Laurent Buffi was born in July 1967 in Paris, France. His father is
from Florence, Italy, and is now one of France's leading architects and
urban planner, while his mother - from the French Riviera - works as an
interior designer. In 1986, Laurent completed his baccalaureate, thus
finishing his curriculum at Paris leading private school founded by
Alsatians in back 1874, called the 'Ecole Alsacienne.'
He attended the Paris III Sorbonne University, with major in sociology
and film critical studies. In June 1987, Laurent was enrolled at UCLA
Film School's Summer Session. During an intensive six-week production
training, Laurent wrote then shot in U-matic three short film
screenplays, prepared several production profiles as well as financial
statements. For his French MFA thesis back in 1990 at La Sorbonne,
Laurent chose to write a hundred-page dossier on "Outer/Inner Space:
the Maze and its double in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and The
Shining". Laurent's vision and analysis of these movies was motivated
by the stunning high number of double images converted into many
labyrinths, physical or psychic symbols which are heavily
multi-layered.
In August 1994, Laurent moved to Los Angeles in order to enroll as the
only foreigner admitted at UCLA's School of Film and Television's MFA
"The Independent Producer's Program," chaired by leading Hollywood
tycoon Peter Guber, then Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures
Entertainment. There, Laurent had the opportunity to attend classes
taught by major entertainment industry leaders. Right after his
graduation in June 1996, Laurent was hired by 20th Century Fox as the
Executive Assistant to renowned French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
(Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) on 'Alien Resurrection.' He
stayed on until post production started in June 1997. While at Fox,
Laurent was closely involved in pre-production, then principal
photography and the director's creative process (storyboards, script
revisions and updates).
After completion of the blockbuster, Laurent decided to partner with
screenwriter Robert Kramer to launch their own
production company, 'Buffalo Entertainment.' He acted as lead producer,
attaching his writer/partner to 10 spec script projects, as well as
co-producer on a CD-Rom Interactive game project called 'Sins.'
Starting in May 1998, Laurent decided to venture in new territories by
producing young directors' short films and being more involved in the
physical production aspect of projects that caught his attention thanks
to their high profile and original plot. In the same time, Laurent
became the screenwriter, producer and director of 'The Window's Edge',
a 15-minute futuristic short thriller shot in Super 16mm with a $21,000
budget, a 22-person crew on location in Downtown L.A.'s Union Station
and aboard n a train from the 50s.
In October 1998, Laurent approached Hollywood leading production
designer Patrick Tatopoulos, asking him to design the urban environment
of a video game for Paris-based high-end video game developer 'Polygon
Studio.' Starting in January 1998, Laurent had acted as Polygon's
exclusive representative, Product Coordinator and Executive
Producer. In May 1998, Laurent sold to Los Angeles based THQ Polygon's
first video game ever for a $1 million.
In 1999, he conducted an extensive Visual Effects Market survey in Los
Angeles, as well as several Business plans, to prepare the launching of
his new venture with Patrick Tatopoulos and Paris-based digital studio
'Foret Bleue.' The result was the creation in early 2000 of 'La
Rochelle Digital Design,' a new kind of digital effects start up aimed
at providing the industry with a new approach to affordable yet
impressive VFX, hence the motto "CBS" (Cheaper Better Sooner).
From mid-2000 until the summer of 2003, Laurent served as Co-President
Head of Production at 'La Rochelle', preparing and supervising budget
with the Paris-based studio, co-managing the VFX graphic artists teams
and promoting La Rochelle through pitches to major Hollywood studios.
In September 2003, Laurent served as 3D Production supervisor in a major
architecture firm and is in particular in care of developing new production model based on AutoDesk
3D Max programs. Since early 2004, he has been teaching 2nd and 3rd
year BA students at Paris La Sorbonne University on Film Financing and
Producing systems in France and Hollywood as well as Key production,
distribution and promotion strategies in the French and American
Television industries. Since 2009, Laurent, while still teaching at La
Sorbonne and producing 3D building solids & urban simulation models for
architects, had started co-supervising the launch of US independent
feature film and television mini-series projects to be shot in Europe, particularly in France and
Italy.
