AnimfxNZ, New Zealand’s conference for digital animation, effects, animation and games, today announced additional speakers in a lineup that already includes Academy Award winners and leading visionaries from the creative digital industries. Taking place Nov. 14-16th in Wellington, AnimfxNZ will bring together leaders from the four major creative digital mediums to share ideas and further the creation of digital entertainment.
The addition of Harrison Ellenshaw, David Scammell, Joshua Greer and Patrick von Sychowski brings specialists in the latest cinematic technologies including 3-D cinema, digital film and effects. Harrison Ellenshaw, son of legendary Disney matte painter Peter Ellenshaw, joined Walt Disney Studios as a matte artist, moonlighted to render a number of paintings for Star Wars, and then oversaw the matte department on The Empire Strikes Back at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). He later returned to Disney and headed the studios’ own effects facility, Buena Vista Visual Effects (BVVE). He and his father were both nominated for an Academy Award for their special visual effects work on The Black Hole.
David Scammell is president and CEO of Sohonet. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for introducing innovative technology to the film and television industry. During his tenure at Quantel, he was responsible for introducing the first digital effects products and animation tools, including Harry and Henry. He was also responsible for the first digital products for the film industry, and spent considerable time internationally exploring the development and future opportunities in this arena. In 2003, he successfully led a management buyout of Sohonet, and since then has dramatically expanded the operation into a true global operation with offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, London and Pinewood Studios, providing clients with access to the world’s most extensive global media community.
Joshua Greer is co-founder and president of REAL D, a leader in 3-D projection systems for entertainment and other industries. While working with filmmaker James Cameron on Ghosts of the Abyss, he designed the first all-digital 3-D projection system for WALDEN MEDIA, an entertainment studio he co-founded. He decided then to focus his career on stereoscopic digital projection and eventually created REAL D. Prior to his work with Walden Media, Greer served as president of Digital Domain New Media, and co-founded Digital Planet in 1994. He is currently working with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to study issues facing the deployment of 3-D in the digital cinema universe.
Patrick von Sychowski is COO of Adlabs Digital Cinema, which lays claim to being the first company to roll out DCI-grade digital cinema in the world’s largest film and cinema market. He has been covering and working in the digital cinema industry for close to ten years, starting as a Senior Analyst for U.K.-based media research company Screen Digest, where he pioneered coverage of the nascent field. As a consultant, he was involved in the setting up of several pioneering efforts such as the U.K. Film Council’s Digital Screen Network, the Digital Test Bed in London and NORDIC (Norway’s Digital Interoperability in Cinemas). He founded and edited the E-Cinema Alert newsletter for several years, and more recently worked as director of business development for Unique Digital and Deluxe Europe, where he set up both companies’ European digital cinema operations.
‘The speakers for this year’s show are at the forefront of digital creation, developing technology and techniques that will further the visions of tomorrow’s filmmakers, game developers and visual artists,’ says Jos Ruffell, chairman of the New Zealand Games, Animation and Visual Effects Trust (NZGAV), the organizing body behind Animfx. ‘AnimfxNZ is the event for anyone interested in the state of the art and convergence of vfx, games and digital film.’
AnimfxNZ 2008 has already announced Barrie Osborne, Carolyn Soper, Howard Postley, Jeff Okun, Habib Zargarpour, Joseph Olin, Tim Willits, Henry LaBounta and Mario Wynands as speakers at this year’s conference.
AnimfxNZ wil offer a full slate of keynotes and panels that feature the brightest minds in digital media today. Registration is now open with early bird pricing set at NZ $675 until Oct. 14th, after which the price goes to NZ $790. Learn more about the conference at www.animfxnz.com.
