大象传媒

It's over. But still to come...

• Darren Waters
• 10 Mar 07, 03:54 AM

My week in San Francisco and the Valley is at an end.

I've met Google, Mozilla, HP Labs, four different start-up firms - Meebo, Zooomr, Stumble Upon, Yelp - as well as had a tour of Industrial Light & Magic, sat in on a New Tech Meet Up and attended three days of the Game Developer's Conference.

But there is plenty more material to come from this trip.

I'll be writing in-depth about Industrial Light & Magic, doing a series looking at the bright, young things of the web 2.0 space, investigating why this area produces so much great technology, looking at the future of the browser and delving into a camera technology which may revolutionise surveillance.

I'll also be writing about the hottest games firm at the GDC - Media Molecule - and looking at the issue of PC gaming piracy.

We'll also be updating the Valley mash-up map.

Let us know your thoughts on the blog, the coverage and what's to come from the trip.

All civil comments are welcome and even the uncivil ones are read.

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Impressive, most impressive

• Darren Waters
• 10 Mar 07, 03:23 AM

For any cinema-loving, technology geek of a certain age visiting the home of Industrial Light and Magic in San Francisco is a little like coming home.

Outside the firm's office in the Presidio area of the city, master Yoda greets visitors sat atop a fountain.

The offices are part-cutting edge studio, part-museum of film history.

Around each and every corner you will find a treasure of cinema - and not just LucasFilm history. A poster of a James Bond movie is next to a display cabinet with a model from Jurassic Park.

Models, creatures, spaceships, light sabres are on display along each and every corridor. Matte paintings, concept art and even a giant model of the dish of the Starship Enterprise are on show to inspire staff and impress visitors.

The original compositing machine for Star Wars - that layered finished effects onto film - is kept behind a glass cabinet.

The effects team working hard on the third Pirates of the Caribbean film have turned their offices into a living, breathing buccaneer's galley with flags of the jolly roger seen at every turn - although I was under strict instructions "not to look at anything".

I was visiting for a feature for the 大象传媒 News website on how IL&M has stayed at the cutting edge of visual effects - what technologies are they using to pioneer new cinema history in the making?

But of course, like any organisation, it is the people that make it a success and IL&M has the very best of engineers, artists, producers and so on.

As I walked down the corridors I passed someone who was later pointed out to me as the winner of eight Oscars.

The man who co-created Photoshop with his brother, John Knoll, still works at IL&M and recently brought home the Oscar for visual effects for Pirates 2. I also met the other recipient of that award, Hal Hickel, who seemed more than happy for the 大象传媒 to just swing by unannounced.

I also had the chance to meet the robot who cleans the floors of the IL&M server room. Can you guess who it is?

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