The Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) has announced the final schedule for the 2015 HPA Tech Retreat, February 9-13, in Indian Wells. The Tech Retreat is a relaxed yet focused gathering where engineering, technology and strategic business leaders join top creative talent to explore and debate the most compelling topics facing the media and entertainment industry today. The event offers four solidly scheduled days of sessions, demonstrations and events, and delivers a forward looking perspective on an industry continuing its dynamic and rapid transformation of how content is created, finished, distributed and arrived.
For 20 years, the Tech Retreat has proven to be a bellwether event where groundbreaking ideas are born and industry-changing technologies unveiled. From drones and UHD, the cloud and cyber security, to maintaining creative intent while exploring the next iteration of broadcast standards–if it’s being thought about, it will be discussed, debated, and perhaps even refuted at the Tech Retreat. More than 45 sessions, 75 early morning thought provoking breakfast roundtables and over 100 speakers make up the conference program. In addition, 30 new technologies are slated to debut in the event’s curated Demo Room, and the schedule is crafted to offer time for exploration and interaction.
Leon Silverman, president of the HPA, noted, “As we enter our 21st year, the Tech Retreat continues to be one of those events you can’t afford to miss. The mix of topics, technology and top industry minds makes this event a yearly check-in with industry gurus and deep thinkers that seem to gather at the HPA every year in the desert. Making the pilgrimage to the HPA Tech Retreat seems to provide so many of us with a check on the pulse of the entire industry.”
There are over 45 sessions presented during the course of the Retreat. Highlights include:
· The HPA Supersession – A full day of sessions focused on a shifting industry. Just when we thought we had mastered the transition to the “digital age,” we’re seeing new and fundamental shifts.
· Keynote – Not Your Father’s Post
· Cyber and Content Security: Time for a Strategy Change
· Sensory Stimulation
· Next Generation of Cinema: New Technologies and Techniques: What they Mean for Filmmakers
· Understanding the New Acquisition
· From Snowflakes to Standards: Maintaining Creative Intent in Evolutionary Times
· Drones for Dummies
· The Annual Broadcasters Update
· Personalized and Immersive Sound
· DDP and IMF
· The Cloud Demystified
· Utilizing Fingerprinting Technology for Shot Matching
· Enhancing the Creative Palette
· Automatic Content Recognition
The lineup of speakers includes: Wendy Aylsworth, Warner Bros.; Bill Bennett, ASC; Stephen Beres, HBO; Sara-Duran Singer, Netflix; John Fithian, National Association of Theater Owners; Barbara Lange, SMPTE; Carolina Lavatelli, Internet of Trust; Pete Ludé, Real D; Theresa Miller, Lionsgate; Loren Nielsen, Entertainment Technology Consultants; Daryn Okada, ASC; Vikram Phatak, NSS Labs; Skip Pizzi, NAB; Andy Shenkler, Sony DADC New Media Solutions; Leon Silverman, HPA; Masayuki Sugawara, NHK; Larry Thorpe, Canon; Mario Vecchi, PBS; and Erik Weaver, Entertainment Technology Center at USC.
Silverman commented, “It’s our 21st year, and the lineup is more inspiring and informative than ever. We don’t go to the Tech Retreat with the answers, we go with the questions, and that’s by design. And you always leave feeling as though you’ve been engaged and informed, even though you may leave with different questions! It’s not a sales event, it not a typical conference, it’s not a trade show, and it’s not a scholarly event. But, it’s personal and thought provoking, and all of the most interesting people are there; especially the ones you have never met. There’s simply nothing else like it.”
Throughout the Tech Retreat, new technologies are explored and demonstrated in sessions and in the Demo Room. This year, dozens of new technologies will appear, in keeping with the event’s history of unveiling important technological advancements–advanced cameras, holographic imagery, 3D, to name a few. Another first this year, Christie’s new laser projection solution will be utilized during the Tech Retreat Sessions.
Registration for the HPA Tech Retreat is strongly recommended. The Tech Retreat is a limited attendance event and seating is approaching capacity and expected to sell out. It is still possible to register, but pre-conference registration closes Monday, February 2, after which time only onsite registrations will be accepted, and those registrations are space-permitting. Full-conference as well as one-day registrations are available. Registration includes conference sessions, breakfast roundtables, lunch, demo room, and social events.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More