The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced that 17 technological breakthroughs will be honored at its Scientific and Technical Academy Awards. The gala awards ceremony is slated for Feb. 18 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.
Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy plaques) will be presented to David Grober for the concept and mechanical design and Scott Lewallen for the electronic and software design of the Perfect Horizon camera stabilization head, which neutralizes the extraneous motion encountered in boats, camera cars, snowmobiles or other vehicles, leaving the pan/tilt head and camera stable and level with the horizon; to Anatoliy Kokush, Yuriy Popovsky and Oleksiy Zolotarov for the concept and development of the Russian Arm gyro-stabilized camera crane and the Flight Head, which can move smoothly in a 360 degree circle around a car, even while it is being driven at high speeds by performers; to Anatoliy Kokush for the concept and development of the Cascade series of motion picture cranes, which enable filmmakers to achieve heights of up to 70 feet; to Garrett Brown for the original concept of the Skycam flying camera system, the first use of 3D volumetric cable technology for motion picture cinematography; to David Baraff, Michael Kass and Andrew Witkin for their pioneering work in physically-based CG techniques used to simulate realistic cloth; and to Laurie Frost, Peter Hannan and Richard Loncraine for the development of the remote camera head known as the Hot-Head, in use for over a quarter of a century, which brought the possibility of safe, remotely-operated shots to filmmakers.
Technical Achievement Awards (Academy certificates) will be awarded to Gary Thieltges for the design and development of the remotely-operated, lightweight camera head known as the Sparrow Head, a remote system that enables filmmakers to remotely pan and tilt their camera from virtually any moving vehicle, giving the opportunity for unprecedented dynamic camera angles; to Frank Fletcher and Dave Sherwin for the introduction and continuing development of the Power Pod modular camera head system, enabling filmmakers to configure a remote controlled head to meet their own unique requirements; to Alvah Miller, Michael Sorensen and J. Walt Adamczyk for the design and development of the Aerohead motion control camera head and the J-Viz Pre-Visualization system, which serves the needs of the live-action filmmaker but also provides the functionality of a motion-controlled head, allowing for sophisticated tilting and pre-visualization techniques.
Technical Achievement Awards will also be bestowed upon Scott Leva for the design and development of the Precision Stunt Airbag, designed to envelop the stunt jumper, even on off-center hits; to Lev Yevstratov, George Peters and Vasiliy Orlov for the development of the Ultimate Arm Camera Crane System for specialized vehicle photography, which offers a highly stable platform for high-speed, rough terrain action shots; to James Rodnunsky, Alex MacDonald and Mark Chapman for the development of the Cablecam 3-D volumetric suspended cable camera technologies, making it possible to move a camera safely and accurately anywhere through a three-dimensional space; to Tim Drnec, Ben Britten Smith and Matt Davis for the development of the Spydercam 3-D volumetric suspended cable camera technologies, which makes it possible to move a camera safely and accurately anywhere through a three-dimensional space; and to John Platt and Demetri Terzopoulos for their pioneering work in physically-based computer-generated techniques used to simulate realistic cloth.
Rounding out the Technical Achievement Award recipients are Ed Catmull, for the original concept, and Tony DeRose and Jos Stam for their scientific and practical implementation of subdivision surfaces as a modeling technique; to Harold Rattray, Terry Claborn, Steve Garlick, Bill Hogue and Tim Reynolds for the design, engineering and implementation of the Technicolor Real Time Answer Print System, which provides a method by which filmmakers can preview real-time color corrections using actual film prints, reducing both the turnaround time and the number of reprints required; and to Udo Schauss and Hildegard Ebbesmeier for the optical design and Nicole Wemken and Michael Anderer for the mechanical design of the Cinelux Premiere Cinema Projection lenses, designed to reduce the traditional problems of softness in the corners, hot-spotting and varying brightness between film formats.