Product Code Database
Bran Ferren (born January 16, 1953) is an American technologist, artist, architectural designer, vehicle designer, engineer, lighting and sound designer, visual effects artist, scientist, lecturer, photographer, entrepreneur, and inventor. Ferren is the former President of Research and Development of Walt Disney Imagineering as well as founder of Associates & Ferren, a multidisciplinary engineering and design firm acquired in 1993 by Disney. He is Chief Creative Officer of Applied Minds, which he co-founded in 2000 with Danny Hillis. Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent, which features prominently in its legal battle with Samsung, was invalidated by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2013 based on a 2005 patent by Ferren and Hillis for multi-touch gestures.
He first attended Hunter College Elementary School for gifted students in New York City, followed by a year at the American Community School, in Beirut Lebanon (1963-1964) while his father served as the first artist-in-residence for a U.S. Department of State cultural exchange program to introduce American abstract art to the Middle East. After returning from overseas, he spent three years at the McBurney School in New York City, and then the last three years of high school at East Hampton High School, in East Hampton, New York.
Ferren started his first design and engineering company, Synchronetics while in high school. He left high school at age 16 to attend MIT, but departed in 1970 to continue entrepreneurial pursuits. Despite his short stay at MIT, he was invited back by then school president Charles M. Vest to be a keynote speaker for MIT Technology Day 1996. Before his 21st birthday, Ferren had worked on TV commercials, films, and regional theater. He had also pioneered visual effects for arena concerts for groups such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Laurie Anderson, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, David Bowie, Paul McCartney. R.E.M., Depeche Mode, and Foreigner, using pyrotechnics, audio, projection, and novel lighting techniques.
He is a theater designer whose work has been seen on Broadway and London West End stages, Australia, and in touring productions world-wide. He has designed the Special Effects and Sound for several Broadway shows, and is a long-term member of the Broadway stagehands union, IATSE Local #1. His theatrical special effects and sound design work for the Broadway productions of Frankenstein, Cats, and Sunday in the Park with George, were widely acknowledged for their groundbreaking special effects. Frank Rich said in his The New York Times review of Sunday in the Park with George: "What Mr. Lapine, his designers and the special-effects wizard Bran Ferren have arranged is simply gorgeous." It was the first Broadway musical to utilize digitally-processed projection mapping (pre-processed, geometrically corrected 35mm film projection), a radio-controlled costume with a robotic endoskeleton, 20 kW xenon rotating-dichroic-filter light ray effects, and dazzling high powered lasers that broke the 4th wall, traveling throughout the audience. Frank Rich said of his work in Frankenstein, "Bran Ferren's special audio-visual effects are also impressive by theatrical standards" and Carol Lawson, said in The New York Times that "critics have remarked that Mr. Ferren's work on this play, which included the spectacular destruction of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory by his monster, had the lavishness that audiences have come to expect in films, but have never before seen in the theater."
As principal designer of Associates & Ferren, Ferren went on to lead many high-profile projects, such as special effects for the Paul McCartney World Tour, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, and visual effects for Little Shop of Horrors. He was a technical consultant for the films Impostor and Fat Man and Little Boy, and designed the titles for Simon, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Guilty as Sin, and Little Shop of Horrors. In addition to special effects, they were considered leaders in advanced projection, simulation and laser effects technology, and provided customized equipment for dozens of major road tours, and stationary installations.
He also produced, directed, and was the cinematographer for the movie "Funny" (released in 1992), which received a Nomination for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and nomination for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, Gold Jury prize at the Houston International Film Festival (now called WorldFest Houston), and was featured in the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness program, and at the Cleveland International Film Festival. "Funny" features over 100 individuals, from Dick Cavett to Frank Zappa, telling their favorite jokes on camera. It was distributed by Warner New Media, in LaserDisc and CD-ROM.
Ferren served as lead designer, engineer, and producer of the 50-state, 16-month tour of the Bill of Rights, which celebrated the document's bicentennial. For the tour, he designed and built the Bill of Rights Secure Transit Vehicle, which transported the fragile parchment document, as well as a 15,000-square-foot traveling exhibit equipped with state-of-the-art lighting, A/V, security, and safety systems. He was the chief designer for the award-winning Columbus Center Hall of Exploration, a science discovery center, located at Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 1997.
In addition to their work in the entertainment sector, Associates & Ferren was responsible for developing many technologies for industrial and government customers in the areas of robotics, sound systems, vehicle systems, control systems, scientific research & experiment design, optical systems, and 3D machine vision, as well as moving lighting fixtures for Strand Lighting Inc. Mr. Ferren was responsible for the development of advanced lens and thin-film dichroic coating technologies for the Revo Sunglasses brand, and served in the role of Director of Research & Development for Revo, which established new performance standards for sunglasses including the first to incorporate Infrared blocking. He did the lighting design and interiors concept for Ian Schrager "White" variation of Studio 54 in NYC, as well as invented the what is believed to be the first multi-monitor video wall, which premiered at the opening of the Palladium Club, also in New York City, in 1985.
He has been recognized for his unique approach working with directors in the design of special effects and visual effects across motion pictures, television, theater, concerts, and later in theme parks and architecture. This was featured in a New York Times profile on him by Stephen Farber, when Paul Mazursky's film Tempest (1982) was released. In this article, Farber quotes Mazursky as saying he is "a Renaissance man, a figure from another time ... If you crossed Robert Oppenheimer and Monty Woolley, you might get Bran."
By the time Disney acquired Associates & Ferren in 1993, Ferren and the company had won an Academy Award for Science and Engineering as well as two Academy Awards for Technical Achievement. Ferren was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for "Little Shop of Horrors", and received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination for special visual effects. He is a voting member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars), and the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences (Emmys).
His entertainment industry projects at Associates & Ferren include:
Film visual effects, lighting, design
Film direction
Network television
Concert visual effects
Broadway visual effects, projection, sound design
Ferren supported Disney's Strategic Planning Group and had direct creative and technical involvement in a wide variety of design and technology projects for Disney Theme Parks, such as the Tower of Terror ride, the Test Track by General Motors, the Indiana Jones Adventure, the Virtual Reality Animation Studio, and many prime time television projects. He has had a 30+ year creative history collaborating with top senior ABC network director Roger Goodman, with dozens of news, sports, and entertainment division projects. His team was responsible for engineering the ABC Times Square Studios armored electronic-dimming soundproof window systems, robotic cameras, large on-air displays, and a massive curved LED ticker display.
In 1996, Ferren created the Disney Fellows Program which attracted some of the brightest minds in computer science, including Alan Kay, Marvin Minsky, and Seymour Papert, as well as astronaut Story Musgrave. The first Disney fellow was parallel-computing pioneer Danny Hillis with whom Ferren went on to found technology innovation and design firm Applied Minds in 2000. Applied Minds is now headquartered in Burbank, California, a few miles from Imagineering headquarters. In 1997 Ferren and the Disney fellows were profiled in a major article in The New Yorker, by David Remnick, and in many other publications and news service including Bloomberg, and Newsweek.
In the 1990s, Ferren's research group at Disney developed many pioneering concepts, and produced demonstrations of these ideas and technologies, to familiarize Disney corporate leadership of their potential to transform the entertainment industry. These included gaming box platforms, personal navigators, electronic books, theater-scale digital cinema, direct on-demand music and video delivery to the home via telephone networks (pre World Wide Web & broadband), interactive cable television, safe browsing concepts for kids, and hybrid on-line/theme park concepts.
While at Disney, Ferren developed a unique test for screening design & engineering talent, when he found that traditional Disney process of resume screening, reviewing bios, and interviews often did not identify the kinds of multi-domain savvy talent he needed at Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development. Known as the Yellow Box Test, it asks the candidate to go through 100 or so items in the box, all selected for their uniqueness and interest. As featured in a 2003 article in Discover magazine, they are scored on not just how well they can correctly identify the items, but also their thoughtfulness in explaining how they would be used and why, material selection, sourcing, cost, viable alternatives, and the technical and design principles, and even aesthetics. The candidate is also evaluated subjectively as to their enjoyment of the process, speed, enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, and appreciation of technology. For example, do they elect to first start with the things they understand, or those they do not.
In his role as chief creative officer and co-chairman, Ferren serves as lead technical consultant, management consultant, systems engineer, engineer, and designer across multiple disciplines. He has headed projects for General Motors, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, John Deere, Herman Miller, Intel Corporation, Sony Corporation, ESRI, the Smithsonian Institution, Genworth Financial, the Library of Congress, and several US Government agencies. He was the creative design lead at Applied Minds, for the Genworth R70i Aging Experience, featuring a novel computerized robotic exoskeleton to simulate aging with live audiences at venues such as the 2016 CES and then the Liberty Science Center, as well as Genworth Financial's new website. The R70i Aging Experience at CES received the 2016 Cool Tech award.
Ferren has been named inventor on over 500 current and pending US patents. His 2005 patent with Hillis for multi-touch gestures led to the invalidation of Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent, which Apple cited in its billion-dollar lawsuit against Samsung. His 2009 US patent #8381985 (assigned to Intel Corporation) teaches the use of two cameras and electronic image processing to emulate the function of zoom lenses within devices such as smart phones, where traditional zoom lenses cannot fit. Another of his patents was for contextual database technology associated with Metaweb, a company acquired by Google which became part of the Google Knowledge Graph.
At Applied Minds, Ferren has also been lead designer and engineer on a number of advanced Research & Development vehicle projects, for example:
His architectural and interior design projects include the UCLA's Connection Lab, Lockheed Martin's Center for Innovation, known as "The Lighthouse", numerous projects for Northrop Grumman, and the U.S. Government, including inside the The Pentagon. He has been directly involved as lead designer for over 100 command centers for the United States Government and private corporations.
Recently, an Applied Minds team led by Ferren was hired by leadership of the Smithsonian Institution to help develop their digital strategy.
He has delivered the commencement speeches to the California State University, Northridge - College of Arts, Media and Communication (2002)The University of Redlands- College of Arts and Sciences (2014), and the University of Irvine - Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the School of Education, and the School of Physical Sciences (2015).
He was one of the first lecturers and writers to discuss controversial internet-related topics such as the concept of networked human implants, and the idea that reading & writing could turn out to be a fad, to be replaced within 250 years by better and more compelling technology (enabled by what would then-be ubiquitous networked personal electronic technology). His ideas, work, and perspectives on innovation, are often cited by publications and media sources such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, Discover, Broadcasting & Cable, The New Yorker, The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Fast Company, PC Magazine, Macworld, C-SPAN, KCET (Dreamland documentary), Aerospace America, The Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Broadcasting & Cable, ETCentric, Time, Forbes, Inc., Scientific American, American Cinematographer, The East Hampton Star, Theater Crafts/TCI, Live Design, Lighting & Sound America, Cinefex, NBC News/CNBC, Vice, CIO, Air Force Magazine, Strategy+Business, and Bloomberg News. He can be seen and heard on multiple website and podcasts, expressing his ideas on a wide range of topics from autonomous vehicles, innovation, technology, creativity & curiosity, the future of computing, art & design, and tools.
He was one of the first technical experts to articulate the concept of emotional resolution (as distinguished from technical resolution) for imaging systems, in particular for cinema production. The concept being that increasing the technical resolution of a system, such as sharpness and contrast (MTF/OTF) above a certain point, may have the effect of reducing the effectiveness of the medium for storytelling, as excessive sharpness encourages the audience to concentrate on the details and flaws of the scene or process (i.e. set construction, props, effects, artificial lighting) or of a performer (makeup, blemishes, wigs), rather than to suspend their disbelief to engage more deeply in the story. One can see the practical efforts to mitigate the undesirable effects of this phenomenon in the extensive range of options in and soft lighting used routinely in still photography, film and television production. As an early advocate for self-driving cars, his popular 2104 TED talk: "To Create for the Ages, Let's Combine Art & Engineering", has been called a must-see talk for engineers, discusses the intersection between art, design, and engineering; and why technologies such as autonomous vehicles will permanently change our world; has been viewed over a million times.
He has often been invited to speak at significant US Government sponsored conferences, advancing his ideas on leadership & innovation, technology, acquisition reform, as well advancing controversial ideas such as suggesting that the US armed forces should get off as GPS/GNSS as their primary source of precision Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) within a decade.
He has consulted for, and been interviewed on many TV shows and specials, for example; The Dick Cavett Show, Nightline, The Tomorrow Society, The Charlie Rose Show, CuriosityStream, Conversations with Michael Eisner, Dreamland and The Age of A.I. (2019-2020) Hosted by Robert Downey Jr.
He has authored articles for numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Encyclopædia Britannica, MIT Technology Review, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Talking Back to the Machine (Peter J. Denning, editor), The Journal of Museum Education, the Proceedings of SPIE, and Quartz. For several years, he has been strong proponent and thought leader in the emerging field of Geodesign as a powerful tool that he believes has the ability to transform the way we think about city, regional and global planning, the environment, and effectively mitigating the negative impacts of people and development on the natural world.
While serving as head of Creative Technology for Disney, and also a member the Army Science Board (ASB), Ferren played a key roll in the creation of what became USC's Institute for Creative Technologies. As a science & technology advisor to Four-star Army General Paul J. Kern in Modeling & Simulation (M&S) he recommended creating a new entity in the vicinity of Los Angeles that would be anchored at a major university. The purpose of this organization being to draw from the local talent pool, and its deep expertise in gaming, visualization, and UI/UX design. When asked why it should be there, rather than say the DC area, he stated emphatically that to be successful in this new domain, the army "needed to be where the action is." Under Gen. Kern's leadership, and with the help of Army funding, the ICT was established in 1999 at the University of Southern California (USC), and has become an important and sustaining resource for the Department of Defense in gaming, modeling, & simulation technologies.
A popular 1980s MTV Television bumper featured a take-off of the final transformation scene in Altered States, designed and art directed by Ferren.
A 2013 Elle magazine article on Ashton Kutcher referenced a "memorable birthday party" with Ferren and other friends.
|
|
