Speakers Announced for VES Festival

The Visual Effects Society (VES) unveiled a stellar lineup for VES 2004, its sixth annual Festival of Visual Effects, June 18-20 in San Rafael, California. The three-day event features presentations and panels headed by visual effects supervisors and their teams with a focus on how vfx enhance the storytelling process.

Speaker Schedule:

June 18, 2004
9:30AM - 11:30AM
"Film Visual Effects Techniques in Games"
Presented by visual effects supervisors Henry LaBounta and Habib Zargarpour of Electronic Arts (EA) and Mohammed Davoudian of Brain Zoo Studios.

1:00 PM - 3:00PM
"Mars Movie Legends, Myth and Reality"
Presented by Dr. Dan McCleese (director, JPL Mars Exploration) and visual effects supervisors Jeff Okun (RED PLANET), Hoyt Yeatman (MISSION TO MARS), John Knoll (MISSION TO MARS) and Mike Fink (MARS ATTACKS!), moderated by visual effects supervisor Craig Barron of Matte World Digital.

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
TROY [1]
Presented by visual effects supervisor Chas Jarrett of Moving Picture Co. (MPC) in London.

8:00PM - 11:00 PM
HELLBOY [2], STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 [3] (screened in entirety) HELLBOY will be presented by visual effects supervisor Blair Clark of Tippett Studios.
STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 will be presented by visual effects supervisor Dan McNamara, also of Tippett Studios.

June 19, 2004
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
"MythBusters"
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of m5 industries present a look at how visual effects are employed on the Discovery Channel series MYTHBUSTERS.

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW [4]
Presented by the film's visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas and vfx team: Christopher Horvath (Tweak Films), Greg Strause (Hydraulx), Colin Strause (Hydraulx), Christopher Townsend (ILM), Gregor Lakner and Mike Chambers.

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
SHREK 2 [5]
Presented by PDI/DreamWorks visual effects supervisor Ken Bielenberg, and Character TDs Daniel Dawson and Shawn Lewis (new characters, hair), Effects Leads Jonathan Gibbs, Scott Peterson and David Allen (water in all forms), R&D lead Eric Tabellion and lighting sequence supervisor Susan Hayden (global illumination) and effects leads Jonathan Gibbs, Scott Peterson and David Allen (particle systems).

June 20, 2004
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM
"Make Up Effects in a Digital World"
Presented by Emmy Award-winning make up/visual effects supervisors Todd Masters and Dan Rebert of MastersFX.

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
VAN HELSING [6]
Presented by visual effects supervisors Scott Squires and Ben Snow of ILM and visual effects supervisor Syd Dutton of Illusion Arts.

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
Presented by the film's visual effects producer Susan Zwerman and visual effects supervisor Derek Spears of Rhythm & Hues.

Reserved tickets for all 10 presentations are $300. General admission tickets for individual presentations are $25 per show. A kickoff cocktail party for reserved ticket holders will be held on June 17, and will be hosted by the society's new executive director Eric Roth.

For additional ticket and ordering information please visit www.vesfestival.org [7].

The Visual Effects Society, founded in 1997, is comprised of distinguished visual effects artists and technologists who are professionally committed to the specialized industry of visual effects. The society provides its members with a platform for communication, education, and recognition of the current and future state of the visual effects industry. Society headquarters are located in Los Angeles with approximately 1,000 global members. For more information about VES, please visit www.visualeffectssociety.com [8] or call 310-822-9181.