Eduardo Darino Exhibit to Feature Decades of Technical Advancements Made in Film/Animation
While others might be focused on taking a well-deserved rest after a 50-year career that includes more than 300 feature and animated films, television episodes, thousands of animation special effects works and a long list of video and animation technical advances; Eduardo (Ed) Darino is concentrating on producing two more epic projects this year.
Armed with an infectious smile and overflowing enthusiasm, Darino is working in his award-cluttered New York City studio in Union Square to complete his first goal--an inspiring exhibit that will feature some of his artistic and technological achievements that have had an impact on the film and animation industries. Exhibitions and screenings will be scheduled with museums and content curators for later this year. The second goal involves a major video production project that focuses on the human side of his technology.
Many might consider it an impossible task to launch two major efforts simultaneously; but for Darino, whose parents thought the chances of a boy growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay becoming a filmmaker was an impossible dream, it seems perfectly logical.
Darino became fascinated with films and film technology when viewing movies like Norman McLaren's "Blinkity Blank," an animation short about a bird and its cage, as a youngster in Montevideo's Cine Club.
With the absence of any way to pursue filmmaking in Uruguay he wrote movie reviews while attending law school at Uruguay's Universidad de la República. Editing science films after classes at the ICUR earned him a Fulbright scholarship. But instead of heading for Hollywood for a career in feature film editing, he was sent to New York University's Tisch Graduate Institute of Film and TV.
Fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian; Darino became intrigued in the early '70s with how emerging computer technology could be used to enrich filmmaking. In addition to developing techniques and technologies that are now standards for film editing/post production and animation, he refined a unique special effects library (Library of Special Visual Effects) which is licensed and used in more than 68 countries.
Cells and Animation – Surrounded by many of the characters he has helped creators bring to life, Ed Darino has been a remarkable figure in the history of animation. For more than 50 years, he has been making short subjects that appeal to young and old alike and has spent many years sharing the art and passion of his craft with students.
In addition to being an internationally recognized film technologist, Darino's work can be seen throughout the city he has had a lifelong love affair with, including an introductory film at Ellis Island, movie theaters where some of his effects were used to create the cautionary medley of phone rings and baby cries that shush moviegoers before films begin, as well as theater and TV trailers and show credits which are regularly shown.
While Darino could have focused all of his attention on making money by creating, producing and editing films; he uses his 50 years of experience in the New York film industry as a professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens.
Still loyal to his homeland, he also continues to urge producers to film in Uruguay and use the country as a launching pad for new feature films.
Widely recognized and highly respected in the film and animation industries, Darino also knows the saying is true... "In New York, you're as good as your last job." Having traveled the globe shooting films and accepting awards, he is committed to giving back even more to his adopted city, his industry and the viewing community at large.
Friends, Enemies – While fighting his own battle with cancer, Darino has also been developing variations of ads for the American Cancer Society "humanize" the disease and remove its mystery. The vivid colorful images around him are what he refers to as "his friends" and are computer-enhanced streams that represent cancer cells.
Far from being his last theatrical bow, for the New York City exhibit, Darino wants to bring together what he believes are the best of his technical innovations, including the Copymotion process using Xerox color copiers, the tapeless camera and real time particles as well as digital animation works and his compilation movie for everyone to enjoy and to inspire creative technologists to study, draw from and improve upon.