Pam Hogarth is honored with the Founders Award and Lifetime VES Member designation, while Oscar-winning Pixar director Pete Docter receives an Honorary VES Membership; a celebration of the honorees will take place at a special event in October.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced its newest Lifetime and Honorary members and this year’s recipient of the VES Founders Award. The honorees will be celebrated at a special event in October.
Venerated educator and industry leader Pam Hogarth was named the recipient of the 2022 VES Founders Awards. In addition, the Society presented Jeff Barnes, Patricia “Rose” Duignan, Hogarth, Toni Pace Carstensen, and David Tanaka with Lifetime VES memberships; and Oscar-winning Pixar director Pete Docter with an Honorary VES Membership.
“Our VES honorees represent a group of exceptional artists, innovators, and professionals who have had a profound impact on the field of visual effects,” said VES Board Chair Lisa Cooke. “We are proud to recognize those who helped shape our shared legacy and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.”
Founders Award recipient and Lifetime VES Member:
Hogarth is honored for her sustained contributions to the art, science, or business of visual effects and meritorious service to the Society. During her 35+ years in visual effects and high-end computer graphics, she has fulfilled many roles, from marketing to industry relations. In addition, she has spent much of her career dedicated to incubating and growing educational programs geared toward training people for careers in entertainment production. Hogarth has consulted for organizations and schools, coached entertainment professionals on career management, and taught.
Before co-founding Eido, a training company that facilitated training for IATSE creative guilds (sold in 2017), Hogarth was a publicist for VFX house LOOK Effects. As industry liaison, she helped build Gnomon School of Visual Effects into a premier school for careers in digital production. She also ran Digital Media Institute (DMI) in Hollywood and helped grow the digital program at The American Film Institute (AFI). Her teaching experience includes Art Directors Guild, Otis College of Art and Design, cgsociety.org, Gnomon, DMI, and AFI.
Hogarth has been active in the Visual Effects Society, including serving eight terms on the Board of Directors, twice elected as the first female vice chair and chair of the Education Committee. She also served as secretary of the Los Angeles Section of VES. Now retired, she is board president for the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, CA, and is secretary of the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild.
Lifetime VES Member:
Barnes is honored for meritorious service to the Society and the global industry. His impact as an entertainment and technology creative executive continues across Silicon Valley and Hollywood. As the executive vice president of Creative Development at Light Field Lab, he drives cross-channel marketing initiatives and content creation for the company’s groundbreaking SolidLight holographic display platform. Before Light Field Lab, he produced the world’s first high-resolution light field short with hand cast academy award-winning team as executive director of Studio Productions at Lytro. Named one of the top 200 creative people in the world by Entertainment Weekly, Barnes previously co-founded and led entertainment and visual effects companies, including CaféFX, The Syndicate, and Sententia Entertainment. Barnes has also been a longtime leader of the Visual Effects Society, serving as chair and vice chair of the global Board of Directors and co-chair of the VES Summit.
Duignan is honored for meritorious service to the Society and the global industry. She began her visual effects career working on Star Wars, proceeding up the production ladder from production assistant to production supervisor on Return of the Jedi. Duignan was the first marketing director at ILM, remaining there for over a dozen years. She also worked in marketing, sales, and executive producing roles at Tippett Studio, ABC TV, Rhythm & Hues, and Kerner Optical (a spinoff from ILM’s practical effects departments). She co-authored Ballantine’s coffee table book entitled “ILM: Into the Digital Realm.” Duignan is known for her commitment to families and started the ILM Daycare Center in 1990, which is still operating (with a wait list) today. She continues to play a role in uplifting women, people of color, and veterans in the visual effects world through her service on the Visual Effects Society’s Education Committee.
Carstensen is honored for meritorious service to the Society and the global industry. Recipient of the 2017 VES Founders Award and a founding member of the Visual Effects Society, Carstensen was member 0004 when joining the organization and served as the Society’s first treasurer. She was a founding member of the Executive Committee, served on the global Board of Directors, co-chair of the Global Education Committee, co-editor of the first edition of the VES Handbook of Visual Effects, and on the Education Committee. She originated the concept for “VESAGE,” a book showcasing the personal art of VES members. Carstensen serves as longtime chair of the Vision Committee, which continues to engage with frontiers, including VR/AR and holograms. She is the treasurer of the Los Angeles Section. Her feature credits include VFX producer/digital production manager on Avatar, Minority Report, and Fantasia 2000.
Tanaka is honored for meritorious service to the Society and the global industry as an editor, producer, and creative director with experience ranging from visual effects and animation to documentary and live-action feature films. He boasts over 25 years of contributions to the entertainment industry, having spent 15 years serving at Industrial Light & Magic in VFX Production and VFX Editorial on films including Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump, and Star Wars. At Pixar Animation Studios, he worked for 10 years as a special projects editor. Tanaka currently holds a staff VFX editor position with Tippett Studio and serves as an adjunct Professor for the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. He has served three terms as chair of the VES Bay Area Section and second vice chair on the global Board of Directors. He also contributes to the VES Archives, Awards, Outreach, and Work from Home Committees.
Honorary Member:
Docter is the Oscar-winning director of Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out, and Soul and the chief creative officer at Pixar Animation Studios. His tenure at Pixar began in 1990 as the studio’s third animator. He collaborated with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton to develop the story and characters for Toy Story, Pixar’s first full-length animated feature film, for which he also was supervising animator. Docter was a storyboard artist on A Bug’s Life and wrote initial story treatments for Toy Story 2 and WALL•E. He executive produced Monsters University and Academy Award-winning Brave. He has been nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three, including Best Animated Feature - winners Up, Inside Out, and Soul, and Best Original Screenplay nominations for Up, Inside Out, and WALL•E. Docter also garnered two VES Awards – for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Picture for Up and Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature for Soul.
Source: Visual Effects Society
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
