Digital Domain 3.0 has promoted Academy Award-winning VFX supervisor Eric Barba to chief creative officer/sr. visual effects supervisor. In his expanded role, Barba, a 17-year Digital Domain veteran, will help to drive the development of creative-side relationships for the company, guide creative practices and oversee the development of branded materials for the company's marketing efforts. He will continue to work on individual feature films as a VFX supervisor and on commercials as a VFX supervisor and director. Barba reports to CEO Daniel Seah and is based in Los Angeles.
Director David Fincher opined, "Finally! Eric Barba is the reason Digital Domain is on my list of the top three visual effects companies in the world."
Barba was recognized with an Academy Award in 2009 for his work as the VFX supervisor developing a believable digital human character for Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Barba was the VFX supervisor on director Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion and on Kosinski's first feature, TRON: Legacy, as well as Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He also contributed his talents to Fincher's Zodiac.
Like many of the top directors he collaborates with, Barba is equally at home working in film and advertising. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design, he started his career at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Imaging as a digital artist on sci-fi television shows. In 1996 he joined Digital Domain where he supervised visual effects on dozens of commercials for Nike, Heineken, Adidas, Microsoft Xbox/Epic Games, and other leading brands. He has worked on many commercial projects with Fincher, including a multiple-award-winning spot for Adidas, the Nine Inch Nails music video "Only," and spots for Nike, Motorola and HP. Barba's own commercial directing credits include Nike's "Birth of Speed," Jaguar's "Pool," and campaigns for American Express, Cingular and Honda. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Barba said, "Quality is what Digital Domain was built on and what drives us in this new phase of our company. The core creative leadership here has been in place for more than a decade and has set that bar. I'm looking forward to working with this team of supervisors to mentor the next wave of talent to continue delivering on that promise and that expectation."
Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle Reflect On The Life-Changing Film “Trainspotting”
Ewan McGregor, for a fleeting moment after "Trainspotting" came out, felt like a rock star. It wasn't his first significant project; it wasn't even his first film with director Danny Boyle. And he was, in his words, fairly arrogant and cocksure at the time. But that kinetic film about four heroin addicts in late-1980s Scotland was and, 30 years later, remains defining — in his career, in the culture and in his understanding of what true artistic satisfaction can feel like. "It's very much in that early part of my career, and of course, even today, probably the most important piece of work that I was involved in, just because it had such a massive effect on my life. Not only because of what it did, but because of how it felt to make," McGregor told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "It set the bar unknowingly high because it's been quite hard to match ever since." Both McGregor and Boyle are a little wistful about the time, and what they made, as the film marks its 30th anniversary re-release. A 4K digital restoration started in theaters nationwide on Friday (6/5). Though "Trainspotting" was very much of its moment with its Britpop soundtrack, its Thatcher-era grit, its darkly comedic tone and shrewd blend of giddy highs and tragic lows, it's also one that has stood the unforgiving test of time. "You get kids coming up to you who are 17 who said they'd just seen it," Boyle said. "I could be their grandfather … yet it still spoke to them." Putting Hollywood on hold Boyle was a hot commodity after "Shallow Grave," a 1994 black comedy about flatmates in Edinburgh starring McGregor, and Hollywood was calling. Literally. A peak-famous Sharon Stone cold-called him and asked if he'd want to come make a film with her. But he had... Read More