Venice, Calif. - Academy Award-winning digital studio Digital Domain plans to open a new visual effects outpost in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company also has named veteran production executive Gloria Borders to the position of president, Feature Film Operations, overseeing visual effects production across its Venice, Calif., and Vancouver studios.
Digital Domain’s expansion is funded by an infusion of capital from its parent company, Wyndcrest
Holdings.
Digital Domain CEO Cliff Plumer says, “The current economic climate has created a new set of challenges
for all companies in the entertainment industry. By expanding our talent and resources across multiple
locations we are able to offer solutions to production challenges -- whether they’re economic, creative, or
technical.”
Digital Domain’s main studio, headquartered in Venice, Calif., will continue to be the base of the company’s feature film visual effects and advertising production operations.
Digital Domain is building out a 20,000-square-foot visual effects studio in Vancouver and is in the
process of recruiting and hiring 50 to 60 digital artists immediately, primarily from Canada, for an early 2010
opening, with the intention to expand the employee base to 100+ by the end of the year. The new
Vancouver studio will mirror technology and processes at Digital Domain’s Venice studio headquarters, enabling the company to extend feature film visual effects work across identical production pipelines.
By basing its visual effects outpost in Vancouver, Digital Domain is able to take advantage of local
production and R&D incentives, and also benefits from the region’s thriving artist talent pool, educational
programs, and well-established production industry. The first project Digital Domain will bring to its new
studio will be to take on additional visual effects work for Disney’s highly-anticipated Tron: Legacy, which
is already in production at Digital Domain’s California studio.
Kevin Krueger, B.C. minister of tourism, culture, and the arts says: “Having one of the world’s top digital
studios develop a base in Vancouver adds immeasurably to the strength of our overall production
community. This new studio brings not only new infrastructure, but also knowledge-based jobs and
opportunities in the fast-growth visual effects, animation and games arena. Companies of Digital
Domain’s caliber choosing to locate here both testify to our capabilities as a world-class production center
and help us further that mission.”
Digital Domain also announced that it has named veteran feature film production executive Gloria
Borders president of Feature Film Operations. Reporting to Plumer, Borders will run the daily operations
of visual effects productions across the Venice and Vancouver studios.
Borders has been working with Digital Domain in a consulting capacity architecting and planning the
studio’s global expansion since early in 2009. She joined the company from DreamWorks Animation,
where she was Head of Studio, overseeing the productions of Shrek The Third, Madagascar: Escape 2
Africa, and other productions. Prior to DreamWorks she was Head of Post Production at Revolution
Studios, where she managed all post and visual effects work. Previously, she was VP of Lucas Digital
and General Manager of Skywalker Sound, where she oversaw award-winning soundtracks. She received an Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and was nominated for her
work on Forrest Gump.
Borders says: “What impresses me most about Digital Domain is that it’s a group of people who truly want
to do something different -- and are driven and nimble enough to achieve it. We’ve been working on
taking the company into the global production community, to continue Digital Domain’s legacy as an
innovator in visual effects and create opportunities to develop original content. The culture of ‘nothing is
impossible’ is practically palatable here and I’m excited to kick off Digital Domain’s expansion.”
With the expansion, Digital Domain executive Mark Miller will now focus more of his time on development
of original content as executive producer. Commercials Division president and executive producer Ed
Ulbrich continues to oversee the company’s advertising and marketing operations and develop new
cross-media projects with filmmakers.