In our preview of the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival last month, we incidentally mentioned that the overall SIGGRAPH confab was being held in New Orleans.
The incidental becomes essential, though, in this column. For one, the event, which wrapped last week (8/7) brought some 20,000 industry professionals from six continents to New Orleans, furthering the region’s economic recovery as we approach the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting southeast Louisiana (8/29/05).
Indeed while New Orleans proved to be a great city for the SIGGRAPH confab, the region is still in need of support. Beyond the obvious benefits derived from having hosted SIGGRAPH, New Orleans finds itself gaining on several other fronts thanks to the SIGGRAPH 2009+1 Outreach Program, which focuses on helping to educate local youth about careers in technology and creative arts. The long-term goal is to strengthen the New Orleans community by investing in the next generation.
The program entails:
• Helping the Algiers Technical Academy, a charter high school that is part of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, which features several courses to train students in computer graphics. SIGGRAPH has performed a complete makeover of the school’s computer room and is creating a new student computer graphics lab with computers donated from Walt Disney Animation Studios and software donated from Autodesk. Volunteers assisted with painting, decorating, hardware setup, networking, software installation, and cleanup of the lab.
• The Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, which trains 100 young people per year (ages 10-21) in music and dance. The camp also offers three week-long training programs in the music business, recording engineering, and music notation technology for advanced students.
To support the camp, SIGGRAPH 2009 partnered with Basin Street Records to offer a custom album of music by some of the city’s finest musicians. Proceeds from the $9.99 album download will support the camp and its kids. Plus, this allows people from around the world to help out an important New Orleans initiative. The album is readily available for download.
• NOCCA–New Orleans Center for Creative Arts: A school in New Orleans providing pre-professional arts training to middle and high school students in culinary arts, dance, media arts, music, theater arts, visual arts, and creative writing.
SIGGRAPH brought 50 students each from NOCCA and from Algiers Technical Academy for a mentor/mentee day that provided students with a glimpse into a variety of professions available in the world of computer graphics and interactive techniques.
• Tipitina’s Foundation: A non-profit organization that features “Instruments a Comin,” a program that provides new musical instruments to New Orleans area schools. SIGGRAPH put in place a mobile text message-based fundraising campaign that people participated in during the SIGGRAPH confab.
For detailed information on the SIGGRAPH Outreach Program visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/community/outreach/index.php.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More