FX Genius Douglas Trumbull Has Finished His New, Cutting Edge Sci-Fi Film

We’ve been waiting for pioneering FX man and fantastic director Douglas Trumbull to announce more about his ambitious, cutting edge sci-fi projects, ever since our man Craig Skinner talked to him about them in 2011.

What I wasn’t expecting to learn is that he’s already finished one and is hoping to screen it in August.

UFOTOG, which is a pseudo-acronym for Unidentified Flying Object Photography, is a short film about a man attempting to take pictures of a UFO.

According to The Hollywood Reporter - who repaid Trumbull for speaking to them by giving their story a horrendous headline – the film runs to 10 minutes and was shot in 3D at 4k resolution and 120 frames per second.

This, Trumbull says:

is less like a movie and more like a live event. The screen becomes a giant window onto reality.

Which is exciting and inspiring, I think, as long as the peculiarly cinematic powers of composition and editing remain. Throwing those out in pursuit of a proxy stage play would be a bad move.

Trumbull has described the lead character of UFOTOG, as played by the actor Ryan Winkles:

He’s very smart, a serial entrepreneur, like Elon Musk. So he has the wherewithal to get a really good camera and build a system on a mountain top.

And so I’m sure his engagement with the UFO goes beyond a few quick snaps. Trumbull also has a plan for a feature length version of this same story, and I expect that’s even less about hanging around at high altitude and hoping to spot a weirdly moving light.

The next step will be to screen the film. At the moment, the plan is to find somewhere in LA this August that can be equipped to show such cutting edge footage. It likely hasn’t been easy for Trumbull to find venues, and it’s not going to be simple for UFOTOG to play widely – at least not in its native form, or at any time soon.

There’s another twist to this story, as while Trumbull has been busy making a film about a man trying to photograph a UFO… he’s been trying to photograph a UFO. Here’s a video about the lengths he’s gone

Some talk in there has left me wondering how much the film is going to blend fact and fiction. Trumbull seems as passionate about UFOs as he does cutting edge cinematography.

Now, I’ve gone on the record about my love of 3D and high frame rate cinema several times before. I’m absolutely fascinated by what Trumbull is trying to pull off here, so I’ll be watching closely. I’ll keep you updated.

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