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DID YOU TEST THE TECHNOLOGY ON ACTU A L MO VIES ?
We had a lot of iterations with the Hollywood cinematography community, who gave us a lot of feedback along the way. I am not sure what the first movie it was used in, but I know the technology was used in “The Aviator” and “Spiderman”.
IS YOUR BACKGROUND STRICTLY IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, OR DID YOU ALWAYS HAVE AN INTEREST IN MOVIEMAKING?
I’ve always been interested in movies. In fact, in college I had to make a decision between becoming a documentary filmmaker or an electronic engineer. I figured that as an electronic engineer I could make enough money to do movies on the side, but that it wouldn’t necessarily work the other way around. I worked 14 years in computer animation, video editing and such. In 1998 I moved to TI to work on digital cinema.
ARE YOU STILL WORKING AT TEXA S INSTRUMENTS?
That’s an interesting story. Actually, only one of us from the team, Greg Pettitt still works for TI; the rest of us moved on following a round of layoffs at the company. Yeah, I basically got fired, but I didn’t have much trouble finding work, and, honestly, I sort of needed a vacation.
HOW DID IT FEEL TO LE ARN YOU’D WON AN AC ADEMY AWARD?
It was cool, but not totally out of the blue. There was a committee that came out and conducted interviews to determine who did what on the project so we knew we were being considered. It is very exciting. The ceremony is next week and I am taking my wife (Linda) and two children (Brian and Eileen, sophomore and senior, respectively, at LHHS Brad also graduated from LHHS, in 1977). The girls are excited about dressing up for the night, and we are going to spend a couple days in LA sightseeing.
—CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB
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