Frantic Films - History

History

In 1997 Frantic Films was founded by Ken Zorniak and Chris Bond. The company initially produced work for commercial clients such as Proctor & Gamble and created CGI for Stephen King's Storm of the Century.

In 2001 Frantic Films garnered international attention after creating stunning visual effects sequences for the blockbuster film Swordfish.

Also in 2001 Frantic Films founded a Research & Development division that would focus on creating software and tools for future visual effects projects. Since its inception the R&D division has produced a large suite of in-house and commercial software. Early efforts were focused on Deadline (a commercial render farm management tool) and Flood (an in-house fluid simulation tool). In 2004, Flood was said to be one of the top three fluid simulation tools in the world.

In 2007 the Visual Effects and R&D/Software divisions were acquired by the Prime Focus Group and Frantic Films stopped all visual effects and previsualization projects. The software division has since been acquired by Thinkbox Software, a small company owned by Frantic Films co-founder Chris Bond. As of 2007 Frantic Films has focused primarily on live action and branded content.

In early 2009, Frantic Films acquired all of Red Apple Entertainment, enabling rights over Red Apple's entire syndication catalog and mode of production.