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Voice over extraordinaire, legendary radio and TV host Kurt Kelly chats with his longtime friend Jeff Olm. Jeff is a seasoned veteran and renowned figure in the world of CGI and special effects, he has worked on many of the greatest movies of our time. Jeff’s training and education began in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he worked as an ‘av’ guy, learning to thread projectors. He furthered his studies at The University of Wisconsin Osh Kosh, studying radio, television, and film. His career began with The Post Group in 1986 where he worked on a lot of music videos and documentaries before joining the Digital Domain team as a compositor.
Digital Domain helped forge a new path for special effects and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). Jeff described Digital Domain as ‘a great place to learn and work with friends’. There, with his friends, Jeff worked on James Cameron’s iconic Titanic film, which went on to set box off records, and win many awards for Best Special Effects. Jeff’s team worked on a scene called TD47- Titanic Departure, Scene 47- which was a computer generated fly-by shot of a 100 foot model of the ship. Digital characters where animated into the shot as well, it was cinema magic. Olm also worked on the sci-fi film The Fifth Element which starred Bruce Willis. The Fifth Element used an extensive amount of CGI and was ahead of it’s time. Jeff helped with the animation of the 3D futuristic flying cars that zipped and zoomed through the metropolitan skies. Jeff expressed that ‘it was the heyday of Digital Domain’ and that it was ‘a very exciting time’. As well as his work as a compositor, Olm also works as a ‘finisher’, the last person that works on the imagery of a film. He works with Autodesk programs called Smoke, to edit an image, Luster, to edit color correction, and Flamer, to finalize the images. As a leading trainer at the International Colorist Academy, he has trained many other colorists worldwide, and more of his professional work can be seen in such films as Tom Hanks’ Castaway, Black Hawk Down (Josh Hartnett), What Lies Beneath (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer), 6 Days and 7 Nights, and Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams. Olm also worked as a finisher at Sony’s DreamWorks Studios for five years, where he had a hand in films like Madagascar 2, Shrek 4, and Turbo. Jeff has also worked with Dream No More Productions, a creative group that is exploring Hologram Technology. Jeff was recruited by Ace Duran, the creator of the initial idea for the Tupac Coachella Hologram. Digital Domain was also involved in the project. Digital Domain and Dream No More productions are working on developing hologram technology to use digital scans of celebrities that can be projected as a virtual image and be projected at any location. For example, Beyonce is performing before thousands in Taiwan, but with the use of holographic technology, a virtual image of her can be projected on stage at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI for thousands more to enjoy the same performance. Pretty amazing concept. Aside from his work with CGI, special effects, and finishing, Jeff is also putting his efforts towards making his directorial debut for a documentary film. Jeff’s production company, Perfect Pictures, is developing a documentary to create awareness for veterans transitioning back into civilian life. He’s also developing a pilot for a spin-off television series.
To learn more about Jeff Olm , he can be found on several sites; you can view his profile on imdb.com, as well as the ICA/International Colorists Academy website at icolorist.com/instructors/
More episodes hosted by the legendary Kurt Kelly can be seen weekly from livevideoinc.com, www.ustream.tv, kurtkelly.com, and for more on Kurt Kelly go to his site kurtkelly.com and livevideoinc.com, his profile can see on IMDb as well, Kurt also a personal Facebook page and Facebook Fan Page. Kurt, along with Pepper Jay from Pepper Jay Studios, continue to bring you entertaining and informative programming featuring the finest and brightest figures in entertainment today.
Written By: Brian Harper and Melissa English
