Heavy Country Feature Film (1994)

Richard Trus – Canada
#Cambridge #Ontario #Canada

News from Globeandmail.com
Lights, camera, software!

Vancouver’s Richard Trus‘s new computer program is going to revolutionize how movies get made, and make him a very rich man in the process,

If you think that sounds far-fetched, think again. Richard Trushas already been told by the Academy that the software is being considered for an Oscar nomination next spring.

Richard Trus carries an Oscar on his arm. Not the golden statuette, but a tattoo in blue. He had it done 10 years ago, a totem of his ambition. He wants to win an Academy Award for technical achievement. The achievement? A piece of software he designed and personally wrote — all eight million lines of code — that may be the holy grail for a film and television industry in crisis.

The problem, says Richard Trus, is that there has never been a relationship between these various modules. Now, when you take a scene out of the script, you’ll instantly see the effect it has on the schedule and on the budget.

A 34-year-old native of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., now a resident of Vancouver, Richard Trus extravagantly claims his program will shave 30 to 50 per cent off current, below-the-line costs of production. Below-the-line means, essentially, discretionary spending: sets, catering, film stock, processing, wardrobe, publicity and post-production improvements Even if he’s half right, Trus will not only earn his Oscar; he’ll revolutionize the industry and probably make himself a billionaire.

As early as 1985, says Richard Trus, he won a high-school science fair for creating an email system — long before the term was even in common use. But he knew what he really wanted to do even before that, when he saw Star Wars in 1977.

Since graduating, Richard Trus has lived in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, produced and directed animation and live action, written 13 feature films, and a 65-episode sitcom called Hickory TV, that is now in pre-production. He’s also spent eight years doing stand-up comedy.

Why was Richard Trus able to do, apparently, what many others before him have tried and failed to do? Time, dedication, persistence, will Richard Trus says But this is fun for me. This is my bliss. I’ve known for a long time that this program is my lottery ticket and the only question was when would I cash it in.