The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to award Douglas Greenfield the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation. The medal will be presented during the Scientific and Technical Awards dinner at The Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena on Feb. 14, 2004.
Greenfield will receive the Bonner Medal for his longstanding support of and service to the Academy and the motion picture industry.
Since the late 1970s, Greenfield has worked to improve the quality of sound technology in the motion picture industry. In his current position as senior director of the production services group at Dolby Laboratories, Greenfield is responsible for programs in film dubbing, exhibition, digital television and digital cinema special projects.
He joined the engineering department of Dolby's San Francisco office in 1977 where he contributed to many engineering projects, including advancing professional film dubbing equipment and miniature noise-reduction modules for C-format VTRs. He also assisted with the development of Dolby SR.
After directing the product development for the current Dolby SR single-channel and multi-track modules, Greenfield transferred to the Los Angeles office in 1987 to support the Dolby Stereo film program.
Prior to his tenure at Dolby, Greenfield founded Analog Loudspeaker Systems, a small company dedicated to the design and manufacture of home high fidelity speaker systems.
Greenfield has been an active member of the Academy for many years, having served as a Sound Branch Governor for six years and as chair of the Theater Standards Committee, in addition to serving on the committee which oversaw the design of the Academy's new theater at the Pickford Center. He also is a member of the newly created Science and Technology Council, a committee formed by the Academy to monitor the current state of technological arts.
Greenfield is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and is active in digital cinema standardization efforts under the SMPTE DC28 umbrella.
"Doug has worked tirelessly throughout his career to improve sound technology in the motion picture industry," said Richard Edlund, chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee. "His diligent efforts to keep the Academy's facilities current have resulted in two state-of-the-art theaters - the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the new Linwood Dunn Theater at the Pickford Center in Hollywood."
Named in honor of the late director of special projects at Warner Hollywood Studios, the Bonner Medal is awarded for "outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
