Douglas Trumbull

Trumbull studied graphic design and worked in animation and industrial filmmaking before being hired onto Stanley Kubrick's production as a young special photographic effects supervisor, a job that would define the rest of his career.

The effects visionary behind the mothership of Close Encounters and the hellish cityscapes of Blade Runner treated visual effects as cinematography, not trickery. He got his start on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, then invented much of his own optical printing and motion-control camera equipment for later projects because no existing off-the-shelf technology could achieve what he wanted on screen.

He also directed two features himself, including Silent Running, before returning to his true specialty as an in-demand effects supervisor for hire on some of the era's most visually ambitious productions. He later moved into large-format, high-frame-rate cinema research, an interest that occupied much of his later career outside conventional studio filmmaking.