Academy honors inventors, experts – Sci-tech awards

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LOS ANGELES, Feb 14, (Agencies): Recipients of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Scientific and Technical Awards may be mostly engineers and physicists, but it was the chemistry between Jason Segel and Olivia Munn that carried the night on Saturday as the Oscar-granting org gave out honors for achievement in the disciplines that underpin the entire movie industry.

The duo lightened up the geek factor in the room by departing from the teleprompter script and injecting humor — intended and not — into the proceedings.

No surprises ever take place at the Sci-Tech Awards, as the recipients are announced in advance — this year on Jan 8. Academy leaders Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Dawn Hudson were both on hand for the ceremony, which took place at the Beverly Wilshire hotel.

The Academy recognized 10 scientific and technical achievements, which were handed out to 33 recipients. Two of these earned Academy Plaques, or Scientific and Engineering Awards, and eight earned Academy certificates, or Technical Achievement Awards.

Rapid

One of the plaques went to Brian McLean and Martin Meunier of Portland, Oregon animation house Laika “for pioneering the use of rapid prototyping for character animation in stop-motion film production.”

Stop-motion specialist Laika has been the powerhouse behind such pics as “Coraline”, “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls”. Nike chairman Phil Knight is a co-founder of the studio, and his son Travis, pictured above, is president.

The other plaque was received by Jack Greasley, Kiyoyuki Nakagaki, Duncan Hopkins and Carl Rand for the design and engineering of the MARI 3D texture painting system, which is widely used in the visual effects industry.

The evening ended with the presentation of a special award to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers on the org’s 100th anniversary. SMPTE sets standards in both film and TV. The award recognized a century of contributions to the advancement of motion picture standards and technology.

SMPTE prexy and CBS exec Robert Siedel, and SMPTE executive director Barbara Lange, accepted the honor.

With enthusiastic explanations laden with high-tech lingo, the two actors brought levity to the annual ceremony honoring the inventors, engineers and technicians behind advances in filmmaking technology. Segel called them “the magicians who can bring (creative) visions to life”.

Representing the “science” part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the work of the 11 groups recognized during the untelevised dinner celebration at the Beverly Wilshire hotel is highly specialized — mostly tools for viewing, sharing and manipulating digital media — but it has contributed to countless hit films.

Here’s a look at some of the films that benefited from the inventions recognized at the Sci-Tech Awards.

* “The Avengers”: The Marvel superhero smash is one of many action films to make use of the Aircover Inflatables Airwall, a giant, inflatable panel that becomes an instant green-screen for special effects.

* “Guardians of the Galaxy”: The many artists on this film used Sony Pictures Imageworks Itview, a media review system, to share working footage globally.

* “Kung Fu Panda”: Hit DreamWorks Animation franchises such as “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda” benefited from a proprietary media playback system recognized Saturday.

* “Django Unchained”: Quentin Tarantino’s film relied on the Rhythm & Hues Global DRR System, another media-review platform.

* “Saving Private Ryan”: Shaky scenes in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film relied on the award-winning optical system called the Image Shaker.

* “Avatar”: The academy also recognized the design and engineering of the MARI 3-D texture painting system, a super high-resolution drawing and painting program developed for “Avatar”.

* “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”: The Industrial Light and Magic Geometry Tracker, a tracking system that links an actor’s performance with animation, was used to create Lupita Nyong’o’s character, Maz Kanata.

* “Anomalisa”: This stop-motion film, nominated for best animated feature Oscar, makes use of Laika’s rapid prototyping techniques, which use 3-D printers with color-uniform results to create interchangeable faces and expressions for the puppets used in stop-motion animation.

Other honorees were Dolby Laboratories’ PRM Series Reference Color Monitors and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which received a special award in honor of its 100th anniversary. Portions of the Sci-Tech Awards will be included in the Feb 28 Academy Awards telecast.

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