Cine Gear Expo 2008 will be held at the Universal Studios Backlot in Universal City, California. Exhibits, Seminars, Film Series and more. Unique in concept, Cine Gear Expo offers the opportunity to get hands-on technical training, gain new skills, hear breaking industry news and network with peers and industry leaders.
Discussions will include "The Role of the Visual Effects Supervisor" sponsored by the Visual Effects Society.
Richard Edlund, ASC, Michael Fink, John Knoll and Jeffrey A. Okun will shed light on the role Visual Effects Supervisors play in the collaborative art and craft of filmmaking during a seminar at this year's Cine Gear. The event is sponsored by the Visual Effects Society (VES), and will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday in Theater 3.
Richard Edlund will moderate the discussion with this year's Oscar winning Fink and Oscar nominee Knoll, also 2008 Visual Effects Society Awards (Fink for THE GOLDEN COMPASS and Knoll for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END), who will be joined by the much renowned and former VES Chairman Jeffrey A. Okun (BLOOD DIAMOND, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL).
Edlund is a four-time Oscar winner who has earned six additional nominations. He began his career in the visual effects arena with STAR WARS in 1977, and has gone on to earn visual effects supervisor credits on 34 films made for the cinema and television. His most recent endeavor was CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR in collaboration with director Mike Nichols and cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC.
"Visual effects are beginning to show up in almost every movie these days," Edlund said. "Our panel will focus on the collaborations of the visual effects supervisor, beginning with the director whose vision for his script is the driving force, the cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, mechanical special effects crew, and culminating with their own visual effects team."
Fink, Knoll and former VES Chairman Okun, have all compiled impressive arrays of credits, awards and nominations in the visual effects field. Knoll has earned some 25 credits, including the blockbuster PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN trilogy. Fink has 28 credits starting with WARGAMES in 1983 and has just won this year's Oscar for GOLDEN COMPASS. Okun launched his career with THE LAST STARFIGHTER in 1984 and has 27 credits, the most recent of which is the critically acclaimed BLOOD DIAMOND. The three of them have earned some 20 Oscars and VES Awards and nominations from their peers.
"We will discuss and answer questions about how the evolution of hybrid visual effects technologies is affecting the art of visual story-telling on television as well as the cinema and the possibilities for the future," Edlund said. "However, understanding and mastering the technology is just one aspect of what it takes to be a successful visual effects supervisor. You have to master the art of collaboration. A visual effects supervisor depends on many different people."
Go to www.visualeffectssociety.com for more information and to register.
