images-2NewTek is one of the hidden gems of a technology company in San Antonio.
Tim Jenison co-founded NewTek, a desktop video graphics software company, in a storefront in downtown Topeka, Kansas in 1985. The company made the Video Toaster.
Jenison later relocated the company to San Antonio. NewTek continued to make innovative products like Lightwave 3D software used for special effects in movies and television shows. And in 2005, NewTek released the Tricaster, which allows people to do live video streaming with the production capabilities of a full studio in a backpack-sized piece of hardware.
NewTek is a little slice of Hollywood in the Alamo City. Filmmakers from all over the world visit its headquarters to meet with Jenison and his staff.
Jenison is one of those genius entrepreneur/inventors who always seems to be thinking up the next big thing.
And that next big thing is “Tim’s Vermeer,” a documentary.
Jenison teamed up with Penn Jillette, the film’s producer, to create the documentary “Tim’s Vermeer,” which will debut in Austin and San Antonio on Feb. 28th, according to this schedule just released by Sony Pictures Classic.
In the one hour and 20 minute long documentary, Jenison “attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer (“Girl with a Pearl Earring”) manage to paint so photo-realistically — 150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project Jenison embarks on to test his theory is as extraordinary as what he discovers,” according to news release.
Jenison spent eight years on the project and travelled the world to research it. In the project, he attempts to paint a Vermeer. But he’s not a painter. He’s a computer graphics guy.
The movie has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, the New York Times and the even The Economist and has received rave reviews.