A nite of fun at the 3rd annual Visual Effects Society awards at the Hollywood Palladium.
Eli Jarra – a winner last year and a nominee this year, walks us through the night, from the limo to the last award.
In typical LA fashion, what ordinarily takes 20 minutes for the trip from Santa Monica to Hollywood tonight took an hour and 20.
Having to sacrifice the social hour before the show, we entered in as everyone was taking their seats for the event. I took this opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new people honored tonight. I have to tell you, you know it’s gonna be good when you look at everyone’s chair and notice a tote bag and there with lots of little goodies inside. Alan Chu really did it up right in organizing a great gift bag for all the members & guests.
Contents in the Sony Imageworks embroidered tote bag,
4 Dvd’s:
Sharks Tale
Shrek2
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Collector’s edition of Get Shorty
PC game:
Need for Speed Underground II from EA Games
A Fan 4 baseball cap
ILM labeled waterbottle
Star Wars collectable action figures ( I got Chewy & Han )
And various publications including Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Below the Line production magazine, Animation Magazine, and various copies of Cinefex. J
The night started out with an introduction to the Society’s newest executive director Eric Roth, followed by Jeff Okun who welcomed the audience and thanked everyone who participated in this years’ inaugural online view & vote. Also included in the speech, a magic card trick which I can’t say with pure honesty that my card was chosen but later in the evening I did manage to overhear “the magic trick was simply mind blowing” … Someone was impressed indeed.
After the formal introduction, reading of the first batch of categories commenced. This included…
Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Broadcast Program (which we were nominated for and strange exhilarating when you go from relaxed and content from dinner right to fingers crossed and immediate adrenalin rush as you wait to hear the winner announced)
Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
Outstanding Visuals in a Video Game
Outstanding Special Effects in Service to Visual Effects in a Motion Picture, Models and Miniatures in a Motion Picture
And the winners are…
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A LIVE ACTION BROADCAST PROGRAM:
SPARTACUS – OPENING
Eric Grenaudier
Anthony Ocampo
Cedric Tomacruz
Michael Cook
OUTSTANDING CREATED ENVIRONMENT IN A LIVE ACTION MOTION PICTURE:
SPIDERMAN-2 – NYC STREET, NIGHT
Dan Abrams
David Emery
Andrew Nawrot
John Hart
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A BROADCAST PROGRAM:
LOST, PILOT – PART 2
Kevin Blank
Mitch Suskin
OUTSTANDING VISUALS IN A VIDEO GAME:
HALF-LIFE 2
Viktor Antonov
Randy Lundeen
Gary McTaggart
Dhabih Eng
OUTSTANDING SPECIAL EFFECTS IN SERVICE TO VISUAL EFFECTS IN A MOTION PICTURE:
THE AVIATOR
Robert Spurlock
Richard Stutsman
Matthew Gratzner
R. Bruce Steinheimer
OUTSTANDING MODELS AND MINATURES IN A MOTION PICTURE:
THE AVIATOR – XF11 CRASH
Matthew Gratzner
Scott Schneider
Adam Gelbart
Leigh-Alexandra Jacob
Next up, the BOD award presented to Don Shay creator and publisher of Cinefex magazine. A quarterly “must have” publication that delves deep into the behind the scenes look of visual effects in the motion picture industry. A video containing all the Cinefex covers since its conception offered a bit of nostalgia when remembering going through some of those old issues as a kid.
Next batch of categories announced, including…
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Music Video
Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program, Music Video or Commercial ( our 2nd nomination )
Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture
Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program
Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture
And the winners are…
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A MUSIC VIDEO:
BRITNEY SPEARS – “TOXIC”
Bert Yukich
Chris Watts
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING IN A BROADCAST PROGRAM, MUSIC VIDEO OR COMMERCIAL:
SPACE ODYSSEY – VOYAGE TO THE PLANETS
George Roper
Christian Manz
Sirio Quintavalle
Pedro Sabrosa
OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING IN A MOTION PICTURE:
SPIDER-MAN 2 – TRAIN SEQUENCE
Colin Drobnis
Greg Derochie
Blaine Kennison
Kenny Lam
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A LIVE ACTION BROADCAST PROGRAM:
STEPHEN KING’S KINGDOM HOSPITAL
William de Bosch Kemper
Brian Harder
Patrick Kalyn
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ANIMATED CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED MOTION PICTURE:
THE INCREDIBLES – BOB PARR/MR. INCREDIBLE
Craig T. Nelson
Bill Wise
Bill Sheffler
Bolhem Bouchiba
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ANIMATED CHARACTER IN A LIVE ACTION MOTION PICTURE:
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN – HIPPOGRIFF CHARACTER
Michael Eames
David Lomax
Felix Balbas
Pablo Grillo
Next presentation of the George Melies award presented to Bob Abel of Abel and Associates. In 1982 Abel & Associates created 55 seconds of computer animation for the motion picture Tron. It was mentioned that back in 1985 Bob established Abel Image Research in which he developed and produced the first off the shelf 3D package. In 1987 he sold AIR to Bill Kovacs, Larry Barrels and Mark Sylvester who later founded Wavefront technologies. This evoloved into Alias|Wavefront and now Maya. So homage was paid to the late Bob Abel, whose efforts ultimately have touched hundreds of Maya users around the globe.
Next set of winners announced, categories being…
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or a Special
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
Outstanding Performance by an Actor or Actress in a Visual Effects Film
And the winners….
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A BROADCAST SERIES:
STAR TREK ENTERPRISE – STORM FRONT PART 2
Ronald Moore
Daniel Curry
David Takemura
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A BROADCAST MINISERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL:
VIRTUAL HISTORY – THE SECRET PLOT TO KILL HITLER
Jim Radford
Tom Phillips
Simon Thomas
Loraine Cooper
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL:
CITROEN – “ALIVE WITH TECHNOLOGY”
Trevor Cawood
Neill Blomkamp
Simon Van de Lagemaat
Winston Helgason
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR OR ACTRESS IN A VISUAL EFFECTS FILM:
SPIDER-MAN 2
Alfred Molina
One of the highlights this evening came during the award of lifetime achievement given to Robert Zemeckis. This honor was presented to him by Ken Ralston and long time friend Tom Hanks. A video short conveyed thoughts of congratulations by friends, co-workers and peers. Even Wilson from Castaway had a cameo appearance to share some thoughts and reflect some old memories. Tom Hanks made a guest appearance and presented a really nice speech to what seemed like a really great relationship over the many years and experience of shooting projects between the two. Recollecting moments of production issues from Forest Gump and Castaway, Hanks seemed to be really honored for presenting this award to a good friend and brilliant director.
Last batch of nominees presented to…
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
And the winners…
BEST SINGLE VISUAL EFFECT OF THE YEAR:
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW – TIDAL WAVE
Karen Goulekas
Mike Chambers
Chris Horvath
Matthew Butler
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A MOTION PICTURE:
THE AVIATOR
Rob Legato
Ron Ames
Matthew Gratzner
Pete Travers
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A VISUAL EFFECTS DRIVEN MOTION PICTURE:
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
Roger Guyett
Tim Burke
Theresa Corrao
Emma Norton
With the winning nominees announced and awards presented, the ceremony came to a close. I enjoyed this years’ awards show very much. It would’ve been slightly better had we won our categories but everyone’s work demonstrated here tonite was truly inspiring for the desire to create something great for next years’ batch of recognition award ceremonies.