A little more than a year ago, three friends banded together in Ann Arbor to create a film-industry firm. Today the start-up focuses on creating destination theaters and 3D film, which the group sees as the emerging technology in the industry.
"When the opportunity came we had to jump on it," says Ralph Watson, CEO and president of Fantasm who founded the company with Cooper Hampton and Donnie Gates.
Fantasm, which means unrestricted or unlimited imagination to the co-founders, now employs eight people and three independent contractors. The company is also planning to bring on interns next year. They expect to grow to 25 people by the end of 2010.
Although 3D is one of the en vogue trends in the film industry today, Watson and his partners plan to create one of their own – destination theaters. That means putting a few main-stream movie screens in places that already have heavy foot traffic, such as casinos or hotels or theme parks.
The company plans to set up the destination theater idea in Michigan within the next year and roll it out across the nation after that.
"We look at Michigan and see an open canvas," Watson says.
Source: Ralph Watson, CEO and president of Fantasm
Writer: Jon Zemke
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