Just thougth I’d experiment with WordPress Page’s, so here’s a post from a long time back, pasted here in full, and linked to the original.

It was 1977 and I’d just walked out of the movie theatre. I’d seen George Lucas’ Star Wars and I knew from my head to my toes that I wanted to be a special effects guy. Over time I became hooked on computers, it actually happened when I was 11, and being a special effects guy kind of got pushed to the back of my mind. Fast forward to 1993. I’d just returned from a show in Atlanta and met Kim and the girls in California for a week of relaxation. That week Steven Spielberg was on the road pushing his latest picture, Jurassic Park. I’d just finished the book and couldn’t wait to see the movie. When we arrived back home, in Seattle, Kim took me to see Jurassic Park as a fathers day gift from her. I was floored and the little kid inside me that wanted to do special effects sprang back to life! I couldn’t get enough of Jurassic Park and the stories about the wizards at ILM(Industrial Light and Magic) that brought the dinosaurs to life.

On one of the specials they toured the ILM render farm. That night all I could think about was running that farm of computers. Bunches and bunches of SGI boxes humming away rendering frames for high end special effects in movies. It was something I could relate to in the movie industry. It’s always held my fancy and even today I’d love to work on movies. But I finally saw something I could do to contribute to the creation of a movie and I was VERY excited. But once again the idea was pushed to the back of my mind by the day to day life of my job.

Then in 1997 we moved back to California. It was a very exciting time for us. We were back home! The one thing about our area that’s a bit disturbing for a guy in my business is the lack of tech companies in the area. There are a few isolated in gems in the San Joaquin Valley but by and large it’s a technology wasteland. I’ve always wanted to start my own company but never really had the nerve to step out and do it. Coming back to California really made me think twice about it. The area is ripe for some technology but could I pull off a startup software company? We were riding high on the internet boom just then and it might have been the right time to give it a try. But the question I started asking myself was “Could you run a render farm here in the valley and attract enough work from Hollywood, or the Silicon Valley?” I thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t do it because the startup costs would be too much and I didn’t have a single contact in the business that could put me in touch with the right people. I let that idea die, but there was another idea floating around my brain.

Why wouldn’t one of the special effects houses put a render farm here in the San Joaquin Valley? The area is mostly supported by farms and dairy’s. There’s very little high tech but what high tech we do have is staffed by very smart people. The Valley could use an injection of tech; and not the kind that would pollute the area, like a high tech nuclear waste facility or some such non-sense, no. We could use some Hollywood magic and ILM, DreamWorks, Pixar, or Disney may be able to take advantage of the local depressed economy and get a sweet deal from the city if they would create a San Joaquin Valley ‘branch’ of their motion picture, or animation, studios.

Why not? It’s been my experience that Visalia is a wonderful area to start a high tech venture, or move an existing one. From an employers standpoint the area around Visalia has the manpower to do the job and, quite frankly, there aren’t too many choices out there for software, hardware, or network engineers, so you should have a nice base of potential employees to choose from. From an employees standpoint a big name employer would be like honey to a bear, instant attraction!

What about facilities? That a great question. One of the places I’d always kept my eye on is an old movie theatre way in the back of the Sequoia Mall parking lot. I think it would make a great location for a render farm! It’s an old Signature triplex so you could turn two of the theatres into render farms, or datacenters for that matter, and use the third for your dailies! If the company wanted to keep it hush-hush they could just not fix the place up too much and build out the interior to hide what’s taking place there. From a telecommunications standpoint Visalia has a great phone company in SBC and I’m sure they could provide a HUGE pipe into the building. Another benefit to this particular location is its proximity to Hollywood and the Silicon Valley. It’s just about smack dab in the middle of the two. Two to three hours in a car from either location, not too shabby.

Like I said it’s a goofy idea. A goofy idea that could work in our new internet culture. Who knows, maybe that kid from Modesto will happen on this goofy story and realize what a good idea it really is.