And the year's first Oscars go to …
Micro-voxels, the Pictorvision Eclipse electronically stabilized aerial camera platform, Stab-C Classic stabilizing heads and the ARRILASER Film Recorder.
Once again the Academy has announced the winners of its Scientific and Technical Awards, and once again the list of achievements being recognized by the Academy will sail right over the heads of those who aren't attuned to the Sciences part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
But for those in the know, the eight achievements chosen by the Academy have, in the words of the AMPAS press release, "a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures."
The Sci-Tech Awards, as they're dubbed, some in three versions. One awards the recipient with a certificate, one awards a plaque, and one, which isn't given out every year, awards an Oscar statuette.
This year's 27 honorees include three men who will receive Oscar statuettes for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder (photo at left).
The Sci-Tech Awards will be presented at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, February 11 — and, if history is any indication, will be hosted by an actress who has appeared in at least one special-effects-heavy movie.
From the AMPAS press release, here are this year's honorees:
Technical Achievement Award (Academy Certificate)
To Andrew Clinton and Mark Elendt for the invention and integration of micro-voxels in the Mantra software.
This work allowed, for the first time, unified and efficient rendering of volumetric effects such as smoke and clouds, together with other computer graphics objects, in a micro-polygon imaging pipeline.
Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque)
To Radu Corlan, Andy Jantzen, Petru Pop and Richard Toftness for the design and engineering of the Phantom family of high-speed cameras for motion picture production.
The Phantom family of high-speed digital cameras, including the Phantom Flex and HD Gold, provide imagery at speeds and efficacy surpassing photochemical technology, while seamlessly intercutting with conventional film production.
To Dr. Jürgen Noffke for the optical design and Uwe Weber for the mechanical design of the ARRI Zeiss Master Prime Lenses for motion picture photography.
The Master Primes have achieved a full stop advance in speed over existing lenses, while maintaining state-of-the-art optical quality. This lens family was also the first to eliminate the magnification change that accompanied extreme focus shifts.
To Michael Lewis, Greg Marsden, Raigo Alas and Michael Vellekoop for the concept, design and implementation of the Pictorvision Eclipse, an electronically stabilized aerial camera platform.
The Pictorvision Eclipse system allows cinematographers to capture aerial footage at faster flying speeds with aggressive platform maneuvering.
To E.F. “Bob” Nettmann for the concept and system architecture, Michael Sayovitz for the electronic packaging and integration, Brad Fritzel for the electronic engineering, and Fred Miller for the mechanical engineering of the Stab-C Classic, Super-G and Stab-C Compact stabilizing heads.
This versatile family of 5-axis camera and lens stabilizers allows any standard motion picture camera to be fitted into the open architecture of the structure. The system can be quickly balanced and made ready for shooting platforms such as helicopters, boats, camera cars or cranes.
To John D. Lowry, Ian Cavén, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly for the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process.
The “Lowry Process” uses advanced GPU-accelerated, motion estimation-based image processing tools to enhance image quality.
To FUJIFILM Corporation, Hideyuki Shirai, Dr. Katsuhisa Oozeki and Hiroshi Hirano for the design and development of the FUJIFILM black and white recording film ETERNA-RDS 4791 for use in the archival preservation of film and digital images.
Specifically designed for laser film recording and widely used in the industry today, the high-resolution FUJIFILM ETERNA-RDS 4791 film stock is an important step in protecting the heritage of the motion picture industry.
Academy Award of Merit® (Oscar® Statuette)
To Franz Kraus, Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder.
The ARRILASER film recorder demonstrates a high level of engineering resulting in a compact, user-friendly, low-maintenance device, while at the same time maintaining outstanding speed, exposure ratings and image quality.
