Eyes to the Future

In 1987, Douglas Trumbull had concentrated on developing technology for the exhibition industry and theme-park rides as a special projects consultant, and formed the Berkshire Motion Picture Corporation, and its’ subsidiary Berkshire Ridefilm. Among his clients were Universal Studios’ Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios Theme Park (LATEST RUMOUR: Back to the Future: The Ride is closing in Florida (this much is a fact). It's rumoured the Hollywood version will close in 2007.), and a trio of presentations at Las Vegas' Luxor Hotel.

In 1989, Mr. Trumbull closed the Berkshire Motion Picture Corp. and went as Trumbull Company, Inc., before merging with IMAX, acting as Vice Chairman, helping to take the company public in 1995.

In 1995, Mr. Trumbull’s most recent company, Entertainment Design Workshop, developed the virtual set technology, and supported the production of fifty-two episodes of Disney’s The Book of Pooh. He also created a new high-tech digital interactive simulator ride for Hitachi.

The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (SFM) in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival Group (SIFF), present an annual Science Fiction Short Film Festival, which features a Douglas Trumbull Award to be presented each year for Best Special Effects.

Today, Mr. Trumbull holds twenty U.S. Patents on various entertainment techologies, and is held in reverence as a pioneer of the optical and digital effects industry. He has been nominated for Academy Awards on five occasions, and has received a life-time achievement Oscar. The majority of the completed cinema projects that Trumbull has been associated with have come to be recognized as classics, like Blade Runner, gaining audiences over time. His most conspicuous cinematic box-office flop, Brainstorm, predicts the fascination of virtual reality, while Silent Running reflected the emerging ecology movement of the early 1970s, and is today regarded as a science fiction classic.

Mr. Trumbull continues to experiment and explore the boundaries of the “immersive experience”, from his work on Imax films such as, Theatre of Time, and Leonardo’s Dream, to researching the possibility of creating imagery to be projected directly to the retina of our eyes.

 “The future of movies is changing dramatically as we speak.”

~ Douglas Trumbull

 “One of my problems was, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do in the normal Hollywood venue. I needed some place to experiment in cinema. And I found that, in the world’s fairs, expos, and theme parks, I could play in film, and I could explore and experiment...and so, I continue to do quite a bit of work in that world, which is completely invisible to most people unless you go to Japan or Germany to some expo. But, it’s been a lot of fun over the years to continue my work that I enjoy.

"Believe me, we’re not going to be “shooting” film much longer. We’re not going to be “projecting” film much longer. We’re in a whole new world.

"I realized that there is something else going on here about imagery and about how human beings perceive imagery. And they are, in fact, images that come through the pupils of our eyes. And these images are formed upside, backwards, on the retinas of our left and right eyes. And our brains project what we see out into what we think is reality. The interface between the world and our brain is inside our heads. That’s a very profound idea if you think about it. That’s one of the projects I’m currently working on. It’s a revelation... a revolution maybe...a three dimensional receptacle “tele-presence“, or something, where we’re going to be making images that are indistinguishable from reality. And the screen is, in fact, in your head. It’s not in the movie theatre. It’s not on your TV. It’s not on your laptop. The screen is going to be inside here. And we’re going to get the images there with some new scanning technology. The human eye is an amazing thing. We are going to make images that are indistinguishable from reality. It’s going to happen within three to five years. The future of movies is changing dramatically as we speak.” 10