Kerner Optical

Last updated
Kerner Optical
Type Private
Industry Visual effects, Film production
FoundedAugust 2006
DefunctAugust 2011
Fate Bankruptcy
HeadquartersKerner Blvd,
San Rafael, California, United States
Key people
Eric Edmeades

Kerner Optical was an American practical visual effects company based in San Rafael, California.

Contents

Originally the practical effects division of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), it was spun off as an autonomous company in 2006. After five years of operating independently, Kerner declared bankruptcy and ceased operations in 2011.

History

The Kerner Co. sign KernerCo-Sign.gif
The Kerner Co. sign

Kerner's history dates to George Lucas's founding of Industrial Light and Magic. In the late 1970s, ILM moved to facilities in San Rafael, California, on Kerner Boulevard; the sign outside the building identified it as the Kerner Company. [1] The company hid in plain sight and was known to locals, industry insiders, clients and suppliers as Kerner. George Lucas explained [2] that the name Kerner was a "deception designed to keep kids from rummaging through garbage bins".

In 2006, the practical effects department was, like Pixar in 1986, spun off from Industrial Light & Magic. [3] When George Lucas moved the computer graphics team to the Presidio of San Francisco in 2006, he sold five physical effects divisions of ILM in a management-led buyout that resulted in the creation of a new company that took on the name Kerner Optical as a tribute to the long history shared with ILM. Kerner continued to operate in the same property, in San Rafael, from which they had operated for over 30 years and the original "Kerner Co." sign is still displayed in front of the building.

In the three years since leaving the Lucasfilm family, Kerner continued to provide practical special effects to major film productions.

In addition to films, Kerner was selected in 2007 to build a three-dimensional scale model of the Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California for the Walt Disney Family Museum. Named the "Disneyland of Walt's Imagination," the model is displayed at Gallery 9 of the museum, which is located in the Presidio, not far from the extant ILM headquarters. [4]

Kerner also continued several years of significant research and development in the areas of 3D camera rigs and consumer products. Kerner's creature shop manufactured lifelike, servo-controlled dummies with simulated injuries used for training military medics.

In August 2009, entrepreneur Eric Edmeades acquired a controlling interest in the business and became CEO of the group. [5] [6] [7] In February 2011, Kerner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in San Francisco. [8] Despite record profitability during reorganization, investor and previous owner Kevin Duncan of Duncan Oil appealed to the courts to have Eric Edmeades replaced by a trustee, alleging mismanagement. Duncan was also an owner and member of the management team for each of the first three loss-making years during which the company incurred millions of dollars in debt. Duncan's petition forced the company to turn away at least two ILM contracts and ultimately, despite Edmeades having enough creditor votes to approve his reorganization plan, led to the closure of the company seven months after the original Chapter 11 filing. [9] After refiling their bankruptcy under Chapter 7, the court ordered liquidation of their assets. [10]

Milestones

As Kerner Optical

Selected filmography (as Kerner Optical)

YearNotable films
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Evan Almighty
Transformers
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2008 Iron Man
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
WALL-E (visual effects for live-action sequences)
Pig Hunt
The Butler's in Love
2009 Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Terminator Salvation
2010 Killers

Kerner Optical worked on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen , providing miniatures and pyrotechnics for the aircraft carrier crash, the bridge destruction, and various building collapse sequences, among others.

Kerner Optical worked on Terminator Salvation , providing miniatures and pyrotechnics for the Very Large Array, the dilapidated building collapse, various aircraft explosions, and Serena's Tower, among others.

Kerner Optical also worked on the J. J. Abrams film Star Trek and the Ashton Kutcher film Killers .

Trivia

Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci of Mythbusters fame all worked for Industrial Light & Magic at Kerner's facility in San Rafael.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lucas</span> American filmmaker (born 1944)

George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards. Lucas personally directed or conceived 10 of the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this he's remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucasfilm Games</span> American video game producer

Lucasfilm Games is an American video game licensor and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.

<i>Monkey Island</i> Video game series

Monkey Island is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terrible Toybox with Lucasfilm Games and Devolver Digital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucasfilm</span> American film and television production company

Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, though most of the company's operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005. It has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios since 2012 and is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound, and computer animation for films.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began production on the original Star Wars, now the fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga.

<i>Willow</i> (film) 1988 American fantasy film directed by Ron Howard

Willow is a 1988 American high fantasy adventure film directed by Ron Howard and produced by Nigel Wooll. The film was executive produced by George Lucas and written by Bob Dolman from a story by Lucas. The film stars Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, and Jean Marsh. Davis portrays the title character, an aspiring magician who teams up with a disaffected warrior (Kilmer) to protect a baby princess from an evil sorceress (Marsh).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pirates of the Caribbean (attraction)</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris, and Shanghai Disneyland.

Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. LLC is an American animation studio and subsidiary of Lucasfilm, originally established in 2003. Its first major productions were the feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its associated television series, both of which debuted in 2008. In September 2016, Dave Filoni, known for his contributions to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, accepted a promotion to oversee the development of all future Lucasfilm Animation projects.

<i>Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy</i> 2004 documentary film by Kevin Burns

Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy is a 2004 documentary film directed by Kevin Burns and narrated by Robert Clotworthy. It documents the making of the original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983), and their impact on popular culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Muren</span> Visual effects pioneer

Dennis Muren, A.S.C is an American film visual effects artist and supervisor. He has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Best Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award. The Visual Effects Society has called him "a perpetual student, teacher, innovator, and mentor."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter</span> Former attraction at Walt Disney World

The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter was a "theater-in-the-round" attraction located in the Tomorrowland section of the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort. A co-production between Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm, the attraction was a darkly humorous science fiction experience that used binaural sound to achieve many of its effects.

This is a timeline of the Walt Disney Company, listing notable milestones for the Walt Disney Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D23 (Disney)</span> Official Disney fan club

D23: The Official Disney Fan Club, also known as Disney D23 or simply D23, is the official fan club for The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 2009, the organization is known mainly for its biennial exposition event, the D23 Expo. The name D23 refers to D for Disney and 23 for 1923, which is the year Walt Disney founded the company.

James Morris is an American film producer, production executive and visual effects producer. He is currently general manager and president of Pixar. Previously, he held key positions at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for 17 years.

<i>Millennium Falcon</i> Fictional starship in the Star Wars franchise

The Millennium Falcon is a fictional starship in the Star Wars franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie Star Wars (1977), it has subsequently appeared in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Additionally, the Falcon appears in a variety of Star Wars spin-off works, including books, comics, and games; James Luceno's novel Millennium Falcon focuses on the titular ship. It also appears in the 2014 animated film The Lego Movie in Lego form.

Pixar Canada was a short-lived, wholly owned subsidiary of Pixar Animation Studios. It was located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio was tasked to produce short films based on Pixar’s feature film characters.

Harley Jessup is an American production designer and visual effects art director who has been nominated for two visual effects Academy Awards, and won once. Currently working at Pixar Animation Studios, Jessup has served as production designer for Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille, Cars 2, Presto, The Good Dinosaur and Pixar's animated feature, Coco. Before coming to Pixar, Jessup was production designer on Walt Disney Pictures' James and the Giant Peach.

<i>Light & Magic</i> (TV series) American television series

Light & Magic is a 2022 American documentary television series directed by Lawrence Kasdan and produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Imagine Documentaries. The series debuted as a Disney+ Original on July 27, 2022, with all six episodes airing at once.

References

  1. ↑ Rubin, Michael (2006). Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution . Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. p.  82. ISBN   9780937404-67-6.
  2. ↑ Kaplan, David A. (1989-07-02). "NYT: FILM; Secret Lair of the Jedi, the Grail and Green Slimers". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  3. ↑ "FX Guide - 8 October 2007". Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  4. ↑ Titizian, Joseph. "STORYBOARD: Event Recap: Creating "The Disneyland of Walt's Imagination"". Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  5. ↑ "Company Overview". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg.
  6. ↑ Cohen, David S. (27 August 2009). "Edmeades cuts in at former Lucasfilm Tech Shop - 27 August 2009". Variety.
  7. ↑ "Ex Lucasfilm studios taking a new direction". Film Industry Network. December 15, 2009.
  8. ↑ Cohen, Melanie (7 September 2011). "Kerner Optical Sees End of Days". WSJ Blogs. News Corp. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011. Kerner filed for Chapter 11 protection in San Francisco in February. According to court documents, it had assets of $798,964 and debts of $4.3 million at the time of its bankruptcy filing.
  9. ↑ Halstead, Richard (6 September 2011). "Kerner Optical, special effects spin-off from Lucasfilm, shuts down". Marin Independent Journal. San Rafael, CA. MediaNews Group. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  10. ↑ Halstead, Richard (18 October 2011). "Kerner Optical to auction tools, equipment". Marin Independent Journal. San Rafael, CA. MediaNews Group. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "Mickey Gets a Gallery". New York Times. 6 September 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  12. ↑ "Vancouver Sun - Kerner, Emily Carr University team up to produce 3-D movies". Archived from the original on November 23, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Kerner Restructures". Studio Daily. 27 July 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  14. ↑ Stevens, Loralee (8 April 2011). "Kerner Optical files for Chapter 11 reorganization". North Bay Business Journal. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  15. ↑ "Court-Ordered Liquidation of Kerner Optical, LLC in San Rafael, California (Kerner Blvd)". westauction.com. Retrieved 27 December 2016.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.