We all know the pinnacle of awards season are the awards from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and most people tend to pay attention to the Arts side of that. The Sciences get their own private awards ceremony that the rest of us don’t have to sit through, as they are rewarded for creating the inventions that allow movies today to be made. I guess watching John Dykstra thank people for their aid in creating a camera is less interesting then watching Adrien Brody plant one on Halle Berry, although an acceptance speech is an acceptance speech, right? It’s not like any of them are ground breaking.
Nonetheless, the Scientific & Technical Awards were presented Saturday night in an untelevised ceremony, presided over by Scarlett Johansson. You have to give the Academy some credit - they may not give the Technical Awards the same prestige as the Artistic awards, but they always give the scientists and technicians a pretty face to look at for the evening.
I could go into great depth on what awards were um, awarded, but like Scarlett at some point I’d have to admit “I have no idea what that means. The words are coming out of my mouth but I’m just not processing.” which she admitted after trying to explain what the DNF 001 Multiband Digital Audio Noise Suppressor does (the response from Steven Bose - “All you need to know is it makes it sound better”). Instead, I’ll give a quick summary of the awards presented and remind you to join us for the Artistic side of the Oscars at Oscar Chat 4.
Technical Achievement Awards
Greg Cannom and Wesley Wofford - the development of their special modified silicone material for makeup appliances used in motion pictures.
Jerry Cotts and Anthony Seaman - the original concept, design and engineering of the Satellight-X HMI Softlight.
Steven E. Boze - the design and implementation of the DNF 001 multiband digital audio noise suppressor.
Christopher Hicks and Dave Betts - the design and implementation of the Cedar DNS1000 multiband digital noise suppressor.
Nelson Tyler - the development of the Tyler Gyroplatform boat mount stabilizing device for motion picture photography.
Julian Morris, Michael Birch, Paul Smyth and Paul Tate - the development of the Vicon motion-capture technology .
John O.B. Greaves, Ned Phipps, Antonie J. van den Bogert and William Hayes - the development of the Motion Analysis motion-capture technology.
Nels Madsen, Vaughn Cato, Matthew Madden and Bill Lorton - the development of the Giant Studios motion-capture technology.
Alan Kapler - the design and development of Storm, a software toolkit for the control of volumetric effects.
Scientific and Engineering Awards
Gyula Mester (electronic systems design) and Keith Edwards (mechanical engineering) - contributions to and continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane.
Lindsay Arnold, Guy Griffiths, David Hodson, Charlie Lawrence and David Mann - the development of the Cineon Digital Film Workstation.
Award of Commendation
Arthur Widmer for his lifetime of achievement in the science and technology of image compositing for motion pic-tures as exemplified by his significant contributions to the development of the Ultra Violet and the "bluescreen" compositing process.
Academy Award of Merit
Horst Burbulla - the invention and continuing development of the Technocrane telescoping camera crane.
Jean-Marie Lavalou, Alain Masseron and David Samuelson - the engineering and development of the Louma Camera Crane and remote system.
Gordon E. Sawyer Award
Takuo Miyagishima - continual improvements to camera technologies.
