The Hollywood Post Alliance® has announced the recipients of the organization’s Engineering Excellence Award. The coveted honor, sponsored by NAB Show, is intended to showcase and reward inventors, manufacturers, vendors and/or peer postproduction companies for their outstanding product or technology application offerings. The Engineering Excellence Award is a central part of the HPA Awards, which recognize creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of postproduction.
The 2011 HPA Award for Engineering Excellence winners are:
o Dolby Professional Reference Monitor
Filling the gap left by the CRT, The Dolby® PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor is the first display capable of displaying the full dynamic range, contrast ratio, color gamut of leading edge digital cameras and film stocks, and fully supports today’s digital work flows. The monitor delivers true blacks with exceptional dark detail, high contrast, wide dynamic range and precise color rendering.
o IBM Linear Tape File System
The IBM Linear Tape File System (LTFS) was invented by IBM Research to provide a simple, cost efficient way to access and manage massive archives of data and digital assets.
o Lightcraft Previzion
A real time visual effects system that incorporates a combination of high precision camera tracking, sophisticated rendering, and VFX quality keying which makes it ideal for the real time on-set compositing of live action, virtual backgrounds, and CGI characters. The system provides filmmakers with the ability to create visual effects shots with dynamic camera moves and actually see the completed effects during the shot.
o Sony OLED Monitor
The organic light emitting diode technology (OLED) for reference monitoring is a panel and processor system that is practical for media production applications. The development involved significant investment in two factories and has resulted in delivering 7 different monitor models.
Winning feedback
“We are honored to receive the award for Engineering Excellence from such a significant and influential organization as the Hollywood Post Alliance. It is a testament to the quality of our monitor and illustrates Dolby’s commitment to helping content creators produce the best possible entertainment content,” noted Bill Admans, director of production and post production solutions, Dolby Laboratories.
“IBM is proud to be recognized for our creation and design of the Linear Tape File System. This unique technology can help customers simplify their use of tape for storing data and video assets, leveraging the low cost, rugged, portable, efficient and long retention aspects of tape storage,” said Steve Canepa, general manager, global media & entertainment industry, IBM.
“We’re very honored to receive the Engineering Excellence Award. The HPA Tech Retreat® was where Lightcraft first demonstrated Previzion to the Hollywood community, and to come full circle and be recognized by the HPA is extremely gratifying. We look forward to relentlessly improving Previzion’s capabilities and to expanding what is possible in entertainment production,” commented Eliot Mack, co-founder, Lightcraft Technology.
Gary Mandle, sr. product manager, Sony Professional Solutions of America, stated, “We are all honored that HPA would present Sony with this award. There were so many engineers and scientists involved in the development who really don’t get the recognition they deserve. This award is for them and the great achievement that they have accomplished.”
Last year’s winners of the Engineering Excellence Award included ALEXA by Arnold + Richter Cine Technik (ARRI); Image Systems (formerly Digital Vision) for the Open EXR workflow; and Cine-tal for their Davio processor.
The HPA Awards will take place on the evening of November 10, 2011 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Tickets for the HPA Awards will be available in September and can be purchased online at www.hpaawards.net.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More