News Stories

Studio Technology Leaders Dinner

6.24.2016

ETC held its 5th Studio Technology Leaders Dinner at USC’s Town & Gown on Friday, June 24. Industry colleagues from member companies and af liates gathered for an evening of networking, VR demos, the presentation of ETC’s Bob Lambert Technology Leadership Award and the dinner’s featured panel discussion.

Elizabeth M. Daley, Dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts opened the evening, welcoming
the guests in a speech that highlighted ETC’s success convening technology companies and studios, and touched on the center’s history, accomplishments and continued importance in the industry. ETC’s CEO and Executive Director, Ken Williams, served as the evening’s host and panel moderator. He announced the Executive Board’s newly created honorary category, ETC Board Director Emeritus and the inaugural designees, Chuck Dages, Vince Roberts, and Wendy Aylsworth.

This year’s ETC Bob Lambert Technology Leadership Award recipient was Wendy Aylsworth, CEO (Walden Pond). She accepted the award after remarks from Howard Lukk, Director (SMPTE — on behalf of Executive Director Barbra Lange); Chuck Dages, Chair (TV Academy); and Darcy Antonellis, CEO (Vubiquity). The award recognizes Wendy’s outstanding, broad and lasting contributions that have helped shape the future of entertainment technology.

USC’s VR student club (VRSC) offered hands-on VR experiences for attendees, who could try out student VR project “Zombie Camp” on HTC Vive and the new Samsung Gear, as well as student VR project “Lions and Deer” on the Samsung Gear. GrabGames Deluxe and Wearality also had booths.

Offering their expert opinions about the current challenges, developments and future impact of media and entertainment technology, the Center’s signature studio leaders panel discussion featured Hanno Basse, CTO (20th Century Fox Film), Justin Herz, SVP, Digital (Warner Bros. Entertainment Group), Spencer Stephens, CTO (Sony Pictures Entertainment), Jamie Voris, CTO (Walt Disney Studios), and Michael Wise, CTO (Universal Pictures).

Highlights

10.25.2012

ETCentric is an online destination providing a single online resource for the most current technology news, trends, special reports, surveys and opinions related to media, entertainment and technology. Media professionals are faced with a glut of information as part of their daily routines, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the time and effort required to weed through what is relevant to our world and what is not.

ETCentric aggregates an array of relevant information and delivers in a single online resource. As a natural extension of ETC, it is designed for industry insiders with an eye for creative inspiration, evolving trends, and innovation in media, entertainment and technology

ETC regularly convenes industry leaders and subject matter experts. Our latest workshop focused on The Business of VR. Download your copy.

ETC Published a Primer on Virtual Reality with an Emphasis on Camera-Captured VR.   Download your copy.

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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