Eric Steven Stahl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 4, 1959 Encino, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Editor |
| Years active | 1980–present |
Eric Steven Stahl (born April 4, 1959) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and editor who is known for making the world's first all-digital sound 70mm film called Digital Dream. [1] Stahl's feature credits also include Final Approach , as well as Safe House and I-See-You.Com .
Stahl was born on April 4, 1959, in Encino, California, to Martin and Miriam Stahl. Father, a Kennedy administration appointee, was made Director of U.S. Trade Center [2] in 1963 in Milan Italy where Stahl grew up from the age of 3. Spending the better part of fourteen years in Europe, where he attended mostly Italian schools including the original Montessori in Milan. Stahl went on to complete his education stateside obtaining his motion picture degree from USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Set on a directing career, but also fascinated with the world of advertising and marketing, Stahl formed an integrated communication consultancy and production company in 1980 straight out of film school where he eventually directed numerous award winning national television spots, [3] including the first digital stereo commercial, "It's a Chevy 1986" (Clio Award Winner [4] ), for GM's Chevy Cavalier. When one of his company's early clients, audio facility Glen Glenn Sound, tasked a then only 23-year-old Stahl with directing and producing the world's first all digital sound film, [5] Stahl seized the opportunity to meld his two passions (filmmaking and marketing). What followed was Digital Dream - presented in 70mm six track stereo and costing $7.5 million, [6] the project was co-sponsored by the top industry players including Panavision, Sony and Eastman Kodak, with visual effects supervision by Academy Award winner John Dykstra. [7]
Stahl's commercial TV work went on to win him numerous awards [3] from the Chicago Film Festival, the International Film & TV Festival of New York, the Lulu, as well as the Ad Age Certificate of Achievement for writing and directing one of the top 100 commercials of the decade.[ citation needed ]
By the late 1980s, Stahl turned to full-time movie making, forming Los Angeles based FilmQuest Pictures Corporation. [8] His feature directorial debut, under his newly formed banner, Final Approach , starring James B. Sikking, Hector Elizondo, Madolyn Smith Osborne and Kevin McCarthy was the world's first all digital sound (DDD) film ever made. [9] With over 800 visual effects and nearly 18,000 sound FX cues, it is still considered a technological benchmark. [10] The picture had the second biggest opening in France (beat out by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II) in the Summer of 1991. [11] The film was released in the U.S. and in Europe using the Kodak/Optical Radiation CDS (Cinema Digital Sound) system. [12] Final Approach went on to win the Golden Halo Award from Southern California Motion Picture Council [13] and the Golden Scroll Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.[ citation needed ]
In the mid 1990s Stahl took a break from independent film making, landing a studio development deal at Walt Disney Studios[ citation needed ] where he co-authored two projects for the Touchstone and Disney labels: Semi-Pro and Cardiac Express .
After leaving Disney, Stahl set out to make his second feature film under the FilmQuest banner, Safe House , starring Patrick Stewart, Kimberly Williams and Hector Elizondo. The dramatic suspense thriller was co-written and co-produced with longtime collaborator Sean McLain.
Stahl's most recent feature directorial effort was the Warner Bros. Entertainment comedy I-See-You.Com starring Beau Bridges, Rosanna Arquette and Hector Elizondo. It had its premiere at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival [14] and screened at the Waterfront Film Festival in Michigan for its Midwestern premiere. [15]
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer | Sound Track Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Digital Dream | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1991 | Final Approach | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1994 | Semi Pro (Touchstone Pictures) | Yes | |||
| 1995 | Cardiac Express (Walt Disney) | Yes | |||
| 1998 | 2000 (Showtime) | Yes | |||
| 1998 | Safe House | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2006 | I-See-You.Com | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film. The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph. In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to X-rays and high-energy particles. Most are at least slightly sensitive to invisible ultraviolet (UV) light. Some special-purpose films are sensitive into the infrared (IR) region of the spectrum.
35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. The name of the gauge is not a direct measurement, and refers to the nominal width of the 35 mm format photographic film, which consists of strips 1.377 ± 0.001 inches (34.976 ± 0.025 mm) wide. The standard image exposure length on 35 mm for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film.
70 mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film. The additional 5 mm contains the four magnetic strips, holding six tracks of stereophonic sound. Although later 70 mm prints use digital sound encoding, the vast majority of existing and surviving 70 mm prints pre-date this technology.
Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format.
135 film, more popularly referred to as 35 mm film or 35 mm, is a format of photographic film used for still photography. It is a film with a film gauge of 35 mm (1.4 in) loaded into a standardized type of magazine – also referred to as a cassette or cartridge – for use in 135 film cameras. The engineering standard for this film is controlled by ISO 1007 titled '135-size film and magazine'.
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio and steep stadium seating.
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films.
Héctor Elizondo is an American character actor. He is known for playing Phillip Watters in the television series Chicago Hope (1994–2000) and Ed Alzate in the television series Last Man Standing (2011–2021). His film roles include The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), American Gigolo (1980), Leviathan (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Runaway Bride (1999), The Princess Diaries (2001), and Valentine's Day (2010).
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration of two loudspeakers in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.
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The Flamingo Kid is a 1984 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall and produced by Michael Phillips. It stars Matt Dillon, Richard Crenna, Héctor Elizondo, and Jessica Walter. The film tells the story of a working class boy who takes a summer job at a beach resort and learns valuable life lessons.
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