James July-August 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 40
Frank Patterson— as its new CEO. In
the industry, Patterson was known as
the co-founder and chief creative officer of Pulse Evolution, producing the
Billboard Music Awards performance
featuring a digital representation of
the late singer Michael Jackson.
That production really made
a name for Patterson and in 2016
he was the keynote speaker at the
Zurich Summit in Switzerland. He
spoke about the future of filmmaking and technology and that attracted the attention of a certain Georgia-based poultry magnate.
“Dan was apparently interested in
my ideas and one morning showed up
at my office at Florida State University.
When my assistant let me know I had
a meeting with Dan Cathy, CEO of
Chick-fil-A, I was a bit perplexed,” says
Patterson. “I mean, what was the CEO
of a chicken chain doing in the office
of the dean of the FSU Film School?
When we sat down, he shared his
passion for the power that storytelling can have on society and told me
about this “little” project he had going
on in Fayetteville, Georgia, called
Pinewood Atlanta Studios. I had
just exited out of my last company
and was not really looking for a new
project at the time. But after several
visits and a lot of vision casting, I took
the position to lead the studio from a
campus of purpose-built facilities to
this ecosystem with every resource a
filmmaker needs to produce anything
they can imagine.”
NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
As president and CEO of Trilith,
Patterson is involved in day-to-day
operations, making sure projects
from both two-minute commercials
to major motion pictures have what
they need for producing top notch
content. Much of his job is to look
ahead for ways to develop new business and expand the opportunities
within the studio.
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JAMES
JULY/AU GU ST 2024
We’ve really
built Trilith to
be a place where
filmmakers feel
like anything
is possible.
“Trilith Studios is set up to host
a multitude of productions, from
small commercials to blockbusters, at one time. We’ve really built
it to be a place where filmmakers
feel like anything is possible. Our
stages, offices, backlots, and technology offerings can facilitate the
creation, planning and execution of
productions at any size, budget, or
complexity,” says Patterson. “It’s my
responsibility to identify ways the
studio can continue to expand and
grow— from strategic investments
in content companies to the next
iteration of production technologies.
It’s also critically important to us
that we mentor the next generation
of our team members who will one
day be running this place.”
Patterson’s work in artificial intelligence and digital media continues
to inform his work. It is one of his
biggest passions, besides playing the
piano every day, and he is an avid
researcher into emerging technologies. Among his favorite movies
is the futuristic, sci-fi classic “Blade
Runner”— a movie with plenty of AI
and a possible showcase of future
technology.
“When we created the digital human likeness of Michael Jackson and
produced the performance of its appearance at the 2014 Billboard Music
Awards, it was a unique collaboration
of live and digital performers, visual
effects, video capture and music
presented simultaneously to live and
broadcast audiences,” he notes. “It
was an influential production that laid
the groundwork for my understanding
of what would today become known
as “virtual production.” I’ve been
leaning into that technology and the
expertise of thought leaders like our
head of Creative Technology, Barry
Williams, to bring exciting virtual production projects to life at the studio.
And, importantly, the virtual production tools we have on the lot today
promise to serve as critical bedrock
for the exciting and inevitable advancements we will see with AI.”
Patterson has seen Trilith
through the difficult time of COVID,
something that meant a total shutdown of the film industry for some
time. There are few businesses
where employees work as closely together as the film industry. So it was
a time of tremendous uncertainty,
when filming would be able to start
again and whether studios would
be able to carry over costs without
actually putting out a product. At
