The Digital Hollywood Experience

 

Thursday, January 14th, 2021

2 PM – 2:45 PM – Eastern Time Zone

All-Digital & Online

Session II:

Virtual and Immersive Hollywood: An Era of Creativity on All Platforms

The creative powers behind Hollywood and enabling innovation and technology have never been so intertwined. The creative mind-meld of vision, art and technology is now at work, from pre-production and pre-visualization to the world of VFX and plain old storytelling. We live in a world of creative wizards.

Nigel Tierney, Head of Content, Verizon/RYOT

Christina Lee Storm, Manager of Virtual Production, Netflix

Boo Wong, Global Director of Emerging Technology, The Mill

Ted Schilowitz, Futurist in Residence, Paramount Pictures

Brett Leonard, co-founder, Studio Lightship

John Canning, Executive Producer - New Media & Experiential, Digital Domain, Moderator

 

Ted Schilowitz, Futurist, Paramount Pictures: Ted spends his time in a unique role in the motion picture entertainment industry. As the Futurist at Paramount pictures, Ted works with studio leadership and the technology teams at Paramount / Viacom, exploring forms of new and emerging technologies, with an emphasis on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Prior to joining

Paramount, Ted was the Futurist at 20th Century Fox, where he worked on the evolving art, science and technology of advanced interactive visual storytelling. He was part of the creation team for the Martian VR and Wild VR experiences, which premiered at CES and Sundance as groundbreaking projects that pushed the envelope of Virtual Reality storytelling. Ted was an integral part of the product development team at RED Digital Cinema as a founding member and the company’s first employee. The Red One and Epic cameras have made a significant impact on the Motion Picture Industry, with many of the world’s biggest movies now being shot with these ultra high resolution digital movie cameras. Ted is one of the founders and creators of the G-Tech product line of advanced hard drive storage products. As one of the most recognized brands in that industry, they are implemented worldwide at the highest levels on cinema, episodic television, sports and news production. Before being part of the founding teams at RED Digital Cinema and G-Tech, Ted was on the team that developed and launched the Macintosh desktop video division of AJA Video Systems, creating professional video products in tandem with Apple. These products are used on a massive scale worldwide for video production and post at the highest levels, on many of the world’s biggest movies, TV series and sporting events. Ted has presented worldwide at numerous conferences on the advancements in next generation visual experiences for the movie, television and, interactive entertainment industries. He’s been featured in Wired, Variety, NY Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, NBC, CNET, Studio Daily, Videography, Film and Video, DV Magazine, TV Technology, HD Video Pro, Engadget, Gizmodo, Millimeter, American Cinematographer, MacWorld, Post Magazine, Popular Science, and countless other publications discussing his areas of passion and exploration.

 

Boo Wong, Global Director of Emerging Technology, The Mill: As Global Director of Emerging Technology, Boo Wong leads transformation, strategy and advancement for new business initiatives through creative technology for The Mill, the largest commercial production, post and technology studio serving the advertising industry today. Boo prides herself on identifying trends and translating market needs into solutions and company-wide technology initiatives, including the development of new pipelines for AR, VR, game engine development, virtual characters, virtual production, real-time VFX, volume and motion capture. Through The Mill, she heads up global teams engaged in development and delivery of the next generation of award-winning content, products, user experiences, and workflows for the most prominent brands and companies in the world. Boo has been a pioneer and leader throughout the digital and technological evolution of advertising, film, and TV. Prior to joining The Mill, she served as Head of Computer Graphics at Curious Pictures before holding the position of Head of Production at Psyop. She is a frequent speaker and contributor to industry publications on the topics of innovation, creativity, technology, VR/AR/MR/XR and the future of media and marketing. Recent high-profile stories include “Game Engines Emerge as an Effective Tool to Keep Work Going” for Adweek and a thought-leadership piece in Quartz; “VR and AR will expand the limits of human perception”. Boo has also participated as a juror at leading industry festivals including Prix Ars Electronica, Siggraph, Brand Film Festival, AICP Next Awards and the Producers Guild of America’s Inaugural Innovation Award. Her work has earned accolades from a variety of awards, including Cannes Lions, Webbys and Emmy Awards and she personally received the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Award in 2019.

Christina Lee Storm, Netflix Virtual Production: Christina Lee Storm’s animation, real-time, and live action feature producing experience have her working at the cross section of story, content, and technology. Manager of Virtual Production at Netflix, her focus is creating worldwide virtual production ecosystems and hubs to foster growth and adoption for virtual production across Netflix’s global content slate while working with key industry partners and companies. As Vice President at DreamWorks Animation, Storm led the Advanced Creative Technology group and worked to advance DreamWorks IP into new forms of immersive creative content on all platforms using emerging technologies like AR, VR, real-time rendering, motion capture, and virtual production. She produced 3 award-winning VR experiences for the franchise How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, various AR projects for Trolls World Tour and Abominable, and an interactive theme park experience of Kung Fu Panda. Elected to the Producers Guild of America’s National Board of Directors and New Media Council Board of Delegates, Storm also serves on the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Executive Committee and as Board of Governors for the Advanced Imaging Society. Identifying the importance of supporting women in the area of STEAM, she is proud to be a founding member of DreamWorks Animation’s TECHWomen and member of Women in Animation.

 

Brett Leonard is considered one of Hollywood’s most innovative film directors, and is known as one of the entertainment industry’s top digital-media visionaries. Mr. Leonard has recently been named by The Producers Guild of America, in association with Variety Magazine, as one of its “Digital 25”, recognizing the twenty five leading visionaries, innovators and producers who have made significant contributions to the advancement of storytelling through digital media. The Guild’s 4,500 members, including producers of film, television and new media, along with a distinguished Digital 25 Advisory Board, voted Mr. Leonard for this honor. Other recipients include directors James Cameron and Ridley Scott. (see Variety Magazine spread announcing the winners at the end of this document). Mr. Leonard became a globally-recognized pioneer of digital filmmaking when he directed and co-wrote the hit motion picture Lawnmower Man, starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey. The film is considered a cult classic, way ahead of its time in the use of groundbreaking computer graphics, and the portrayal of a networked data culture. Lawnmower Man is one of the true progenitors of the “cyber genre” and was the number one commercially successful independent film of 1992, costing under $6 million and earning over $200 million worldwide. Mr. Leonard was a key participant of the Sony 2000 think tank, a small group of media visionaries assembled to discuss the future of media by the top brass of the Sony corporation. He directed Peter Gabriel’s Kiss That Frog, the first HD all computer graphic music video/ride film. Kiss That Frog toured the world as wildly popular theme park attraction, and won Mr. Leonard a 1994 MTV Music Video Award. In 1994 Mr. Leonard co-founded L-Squared Entertainment, a company that became known as a leader in next- generation digital production techniques for the new era of 3D stereoscopic filmmaking. During this time, Mr. Leonard continued to push the envelope in his feature film work, establishing himself as a pioneer of digital visual effects and cutting-edge independent film, and 3D production. He first stepped into the third dimension with his IMAX 3D work, and directed T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous in IMAX 3D, which was the No.#1 hit 3D movie in history for over ten years, having grossed over $100 million worldwide on IMAX screens alone. It was also the first 3D film to use photo-realistic computer graphics and stereoscopic compositing; techniques that led to the innovations of current 3D film spectaculars such as James Cameron’s Avatar. He then went on to direct Anthony Hopkins in the IMAX 3D spectacular The Magic Box. Mr. Leonard is also known for having a keen eye for new talent, both in front of and behind the camera. He was instrumental in bringing Russell Crowe to American film audiences, giving Russell his first lead in a Hollywood film, Virtuosity, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Mr. Leonard. He did the same for Alicia Silverstone in his film for Tri-Star, Hideaway, and started Rachel Taylor’s career (Transformers, American Horror Story) in his film for Marvel Studios, Man-Thing. Television star, Alex O’Loughlin (lead in the smash-hit series Hawaii Five-O), was given his first break by Brett, and first appeared in Mr. Leonard’s films, Man-Thing and Feed. Mr. Leonard has also been instrumental in dozens of careers behind the camera – Some of the most notable are production designer, Alex McDowell (Minority Report, The Terminal, Watchmen) who’s first feature was Lawnmower Man, and director of photography Russell Carpenter, who went on to win the Academy Award for Titanic. Literally hundreds of computer graphic animators and 3D innovators who are now in the top ranks all got their start on Mr. Leonard’s groundbreaking films. Mr. Leonard is again pioneering new media forms with a musically driven feature film concept for the Internet called PopFictionLife – Believing that new content distribution platforms need their own creative “genres”, Mr. Leonard and his team have focused on creating projects in a style designed specifically for “personal screens” (iPhone, iPad, etc.). PopFictionLife is an Internet movie concept where a music-driven story is told in 5min “Frags” that connect together to form a full-length feature film. A FragFilm is not a typical web series – it delivers the “movie” experience in a form parsed for the short attention spans of the YouTube generation, designed for easy viewing and downloading on the Internet and mobile platforms. FragFilms of the PopFictionLife genre revolve around the actual lives of developing or established music artists, fictionalized in fun and creative ways to have the dramatic impact of a Hollywood movie. This presents the artist and their music in an entertaining and compelling context beyond “reality”, with the style and high production values audiences expect from feature films and television. Mr. Leonard has produced and directed the first two FragFilms of the PopFictionLife concept, entitled Feel (for Hollywood Records/Disney), and The Other Country (for PFL Transmedia), both of which have been distributed world- wide through the Internet.

 

Nigel Tierney, Head of Content RYOT // Verizon Media: Nigel Tierney currently serves as Head of Content for RYOT, a subsidiary of Verizon Media (VM), overseeing the development, creative, art production, & marketing departments. Nigel is shepherding the advancement of immersive and mixed reality experiences specifically targeting the integration of storytelling, brand, & celebrity, as well as creating original content across Yahoo and VM’s suite of brands. In addition to spearheading content; Nigel has lead a team to build out RYOT’s state-of-the-art 5G Innovation Studio. This new production facility in Los Angeles is fitted with the latest in motion and volumetric capture technology, all of which has been designed to experiment with forms of storytelling that leverage Verizon’s 5G wireless technology. Prior to his time at RYOT, Nigel served as Chief Creative for a variety of animated projects responsible for tens-of-millions in viewership as well as Senior Technical Director at DreamWorks Animation with award winning credits including a variety of tentpole franchises such as SHREK FOREVER AFTER, THE CROODS, KUNG FU PANDA 3, & CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS. Nigel is also known for creating the world famous J/K COMEDY CLUB, a hidden club located in the heart of the DreamWorks Campus, that showcase a wide variety of celebrity comedians.

 

John Canning, Executive Producer - New Media & Experiential, Digital Domain. While their name might not be commonly known, you definitely know Digital Domain’s work - they create visual effects for feature films, including the recent Avengers Infinity War movie. They also create visuals for advertising, games, training, and immersive content, including their own original content. Prior to Digital Domain, John was the VP of Interactive Experiences for NBCUniversal, creating VR and other digital experiences for The Voice, Million Second Quiz, The Blacklist, and others. In the past, he’s also spent several years at both Microsoft and Disney. On the side, he’s the Chairman of the New Media Council at the Producers Guild of America. He’s also an independent producer, cinematographer, and photographer for good causes.