Impossible Objects Launches in Los Angeles
Impossible Objects is a new world-building lab that utilises virtual production to tell branded and original stories. Filmmaker Joe Sill has teamed up with Jerad Anderson, the founder of production company FLORENCE (formerly Whitelist), and screenwriter Matisse Tolin to create the company.
Comprised of a team of artists and engineers, Impossible Objects mobilises the power of imagination through design and animation. Their goal is to break the constraints and limitations often associated with storytelling by giving power back to the storyteller. Offering tools for visualists to create alternate realities, Impossible Objects seek to bring their clients’ wildest dreams to life, as well as manifest original stories unrestricted by creative limitations.
This ambition can be seen in the company’s first original project, the short film Autonomous, co-created by Sill and Tolin. Created entirely in a virtual environment and rendered in real-time, the short premiered on Short of the Week and was picked up by genre streamer Dust. Stampede Ventures is now developing a television series based on the short, which will be produced by Jon Berg and Greg Silverman with Sill and Tolin serving as co-creators.
Sill and Tolin began the project by compiling models together to create the world and characters and utilized the power of a real-time game engine to pre-visualise and stage compositions and build out realistic sequences with lighting, texturing, and rigged character animations. Each shot was lit using real-world cinematic lighting principles, and the camera recorded each move as one would have on a live-action set.
“We truly believe that an artist manifests their own destiny. And in order to create, they can’t start by asking for the permission to do so. What they need are the right tools to build exactly what’s inside of their head -- and to us, it’s become irrefutably clear that the tools for the future of big, world-building stories lie in virtual production,” explains director and founder Joe Sill. “We want to give control back to the artist. And when we collaborate at the juncture between imagination and technological innovation, the creativity is infectious and undeniable -- as are the results. We want to inspire filmmakers to push beyond known boundaries to invent new worlds of possibility.”
Virtual production and real-time rendering are powerful new tools for creating cinematic visual effects. With the ability to capture an actor's performance from anywhere in the world and bring it into an infinite number of virtual environments, the possibilities are endless. In a traditional CGI animated film, one would typically have to spend days, if not weeks, to render material at an acceptable quality. This real-time and ray-traced rendering of final imagery allows for an extremely fast and efficient workflow, allowing Impossible Objects’ artists to achieve near photo-accurate lighting as one would on a live-action set with infinitely more time to explore new creative possibilities and directions.
“Essentially, if your mind can think it, we can create it here,” says Jerad Anderson. “We have an extraordinary team of talent and have some very exciting projects in the pipeline releasing soon. In this new frontier, the possibilities are endless.”
Sill is a big-thinker director and visualist who has forged a career in live-action feature and commercial work, often using visual effects to bring new worlds and ideas to life. Deciding to double down in the landscape of animation and virtual production and energised by the constant innovation and ability for artists like himself to imagine and create without limitation, he partnered with long time friend and collaborator Anderson to imagine Impossible Objects. Anderson is a creative business executive that has found success in focusing on empowering artists to achieve their fullest potential. He is an avid lover of the visual medium with experience in building a thriving commercial and music video production house and is now looking to bridge the gap between virtual and live production. Tolin is a screenwriter with in-house experience at major commercial houses and studios as well as a staff writer with years of film and television development experience, and is a lover of animation, video games, anime, and grounded science fiction.
