Brave new techno

>> Kaydara's Filmbox is changing high-tech f/x

by MATTHEW HAYS

When people think of high-tech film software in Montreal, Softimage and the Oscar-winning Discreet Logic spring to mind. But most Montrealers probably haven't heard of Kaydara, a smallish software production and distribution company located on the Main.

Expect that to change, and soon. Industry insiders are already abuzz about the company, especially after last month's Oscar ceremony meant a multiple win for the Wachowski Brothers' film, The Matrix. The folks behind the massive box-office success have made no secret of their debt to Kaydara, specifically the company's software, Filmbox, which allows animators and special f/x technicians to create elaborate effects in record time.

"I've always been interested in combining art and technology," says Michel Besner, president of Kaydara. Besner's eyes light up as he discusses the success of Filmbox, again to be employed in the two Matrix sequels, which will be shot back-to-back in Australia. Besner says Filmbox isn't so much a new way of creating the effects, but rather reworks the manner in which technology is applied and manipulated. For a film like The Matrix, which often combined elaborate animation and rapid camera movement, creating effects under strict time constraints made Filmbox invaluable.

Filmbox's portfolio extends to projects like Starship Troopers and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, as well as a broad range of new video games. Besner says that because of Filmbox's ability to generate animated images in real time, the software is being used widely on TV, where more and more shows call for human characters to interact with animated ones. Kaydara is now involved with developing a series of new Johnny Bravo cartoons, in which the Bravo character will host a call-in show for kids requesting cartoons. Again, Filmbox's capability to generate images immediately led the Bravo producers to call on Kaydara.

Besner and his Kaydara cofounders have chosen not to go public with their company. The recent dramatic drop in Internet stocks were inevitable, Besner believes. "There was an awful lot of hype and people still didn't really understand what the Internet was," he says. "It's important to build a company slowly and listen to your clients' concerns carefully."