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Rogue Initiative Studios (https:// rogueinitiative.com) was founded in 2015 by alumni from a number of leading game companies, including Activision and Sony. CEO/creative di- rector Pete Blumel has spent more than 25 years working in feature film, ani- mation, immersive reality and triple-A games. He was a part of Activision's Infinity Ward game development studio, where he held a key role in the creation of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise. Co-founder/chief of production and producer Cathy Twigg got her start finding new talent at MTV Films, before going on to hold executive positions in production, writing and worldwide distribution at Dreamworks Animation, Dreamworks Television Animation, Sony Pictures Television, NBC and Bandeira Entertainment. Today, Rogue Initiative has teams in Los Angeles, UK, Beijing and Hong Kong. The headquarter studio is home to a growing cadre of artists, interac- tive designers and engineers. At press time, Rogue Initiative executives were further scouting for talent at Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. In addition to their work on video games and high-end interactive simulations, Rogue Initiative recently extended their list of services by capitalizing on their expertise in game development and game engine technology. The studio now pro- vides previs and virtual production services for feature films in part- nership with Area of Effect (aoefx.com), a realtime visualization studio founded with renowned filmmaker and visual effects supervisor Robert Legato. AoE are currently working on several high-profile projects, includ- ing collaborations with some of Hollywood's leading filmmakers. "Pete and I started Rogue Initiative on a mission to create original sto- ry-worlds with a deep lore and nuanced characters in collaboration with blockbuster filmmakers and veteran game talent," Cathy Twigg explains. "As producers across several mediums, we're taking our decades of ex- perience in deal making, film production, game development and realtime technology to build and co-own the properties we create, along with our gifted and diverse development teams," adds Pete Blumel. "Hollywood talent can finally own and participate in what they write, direct and pro- duce with our model and framework. It took years to get those kinds of agreements drawn up between major film studios, talent and financiers. There was no precedent, but we're there now." Area of Effect, the partner studio handling previs and realtime filmmak- ing, leverages Rogue Initiative's collective technical and artistic experi- ence in triple-A video game development and immersive experiences. "We've developed tools, techniques and advanced processes born and honed from big budget video game development," notes Devin Ehrig, general manager of AoE. "We continue to refine our proprietary soft- ware to meet the ever-growing needs for realtime and virtual production services in feature film, TV and commercial work. This allows us — from the early stages, all the way through the entire production pipeline — to apply video game and realtime rendering technologies and best practices to our workflows. "When people say 'virtual production,' a lot of times they immediate- ly think of LED displays and hardware, which is great when you display while shooting," Ehrig continues. "We also work with in-camera effects, but tend to dive deeper, towards previs, tech-vis, and now science-vis is an area we're exploring, which is really quite fascinating. We understand that most of the excitement about virtual production comes from new fa- cilities, but we believe the most impactful changes it brings to Hollywood happen before a single pixel lights up." The studio is working with several noteworthy filmmakers, including director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, 13 Hours, Ambulance and the Tranformers franchise) on a yet-to-be announced Sony Pictures/ Columbia Pictures feature film, of which both Blumel and Twigg are pro- ducers, leveraging a unified virtual art department, all based on intellectu- al property developed through the partnership. ROGUE INITIATIVE/AREA OF EFFECT Combining triple-A game development practices and sophisticated Z by HP workstations to empower a new way of filmmaking By Marc Loftus SPONSORED CONTENT