This article is also available in:
French
We have already published several videos from Thomas Martin aka Gorkab in the past: his Youtube channel CGM focuses on the history of VFX. We even worked with him on some interviews shot during the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy.
Thomas Martin is back with a new ambitious project: Digital Pioneers, an upcoming documentary about the company Digital Productions. You probably already know the movies this studio worked on during the 80s: CG spaceships in The Last Starfighter (1984, Nick Castle), clouds on Jupiter in 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984, Peter Hyams), and the famous CG owl from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, in 1986: the first virtual animal in a movie!
The goal of the documentary is to interview the pioneers from Digital Productions, but “with a professional team, rather than with a poorly framed webcam recorded off Zoom or Skype”, as Thomas Martin explains. In addition to these interviews, “hundreds of original slides, demo reels, and special LaserDiscs” have already been collected.
The documentary will be at least 90 minutes long, and will be available both in English and French. Thomas Martin and his crew received a grant from the French National Center for Cinematography for this project: 15 000€, about 50% of the money needed. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to crowdfund the other half of the budget, and this is where you can get involved. By pledging a few bucks for this project, you will even get a few things in return: you name in the credits, button badges, a link to the online premiere (before the film is published on Youtube), postcards from the original Digital Production slides, a Blu-Ray copy of the disc, and even some commemorative coins. You can check out the trailer and the Kickstarter page for more information.
Last, but not least, 3DVF.com will support help fund this project: don’t forget to follow us if you want to be kept updated!
