Press Release from Visual Effects Society

Los Angeles, October 12, 2010 -- The Visual Effects Society announced today that Bill Mechanic will be the Keynote Speaker at the second annual VES Production Summit.  Mechanic is an independent producer of both live action and animated features and former Chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment.  Jeff Miller, President of Worldwide Post Production and Operations for The Walt Disney Studios, has also been announced as a Featured Speaker at the daylong event.  Previously announced as a Featured Speaker is Dr. Rich Terrile, NASA/JPL Astronomer and Evolutionary Computation Designer.

In addition to the Keynote and Featured Speakers, a number of extraordinary industry leaders are confirmed as panelists for the VES' Production Summit 2010.  The industry-wide event will convene a unique consortium of leading creatives, executives and visionaries who will take a close look at the issues of globalization, technology and distribution, and how they impact business decisions everyone will have to make in order remain viable in the coming future.

There will be sessions on post production / virtual production, marketing an ‘aha’ technology moment into an industry standard, evolving and changing roles in the film and visual effects industries, and the globalization of the overall industry with the only constant being change.  The day-long event will be held on October 23rd at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey.

Eric Roth, VES Executive Director, commented, "With technological and economic changes coming at us fast and furious, everyone will want to have their “to-do” lists handy so that they can survive and thrive in the coming years.  Having such successful industry veterans as Bill Mechanic and Jeff Miller complete our speaking roster indicates how highly respected the Visual Effects Society has become.  The future is now and it’s through this lens that we will look at the state of the business.”

Panelists include:

*    Michael Bravin - Vice President, Market Development, Arri Inc.
*    Rob Bredow - CTO, Sony Pictures Imageworks
*    Lynwen Brennan - President and GM, ILM / Skywalker Sound
*    Eric Brevig - Director
*    James Chressanthis, ASC - Cinematographer / Director / Producer
*    Tony Clark, ACS - Co-Founder / Director, Rising Sun Pictures
*    David Cohen - Reporter / Feature Editor, Variety
*    Jon Ferguy - Co-Owner, Sohonet / Director
*    Michael Fink - President, Visual Effects Worldwide, Prime Focus Ltd.
*    Warren Franklin - CEO, Rainmaker Entertainment, Vice Chair, DigiBC
*    Jenny Fulle - Founder and Visual Effects Producer, The Creative-Cartel
*    Dan Germain - WW Strategic Business Dev., DVS Digital Video Inc.
*    Carolyn Giardina - Media and Entertainment Journalist
*    Michael Jaszberenyl - Founder, Colorfront, Budapest
*    Ed Jones - CEO, Reel FX Creative Studios
*    John Kilkenny - Executive VP, Twentieth Century Fox
*    Shane Mahan - Co-Owner, Legacy Effects / VFX Supervisor
*    Don Parker - CEO / Co-Founder, Shotgun Software
*    Wally Pfister, ASC – Cinematographer / Director
*    Cliff Plumer - CEO, Digital Domain
*    Ron Prince - Editor, British Cinematographer / Managing Director, Prince PR
*    Seth Rosenthal - President, Tweak Software
*    William Sargent - Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Framestore
*    Olcun Tan - Co-Founder / Head of R&D, Gradient Effects