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"New Tech is an Extreme Sport"
Idaho native Amy Gile has had an amazing life. Actor, International model to Hollywood producer, all before she started Silverdraft. A natural and talented entertainer, Gile found herself acting on set at a John Hughes film. She had a small role there, yet her curiosity couldn't be stopped. As she observed what people were doing, how tasks intertwined, she asked questions. She focused on the work flow and wondered "why" all the things happening around her, and more importantly, why not. She kept her notebook close to her at all times. Gile was always fascinated. A natural problem solver, Gile thought of solutions and knew she would need high performance computing to get the job of editing film to happen sooner, and on set. She went to work.
During her time in Hollywood, Gile asked the question, "We are in the media and entertainment industry... Why aren't we using technology?" She was looking at what was happening in Silicon Valley, and what was NOT happening in Hollywood. Gile wondered, how can we bring these things together?
Gile realized the increasing needs, so she asked around, who can help me build a computer sophisticated enough to be on set and speed the workflow. Gile was introduced to Dr. Srinidhi Varadajan. He flew to Boise where Amy had just moved home to after time in New York and L.A. During the conversation, they decided, "It's so simple, it's brilliant!" Amy and Srinidhi came together with two different perspectives. Gile describes, "He is brilliant. He's the only person who has one of the first Apple computers with an early serial numbers from Steve Jobs, right off the line!" Although now just an advisor, Dr. Varadajan supports Silverdraft along with Silverdraft's CTO Erik Smith with their IP and compute architecture. Smith designs computers based on applications and workflow. They now have offices located at Jim Henson studios lot in Hollywood, Detroit and in Boise.
"It's easier to move pixels than dirt"
One example of moving pixels before dirt... In VR, The Hard Rock hotel performed studies focused on light and visualization to determine down to the micro level, how the glass will reflect in the pool. Based on physics, and due to the reflection of the glass into the pool, it was determined in VR that the pool was going to have a negative experience for guests. So they moved pixels prior to moving dirt, brilliant.
Silverdraft is home to the gigantic "Barco Canvas", created by one of Silverdraft's partners Barco. This is the only one in the US and it's right here in Boise. Gile showed us a full scale scan of the Las Vegas strip. This scan can be used for forensics, media and entertainment. It enables the film to save massive amounts of time and money on visual effects. It is a virtual game changer in media and entertainment. Vehicle designs in Detroit and beyond, a virtual Michael Jackson and many Madonna's, Silverdraft has exciting and diverse verticals.
Madonna danced with multiple Madonnas at the Billboard awards thanks to Silverdraft's technology. The challenge of making multiple VR Madonna's dance away was a creative and visionary presentation of light and beauty. This project, whose computing system was created by Silverdraft, won Sequin AR the Lumineer Award. Gile talked about the risks surrounding this project and others. She had a "two week time frame” for the Madonna project. She took a huge risk, and mentioned, her team can only control so much. Gile explains, "We can not control Madonna, any of the other dancers, anything can happen. We needed to sit around a table, and white board what the team needed to accomplish."
Gile described one of her fun projects, which gave everyone in the room a smile. "When you're in line at Disney, we had to design a system to view people in line at Disney to determine if you are happy! Then if everyone is not happy, they change things within that installation, or they send people over there, to help make them happy!"
"We must be willing to fail. Failure is what's going to inform us on what's going to lead us."
Gile takes chances.
She has the positive mindset and gumption for it. Gile explains, "If it blows up, we took it too far. But the solutions come, working with an engineering team that knows their stuff." She likes to do things her own way. With customer needs at the wheel, she delivers with cleanness, edge and bravery. Gile is an innovator and prefers the Title Chief Evil Officer. If evil means brilliant, the ITC says, keep being evil Amy Gile!
Content by Jess Fuhrman
Director of Business Development
To contact Jess please email: jfuhrman@idahotechcouncil.org
