From Hollywood to the Factory

In 2002, Eric Golden got a call from Panavision. His old boss, billionaire financier Ronald Perelman, had just become majority shareholder of the ailing movie camera maker. Would Golden, then corporate counsel at the Washington Redskins, help push the nearly 50-year-old business into the Digital Age? Golden said yes and spent the next three years pursuing dozens of possible tech acquisitions. Along the way, he saw another opportunity: Some of the technology Hollywood spent millions developing had commercial potential outside showbiz. In 2005, armed with his Harvard law degree and zero engineering credentials, Golden quit Panavision and launched Imagility, a privately held holding company that specializes in repurposing movie tech for other industries.

The first company Imagility has invested in is Luminys Systems, which makes lighting systems used to simulate flash effects on film sets. That equipment is now used by Saab, Tata Motors (TTM), and others needing powerful lights to capture crash tests on video. The second: Actua Systems, which makes a compact, portable telescoping lift used by filmmakers to put cameras in hard-to-reach places. The U.S. Army is using them to mount surveillance equipment on Humvees.