By Carolyn Giardina
Avid Technology’s Daly City, Calif.-based Digidesign subsidiary was presented an Academy Award for the creation and development of the ProTools digital audio workstation, which has become a standard tool for feature and commercial audio production. The Scientific and Technical Academy Awards were bestowed on Feb. 14 during a gala ceremony in Pasadena.
Digidesign general manager Dave LeBolt accepted the award on behalf of the company and thanked ProTools users around the world, saying, "You’ve all made such a contribution to the innovation."
Audio execs agreed with the Academy’s selection for its highest honor. "ProTools is the standard by which we judge all other technologies," said Howie Schwartz, CEO of hsr/ny. "It is our connection to every type of audio business in the world. ProTools is like Kleenex, Xerox and Windex."
A second Oscar statue was awarded that evening to Bill Tondreau of Kuper Controls, Albuquerque, N.M., for his advancements in the field of motion control technology for motion picture visual effects, another development that has had a significant impact on the commercialmaking industry. "His efforts have aided motion control in becoming a core technology that has helped launch the renaissance of visual effects," said actress Jennifer Garner (Alias), who presented the SciTech Awards.
The Academy’s Board of Governors awarded the Oscars, as well as four Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy plaques), and three Technical Achievement Awards (Academy certificates), based upon recommendations from the Scientific and Technical Awards committee.
Among the Scientific and Engineering Award recipients was Stephen Regelous for Massive, the autonomous agent animation system used for the battle sequences in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Massive takes a new approach in simulating behaviors of large numbers of CG extras (agents). Each agent contains a primitive software "brain" used to develop behavioral rules simulating a wide range of behaviors. Massive has been productized and has already been used in commercial applications at The Mill, London and New York (see Special Report story, p. 25).
Plaques were also presented to Kinoton GmbH for the Kinoton FP 30/38 EC II studio projector, used in postproduction; to Kenneth L. Tingler, Charles C. Anderson, Diane E. Kestner and Brian A. Schell of the Eastman Kodak Company, for the development of a process-surviving antistatic layer technology for motion picture film; and to Christopher Alfred, Andrew Cannon, Michael C. Carlos, Mark Crabtree, Chuck Grindstaff and John Melanson for their contributions to the evolution of digital audio editing.
Technical Achievement Awards recipients included Christophe Hery (at Industrial Light + Magic [ILM], San Rafael, Calif.), Ken McGaugh and Joe Letteri (at WETA Digital, Wellington, New Zealand) for their implementations of practical methods for rendering skin and other translucent materials using subsurface scattering techniques, which were used to create realistic-looking skin on digitally created characters, including Dobby in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (ILM) and Gollum in The Lord of the Rings (WETA).
Certificates were also awarded to Kish Sadhvani, Paul Duclos and Carl Pernicone for the portable cine viewfinder system Ultimate Director’s Finder; and to Henrik Wann Jensen, Stephen R. Marschner and Pat Hanrahan for their research in simulating subsurface scattering of light in translucent materials.
Also, the Gordon E. Sawyer Award was presented to 3-D innovator Peter D. Parks. And Douglas Greenfield, senior director of Dolby Labs, received the John A. Bonner Media of Commendation.
After Documentaries About Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields, Director Lana Wilson Turns Her Camera To NYC Psychics
Filmmaker Lana Wilson had never thought much about psychics. But the morning after Election Day in 2016, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she found herself drawn towards a sign that promised "$5 psychic readings" and wandered in.
Much to her surprise, she found it to be a rather profound experience. She can barely even remember what was said, but it was emotional and comforting. And it would set her on a seven-year journey to make a documentary about this strange and misunderstood tradition, "Look Into My Eyes," which expands in theaters this week.
"I think I had totally misjudged the whole psychic tradition," Wilson said. "I had trivialized it and seen it as this silly thing, despite the fact that millions of people around the world engage in it… I'd had this personal experience where I, as a lifelong skeptic, found comfort in a psychic one day. So part of my initial perspective was what if it doesn't matter if it's real or not?
In the years since that fateful encounter, Wilson's own profile has raised significantly for her documentaries about Taylor Swift, " Miss Americana," and Brooke Shields, " Pretty Baby." But the idea of the psychics lingered. The film, unjudgmental, funny and poignant, takes viewers inside the homes, and sessions, of several New York City psychics
Wilson spoke about her process, her revelations and why she decided to not take Shields up on her offer to be one of the subjects in this one. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Did you find many of your friends shared your own assumptions about psychics?
WILSON: One of my closest friends is a therapist and she immediately got it. She was like, "This is totally different than therapy. But, also,... Read More