``Brainstorm'' directed by Douglas Trumbull, who overcame difficulties to create it (Part 2)

expression of the night sky

When I saw "Brainstorm" at the theater, I was very impressed that "the night scenes looked like night." This was also the case in " Close Encounters of the Third Kind ," but the night sky was dark and the stars were visible, albeit modestly. It may seem obvious, but the night sky as seen by the human eye is not usually captured on film. The widely used pseudo-night scene effect called " American Night " leaves a unique unnatural look. So Richard Yuricich's brother Matthew used elaborate matte paintings to combine with live action, successfully expressing extremely natural night scenes.

After publication

Brainstorm was finally released in 1983, but the box office gross was a disappointing $10 million against a total budget of $15 million. In addition, the death of Natalie Wood and the protracted trial left him with emotional scars, and Trumbull's dislike of Hollywood became definitive.

Trumbull sold the EEG equipment to Richard Edlund, who had left ILM in 1983, and founded ShowScan Film Corporation(*9) in 1984. He then combined ShowScan with Cineride, a motion simulator that he had been developing at the same time, and in 1985 installed an attraction called "Tour of the Universe" in the basement of the CN Tower in Toronto.

This led him to work in the attractions industry, where he served as president, director, and advisory board member for Berkshire Motion Picture Corporation, Ridefilm Theatre Corporation, IMAX Corporation, Magic Leap, etc. He then founded Trumbull Studios, providing VFX for feature films such as The Tree of Life (2011) and The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Big (2018).

Also, in 2010, he began working again on high frame rate technology(*10). In the early stages of research, it was called "Showscan Digital", but later the official name became "MAGI" (pronounced ma-jai). It is basically 4K, 120fps digital 3D footage, and the first work to use this technology was the short film " UFOTOG " (14) directed by Trumbull. This was his life's work in his later years, and it was about tracking real UFOs. It seems that he had plans to make it into a feature-length film, but this never came to fruition.

*9 Trumbull withdrew from ShowScan in 1989.

*10 Director Ang Lee worked with Trumbull to shoot films such as Billy Lynn's Day of Remembrance (2016) and Gemini Man (2019) in 3D at 120 frames per second.

* Click here for the first part

[References]

Cinefex No.14, October 1983

Cinefex No.9, July 1982

Bob Fischer and Marji Rhea, “Interview: Doug Trumbull and Richard Yuricich, ASC,” American Cinematographer (Aug. 1994)

" DOUGLAS TRUMBULL, VES: Advancing New Technologies for the Future of Film ". VFX Voice Magazine. June 25, 2018

Text: Takayuki Oguchi

In 1982, he became the director of Japan's first CG production, JCGL. After working as the head designer for the IMAX Dome 3D video "Universe 2 ~Sound of the Sun~" at the Fujitsu Pavilion at EXPO'90, he became a freelance video creator. Won an Emmy Award for the NHK special ``Life: A 4 Billion Year Distant Journey'' (1994). He is also a video journalist specializing in VFX, CG, 3D movies, art animation, exhibition videos, etc., and has contributed numerous articles to film magazines, theater pamphlets, the web, etc. In addition to being a visiting professor at Digital Hollywood University, he is also a part-time lecturer at Waseda University's Faculty of Science and Technology, Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Animation, and Japan Electronics College.

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