VES Launches Entertainment Production Summit
July 9, 2009

VES Launches Entertainment Production Summit

Los Angeles, Calif. - The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced that it will present a Production Summit for the greater entertainment industry on October 24, 2009. The Production Summit 09 will convene a consortium of creatives, executives, and visionaries to offer an opportunity to examine innovative approaches to producer challenges, technology developments, and the globalization of the production industry. Practitioners from all crafts in the entertainment industry will join together to look at the present in order to start defining the future, says a representative. The event will be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey.
Eric Roth, VES executive director, describes: "Because the entertainment industry is changing so rapidly -- on the creative, technological and business fronts -- we’re bringing together all industry stakeholders to discuss the challenges we all face in looking at our entertainment future. The Production Summit will be a central meeting place of common concerns and challenges that will create new dialogue and solutions across all guilds and studios.”



The summit will bring together an international group of directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, technologists, and visual effects leaders responsible for moving the industry into the next decade. Attendees will be encouraged not only to think outside the box, but also to reinvent the box in the process of creating an entirely new production paradigm.

The sessions will include:

Through the Kaleidoscope: Three interactive one-hour sessions deliver a multifaceted examination of Pre-Production, Production and Post Production.
Every component in the production process affects every other, creating an intricate, complex structure. In a vital format designed to stimulate conversation among our speakers, this three-part session brings together creatives to explore every facet of making a feature, from the first idea to the final render. Directors, art directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, visual effects supervisors and other members of the various guilds discuss the overlaps, gaps, cooperation and collaboration essential to the process.

XRay: Surviving (and thriving in) the Post Production Pipeline in the 21st Century
With the industry becoming an ever more complex soup of multiple file formats, color space issues, unique and incompatible pipelines, content designed for everything from an iPhone to IMAX, adding stereo to the mix, and then trying to archive all your data, post production looks more like wizardry than the last step of an organized process. This session looks at the ways studios, colorists, visual effects supervisors, and post production supervisors can work collaboratively to triumph over the challenges in moving their projects to release.

Hot, Flat and (getting) Crowded: The Business of Production and the new Global Economy
As our world continues to shrink, businesses must adjust to the challenges of a universal economy. This session brings together business leaders from around the industry and around the world to engage in a discussion of the cultural, technological, ethical and economic issues that both stimulate and impede our progress.

VES board chair Jeffrey A. Okun adds, "The industry overall is currently being challenged by enormous economic constraints, and has responded by starting fewer projects.  They want to do them fast and inexpensively, while at the same time reaching for the highest quality. This mandate is causing tremendous stresses and strains throughout the entire pipeline of projects. This Summit will lead the discussion on how we all will get to the future, and by envisioning the future we can begin to create it. If you want that future to be bright then you need join us at the Summit!"

For more information and to register, go to: http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/productionSummit2009