I had the honor of attending the opening of PL Studios (aka Digital Tutors) last Friday in Oklahoma City, OK. Before the grand opening, PL Studios hosted UPGRADE 2007: Evolving Art & Filmmaking, Oklahoma’s first annual computer graphics, animation and gaming forum.
http://www.plstudios.com/
The event was focused on exploring what it takes to develop, cultivate and maintain an animation, gaming, and digital filmmaking industry in Oklahoma.
It was a wonderful experience - I felt very privileged to be there.
Here are some photos..
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoldfin2007/DigitalTutorsGrandOpening
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Photos from Make Your Mark
I can't get over how fast time goes by.. we planned the Make Your Mark tour for months.. and in 2 short weeks it was all over.
Each city and presenter and panelist were all so different.. and i enjoyed the time we spent listening and learning from our clients in Boston, New York, LA & San Francisco.
Thanks to Marc & Todd (Boston), Chris & Youngwoong (NYC), John & Raffael (LA) and Jonathan (San Fran). Hearing your advice and experience in developing your careers was invaluable and inspiring to the audience as well as the Softimage staff.
For a complete album of photos, check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avidtechnology
& http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoldfin2007
Each city and presenter and panelist were all so different.. and i enjoyed the time we spent listening and learning from our clients in Boston, New York, LA & San Francisco.
Thanks to Marc & Todd (Boston), Chris & Youngwoong (NYC), John & Raffael (LA) and Jonathan (San Fran). Hearing your advice and experience in developing your careers was invaluable and inspiring to the audience as well as the Softimage staff.
For a complete album of photos, check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avidtechnology
& http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoldfin2007
Tim Sweeney & Chris Johnson in NYC.
Kevin, Jodi & Jonathan Harb
Chris & his wife Melissa with Youngwoong
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Make Your Mark Tour - Summary
I am having some technical issues here.. let's try this again...
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Make Your Mark Tour - Summary
Hi -
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Make Your Mark Tour - Summary
Hi -
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
See below for the MYM Tour Summary that my colleague Kevin G just prepared. I wanted to post this first, because it pretty much sums up where we have been for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the last event, held in San Francisco, and it was a little sad for us to see it end so soon!
This was the first time I have worked with all of the different divisions of Avid.. the Video team, who we know pretty well, but the Digidesign and M-Audio teams are new to us to collaborate closely with. It was a great experience..
Overall, the panel sessions were amazing. In all 4 cities, I felt like I learned something from each team on how to help my own career.. the advice and suggestions from Marc, Chris, John & Jonathan were invaluable, and I was very proud to have these 4 speakers representing the VFX industry.
Our four artists in the break-out sessions were equally fantastic... Todd, Young, Raffael and Jonathan all brought a different story to each city with their different career paths and projects.
I also got to work with our newest Softimage employee - Peter de Lappe - who is joining forces with Mark Schoennagel to spread the gospel of XSI as our new 3D Evangelist.
Here's Kevin's summary, we'll both be posting photos and more details later today.
For Make Your Mark, Montreal-based Softimage represented its professional 3D animation technology software, SOFTIMAGEXSI, by inviting 3D industry thought leaders to attend the lively and informative panel sessions in all four cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Softimage additionally provided highly-visual demonstrations of its professional 3D animation software in each break-out session—providing a comprehensive demonstration of how one can break into the 3D industry using XSI software for a career in 3D game development, visual effects, broadcast or pre-viz and design visualization.
In Boston, Modus FX president Marc Bourbonnais represented the visual effects industry in the first panel event. In the Softimage break-out session, PSYOP’s Todd Akita shared his experience working on award-winning spots for some of world’s biggest brands (Mercedes, Infiniti, MTV, Nike, Coca-Cola and more)—and provided advice on building a successful career using XSI 3D software.
In New York, Chris Johnson from TOPIX in Toronto shared his experience at the panel discussion about learning 3D and how he has applied his expertise in a career creating 3D visuals for major television advertisements. Youngwoog-Jang, recent winner of the Academy Award Student Gold Medal for his 3D animated short, Mirage, gave an inspirational “Making-Of” presentation at the break out session.
In Los Angeles, John Norris, director of Artists and Directors Cooperative spoke about how artists can break into the industry. Raffael Dickreuter, host of the XSI community site www.XSIbase.com and 3D pre-viz artist for Pixel Liberation Front, showed how SOFTIMAGEXSI was the best 3D animation software for next-generation games, film and television projects—and provided insider advice on how to get a job in the animation industry.
In San Francisco, Jonathan Harb, CEO and Creative Director at Whiskytree, shared his knowledge of working in the industry as an XSI artist to create specialized environments and his past experience of working on visual environments on films including all three Star Wars prequels, Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
In a New Yok Minute...
One of the downsides about writing a blog is the associated guilt I feel when I don't update it fast enough! I have been trying to get a quick around to posting an update about the NYC Make Your Mark event, but time keeps getting away from me!
I am now in LA, gearing up for the next event, but I want to share some details about last weekend in NYC.
I arrived in the city last Thursday and headed off right away to meet with some schools and training facilities to discuss XSI training for professionals. We know there are so may jobs out there for talented artists that can use XSI, we just need to be able to offer a couple of transition courses.
One of the things I was discussing with the schools I was at was offering a free weekend class in Feb for non-xsi freelancers to get them up to speed. I would love to hear some feedback from NY shops if they think they could help us get some people there.. also we are looking at London as a possibility as well.
So after a long day running around NYC I got to SVA to meet up with Mark Schoennagel and Mike Walsh of Softimage, where we were getting ready to be the guest speakers at the NYC User Group, run by Phill Avanzato. This was exciting, because we were showing a little tech preview from SIGGRAPH of some exciting technology that may or may not make it into the next release of XSI. Looks like what Mark showed resonated well with the crowd, so that was very encouraging! Mark also opened up XSI 6.5 and showed how the 3Dlight beta plug-in works for rendering in XSI.
http://www.3delight.com/en/modules/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=3delight_for_xsi_changelog
It was a great opportunity to catch up with a few XSI guys (and gals!) that I haven't seen in a while, like Todd Peleg, Leigh Rondano, Alex Arce, Mike Wharton and many more. (We missed you Kris Rivel!) I love going to the NYC User Groups- they jut go by SO fast!
On Friday, we went to a couple of client shops to hold some technology sessions and talk training. Both places we visited have grown SO much since the last time I had been there, with both project scopes and team sizes. There are some fantastic projects coming that are using XSI - I can't wait to be able to talk about them!!
Later in the day we met up with our guest panelist for the event, Chris Johnson of TOPIX and his wife Melissa. It was nice being able to have the time to chat and catch up, very different from when we are all running around at SIGGRAPH.
This was a longer post than I expected.. I'll do a second one for the Make Your Mark event later today - it was a great day.
see you later!
I am now in LA, gearing up for the next event, but I want to share some details about last weekend in NYC.
I arrived in the city last Thursday and headed off right away to meet with some schools and training facilities to discuss XSI training for professionals. We know there are so may jobs out there for talented artists that can use XSI, we just need to be able to offer a couple of transition courses.
One of the things I was discussing with the schools I was at was offering a free weekend class in Feb for non-xsi freelancers to get them up to speed. I would love to hear some feedback from NY shops if they think they could help us get some people there.. also we are looking at London as a possibility as well.
So after a long day running around NYC I got to SVA to meet up with Mark Schoennagel and Mike Walsh of Softimage, where we were getting ready to be the guest speakers at the NYC User Group, run by Phill Avanzato. This was exciting, because we were showing a little tech preview from SIGGRAPH of some exciting technology that may or may not make it into the next release of XSI. Looks like what Mark showed resonated well with the crowd, so that was very encouraging! Mark also opened up XSI 6.5 and showed how the 3Dlight beta plug-in works for rendering in XSI.
http://www.3delight.com/en/modules/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=3delight_for_xsi_changelog
It was a great opportunity to catch up with a few XSI guys (and gals!) that I haven't seen in a while, like Todd Peleg, Leigh Rondano, Alex Arce, Mike Wharton and many more. (We missed you Kris Rivel!) I love going to the NYC User Groups- they jut go by SO fast!
On Friday, we went to a couple of client shops to hold some technology sessions and talk training. Both places we visited have grown SO much since the last time I had been there, with both project scopes and team sizes. There are some fantastic projects coming that are using XSI - I can't wait to be able to talk about them!!
Later in the day we met up with our guest panelist for the event, Chris Johnson of TOPIX and his wife Melissa. It was nice being able to have the time to chat and catch up, very different from when we are all running around at SIGGRAPH.
This was a longer post than I expected.. I'll do a second one for the Make Your Mark event later today - it was a great day.
see you later!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Making our Mark in Boston..
Avid Interim CEO Nancy HawthorneYou know what's cool about working for Softimage? Being reminded every once in a while of all the other cool companies and products under the Avid umbrella.
Yesterday was the 'Make Your Mark' event in Boston, and it was such a blast seeing all the cool products from M-Audio, Digidesign and Avid.
I SO need to try TORQ now! http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/TorqXponent-main.html
Steve Hassan & Sharon Holm of Avid 
PSYOP's Todd Akita presenting
The Rondo Brothers using M-Audio
Todd and Softimage's Chinny "Make Their Mark"This event was a departure from other seminars we have done.. it was the first audio-3D-video seminar with all the divisions of Avid. The event opened with a panel of industry experts (including Modus FX's Marc Bourbonnais representing 3D) talking about what students and artists can do to get noticed by professionals. While the panel was heavily skewed to audio and the use of myspace pages to get noticed, all the panelists agreed that using the web is a premiere was to get yourself marketed.
Networking is key to get a job in the industry.. so work with your teachers and your contacts.. go to events, mingle, introduce yourself.. From the CG side - be online, post your work, get on the industry forums - it's key to.. "Making Your Mark!"
Next week we hit NYC.. Chris Johnson and Young Jang will be representing CG for the event.
For more info about next week's event, go to: http://makeyourmark.avid.com/
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Make Your Mark - Boston
Next up.. the Avid Make Your Mark Tour!
The "Make Your Mark" tour is the first time that Avid Video, Softimage, Digidesign & M-Audio are participating in a seminar series all together. Each division was responsible for bringing in a panelist and a presenter to talk about their field of expertise.
We'll be hitting 4 cities in the next 4 weeks, starting today.. here is the schedule.
Boston - October 3, 2007 - Boston University
New York - October 13, 2007 - The Millennium Broadway Hotel
Los Angeles - October 20, 2007 - Los Angeles Film School
San Francisco - October 23, 2007 - San Francisco State University
http://makeyourmark.avid.com/
The Boston event will kick off with an interactive panel session, moderated by Scott Campbell, general manager of Broad Street Digital. The panel will cover tips and tricks for getting noticed and getting ahead in film, TV, music and 3D.
Panelists include:
- Matt Dentler, producer of the South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference;
- Debbie DeMontreux, SVP Original Productions and Development at the Independent Film Channel (IFC);
- Music Industry Talent Scout, Tim Sweeney, founder of Sweeney and Associates; and
- Mark Bourbannais, president and founder of Modus FX
INDUSTRY PRESENTERS AND BREAKOUT SESSIONS:
- Carmen Rizzo, producer-mixer-programmer and writer: "Professional Remixing and Production Techniques" and "Redefining the Studio"
- The Rondo Brothers, musicians and professional composers: "Music Creation in a Virtual Environment" and "ProTools and the Art of the Remix"
- Todd Akita, 3D technical director, PSYOP:
"How to Break Into the Post Industry"
- Dan Moses, filmmaker and producer, First Track Productions:
"Extreme Filmmaking"
I'll post more later.. time to meet up with Chinny and get the systems up and running.
The "Make Your Mark" tour is the first time that Avid Video, Softimage, Digidesign & M-Audio are participating in a seminar series all together. Each division was responsible for bringing in a panelist and a presenter to talk about their field of expertise.
We'll be hitting 4 cities in the next 4 weeks, starting today.. here is the schedule.
Boston - October 3, 2007 - Boston University
New York - October 13, 2007 - The Millennium Broadway Hotel
Los Angeles - October 20, 2007 - Los Angeles Film School
San Francisco - October 23, 2007 - San Francisco State University
http://makeyourmark.avid.com/
The Boston event will kick off with an interactive panel session, moderated by Scott Campbell, general manager of Broad Street Digital. The panel will cover tips and tricks for getting noticed and getting ahead in film, TV, music and 3D.
Panelists include:
- Matt Dentler, producer of the South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference;
- Debbie DeMontreux, SVP Original Productions and Development at the Independent Film Channel (IFC);
- Music Industry Talent Scout, Tim Sweeney, founder of Sweeney and Associates; and
- Mark Bourbannais, president and founder of Modus FX
INDUSTRY PRESENTERS AND BREAKOUT SESSIONS:
- Carmen Rizzo, producer-mixer-programmer and writer: "Professional Remixing and Production Techniques" and "Redefining the Studio"
- The Rondo Brothers, musicians and professional composers: "Music Creation in a Virtual Environment" and "ProTools and the Art of the Remix"
- Todd Akita, 3D technical director, PSYOP:
"How to Break Into the Post Industry"
- Dan Moses, filmmaker and producer, First Track Productions:
"Extreme Filmmaking"
I'll post more later.. time to meet up with Chinny and get the systems up and running.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
ADAPT is a wrap...
I am a bit late with my last ADAPT post.. the conference came to a fantastic close last Friday.
Thursday was the Halo 3 party, which by all accounts, was amazing. (I only know this 3rd hand, because I fell asleep at 8:30pm while I was 'resting up' for it!)
Anyhow.. before we got to that point, I was lucky enough to watch two Softimage client presentations at ADAPT.
The first was Ron Martin fro Stage 3 Media who presented the web-based sci-fi show "Sanctuary." If you haven't seen the show - take look - http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ . Created in Vancouver, Canada by many of the team behind Stargate SG1, Sanctuary is an online series shot entirely in HD.
VFX Producer Ron Martin presented some of the challenge that the team at Stage 3 media faced with creating the show, including the business challenges in running an on-line distribution model. If you read up on the vision behind Sanctuary, you'll see that the creators did not enforce a strict digital rights management policy on their product - they want their fans to be able to share. At the same time, a studio has to make enough money off a web series to be able to continue to afford to fund the project. There is no doubt, that Sanctuary is a popular product. Legal and illegal downloads have reached over 1 million viewers for the first 8 episodes.
Sanctuary has broken several barriers on the web broadcasting front, and the team at Stage 3 media will continue to do so on the web-based business model.
Thursday was the Halo 3 party, which by all accounts, was amazing. (I only know this 3rd hand, because I fell asleep at 8:30pm while I was 'resting up' for it!)
Anyhow.. before we got to that point, I was lucky enough to watch two Softimage client presentations at ADAPT.
The first was Ron Martin fro Stage 3 Media who presented the web-based sci-fi show "Sanctuary." If you haven't seen the show - take look - http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ . Created in Vancouver, Canada by many of the team behind Stargate SG1, Sanctuary is an online series shot entirely in HD.
VFX Producer Ron Martin presented some of the challenge that the team at Stage 3 media faced with creating the show, including the business challenges in running an on-line distribution model. If you read up on the vision behind Sanctuary, you'll see that the creators did not enforce a strict digital rights management policy on their product - they want their fans to be able to share. At the same time, a studio has to make enough money off a web series to be able to continue to afford to fund the project. There is no doubt, that Sanctuary is a popular product. Legal and illegal downloads have reached over 1 million viewers for the first 8 episodes.
Sanctuary has broken several barriers on the web broadcasting front, and the team at Stage 3 media will continue to do so on the web-based business model.
Our other guest presenter in town for ADAPT was Greg Punchtaz of Janimation. Greg took a different presentation tactic than Ron, instead focusing on his career in make-up and vfx. What was extremely interesting for me (and the audience too!) was seeing some of the early work from Greg, and how he started his career on iconic projects like Robocop & Nightmare on Elm Street 2.
Greg talked about his experiences working with industry greats like Phil Tippett (ADAPT's keynote speaker) and Rick Baker. Little-known fact - Greg and Aaron Sims were high school friends in Texas who used to practice make-up effects on their friends. One year for Halloween, classmate John Norris (now Aaron's production partner) was sent home because he was deemed "too gruesome."
Overall, ADAPT was great fun - and hat's off to the team behind it. It was a great conference, and so cool that it was in Montreal. Thanks to Greg and Ron for flying in to present here, and thanks to Pierre Yamond & Daniel Leduc (Hybride), Rob Moodie (Buzz Image) and Marc Bourbnnais (Modus FX) for the Montreal-based customer presntations.
Keep your eyes open for announcement of the dates of ADAPT 2008.
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