The VIEW Looks Great from Turin

Italy’s VIEW Conference 2015 is just around the corner, with a top lineup of industry leaders preparing for a memorable week of presentations and al dente agnolotti.

Mark Osborne will present on his upcoming CG and stop-motion animated feature, 'The Little Prince.'

Those who know me know my annual trek to Turin’s VIEW Conference is one of the highlights of my year. Certainly, it’s not for the Beef Tartare that seems to grow on trees throughout the city, though, I’m not one to turn down a quenelle or two of the stuff if it somehow falls onto my plate. Nor is it for the Pumpkin Risotto that is as ubiquitous at city eateries as the Vitello Tonnato or Brasato al Barolo, that scrumptious braise of beef and Barolo wine that is a signature autumn dish of Italy’s Piedmont region. And though I’ve also sampled scrumptious Prosciutto di Parma overlooking 2000+ year old Roman ruins, charcuterie hand sliced so thin it only had one side, 6,000 miles is a long way to go just for a few shreds of artisanal salt pork.

Let’s not even mention the truffles.

Veal tartare slathered with shaved white truffles at the restaurant Gemma Osteria.

Though I’ve had some of the best meals of my life in Turin, what’s topped even the most marvelous dining experience has been the chance to share those meals with some of the friendliest and most talented artists in our industry. People like Alvy Ray Smith, Gary Rydstrom and Glen Keane, ILM’s Roger Guyett and John Knoll, Pixar’s Sharan Calahan, WETA’s Wayne Stables, Disney’s Patrick Osborne…the list is long, deep and denotes great moments and fond memories for me going back almost a decade.

VIEW 2015, running October 19-24, organized as always through the sheer will and frenzied determination of director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez, once again boasts a formidable group of presenters, culled from the biggest studios in the world. As usual, the 2015 lineup includes many top names – Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron overall VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend, PDI co-founder Glenn Entis, Kung Fu Panda and The Little Prince director Mark Osborne, Alessandro Carloni, director of DreamWork’s upcoming Kung Fu Panda 3, Scott Carroll, supervising animator on Blue Sky Studio’s new feature The Peanuts Movie and Hotel Transylvania 2 production designer Michael Kurinsky are just some of the great speakers scheduled to present this year. As ILM’s Scott Farrar told me last year, “VIEW is very cool because there are a lot of people I get to hear that I never hear any place else”

At VIEW 2014, dinner with (left to right) ILM VFX supervisor Tim Harrington ('Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'), ex-ILM VFX supervisor Stefan Fangmeier ('Sin City 2') and ILM VFX supervisor Scott Farrar ('Transformers: Age of Extinction').

DreamWork's Tom McGrath shares some great press coverage - in Italian.

Last year at VIEW, the legendary animator Glen Keane sketched the beautiful wine country landscapes from the patio of the famous restaurant Gemma Osteria.

But it’s more than the people that make VIEW such a marvelous experience – it’s the event’s intimacy, and almost familial sense of community and comradery that permeates the entire gathering. As Dr. Gutierrez herself acknowledges, “It’s the people who come to VIEW that make it such a special event…the speakers and the attendees. And, it’s in Italy. Italy is about family, good food, and good life. I think that spirit imbues VIEW with a special quality.”

2014 keynote speaker Alvy Ray Smith, one of Pixar’s co-founders, said it best when he remarked, “I love the VIEW Conference. A lot of people I trust told me I would. It’s small enough to be intimate. It’s organized so that all the speakers get to hear each other’s talks. I’ve never been to a conference where I wanted to hear all the other talks.”

Marvel's overall VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend is back this year to talk about 'Avengers: Age of Ultron.'

ILM VFX supervisor Tim Alexander and animation supervisor Glen McIntosh will present on 'Jurassic World.'

Laika VFX supervisor Steve Emerson will present about stop-motion filmmaking visual effects production.

Specialists in media and entertainment technology, storyboarding, character design, game design, architectural visualization, sound design and a host of other areas of production will be speaking throughout the five day event. The conference includes numerous educational workshops, which are programmed continuously for all five days. Each year, a large group of students and young professionals routinely turn out to learn from the industry’s best – the spirit of mentoring and passing on lessons learned from years in the industry is an important part of soul and vibe of the conference. As Ray Smith aptly described in 2014, “The young people here have been a delight. They are so happy to hear the history and be part of it. They treated me with great respect, which is certainly gratifying.”

Full conference details can be found on the VIEW website and Facebook page. Hope to see you there.