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responsible for an immense amount of memorable visual memes produced from the seventies to the late eighties.  the "look and feel" of the paradigm shift. - @om* 4/1/00

"the hollywood establishment will fall"

american film guru Douglas Trumbull is working on the new reality of cinema

welt: is hollywood ready for the digital age?

dt: on hollywood's scale, 150- to 200-million- dollar movies have become commonplace. there are tons of hollywood managers that can't even think in other dimensions any more and who cannot even appreciate smaller films politically. but this is nothing but the masturbatory excesses of a passing aristocracy - it has nothing to do with concious media politics and no place in the future media realities. what, if this kind of gigantomania results in a meager profit of 5 million dollars? i don't know how these studios are expecting to survive with this kind of twisted economic strategy.

welt: so hollywood is becoming an increasingly virtual space?

dt: hollywood is nothing but a synonym these days anyway. few people actually know that even films like _Star Wars_ (vhs/ntsc)(1977) aren't made in america, but in england and other places. the future of digital cinema will be different.

welt: you are known for propagating the completely synthetic film.   actors only do their work in front of a blue or green screen, that is later replaced with a cost-effective virtual reality.   why not work with virtual actors to begin with?

dt: this is the subject of _SimOne_.

welt: the new film from andrew niccol _Gattaca_ (vhs/ntsc). a director,  whose female star actor runs off on him, creates a double in the machine. but already now many actors increasingly seem to be made from plastic. lets remember those in _2001_ (DVD)(1968).

dt: well, it was kubrick's goal to make the human actors appear like machines and make the machine, the computer HAL, appear more like a human being.

welt: back then the costs were a significant hurdle..

dt: when computers came to the big screen they were unbelievably expensive. a lot of companies went under because they couldn't recoup the $75,000 investments for a single workstation, as happened to my colleague richard edlund. today an individual can buy everything that's needed to create pictorial universes  at home for the cost of a compact car. the consumer won't be paying more than 25 cents each for this product which will be available by subscription. big studios and distributors with global franchises won't be needed any more. the hierarchies of the hollywood establishment will fall.

welt: is the digitalization of cinema also bringing us a cross-over into other forms of digital media, like computer games?

dt: the game industry is already much larger than the entire film business and it keeps on growing. this proves that there is an incredible market for interactivity. but all this is just a taste of things to come and today rarely goes beyond the scope of simple shoot 'em up games. but, i am convinced that a very sophisticated form of interactive intelligence is coming...

welt: when ever growing parts of the population spend their time, cynically speaking, in "digital concentration camps" because their is no useful work for them to do, will the desire grow to create a more sensual, interactive parallel universe?

dt: of course it will take time until the software will be ready.

welt: in 1981 you made a movie in which a data helmet creates visual illusions and sensations directly into the users brain..

dt: _Brainstorm_ (vhs/ntsc), with natalie wood and Christopher Walken.

welt: in bigelow's film _Strange Days_ (vhs/ntsc) 14 years later, virtual realities are created directly in the users brain by the way of a little cap that is put on the head. but our brain is a good isolator,  and to affect brain cells, electric shocks usually have to be used. in the last few years, an alternative method was developed,  called a "transcranial magnetic simulation", that envelops the head in a strong magnetic field. this way optical illusions can be created...

dt: in the meantime, i have worked with a canadian engineer who has invented something very much like "brainstorm". is it not something like a helmet, more like a walkman-sized device. you push a button, and you get emotionally or sexually stimulated, euphoric, angry, fearful or depressed, as you desire.. spiritually, you feel like you are encountering god..

welt: this sounds like a hallucinogen..

dt: yes it does. this is why the inventor is having scruples to bring his technology to the market. he is afraid of what might happen, no matter whose hands it might end up in..

welt: this could pass for science fiction.

dt: but it isn't science fiction. it's reality.

welt: and how does this device work?

dt: it has very delicate, directional magnetic fields that aren't much stronger than the natural magnetic field that envelops the earth. it isolates the magnetic field on certain frequencies..

welt: but the real interface to hack is not the computer, but the human brain. the long term goal could be the total networking of human beings...

dt: myself, i am more concerned with the projection of images directly into the human eye..

welt: then one day, the ultimate cinema will all happen inside your head: interactive, sensual, emotional, maybe through chip implants.

dt: or as a visual aid for the blind. in any case, we will be entering a new world. other than in a normal movie, where emotions, worries, euphoria are conveyed by the way of empathy, we will be feeling those things directly. it will be a very personal experience, much more memorable than anything that came before it..

• track _Cinematheque_ MP3 (160k) by Camera Obscura off of _To Change The Shape Of An Envelope_ on Troubleman Unlimited (2000)
• track _I Am A Cinematographer_ MP3 by Palace Brothers off of _Days In The Wake_ on Drag City (1994)
• post rock track _Cinematography_ MP3 by Tristeza off of _Spine & Sensory_ on Makoto (1999)

  

 Date of birth
      8 April 1942

Filmography as: Director, Miscellaneous crew, Producer, Writer

Director filmography

   1.In Search of the Obelisk (1993)
   2.Back to the Future... The Ride (1991)
   3._Leonardo's Dream_ (1989)
   4.Let's Go (1985)
     ... aka Let's Go, Pal (1985) (Japan: English title: complete title)
     ... aka Toshiba Expo '85 Project (1984) (USA: working title)
   5.Big Ball (1983)
   6._Brainstorm_ (1983)
 

   7._New Magic_ (1983)
   8._Silent Running_ (vhs/ntsc) (1971)
     ... aka Running Silent (1971) (USA: working title)
 

Filmography as: Director, Miscellaneous crew, Producer, Writer

Miscellaneous crew filmography

   1.Blade Runner (1982) (special photographic effects supervisor)
 

   2.Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (special photographic effects director)
   3._Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ (1977) DVDx2 (special photographic effects)
     ... aka Close Encounter of the Third Kind, The (1977) (USA: working title)
     ... aka Watch the Skies (1976) (USA: working title)
 
 

    4.Andromeda Strain, The (1971) (special effects)
   5.Silent Running (1971) (special effects)
     ... aka Running Silent (1971) (USA: working title)
   6._2001: A Space Odyssey_ (1968) DVD (special photographic effects supervisor)
     ... aka Journey Beyond the Stars (1967) (USA: working title)
 

Filmography as: Director, Miscellaneous crew, Producer, Writer

Producer filmography

   1.In Search of the Obelisk (1993)
   2.Brainstorm (1983)
   3.Starlost: Deception, The (1980) (executive)
   4."Starlost, The" (1973) TV Series
   5.Silent Running (1971)
     ... aka Running Silent (1971) (USA: working title)
 

Filmography as: Director, Miscellaneous crew, Producer, Writer

Writer filmography

   1.Let's Go (1985)
     ... aka Let's Go, Pal (1985) (Japan: English title: complete title)
     ... aka Toshiba Expo '85 Project (1984) (USA: working title)

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