ogy and standards and can be applied immediately and usefully within professional media environments. The Society also produces the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, webcasts, virtual courses, newsletters, and more than 140 technical papers each year, presented at the Society’s prominent technical conferences.
This centennial year is full of conferences at which attendees can learn from the experts. The first such conference was the newly crafted “NAB Show’s The Future of Cinema Conference: The Immortal Movie, produced in partnership with SMPTE” (FoCC) and held in conjunction with the 2016 NAB Show. On 15 April, the day before the official conference start, show attendees flocked to screenings of high-dynamic-range (HDR) clips from acclaimed theatrical releases including “Inside Out,” “Zootopia,” “Tomorrowland,” and “Jungle Book,” which were shown in Dolby Vision HDR along with full-length versions of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice,” thanks to SMPTE and the Advanced Imaging Society, with the generous support of Dolby, Disney, Pixar, and Warner Bros.
Many of the technical and creative minds behind these releases took part in the subsequent conference sessions titled “First Forays: High Dynamic Range in Animation” and “First Forays: High Dynamic Range in Live Action and Visual Effects.” Cynthia Slavens of Pixar Animation Studios moderated the first session, which included panelists Dominic Glynn of Pixar; Kim White, director of photography and lighting on “Inside Out”; Mark Dinicola, colorist on “Inside Out”; Stefan Luka, senior software engineer, color science, at Walt Disney Animation Studios; and Brian Leach, director of lighting on “Zootopia.” The second session featured SMPTE Education Vice President, Pat Griffis as the moderator; Thad Beier of Dolby; Rick Sayre of Pixar Animation Studios; Jeroen Schult of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM); Ben Rosenblatt of Bad Robot; Stephen Nakamura of Deluxe’s Company 3; and Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor and second unit director/cameraman.
Award-winning director Ang Lee, known for films including “Life of Pi,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “Sense and Sensibility,” presented the conference’s 16 April keynote address along with editor Tim Squyres and production systems supervisor and engineer Ben Gervais. The trio described their vision of cinema and the creative opportunities for the future of filmmaking, speaking to a standing-room-only crowd. “I’m not a technical guy at all,” stated Lee. “I just have a lot of curiosity to see drama, examine humanity, storytelling … that’s my thing.”
The keynote followed the first public screenings of Lee’s upcoming release, “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” in its native 120 frames/sec, 4K, 3D format. An extra session was added to accommodate the popularity of the screening. During the follow-up session titled “Deep Technical Dive Into ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,’” Lee, Gervais, and Squyres were joined by stereographer Demetri Portelli of Sony Pictures, along with Scot Barbour, VP of production technology for Sony Pictures Entertainment, and David Cohen of “Variety,” in a discussion of the technical challenges of production and post-production in 120 frames/sec, 4K, stereoscopic 3D. The session demonstrated that
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