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Frantic Films Corporation is a Canadian branded content and live action production company based inWinnipeg, Manitoba. Frantic Films is known for producing live action reality shows, documentaries and for its work in feature film visual effects.
Frantic Films was founded in 1997 by Ken Zorniak and Chris Bond. The company initially produced work for commercial clients such asProcter & Gamble and createdcomputer-generated imagery (CGI) forStephen King'sStorm of the Century.[1]
In 2001, Frantic Films attracted international attention after creating stunning visual effects sequences for the blockbuster filmSwordfish.[1] Also in 2001, Frantic Films founded a research and development division that focussed on creating software and tools for future visual effects projects. The division produced a large suite of in-house and commercial software. Early efforts were focused onDeadline (a commercial render farm management tool) andFlood (an in-house fluid simulation tool). In 2004,Flood was said to be one of the top three fluid simulation tools in the world.[2]
In 2002, Jamie Brown joined Frantic Films as a partner.
In 2007, the visual effects and software R&D divisions were acquired by the Prime Focus Group. As a result, Frantic Films stopped all visual effects and previsualization projects and refocused on live action and branded content. In 2010, the Frantic Films co-founder Chris Bond started a new company called Thinkbox Software and reacquired the software R&D division back from Prime Focus Group. Thinkbox Software has since been acquired byAmazon Web Services and most of the commercial software launched by Frantic Films remains in active development.
In 2009, Frantic Films acquired Red Apple Entertainment, enabling rights over Red Apple's syndication catalog and mode of production.
In 2017, thespecial-purpose acquisition company, Kew Media Group, spent $108 million buying Canadian production companies, among them Bristow Global Media, Our House Media and Frantic Films. in 2020, Brown financed a deal for Frantic Films to buy back its shares from Kew Media Group.[3]
The branded content division, Frantic Branded Content, specializes in creating original integrated entertainment for traditional and emerging media platforms. In 2009, Frantic Branded Content partnered with the advertising agency TAXI and commercial the production company Soft Citizen to produce the branded entertainment television propertyCommercial Break.
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