Statement

This winning photo is a frame from the movie "Quest". It shows an overview of "Templeland", a magical place the film's character visits on a quest from its two-dimensional homeland.
The production design was influenced by the Italian postmodernist movement, and with the intention of creating an ideal reality that personality color and dimension (the object of the character's mission). The fifth dimension, or time, is also represented by the animation of the various temples.
Freed from physical laws such as gravity, the concepts of "Impossible Architecture" were explored. A floating roof and columns that gracefully rest on tiny spheres are among the "impossible" effects that create the scene. The film was computed using proprietary Apollo Computer ray tracing software and generated on a network over one hundred Apollo DN 600 and DN 660 computers.

Midnight Movie Group (MMG) of Apollo Computer

The Movie Group, is a volunteer team of industrial designers, software, and hardware engineers of Apollo Computer Inc. It was formed in 1985 with the goal of producing 3-D Ray Traced films for SIGGRAPH.
The MMG earned their name by working late at night and on weekends, developing the software tools necessary for ray traced animation.
The team was founded by Michael Sciulli as Producer/Director, James Arvo as Senior Technical Director and Melissa White as Director/Designer.
The MMG also consists of approximately 30 other Apollo engineers working in their spare time. Jobs range from Factotum, Splinographer/Cinematographer, Node Hunter/Gigagyte Master to Imaging Toolsmith.
The people involved in the MMG all work in the Graphics Software and Hardware Groups. Their primary jobs are developing 3-D software and
hardware for the CAD/CAM, and MCAD markets.
The combination of artists and engineers makes for an extremely creative/technical environment with a great deal of freedom for developing
non-product orientated projects.
The working conditions are very relaxed with people setting their own hours. Most people work 10-12 hours a day with MMG members usually working 12-15 hours a day, 6 -7 days a week, and a few sleeping in their offices during late night production.
Apollo Computer has a network of over 2000 workstations linked together through 5 separate buildings and 2 states. It's at night when people go home and these machines are sitting idle that the Movie Group goes into production

The Midnight Movie Group:

Michael Sciulli Producer/Director
James Arvo Senior Technical Director
Melissa White Director/Designer
David Kirk Technical Director
Joe Gilby Technical Director
Kevin Lefvebre Key Master
Ken Severson Splinographer & Cinematographer
Eric Peters Factotum
Michael Kane Writer
John Francis System Integrations
Gary Rose System Integrations
Melinda Shebeli Associate Splinographer
Steve Reber Node Hunter Gigabyte Master
Cary Scofied Imaging Toolsmith
Stan Swiniarski Music Composition
Eve Schooler Music Composition
Chris Bremser Moral Support
Mary Allard Moral Support
Al Lopez Moral Support

Melissa White (USA), born in Boston/Mass. in 1951. She studied architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Melissa White lives and works in New York as a freelance art director and production designer for TV and film productions.
In 1985 she met her former classmate Michael Sciulli, with whom she attended the School of Design and who worked as producer and director at Apollo Computer in Boston. Together with him and James Arvo (Senior Technical Director at Apollo computers), Melissa White founded the Midnight Movie Group (MMG) with the aim of producing computer films for SIGGRAPH.
The first computer film of MMG, "Quest", was produced in 1985, presented at SIGGRAPH in San Francisco and won several prizes and awards. In 1987 MMG completed its second film, "Fair Play".

Melissa White has been awarded an honorary menrion in the computer graphics category by the Prix Ars Electronica '87 jury for the graphic "Temple-2.land", created 1885 in Boston, MA.