William Arntz
William Arntz began his professional career as a research laser physicist, developing wave optics simulators for high energy lasing systems. 2 years later he was “retired” and driving around the country to see what was out there. He eventually landed in Boston, where with a long-time friend made the 60 minute 16mm film “Beat the Deva”.
Upon completion he headed out to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. Realizing that his motivations for making films (money and fame) would never produce a great film, he gave it up, moved to San Francisco, became a Buddhist and began studying with a spiritual teacher. Eventually the students were given the task of writing a software product and creating a company to market it. William thereupon set out and wrote “AutoSys” – a distributed job scheduler. He sold the company 2 years later and retired.
It turns out he sold the goose that laid the golden egg. To date AutoSys has generated over 1 billion dollars. Erked at that turn of events, William devised a second software product, and quickly sold that off. And retired.
He then realized that with the success of his start-ups, he could by-pass the Hollywood system and make a movie. That movie started life as a small documentary about Spirit and Science, but grew in scope (and budget) and became What the BLEEP Do We Know!?
Producing, scripting, directing and editing the film (with 2 esteemed collaborators) What the BLEEP was completed in 2004. And was passed on by every major distributor. At this point William turned back to his software marketing experience and rolled out What the BLEEP in a “proof of concept” strategy used for marketing revolutionary software. Slowly at first, it did catch on and went on to become one of the most successful documentaries ever made. It is widely considered the very first, groundbreaking film of an emerging film genre’ – Spiritual Cinema.
Currently Mr. Arntz is – yes – retired.
