’s looking at making a new movie with a hardcore science fiction basis: “I hope it will take over where 2001 and To the Moon and Beyond left off,” he says.
Trumbull’s firm, Trumbull Ventures, is researching the future of cinema. He believes that there is “the possibility of making a movie that’s indistinguishable from reality”. As well as hyperreal projection, there’s the potential offered by immersive technology, where the viewer is part of the movie. “If you’re in the movie, there’s a new cinematic language we have to develop.”
There are several major problems with conventional cinema, he says. Screens are very dim, and are “killing the industry”. “We’ve got to get movies brighter again.”
Frame rates are also far too low. One solution that Trumbull is working on is a hemispherical high-gain screen, with movies projected at 120 frames per second per eye.
The cameras enabling this are small and lightweight, which makes film-making less laborious. He describes how live-action filming could take its cues from animation, using these cameras to block out the entire film with temporary actors to assess how the staging and script are working.
Trumbull continues to work on this combination of technologies that could result in what he calls “a dense illusion of reality”. “I hope to explore the outer fringes of making a movie that’s like life.”
Posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 2:52 pm under Events. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: FMX 2012
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