USC Cinematic Arts

Ron Frankel, President and Founder of Proof, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of feature film previsualization.  He was the first to introduce Directors such as Steven Spielberg, David Fincher and Darren Aronofsky to the use of previs and has been a driving force behind the integration of previs throughout the entire film production process.  Recent collaborators include Marc Webb, Justin Lin, Zack Snyder, Francis Lawrence, Gary Ross and Michel Gondry.

Ron continues to push previsualization into new areas of film production and into worlds beyond Hollywood. His most recent work involves using augmented reality technologies to create live, in-camera visualizations.  In addition to his work on feature films, he has used previs to problem solve large-scale architectural installations, to create an immersive environment for the Museum of Modern Art, New York (in collaboration with Imaginary Forces, Greg Lynn and Alex McDowell) and to provide motion capture planning for video games such as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Blitz (in collaboration with Midway Games).

Ron has a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a Masters of Architecture from MIT.  He is a founding member of the Previsualization Society, the Virtual Production Committee and 5D: The Future of Immersive Design.  His work has been published in Cinefex, VFX World, American Cinematographer and the New York Times.  In addition to his work at Proof, Ron teaches a course on visualization at the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design.