Los Angeles, Calif. - The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the 2011 Board of Director officers elected at the January 10, 2010 board meeting. The list of officials includes Jeffrey A. Okun, visual effects supervisor, who was re-elected for a third one-year term as board chair.
“I am honored to have been re-elected chair of the VES,” states Okun. “This is a pivotal year for the VES and I am pleased to lead our community of artists as their talents and influence are recognized within our industry across the board – in film, broadcast, special venue, commercials, games and animation!”
“I look forward to continuing the incredible working relationship Jeff and I have,” states Eric Roth, VES executive director. “He is an extraordinarily talented guy with a bottomless passion for visual effects and VES while being uniquely suited to be the voice of the entertainment industry’s defining resource for our craft.”
The 2011 Officers of the VES Board of Directors are:
Chair: Jeffrey A. Okun
Jeffrey A. Okun has contributed visual effects and 2nd unit direction to a wide-range of films such as the award winning sci-fi hit Stargate (1994), and Deep Blue Sea (1999), The Last Starfighter (1984), Sphere (1998), The Last Samurai (2003), Blood Diamond (2006) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008).
Okun is known for creating 'organic' and invisible effects, as well as spectacular effects which seamlessly expand both the look and scope of a film, but also enhances the storytelling aspect of the movie. Additionally, Jeff is the creator of the revolutionary visual effects techniques dubbed the "PeriWinkle Effect" & the "Pencil Effect", which have been used in many projects to help achieve more a sense of the fantastic, wonder and more accurate budgets. Okun is the author of breakdown, budgeting and tracking software currently being used by professionals throughout the industry.
First Vice Chair:
Richard Winn Taylor II, Creative Director, yU+Co Inc.
Richard Winn Taylor II has an extensive background in live action direction, production design, special effects and Computer Graphics for theatrical films, television commercials and video games. He began his career at Robert Abel & Associates and has been a member of the DGA for over 30 years. He was worked a multiple of features including Star Trek, Looker and in 1982 he was co-effects supervisor on
Tron. He was the Cinematic Director at Electronic Arts Los Angeles for seven years. Currently he is Co- Creative Director at yU+Co. Throughout his career he’s won numerous awards including fifteen Clios for commercial direction. He has served on the VES Board four terms.
Second Vice Chair: Pam Hogarth – Director of Marketing, Look Effects
Pam Hogarth has spent over 26 years in the world of visual effects, 20 of which doing marketing and education. Before joining LOOK she spent 12 years helping to build Gnomon School of Visual Effects into the premiere educational institution for careers in high-end cg. While doing that, she found time and energy to devote to the Visual Effects Society, serving multiple terms on the Board of Directors, including four years as Executive Secretary and has been one of the abiding Chairs of the Education Committee.
Treasurer: Bob Coleman, President, Digital Artists Agency
Bob Coleman founded Digital Artists Agency in Los Angeles to represent an international and award-winning portfolio of artists for work in feature, commercial and related fields. He leverages his experience in top-level management positions at respected industry companies, with his high regard for artists, to further the development of the visual effects craft.
Secretary: Kim Lavery, VFX Producer
Kim Lavery has experience from both the Production & Post Production sides of film making and visual effects producing for a total of over two decades, having worked for Universal Studios on film production then shifting to visual effects in 1994. Since then, she has been instrumental in building out specialized visual effects boutique studios, working on films such as Frida, Minority Report, Cats and Dogs, Charlie’s Angels, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Terminator 3, Last Samurai, etc. She has served on the VES Awards Committee since its inception in 2002, and was also a VES Board Member and Secretary from 2004 – 2007.