DIGITAL AIR TECHNOLOGIES   

Perfect by Design

We design and make all of the specialized hardware and software that powers our work.

Our products and services include synchronous still and video camera array rentals, the original Matrix bullet time rig rental, networked cameras and controllers, visual effects supervision services, on set post production, and a white label social media sharing app for public facing events and installations.

Our systems are available world wide as a visual effects production service of Digital Air Technologies.

Bullet Time

In 1994, five years before The Matrix (1999), Dayton Taylor invented and patented a system for producing time-independent virtual camera movement in motion pictures and other media. In 1995 Dayton incorporated Digital Air, Inc. in New York to commercialize his patent pending invention. In 1996 he published "Virtual Camera Movement: The Way of the Future?" in American Cinematographer Magazine. In 1997 Digital Air was contracted to shoot this TV commercial (link) filmed entirely in what would later be called flo-motion or bullet time, published how it was made using his then patented invention in American Cinematographer Magazine, and was contacted by the VFX team responsible for The Matrix.

With Digital Air established and his invention patented, published and proven by the end of 1997, Digital Air was the principal beneficiary of the global exposure brought by The Matrix upon its release in 1999. In addition to being featured in articles in American Cinematographer, Scientific American, Millimeter, Time Magazine and Advertising Age between 1996 and 1998, Dayton and his invention were featured on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings in December of 1998 and Dayton's original 1994 prototype was collected by the Smithsonian Museum of American History in March 1999. Anyone looking to produce visual effects using camera arrays could find Digital Air's sample work, patents and and publications on the internet, and they could hire Dayton to work with them anywhere in the world.

And they did.

In 2005 the company that owned the the original bullet time rig was liquidated. The liquidator found Dayton's name on the first page of the development notes that had been packed up with the rig and asked Dayton if he wanted to purchase it. After contacting Kim Libreri, who led the bullet time team on The Matrix, to confirm that the offer was real, Dayton did purchase it and Digital Air subsequently used parts of it in the production of Tony Scott's Deja Vu and TV commercials for Uniqlo, BMW, Toyota and Ferrari.

In 2020, to honor the visual effects effects team behind The Matrix: John Gaeta, Kim Libreri, George Borshukov, Dan Piponi, Rodney Iwashina, and the others, Dayton restored the original rig and added an additional interactive digital system developed by Digital Air to it. The resulting interactive installation was intended for a temporary exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, however, that exhibit was cancelled before opening due to COVID-19 lockdown delays.

The Matrix Bullet Time Rig is now available for short term or permanent exhibition. Our hope is to find a permanent home for it by 2030 when Dayton's original 1994 prototype camera will have been in the Smithsonian Museum of American History's permanent photographic history collection for over thirty years.