By NAOMI GOLDMAN
By NAOMI GOLDMAN
In October, the VES honored a host of distinguished visual effects practitioners at a special reception at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The honorees included:
Founders Award Recipient: Susan Thurmond O’Neal
Lifetime Member: Michael Fink, VES
Honorary Member: Mike Brodersen of FotoKem.
VES Fellows: Neil Corbould, VES; Harrison Ellenshaw, VES; Susan Zwerman, VES
VES 2019 Hall of Fame Inductees: Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick, Stan Lee
“Our VES honorees represent a group of exceptional artists, innovators and professionals who have made significant contributions to the field of visual effects,” states Mike Chambers, VES Board Chair. “We are proud to recognize those who helped shape our shared legacy and continue to inspire future generations of VFX practitioners.”
This past fall, the VES launched the dynamic “Ask Me Anything: VFX Pros Tell All” initiative in concert with Autodesk, worldwide leaders in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Together, VES and Autodesk are shining a light on diversity in visual effects with a lineup of web talks with successful visual effects professionals from different backgrounds.
A live webcast series kicked off in October with special guest Karen Dufilho, creative visionary and Academy- and Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer at Google Spotlight Stories. Other VFX pros slated for the interactive forums ahead include Sidney Kombo-Kintombo, award-winning Animation Supervisor at Weta Digital; Neishaw Ali, Executive Producer and President at SPIN VFX; Greg Anderson, Head of Studio-NY, Senior VFX Supervisor at FuseFX; and Lauren McCallum, Global Managing Director at Mill Film.
For more info and to register for free live webcasts, go to: www.visualeffectssociety.com/ama.
In September, the VES Bay Area Section held a dynamic panel discussion and networking event, “FAANG: Opportunities for VFX Veterans at the Bay Area’s Leading Tech Companies.” In addition to the FAANG companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) the Section broadened the professional development roundtable to include Adobe and NVIDIA.
Almost 100 VES members and guests attended the interactive forum to hear insights from visual effects practitioners who have parlayed their crossover skills to successfully transition to positions with leading tech companies.
“Our first FAANG event was part of our focused effort to more fully embrace Silicon Valley as a part of our Section and our community – recognizing and forging stronger relationships with the talented professionals who make the tools, as well as the artists that use them,” says Bay Area Section Chair David Valentin.
“We will certainly plan more events like this to help our diverse members connect and leverage their talents across our expansive industry.”