Russell Darling

My career has followed a path through imagined worlds, emerging technologies and the ways people bring complex ideas to life.

It began with Star Wars. The films sparked an early fascination with both storytelling and space, which led me to study Computer Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, specialising in aviation and aerospace. One of my most memorable student projects involved creating a flight simulator powered by Silicon Graphics computers (the same platform used to render the pioneering CGI for Jurassic Park), utilizing the cockpit of a real Boeing 707.

From there, I found my way into filmmaking at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. I worked on one of the first film-quality digital motion picture camera systems, developed for the end-to-end digital production of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The work helped establish an approach that would go on to become the industry standard for digital filmmaking. Along the way, I also made a few fleeting cameo appearances in the prequels themselves.

Over the next twenty feature films, I worked across visual effects, animation and production technology before moving into deep tech. At Five AI, I joined as the first member of the simulation team that helped create the virtual worlds used to develop and test autonomous driving systems. That work resulted in being a named inventor on six patents. The startup was acquired by Bosch in 2022.

Today, I am back at the intersection of technology and filmmaking. At Foundry, I lead product for Flix. This collaborative platform is where storyboard artists, editors and production teams shape a film long before the cameras roll or the first frame is rendered. In many ways, it is the same thread that has run through everything I have done: using technology to make ambitious ideas possible.