The public is invited to join nearly 250 film educators and filmmakers from around the world the week of July 21 for a series of special events at the 57th Annual University Film and Video Association Conference hosted by the USC Media Arts program.
Monday's kickoff event, "Best of NextFrame 2002," will be held at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Nickelodeon Theatre. There the public will have the opportunity to watch some of the most innovative and creative films by the nation's most promising student filmmakers. Regular Nickelodeon admission prices will apply. The films are from the NextFrame Film Festival, which is considered the world's premiere touring showcase of international student film and video. The presentation will feature nine award-winning narrative, documentary, and animated short films.
At 8 p.m. July 23, the public will have the opportunity to hear cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond discuss technology and feature film and television production. Bob Fisher of CCS Communications will moderate the discussion, which is sponsored by Kodak and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). The talk will be held in Gambrell Hall, Room 153.
Kovac and Zsigmond's start in filmmaking was tumultuous. While attending the Academy of Drama and Film Art in 1956, the Hungarian-born pair documented the Russian storming of Budapest. In 1957, they entered the United States, where they honed their craft. Both men have earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from the ASC and are considered among the most accomplished cinematographers of modern cinema.
Kovacs' movie credits range from the recent films, "Miss Congeniality" (2000), "Jack Frost" (1998) and "My Best Friend's Wedding" (1997), to "Paper Moon" (1973), "What's Up Doc" (1972), and "Easy Rider" (1969). Zsigmond earned an Oscar for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and Oscar nominations for "The Deer Hunter" (1978) and "The River" (1984). His other notable films include "Deliverance" (1972), "The Rose" (1979), "Maverick" (1994), and "Assassins" (1995).
Earlier on Wednesday, the public can attend two additional events. Both are free and will be held in Gambrell Hall, Room 153. At 8:30 a.m. Michael Phillips, principal product designer for Avid Technology Inc., will discuss trends in the film and video industry, focusing on the particular needs of the education community. Avid Technology is a leading manufacturer of hardware for audio, video, and digital editing, as well as software for media makers, including packages for animation, special effects, and 3-D imaging.
The conversation will turn to film preservation at 10:30 a.m. with a talk by Grover Crisp, vice president of AssetManagement and Film Restoration (Sony Pictures Entertainment), and Rick Utley, vice president of Pro Tek film preservation vault, a division of Kodak's Cinesite. Crisp and Utley will discuss the media industry's practices for film preservation and restoration. Crisp oversees restoration and preservation at Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures for Sony Entertainment. His work involves the conversion of hundreds of nitrate-based films to safety film and restoration of 1950s stereo soundtracks. His projects have included the restoration of the movies, "Funny Girl," "Oliver!," "On the Waterfront," and "From Here to Eternity." Utley oversees restoration specialists who use tools developed and perfected by Cinesite's visual effects division to digitally repair and restore films that, only a few years ago, would have been considered lost forever.
The final public event will be at 7:30 p.m. in McMaster College. Clyde Smith, senior vice president of Broadcast Entertainment Technology for Turner Entertainment Networks, will discuss Turner's new Network Operations Center, particularly how and why Turner wants to make all 19 of its networks interact digitally. It is the task of the center to ensure that all cable news, streaming media, Web content, international satellite feeds, live programming, and studio films are technologically compatible.
All the conference talks are free.
For more information on these public events and the UFVA Conference, call Karla Berry, associate media arts professor, at 7-6773.
(The UFVA was founded in 1947. Today, its memberships includes 800 professionals and institutions dedicated to the production, research and education related to film, video and new media arts. It publishes the Journal of Film and Video. For the first time, members of the international organization CILECT, the world's major film and television schools, will participate in UFVA's annual conference.)
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