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Published on 06/05/1995 All articles from this issue

Spielberg announces Hollywood, high-tech partnership at Silicon Graphics

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By Diana Reynolds Roome

Special to the Town Crier

Famed filmmaker Steven Spielberg offered his thanks last Wednesday to a cheering crowd of Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) employees for their contributions to "Jurassic Park" and his latest creation, "Casper." But Spielberg's appearance at SGI's Mountain View headquarters had more purpose than simply extending thank-yous.

The 5,000 SGI employees turned out in force outside Building 6 on the SGI campus to hear the announcement by Ed McCracken, Chairman and CEO, of the latest collaboration between Silicon Graphics Inc. and Dreamworks SKG, the company recently formed by three of the most celebrated wizards of the entertainment industry.

The joint project is the Dreamworks Digital Studio, a revolutionary creative, production and asset management system, which heralds another great leap forward in the technology of the entertainment industry. Its "heart and soul" will be a state-of-the-art computer animation machine accessibly named DAD (Digital Animation Dreammachine) which will in turn import the powerful animation technology of U.K.-based Cambridge Animation Systems Ltd.

DAD will be a central part of the Silicon Studio/LA Training Center, a facility in real time and space, whose opening in Santa Monica was also announced. The Silicon Studio is described as 'a one-of-a kind campus" providing entertainment authors access to advanced tools and training in the latest techniques for creating sophisticated film and video productions. On campus, students of movie making will use Silicon Graphics workstations with the capacity for, editing and creating audio effects, 3D modeling and 2D painting. The studio remains under the direction of Silicon Studio Inc., a subsidiary of Silicon Graphics also based in Mountain View, and will be open to professionals at all levels of the entertainment business. The Dreamworks Digital Studio system will also provide tools for anybody who wishes to pay for them.

"Nothing we're building will be withheld from the world," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-chairman of the Walt Disney Studios and one of the three Dreamworks principals. He characterized the digital tools provided by Silicon Graphics as "the pencils and paintbrushes of the great artists in the world." They are especially appropriate for Spielberg who, he added, "has embraced and pursued future technologies to tell his stories and entertain us in ways we never imagined."

Though the special effects provided by DAD promise to be more advanced than any seen yet, Spielberg gave credit to Silicon Graphics for making "Jurassic Park" possible, due to a collaboration that began three and half years ago.

Because of Silicon Graphics, he said, "We're going to be able to deliver whatever we can dream up. I have an appetite and a big imagination for big kinds of films. Silicon Graphics Technology can help us tell stories for a surprisingly conservative amount of money, because we no longer have to recreate Egypt 5,000 years ago in the Mojave Desert."

He added, amid laughter, "Our partnership with Silicon Graphics is like 'Field of Dreams' in reverse. If we come, they will build it!"