Jonah Friedman, Andy Jones to be honored with Empire Tech Award
The New York Section of the Visual Effects Society (VES) announced its fifth annual regional awards celebration to recognize exceptional artistry in the fields of visual effects and filmed entertainment. Billed as the VES Awards “after-after party,” the evening celebrates the finest achievements in visual effects artistry–from New York’s VFX community to the VES Award winners around the globe. The VES Empire Awards are bestowed upon New York-based entertainment industry professionals who have made enormous contributions to the field of visual arts and filmed entertainment, and whose work embodies the spirit of New York.
Slated to be honored during a ceremony on Friday, March 1, at The Green Building in Brooklyn are Bob Greenberg, Jonah Friedman and Andy Jones.
Greenberg, founder and executive chairman of R/GA, will receive the 2019 VES Empire Award in recognition of his trailblazing work in the advertising and communications industry for nearly four decades. Under his tutelage, R/Greenberg Associates and R/GA Digital Studios have been on the forefront of the rapidly changing visual effects industry since the 1970s and evolved from a world-class movie title shop, to a digital studio, to a major digital advertising agency. Today, R/GA is an all-in-one full-service agency, product and service innovator. R/GA has focused on live-action film and video production and the development of leading-edge motion graphics. They have created groundbreaking visual effects for movies such as Alien, Predator and Se7en, with a body of work spanning 400 feature films and 4,000 television commercials. Greenberg has received an Academy Award, Clio, Cannes Lions and induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame, among many accolades.
Friedman and Jones will be presented the 2019 Empire Tech Award for their development of Cryptomatte which has quickly become an industry standard since it was introduced in 2015. By releasing it as open source, it has dramatically changed how people work and has elevated the status of the visual effects industry in New York City. Friedman is the Bifröst product owner at Autodesk. In his fifteen years in the animation industry, he has been a software engineer, photographer, and 3D artist in a wide range of sub-disciplines. He co-developed Cryptomatte at Psyop, and remains active in its development and standardization. Jones is CTO at Psyop, following a five-year tenure as head of VFX. He has been working in VFX and animation since 2003 in a variety of disciplines, including 3D, compositing, VFX supervision, software and systems engineering. He is the co-author and inventor of Cryptomatte.
“Bob, Jonah and Andy are innovators who have elevated and advanced the visual effects industry through their inventive work,” said Sean Curran, New York VES Awards Celebration chair. “Through their commitment to the art and science of VFX, they exemplify what is achievable through creative vision and technical expertise and have had an impact on visual effects here in New York and globally. We are proud to honor them with this year’s Empire Awards for their significant contributions to our field.”
Previous recipients of the New York VES Empire Award are award-winning titles designer and visual effects supervisor Randy Balsmeyer, director and co-founder of Blue Sky Studios Chris Wedge, visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and acclaimed visual effects supervisor Lesley Robson-Foster.
After Documentaries About Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields, Director Lana Wilson Turns Her Camera To NYC Psychics
Filmmaker Lana Wilson had never thought much about psychics. But the morning after Election Day in 2016, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she found herself drawn towards a sign that promised "$5 psychic readings" and wandered in.
Much to her surprise, she found it to be a rather profound experience. She can barely even remember what was said, but it was emotional and comforting. And it would set her on a seven-year journey to make a documentary about this strange and misunderstood tradition, "Look Into My Eyes," which expands in theaters this week.
"I think I had totally misjudged the whole psychic tradition," Wilson said. "I had trivialized it and seen it as this silly thing, despite the fact that millions of people around the world engage in it… I'd had this personal experience where I, as a lifelong skeptic, found comfort in a psychic one day. So part of my initial perspective was what if it doesn't matter if it's real or not?
In the years since that fateful encounter, Wilson's own profile has raised significantly for her documentaries about Taylor Swift, " Miss Americana," and Brooke Shields, " Pretty Baby." But the idea of the psychics lingered. The film, unjudgmental, funny and poignant, takes viewers inside the homes, and sessions, of several New York City psychics
Wilson spoke about her process, her revelations and why she decided to not take Shields up on her offer to be one of the subjects in this one. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Did you find many of your friends shared your own assumptions about psychics?
WILSON: One of my closest friends is a therapist and she immediately got it. She was like, "This is totally different than therapy. But, also,... Read More