The creators of two camera crane systems have been voted Oscars by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will be handed out along with special Academy commendations among the 15 achievements to be honored at the Academy's annual Scientific and Technical Awards dinner on Feb. 12, 2005, at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.
Horst Burbulla will receive an Oscar for the creation and development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane, which has redefined camera crane technology.
Jean-Marie Lavalou, Alain Masseron and David Samuelson will receive Oscar statuettes for engineering and developing the Louma Camera Crane and remote system for motion picture production, which has served as the inspiration for many subsequent remote camera systems.
Earlier this week the academy announced that the Gordon E. Sawyer Award will be given to Takuo Miyagishima for his lifetime of technological contributions to the industry and a special Award of Commendation will go to Arthur Widmer for his lifetime achievement in the science and technology of image compositing for motion pictures, particularly for his development of the Ultra Violet and the bluescreen compositing processes.
The Academy will also hand out two Scientific and Engineering Awards, in the form of plaques, and nine Technical Achievement Awards, to be presented as certificates, based upon recommendations from the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, chaired by Richard Edlund.
Achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards do not have to have been developed and introduced during 2004. Devices are only considered for Sci-Tech Awards, "if they have a proven track record of continued and successful use in the film industry," according to Rich Miller, awards administration director.
Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical achievements for the year 2004 are:
Scientific And Engineering Awards (awarded Academy plaques) for 2004 will go to:
Gyula Mester (electronic systems design) and Keith Edwards (mechanical engineering) for their significant contributions to and continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane.
With its electronically driven leveling head, adjustable moveable weight carriage, and lightweight, extremely precise telescoping beam elements that allow camera movement during shots, the Technocrane has redefined the state-of-the-art in camera crane technology.
To Lindsay Arnold, Guy Griffiths, David Hodson, Charlie Lawrence and David Mann for their development of the Cineon Digital Film Workstation.
Cineon pioneered a commercial node-graph compositing system establishing a new visual method for direct manipulation of the compositing process, which influenced and defined modern digital compositing workflows.
Technical Achievement Awards Awards (awarded Academy certificates) for 2004 will go to:
To Greg Cannom and Wesley Wofford for the development of their special modified silicone material for makeup applications used in motion pictures.
To Jerry Cotts for the original concept and design and Anthony Seaman for the engineering of the Satellight-X HMI Softlight.
To Steven E. Boze for the design and implementation of the DNF 001 multi-band digital audio noise suppressor.
To Dr. Christopher Hicks and Dave Betts for the design and implementation of the Cedar DNS 1000 multi-band digital noise suppressor.
To Nelson Tyler for the development of the Tyler Gyroplatform boat mount stabilizing device for motion picture photography.
To Dr. Julian Morris, Michael Birch, Dr. Paul Smyth and Paul Tate for the development of the Vicon motion-capture technology.
To Dr. John O. B. Greaves, Ned Phipps, Antonie J. van den Bogert and William Hayes for the development of the Motion Analysis motion capture technology.
To Dr. Nels Madsen, Vaughn Cato, Matthew Madden and Bill Lorton for the development of the Giant Studios motion capture technology.
To Alan Kapler for the design and development of Storm, a software toolkit for artistic control of volumetric effects.
