August 12-14, 2010
Linwood Dunn Theatre
Hollywood, CA

Speaker Bios
The Reel Thing Technical Symposium is organized and coordinated
by Grover Crisp and Michael Friend

Thomas Bakels
Thomas is the founder of ALPHA-OMEGA digital GmbH in Munich, Germany, a Post Production facility involved in high quality mastering and specializing in film restoration. He started out as an audio engineer, a video editing operator, the head of a broadcasting department for local TV station, among other positions in the 1980's. In the mid-90's, he became head of post production at a large post house in Munich, in charge of video and audio post, film transfer, graphics and animation. In 1998, he founded Alpha-Omega as a specialized Post-House for high quality film transfer. In 1999, they performed restoration of the first nitrate stock from 1904 with tinted prints. In 2000-01, they performed the first digital restoration of METROPOLIS, later handled 2K-Scanning of John Fords BUCKING BROADWAY from nitrate, as well as numerous high-resolution restoration projects scanning footage dating back to 1896 (Skladanowsky's O-Negs), many HD-remastering jobs from Original-Negatives between 1930s and 1990s. In 2010, they were asked to work on the restoration of the found Argentinian footage for METROPOLIS, mastering the completed work in 2K.

Rita Belda
Rita Belda is currently Director in the Asset Management, Film Restoration and Digital Mastering group at Sony Pictures. She received her Bachelor's in Communication Studies and Film Studies at the University of Iowa. After graduating from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman House in 1999, she worked as an Assistant Film Preservationist at UCLA Film and Television Archive, working primarily on silent films. In 2002, she joined Sony Pictures' Asset Management and Film Restoration department, and has since worked on the preservation, restoration, and re-mastering of Columbia Pictures and Sony Films dating from the 1920's to the present, including THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943), CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1935), THE WAY OF THE STRONG (1928), THE STRANGE ONE (1957), CASUALTIES OF WAR (1989), and overseeing the new prints for distribution of the films of Harold Lloyd.

Seth Berkowitz
Seth Berkowitz serves as Digital Restoration Supervisor at the New York restoration and preservation facility Cineric, where he started as a restoration artist on the night shift back in 2004. Since then, he has helped oversee the restoration of such films as Dr. Strangelove, From Here to Eternity, and Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life.

Andrew Brutocao
Andrew's career in the entertainment industry spans over 20 years. He started his double-agent career as both a film director and radio personality. Andrew received his degree in Film & Broadcast from Santa Clara University. Always maintaining his two passions, he started his career in radio but after directing a series of music videos was offered a Director position at Video Optics in the Bay Area and began his journey in to the realm of film and post production. Over the course of his diversified career he has held a variety of post production positions with companies such as Clear Channel, Warner Bros, MTV Production, SkyDry Productions, Universal Studios/Wolf Films, and 525 Post. Andrew, currently a Manager of Studio Mastering, has been a member of The Walt Disney family for 10 years. He oversees the restoration and remastering of numerous feature library and new releases for the Studio.

Christopher Cary
Chris is currently Manager, Operational Development at Ascent Media Group. He has eleven years professional experience as a specialist in financial modeling and statistical and quantitative analysis. He is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he majored in Engineering and Applied Science. He received his Masters in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management where he specialized in Entertainment Management and Quantitative Marketing Research. In addition to his tenure with Ascent Media Group, Chris worked for six years performing financial analyses for outsourced procurement and strategic sourcing applications. He has served as an instructor for courses and seminars focusing on statistics and quantitative analysis.

David Crosthwait
David is president of DC Video in Burbank California. He has over 40 years of experience working with videotape. In addition to building up DC Video from scratch, he has been an editor with Modern Videofilm in Burbank, editor at NBC Burbank, editor at KCOP in Hollywood, and editor at KERA TV in Dallas. He has been tinkering with video and videotape since high school in Texas.

Theodore Gluck
Theo is Director of Library Restoration and Preservation and a 19 year veteran with The Walt Disney Studios. He received his Masters Degree in Film Studies from Boston University in 1984, and was the teaching assistant for noted film scholar Roger Manvell. He was an active member of the New York City Projectionist's local for seven years, working at Todd-AO Studios as well as the American Museum of the Moving Image, and during that time was also a consultant for both the LucasFilm TAP Program, and Dolby Labs. During his tenure at Disney, Theo has served as the Director of Foreign Post Production for Disney Character Voices International, and was also the Manager of Film Operations for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. He has been involved in numerous projects ranging from Super 8 through 3D IMAX printing strategies. He served as the Technical Coordinator for the 70mm premiere of The Lion King at Radio City Music Hall, and helped mount the outdoor German premiere of Pocahontas at the Olympic Park in Munich. He has been stewarding the Studio's Restoration Project since 2004 with the release of BAMBI on DVD, and coordinated the scanning and preservation of the Studio's nitrate negatives. Theo has contributed to the syllabus for the Studio's World Wide Post Production Operations education and training program. A member of SMPTE, BKSTS, and AMIA, Theo has also lectured and written extensively on the history of cinema technologies including, widescreen processes, Technicolor, and multi-channel stereo sound formats.

Robert Heiber
Bob Heiber has been involved in film sound preservation since 1990 when he joined Chace Productions. Chace Audio joined the Deluxe family of companies on July 1st of 2009, and Bob is the Vice President of Audio for the Division. Bob has been a member of AMIA since 1991, and is also a member of SMPTE, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and ACVL. Bob has served on the National Film Preservation Board Advisory Task Force, the Library of Congress panel for the State of American Television and Video Preservation and is currently chairing the Education, Training and Research Committee for the National Recording Preservation Board. He has spoken on film sound preservation, restoration and re-mastering at AMIA, ACVL, SMPTE and ARSC conferences. Prior to joining Chace, Bob was the Manager of Technical Operations at Warner Hollywood Studios and an award winning documentary/industrial filmmaker in Chicago, Illinois. Bob graduated from Purdue University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in Radio-TV-Film.

Andrea Kalas
Andrea has been Vice President of Archives at Paramount Pictures since 2009. She has worked as an archivist at the British Film Institute, Discovery Communications, Dreamworks and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. She is a former President of AMIA and holds a Masters from UCLA in film history. She recently co-edited the European Metadata Standard for Cinematographic Works and restored DRACULA, 1958, d. Terence Fisher.

Steve Kochak
Steve Kochak works in the Research & Development department at Ascent Media's Digital Media Distribution Center (DMDC) in Burbank, California. Over the past 4 years, Steve has served several roles at Ascent Media, including Chief Architect for the DMDC's Production Network (ProdNet) and Director of Production IT. Currently, he designs new solutions for Media Services that help content owners cope with the explosion of digital assets. Prior to Ascent Media, he worked primarily in visual effects for feature films, television films and commercials, including The Chronicles of Riddick, Spiderman and The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. Steve received his bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge, performed graduate work at Oxford University in England and received an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

Ross Lipman
Ross Lipman is a film preservationist at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, where he has restored films dating from the dawn of cinema to the present era. He previously presented on his restoration of John Cassavetes' SHADOWS at the Reel Thing in Minneapolis in 2004. His restoration of Charles Burnett's KILLER OF SHEEP was recently released to national acclaim by Milestone Film & Video. Ross is also an award-winning independent filmmaker whose works have been exhibited throughout the world at numerous festivals and cinematheques.

Sean McKee
Sean McKee is the Director of Restoration & New Technology for IVC (a Point.360 company), in Burbank, CA. In the past year, McKee and team have developed a number of proprietary technologies for both the classic movie/archival market, as well as for current productions. The most recent being Visionary Archive, a patent-pending process that allows a full color motion picture to be archived onto a single reel of 35mm B&W film stock, eliminating traditional YCM archival issues. Other developments include Advanced Restoration Tools (A.R.T.) grain & noise reduction, best-in-class RAW camera image processing, automated color matching, a perceptually uniform color space, and other bleeding-edge algorithms/software which McKee says are based on 'alien' technology. For 12 years prior, McKee was CEO of Screen Time Images, a Chicago based company specializing in film restoration, rights acquisition and distribution. McKee was the world's first user of the popular Revival film restoration system, and worked closely with da Vinci to develop the software. He has been featured in numerous interviews on national TV, radio and industry magazines.

Andrew Oran
Andrew Oran is currently the Vice President of Sales and Operations, Specialty Film, at Fotokem. Andrew joined FotoKem in 2004 to lead their Specialty Film Division, encompassing 65 and 70mm processing, printing, hi-rez scanning, HD telecine, and related 3D finishing services. The division's activities range from IMAX format film production to Hollywood feature large format work to hi-end film restoration. He is at present helping craft digital specifications for giant screen exhibition. He has worked almost exclusively on 65mm film projects since 1994.

John Polito
John Polito has been at the forefront of digital sound restoration since its inception. After graduating in 1987 from Stanford University with honors in Music Composition and Digital Signal Processing, John joined Sonic Solutions and helped define the field by assisting in the development of the first digital audio workstation for sound restoration. In 1991 he started Audio Mechanics, which is one of the premier sound restoration facilities.

Ralph Sargent
Ralph Sargent has been involved in preservation for over 40 years, first teaching at UCLA in the 1960's. He formed Film Technology Company in 1971, a film laboratory specializing in preservation and restoration of film, but also including video and audio. Their clients include all the studios, UCLA film and television archive, MoMA and other archives. Ralph is also the author of "Preserving the Moving Image", published in 1974.

Robert Schumacher
Robert Schumacher is responsible for business development opportunities and fostering strategic relationships for Deluxe Archive Solutions. Mr. Schumacher has more than 25 years experience in creating and blending business-driven technology solutions that positively impact and support overall operations, sales and revenue. Prior to Deluxe, Mr. Schumacher was Vice President of Operations and CIO of Paragon Global Resources, a leading relocation provider with $500M in managed expenses, offering real estate and financial services. Mr. Schumacher has managed operations, vendor relationships, policies, and all aspects of information technology including business applications, systems integrations, portfolio management, collaboration, infrastructure, resources and support. Mr. Schumacher, an MBA graduate of Pepperdine University with a Computer Science degree from the University of Redlands, flew for the Orange County Flying Samaritans, a group of pilots and medical personal providing complimentary health care services to remote villages of Baja California.

Deluxe Archive Solutions, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc. (Deluxe), offers a broad spectrum of services and technologies to help content owners in the entertainment, corporate, museum, education and private communities bridge the gap between physical and digital archives. Founded in 1915, Deluxe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., is the leading provider of a broad range of film, video and file-based media services to major Hollywood Studios and content licensors worldwide. For more information please visit www.deluxearchivesolutions.com or www.bydeluxe.com.

Alan J. Stark
Alan Stark is currently Vice President at Film Technology Company, Inc. in Los Angeles. Alan brings to his current position 35 plus years of experience in management and operation of motion picture, video and instructional media facilities. Ten years as an Instructional Media Specialist for the Los Angeles Community College District and four years in Educational Design and Marketing of instructional media materials for Baxter Pharmaceuticals preceded Alan's current work at Film Technology Company.

Alan has co-produced a variety of radio programs, LP's, CD's and video cassettes, all of which center around vintage films or vintage film music. Alan is a charter and lifetime member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. He has served on various committees within the organization and currently is on the Executive Board as Treasurer. Alan's interest in music and desire to further the goals of AMIA is why he is providing a live musical accompaniment for the screening of So This Is Love at this August 2010 Reel Thing. Back by popular demand, as they say!

Jack Theakston
Jack Theakston, Vice-president, 3-D Film Preservation Foundation. Mr. Theakston has worked for a variety of motion picture companies including Film Preservation Associates and Technicolor, Inc. He began his interest in film and film presentation while a teenager, and since has presented well over a hundred classic film shows and lectures since. He currently lives in New Jersey.

Brian Walker
Brian currently serves as the Manager for the sales, integration and service divisions of a Broadcast and Professional Video Reseller in the Portland, Oregon area. Walker has over 30 years of experience with all aspects of Broadcasting including on-air talent, Director of Engineering for numerous stations, video production and post-production. He has designed and built broadcast facilities and consults with manufacturers for product improvement. Walker designs for and advises customers regarding equipment decisions, plant designs and wiring schematics. He is a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Broadcast Media Communications from Oregon State University.

Jayson Wall
Jayson currently works as Associate manager of Library Mastering for The Walt Disney Studios. He started his career as an assistant to director/writer/producer Rod Lurie, and then moved to New Line Cinema into the studios asset management team overseeing YCM preservation masters. Since then he has worked at Pro-Tek Media Preservation and Cinetech Film Labs as a senior restoration technician. Presently at Walt Disney, he is involved on numerous remastering and restoration projects on the live-action feature library, and is a member of the Studio's restoration team responsible for preserving feature length animated classics including "Dumbo", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Fantasia."

Ken Weissman
Ken has worked in film production and preservation for the past 31 years. He has worked for the Library of Congress since 1981. His career at the Library began in the Motion Picture Preservation Laboratory, first as a Film Preservation Specialist, then as Lab Supervisor. In 1995 he was named head of the Library's newly formed Motion Picture Conservation Center. Ken has directed the Library's restoration of such films as MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, THE MALTESE FALCON, WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?, THE BLUE EAGLE, BIG FELLA, and most recently a restoration of Paul Robeson's THE EMPEROR JONES under a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. For the past 8 years he has been intimately involved in the design, construction, and commissioning of the film preservation laboratory located at the Library's state of the art Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation. The laboratory includes both traditional photo-chemical as well as digital DI workflows in order to preserve and make accessible the Library's massive film collection.

Dan Wingate
Dan moved to Los Angeles 9 years ago from Chicago, where he was Director of Programming and Television Archivist for The Museum of Broadcast Communications. In L.A., his focus steered more toward restoration and preservation at Chace Productions, which continues in his current position at Sony Pictures. His passion is preserving the live musical performances captured via television in the last half of the 20th Century - as well as highlighting the efforts of all the artists and technicians who worked in the bumpy beginnings of the global viillage…

Michele Winn
Michele is a 2004 graduate of the Film Archiving M.A. program at the University of East Anglia. Since then, she has worked in a 16mm film archive at the Kansas City Museum, in asset management & preservation at New Line Cinema, managed the Film Preparation department at Chace Audio, and currently works in Mastering for The Walt Disney Studios.