The Reel Thing XX
June 6-7, 2008
Linwood Dunn Theatre
Los Angeles, CA

The Speakers

Richard (Chip) Aycock
Chip Aycock is Executive Vice President at Mosaic Digital Studios. Mr. Aycock is responsible for the operational deployment of Mosaic and the integration of client workflows with the features of the system. Prior to joining Mosaic, Mr. Aycock worked at Warner Bros for 13 years, and held several executive positions in service organizations.

Bill Baggelaar
Bill Baggelaar is currently Vice President, Engineering for Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging (MPI), a post he has held since 2006. Bill Baggelaar oversees the technical infrastructure of the Studio’s state-of-the-art digital post production facility. He is also responsible for implementing innovative and progressive technology-based workflows for digital post production for MPI, which provides services to both Warner Bros. and outside clients.

Baggelaar joined Warner Bros. Feature Animation in 1998, supporting post-production on the Studio’s “Iron Giant” and “Osmosis Jones.” He was named the division’s Head of Technology, overseeing the technical infrastructure for 2D and CG feature animation and VFX. During his tenure, he orchestrated major shifts in technology for the division, such as using HD video and color management for dailies instead of using 35mm film, and the change from SGI’s high cost, specialized equipment to commodity based computing platforms running Linux. His group worked closely with Feature Animation customers, both internal and external, to provide technical expertise and guidance on titles like “Scooby Doo,” “Eight Crazy Nights,” “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie,” “Astronaut Farmer” and “Curious George.”

Baggelaar joined Warner Bros. from LA Digital Post, where he was Manager of Engineering from 1997 to 1998. Prior to that, he worked in Engineering and Technical Support for Avid Technology beginning in 1996 and held a similar position at Edit Point from 1994 to 1996.

Baggelaar is a member of SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He graduated from California State University, Northridge, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. He is headquartered in Burbank.

 

Dr. Mitch J. Bogdanowicz
Dr. Mitch J. Bogdanowicz is currently the Executive Vice President of Imaging Science at Post Logic Studios in Hollywood. Prior to that, he worked at Kodak for 32 years, retiring in 2006. He also consults for the motion picture industry as MJB Consulting LLC. Mitch has a B.S. degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1969, and received his PhD. from the University of Wisconsin in 1972.

His work has centered on systems modeling, photographic simulation, computer algorithms, color perception, color reproduction and basic photographic system problem solving. His expertise in the design and analysis of filters and special lighting techniques led to two Technical Achievement Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has created systems for 3DLut genesis and applications for post production. He has developed algorithms for numerous digital camera applications. Mitch designed the Kodak Look Management System (KLMS) for previsualization in a motion picture system and the heart of the Kodak Display Manager (KDM) as well as the Kodak Preview System. Mitch has contributed to most of the current film programs and other hybrid programs. He has consulted with many cinematographers and laboratories worldwide. Mitch has over 20 US patents and numerous other foreign patents in Color Science and Photographic processes with the vast majority related to the Motion Picture Industry.

Throughout the years Mitch has received many honors, including: Two Technical Achievement Awards from the AMPAS; Fellow of the SMPTE; 2000 Kalmus Gold Medal Award; Associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Tom Burton
Tom serves as Vice President, Technicolor Digital Services, a visual-solutions unit based in the Technicolor Digital Intermediates facility in Burbank, CA. Tom directs a team of restoration and visual effects specialists, providing custom image processing for both digital and film based projects. His group offers a wide range of restoration and preservation services, including full feature film restoration and image reconstruction, the creation of Digital YCM archival film elements, film scanning and recording and data archiving, as well as HD-to-film conversions and digital image repair, visual effects and title creation for new Digital Intermediate feature film releases.

Prior to joining Technicolor, Tom directed his company, Calico Entertainment, providing award-winning animation, computer motion-control model and miniature photography and visual effects services for feature film and television.

Tom received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bradley University and pursued graduate studies in animation at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jean-Yves Deschênes
Jean-Yves Deschênes is currently Vice President, Development and Sales, Vision Globale. With over 20 years of experience in business development, Jean-Yves Deschênes has been working in the film and entertainment industry for 13 years, and with Vision Globale since 1997. He has been one of the key elements of the company’s success, as it has grown to become Canada’s largest post-production facility. Over the years, he has familiarized himself with all aspects of post-production, content distribution and broadcasting, with a particular emphasis on asset management, digital distribution and product development.

Jean-Yves has overseen major restoration projects, such as the preservation of the SRC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) archives, the revamp of the Fortune Star catalogue (over 250 film restorations, including Bruce Lee classics), as well as the preservation of several of Marcel Pagnol’s films. Jean-Yves is also responsible for designing the VODXchange™ model, which has had great success. This model is now being adapted to support management and deliveries of D-Cinema throughout Canada.

Bruno Despas
Bruno is currently the Vice President of Laboratory and Sound Services, Vision Globale, Montreal, a position he has held since 2005. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Operations at Centrimage in Paris from 1991- 2005. Additional responsibilities have included Ingénieur de l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Toulouse (France), Technical Manager at Eclair Laboratories in Paris from 1977 - 1991. He was also VP Operation Participation in DIAMANT and PRESTOSPACE European Union preservation and restoration projects. He is a Member of SMPTE and Member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists.

Bruno George
Bruno George is currently the Manager of Pacific Title and Art Studio’s Rosetta Digital YCM process. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences –Visual Effects Branch and a member IATSE Local 600 as a Director of Photography. Bruno has been involved in various aspects of motion picture production and post production for over 30 years.

Bruno grew up in Eugene, Oregon and became interested in film-making and animation early in life. He produced several computer animated short films while still in high school using DEC PDP 9 and PDP 11 computers with Tektronix Vector Displays. Bruno moved to Los Angeles in 1973 after studying Humanities and Graphic Design at the University of Oregon.

After arriving in L.A., Bruno worked as a driver for the Research Products Machine Shop by day, and at night cleaned George Randall’s shop. Over the next several years his career path took Bruno into optical and photographic effects, working with Van der Veer Photo Effects, Apogee, Modern Film Effects, and Boss Films among other companies. He worked on the effects for many movies including King Kong, Star Wars, Star Trek the Motion Picture, The Right Stuff, Ghostbusters, and 2010.

In 1984, Bruno became the Visual Effects Supervisor for CBS’s revival of The Twilight Zone television series where he brought a theatrical effects perspective to the production of visual effects in a video post environment. After The Twilight Zone, Bruno went on to become the Associate Producer for Max Headroom at Lorimar Studios, where he was responsible for all of the visual components in the post production of the series. In 1990 Bruno moved on to ILM where he managed the 2D digital production of effects for Hudson Hawk and Hook.

Bruno was named Creative Director for Cinesite in Hollywood in 1992, where he supervised the restoration of Snow White for Disney Studios and the visual effects production for such films as In the Line of Fire and Cliffhanger. Following this work for Cinesite, Bruno went on to Rhythm and Hues Studios to supervise their scanning and recording department as well as provide digital supervision for Babe and The Nutty Professor.

In 1999, Bruno moved to Seattle, Washington where he worked with Pinnacle Studios and later Alpha Cine Laboratories where he developed and managed the tape-to-film services department. Bruno returned to Los Angeles in 2005.

Bruno has four grown sons and is married to his high school sweetheart. His primary interests outside of the industry are his wife, his dog Louie, and ultra marathon cycling.

Craig German
Craig German is Vice-President of Program Management for Ascent Media’s Digital Services Group. He is responsible for Ascent’s digital services strategic product roadmap, development of new services, strategic vendor relationships, and deployment of new customers. He served as the PMO head for Ascent’s partnership with HP, driving all business development, operations, and software services development efforts. With over twenty years of professional experience, fifteen in media and entertainment, Craig has developed and deployed a broad range of technology products and services within the media and entertainment industries.

Prior to joining Ascent Media in 2003, Craig was principal and founding partner with Tetrascend LLC, a technology consulting company serving media and entertainment clients. In this capacity, he supported the launch of several high-profile services, including Movielink and Universal Music Group’s Pressplay service (now the new Napster).

David Giovannoni
David Giovannoni is a principal at First Sounds, an informal collaborative of experts dedicated to making the earliest sound recordings available to all people for all time. First Sounds' discovery of the world's first audio recordings from 1860, and their resurrection of the voice from one of these recordings, made front page news in March. David also produces historical reissue CDs and writes liner notes which, in the last two years, have been nominated for four Grammys and won one (for Lost Sounds - Best Historical Album, 2006). He recently retired from an eventful career in pubic broadcasting. He received his Masters degree in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin.

Didier Giraud
Since 2001, Didier has been the Manager of the Research and Development department at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) in France, overseeing project management and R&D for strategic alliances. Prior to that, he was Head of the Digital Technical Facilities, where he was in charge of production operations and audio-visual systems in support of production and post-production initiatives, as well as video restoration. He was also in charge of training activities for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in broadcasting development. He has a Masters degree in Competitive Intelligence.

Thilo Gottschling
Thilo Gottschling is Applications Engineer at ARRI. He started working for ARRI as Recording and Scanning Supervisor in the year 2000 before he joined the application team of the Digital Systems department. Since 2007 he has been responsible for Archiving and Restoration applications for the ARRILASER and ARRISCAN.

Robert Heiber
Bob has been involved in film sound preservation since 1990 when he joined Chace Productions. A member of AMIA since 1991, SMPTE, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and ACVL, Bob has served on the National Film Preservation Board Advisory Task Force and the Library of Congress panel for the State of American Television and Video Preservation. 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.

Mo Henry
Mo's career in negative cutting acts as a parenthesis to the many opportunities she has had in her business life. Starting as a trainee at Universal Studios in 1974 – the first film she handled was Jaws – she became proficient at negative cutting while working at Quinn Martin Productions, Paramount Television, MGM and Columbia Pictures. In 1982, she left the film world to sell residential and commercial real estate in Beverly Hills and Orange County.

In 1985, Mo turned a new page and became a production assistant for a TV commercial production company, working her way up to a producer of television spots and rock videos. The birth of her son, Logan put all of that on hold and when she was ready to rejoin the work force in 1992, she was hired as a negative cutter for Donah Bassett, who had the negative cutting accounts for Columbia-TriStar and Warner Brothers. In early 1993, Donah, who wanted to retire, offered Mo the business and it changed hands that year.

Since then, Mo has worked on hundreds of films, including the Spider-Man, Batman and Matrix series, all of Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen's films, as well as having the delightful job of living in London to cut the first two Harry Potter films. Under Mo's direction, D. Bassett and Associates was one of the first and few negative cutting companies to embrace the DI process, acquiring software from both the UK and Australia, which it continues to use as part of the DI line-up.

The process she pioneered: pulling select shots for the DI and logging and exporting the captured data to the scan facilities, has led her in another, unexpected direction – archiving film assets for Columbia and Warner Bros. Mo has also had the challenge in the last few years of working on the restoration of several major motion pictures, including Apocalypse Now and How the West Was Won.

Along the way, Mo has produced a few short films and has optioned the book "The Search" by Geoff Dyer, which she is attempting to produce along with her UK business partner, Annie Nightingale of the BBC.

Mo is a native of Los Angeles and one of many of the Henry family negative cutters and lab workers who span four generations.

Jim Houston
Jim Houston is Senior Vice President, Imaging for Postworks L.A. He is also currently chair of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' Image Interchange Framework committee, a project of the Academy's Science and Technology Council. He has received two AMPAS Science and Engineering awards and previously developed digital production capabilities for animation, visual effects, and post-production at Walt Disney Feature Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Pacific Ocean Post, and Mainframe Entertainment.

Rob Hummel
Rob Hummel is President, Digital Cinema, for DALSA Corporation. Rob is chartered with gaining acceptance of DALSA’s 4K Camera in the Motion Picture Industry. Bringing to bear over 28 years of experience working closely with Cinematographers, he is leveraging DALSA’s world class experience in digital imaging in order to make digital imaging available that is without compromise when compared to film. Before joining DALSA, Rob had been a consultant and worked at the Warner Bros. Studio.

As Senior Vice President, Production Technology at Warner Bros., Rob was responsible for Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging, the on lot digital post production facility where films are mastered for Digital Intermediate, Digital Cinema, HDTV, DVD, etc., as well as performing recent award winning digital restoration work on such films as “Gone With The Wind” and “The Wizard of OZ.” Rob also oversaw Advanced Media Editorial, Warner Bros. editorial group that prepares feature films for presentations everywhere from airlines to cable TV. Perhaps most importantly, he was chartered with exploring areas of Digital Capture and Digital Post Production for motion pictures, and advising WB Production departments on these technologies.

Prior to joining Warner Bros., Rob was Sr. Vice President, Digital Cinema for SONY Corporation of America. In that role he interfaced with Hollywood Studios and SONY, Japan in order to strategize the role SONY could play in an end to end Digital motion picture production process. As part of the 21 st Century Studio Project, Rob analyzed the operations of SONY Pictures in areas of digital mastering, archiving, storage and protection of their vast library of film elements.

Leading up to Sony, Rob was Executive Vice President, Digital Development for Technicolor. In that role he led Technicolor’s emergence as a leader in Digital Cinema, and the establishment of some of the first Digital Cinemas across the globe.

Before Technicolor, he oversaw DreamWorks International Post Production, Film Archiving, Video Mastering, Theater Operations, special projects, and was head of technology for the then planned Playa Vista studio project. Previously, as head of Animation Technology, Rob oversaw building of the technological infrastructure for DreamWorks' feature animation studio.

Prior to DreamWorks, Rob held various positions at Walt Disney in TVAnimation, Post Production for Walt Disney & Touchstone Pictures; line producer for "DuckTales the Movie;" the Theme Park Productions film unit of Walt Disney Imagineering; and, if pressed, will admit to a stint as the Visual Effects Supervisor on "Cabin Boy."

Rob began his career as Director of Production Services for the professional film division at Technicolor Laboratories; and also worked at Douglas Trumbull's visual effects company, during "Bladerunner," and was a post production supervisor on “TRON.”

Rob is an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, and is the editor of the 8th edition of the ASC Manual. He has hosted several seminars on motion pictures at venues ranging from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to London's National Film Theatre. In his spare time, he has taught classes at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension on film technologies and their impact on the creative presentation of films.

Denis Leconte
Denis Leconte has over 18 years of experience designing high performance data
management and processing systems, with applications ranging from satellite imaging and scientific visualization, to data mining and analysis. Since transitioning to the post-production industry six years ago, Denis has overseen the development and implementation of a number of custom image processing applications and artist's tools that implement proprietary algorithms and help achieve specific looks that film clients demand, as well as handle complex image formats for which no commercial solutions exist.

Denis also has extensive experience in the development and deployment of robust, database-driven, large volume image processing systems running on a render farms. This is an essential component of any digital intermediate (DI) pipeline.

As Vice President of Software Engineering for Post Logic Studios' Image Science Division, Leconte developed the digital workflow deployed for the post production of "Reach for Me," the first feature-length motion picture to be shot and produced entirely in 4K. This custom workflow has since been expanded to accommodate other digital cameras. He also is the main developer of Post Logic's ever-expanding in-house image and color processing software, which is a crucial part of the company's digital acquisition workflow, and is becoming increasingly important to projects requiring custom processing and filtering as well.

Prior to working with Post Logic Studios, Leconte developed the image processing algorithms and pipeline for Pacific Title's Rosetta Digital YCM film preservation process, which helps guarantee maximum quality and data security in the extremely critical data preparation phase. In that post, Leconte was also instrumental in the development of a company-wide database and workflow system, with specific applications designed for film handling, scanning and recording and DI. He was one of the recipients of a 2006 Scientific and Engineering Award from the AMPAS for his participation in the Rosetta process.

Prior to his involvement in post-production, Leconte worked for the Online division of The Walt Disney Company, pioneering the use of machine clusters for statistical analysis and developing usage visualization tools for the many web properties under the Company banner. He moved on to apply a derivation of this technology development into a commercial product at CNP, a web services company.

Prior to Disney, Leconte worked at JPL for 8 years, mainly focusing on data processing, scientific animation and visualization in the Earth Sciences division. Some of the images created during that period are still circulating on the web.

Leconte is a member of SMPTE, the Hollywood Post Alliance, the Academy Image Interchange Format committee, and an active contributor to the American Society of Cinematographers' Technology Committee. Leconte holds an MS in computer science from the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, in Paris, France.

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.

Kevin Manbeck
Kevin Manbeck received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Brown University in 1990 with a focus on statistical models for image processing. Soon thereafter, Kevin founded a film division at Mathematical Technologies Inc. in order to develop algorithms and tools for motion picture restoration. Digital Restoration ServicesTM (DRS) was the first commercial product released to the market by MTI Film. Some of the titles which benefited in the early days of DRS include Pygmalion, Amarcord, and The Ten Commandments. Kevin is currently CTO at MTI Film and is responsible for the continued evolution of its algorithms for motion picture processing.

Ethan L. Miller
Ethan L. Miller is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, where he is also the Associate Director of the Storage Systems Research Center. He received an Sc.B. from Brown University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1995, where he was a member of the RAID project. Prof. Miller has written over 90 papers on a wide range of topics in file systems, storage, and computer systems. His current research projects, which are funded by the NSF, Dept. of Energy, and industry support for the SSRC, include long-term archival storage systems, scalable metadata systems, issues in petabyte-scale storage systems, reliable and secure file systems, and file systems for non-volatile memory technologies. In addition to research and teaching in storage systems and computer systems, Prof. Miller has consulted with industry to help move research results into commercial use.

Joshua Pines
Joshua is the Vice President of Imaging Research and Development at Technicolor Digital Intermediates. He is currently in charge of imaging and color science projects at TDI, which provides the motion picture industry with digital color correction processes for theatrically released films. He joined Technicolor after more than 10 years at Industrial Light & Magic, where he supervised their film scanning/recording department from its inception, and worked extensively with both traditional and digital cinema technologies.

Joshua started his career teaching film courses at the Cooper Union in New York City after earning his degree in electrical engineering there. He began working in visual effects at MAGI in 1982 at the tail end of their work on "Tron", went on to lead the computer graphics division at r/greenberg associates in New York City, and then supervised film effects and film recording at Degraf/Wahrman in Los Angeles before working for ILM. He has received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has credits on several zillion feature films.

Joshua has always thought that computers could be a useful tool in making movies better, and he still hopes that one day this may come true.

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.

Ned Price
Ned is currently Vice President, Mastering, Warner Bros. Technical Operations, responsible for overseeing the audio and visual restoration and preservation of the more than 6,500 films and tens of thousands of television programming in the Warner Bros. library using the latest in restoration technology, including many techniques that have been developed by Warner Bros. Technical Operations.

Among the 1,600 films that Price has worked on for the Studio are “King Kong,” “Citizen Kane,” “ Casablanca,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Searchers,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “2001” and “Bonnie and Clyde.”

Price first joined Warner Bros. in 1990 as Manager, Mastering. Previously he worked for MGM/UA

Price was awarded the Cinema Audio Society’s President’s Award in 2004 in recognition of his work on the preservation and restoration of the soundtracks of Stanley Kubrick’s films.

Price graduated from the Syracuse University Newhouse School with a BA in Film Production. He is headquartered in Burbank.

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.

Leon Silverman
Leon Silverman, President of Hollywood-based LaserPacific Media Corporation, joined Eastman Kodak when the company was acquired in 2003. In addition to his role at LaserPacific, he serves Kodak as the Director of Strategic Business Development, Entertainment Imaging Services and a Vice President of Entertainment Imaging. For the past 26 years, Silverman has helped introduce new technology to Hollywood. He played a key role in the establishment of LaserPacific's Electronic Laboratory, which pioneered many of the tools and techniques that are now the standard for the electronic post production of film. In 1989, he was recognized for his contributions to the creation of the Electronic Laboratory when LaserPacific received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development.

He was also recognized in 1996 for his contributions to the development of LaserPacific's SuperComputer assembly process, which was again the recipient of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. Silverman spearheaded LaserPacific's entry into MPEG digital compression in 1992 and created LaserPacific's DVD Authoring and Encoding facility. He has also helped to establish LaserPacific's pioneering efforts in 24P High Definition.

Silverman is currently focused on new digital post production methods and technology which will expand LaserPacific's role in the motion picture community as well as Kodak's role in the digital services business.

Silverman is the current President and a founder of the Hollywood Post Alliance. He is a Manager of the Hollywood section of The Society of Television and Motion Picture Engineers (SMPTE) where he also chairs its Education Committee. In November of 2003, he was named a Fellow of the Society.

He serves on the Board of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California and is also a member of its Technical Advisory Board. He is an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers, where he sits on their Technology Committee. Silverman has served as an Instructor at UCLA Extension where he taught Post Production for Film and Television as well as an instructor at the USC School of Cinema-Television.