Steve Schklair, CEO, 3ality Digital Systems

Steve Schklair has been working at the front edge of new technologies for most of his career, and has left a mark in movies, special effects, and interactive media.  

As the founding principal of 3ality Digital Systems (formerly Cobalt Entertainment), Steve is currently focused on the development and production of new digital 3D motion picture technologies and the real-time broadcast of 3D programming.  Schklair has been acknowledged as one of the world’s leading experts in digital and live action 3D production and exhibition by an international list of clients, and is one of the primary catalysts behind the recent resurgence of 3D in Hollywood films.

Schklair is currently producing the much anticipated U23D movie, which was premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and generated an unprecedented number of positive reviews.  This film is now in post production in the world’s first dedicated 3D post production facility at the 3ality studios in Burbank.  Among Schklair’s recent credits is the world’s first real-time live-action 3D transmission to autostereo monitors (no glasses necessary to see 3D), which was first demonstrated at the 2005 IFA in Berlin.  For the NFL and NFL Films, he shot a with multiple 3D camera systems at the 2004 Superbowl in Houston.  Also among recent credits are the Smithsonian and commercial clients such as Toyota.      

Prior to Cobalt, Steve worked as a VP of Digital Domain (the special effects studio responsible for films such as Apollo 13, The Fifth Element, Titanic, and Terminator2:3D.), a creative director for R/Greenberg Associates, and executive producer for computer graphics and interactive media pioneer Robert Abel.  While employed at those companies, he produced a number of industry defining and award winning projects, including Mattel’s exceedingly successful Barbie Fashion Designer software title, and the Columbus interactive application which was chosen as a cornerstone of interactive media by the Library of Congress.

As one of the first pioneers to utilize high definition cameras, in 1989 he co-produced and photographed the award-winning film To Dream Of Roses, which was produced in partnership with special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull for release at the 1990 Osaka World Expo. This project broke new ground through its innovative use of real-time motion control and compositing, and was also the first large format film ever released that originated in high resolution video.

Steve has a number of new patents pending and is a frequent speaker on new entertainment technologies.  He is a member of the Advanced Technology Committee at the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), and is an alumnus of the Masters program at the USC School of Cinema.

Panel: A Multidimensional Conversation with the Vanguard of 3D