James McQuillan ’84, director of visual identity at Bungie, maker of the video game Halo, will give a talk on “Tigers, T-Rexes, and Seven Hundred Pound Super Soldiers: Surviving the Fire without Chasing Your Tale” on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Memorial Ballroom, Hall Campus Center.
McQuillan joined Bungie in 2006 as lead producer for Story, Cinematics, Animation, and Audio on Halo 3. Today, he’s busy breathing life into the studio’s best brand and marketing initiatives.
Before joining Bungie, McQuillan worked for more than two decades producing and directing television and non-fiction films for ABC, Discovery Channel, TLC, National Geographic, BBC, and others. The films he worked on have been nominated for and won Emmys, Genesis Awards, Cine Golden Eagle Awards, and Jackson Hole Film Festival Awards. A proud new father, McQuillan says he is in desperate need of a good night’s sleep.
McQuillan was the producer/director who worked on Making of Halo 2: The Documentary and Halo 3 Trailer Behind The Scenes while producer/director at FilmOasis, Inc. from 1999 to 2006. When Halo 3 was released, it was the fastest-selling preordered video game in history, according to ComputerWorld in August of 2007.
In late 2004, FilmOasis created the Limited Collector’s Edition DVD for Microsoft’s hugely successful Xbox game Halo 2. Selling 2.5 million Limited Edition versions of Halo 2 worldwide, the bonus DVD was designed and produced by FilmOasis. This was the first time any video game had included feature film style content on a bonus disc with their game.
Other projects the company produced include “Valley of the T-Rex,” a Discovery Channel Quest special with Dr. Jack Horner, “The X Factor: Inside Microsoft’s XBOX,” a Discovery Channel “On the Inside” special, and “Science at the Edge,” a three-hour science and technology series for TLC, Discovery Times, Discovery International and Granada International.
Additionally, FilmOasis was commissioned by National Geographic Television to produce “Quest for K2” a six-part series on mountain climbers. In 1999, FilmOasis traveled to remote western Mongolia to film an archaeological dig for another Discovery expedition, “Search for the Ice Warriors.”
