Mike Chambers returns for his sixth term as committee chair.
LOS ANGELES -- The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced its 2020 board of directors’ officers. The officers were elected at the January 2020 board meeting and include Mike Chambers, who was re-elected as board chair.
“Our Society is proud and fortunate to have strong, impassioned leadership represented on our Executive Committee,” commented VES director, Eric Roth. “This dedicated group of professionals gives their considerable expertise and volunteer time to our organization. And I’m excited about their collective vision and plans to advance our global membership even further.”
The 2020 Officers of the VES Board of Directors are:
- Chair: Mike Chambers
- 1st Vice Chair: Lisa Cooke
- 2nd Vice Chair: Emma Clifton Perry
- Treasurer: Laurie Blavin
- Secretary: Rita Cahill
Mike Chambers, Chair:
Chambers is a freelance VFX producer and independent consultant. Currently he is in post-production on Tenet, his fourth collaboration with Christopher Nolan. Other recent credits include Greyhound, Dunkirk, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Transcendence and The Dark Knight Rises. He has worked on numerous Academy & BAFTA award winning films and has personally won three VES Awards for Best Visual Effects, on Dunkirk, Inception, and The Day After Tomorrow. He received a nomination for his work on I Am Legend.
Chambers is beginning his sixth term as chair of the VES. He has been a member for over 20 years, serving multiple terms on the board of directors and he has previously served on the executive committee as both vice chair and secretary. He is also a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS), and the Producers Guild of America (PGA).
Lisa Cooke, 1st Vice Chair:
Cooke has spent more than twenty years as an animation/VFX producer, creative consultant, screenwriter and actor. She founded Green Ray Media and has, for 10+ years, been using animation and VFX to help science communicate the stories it has to tell. She has worked for clients including Lucasfilm, Fox, Nickelodeon Films, ABC, CBS, Paramount and Universal, and in the VFX and animation industry for companies including Pixar, Glasgow‐based digital animations group, and Tippett Studio. As senior producer at Reardon Studios, she helped bring the MOVA Contour reality capture to the film industry.
Cooke has taught story structure at the SF Academy of Art, JFK University and Ex’pression College, and is currently a member of the Screen Actors Guild. She served six years on the Bay Area board of managers before joining the VES board of directors, where she serves as chair of the archive committee and was 2nd vice chair in 2019.
Emma Clifton Perry, 2nd Vice Chair:
Emma Clifton Perry is a senior compositor; she has worked across feature films, longform/TV series, commercials and advertising for 15+ years. She worked at FOX, WETA Digital, Framestore, MPC, Rising sun Pictures, DrD, Method Studios and The Mill. She is based in New Zealand, offering remote compositing and VFX consulting services. She does guest lecturing at various universities.
In recent years Perry has served as chair, co-chair and secretary/treasurer on the VES New Zealand board of managers. This is her fourth year on the VES board of directors.
Laurie Blavin, Treasurer:
Blavin’s 20‐year career spans the culture, creativity and technology of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley. She counsels companies and professionals in strategy, brand value stewardship, and full‐cycle staffing and recruiting. She has worked at DreamWorks Animation, The Orphanage, Scanline VFX, MPC and Technicolor. Prior to focusing on VFX she worked at AOL, Vivid Studios, Walmart.com and Blurb.
Blavin is a collector and curator of fine photography and spends time behind the camera on personal projects. This is her first term on the VES Board of Directors.
Rita Cahill, Secretary:
Cahill is an international business and marketing/PR consultant in animation and VFX for U.S., Chinese, Canadian, UK and EU companies. Current and former clients include companies in the feature film, television, VR and game industries, as well as government and educational entities. She is a partner in MakeBelieve Entertainment, a film development company, serving as executive producer on international projects.
Previously, Cahill was the VP marketing for Cinesite overseeing marketing of four divisions of the digital studio’s services. She was also a founding board member of the Mill Valley Film Festival/California Film Institute. She remains on the institute’s emeritus board of directors. She was also a founding consultant for the Singapore International Film Festival.
This is Cahill’s sixth term as Secretary. In the past she served as chair or co‐chair of the VES Summit.
Source: Visual Effects Society
