PANELISTS
GIRISH BALAKRISHNAN
Girish Balakrishnan is Director of Virtual Production at Netflix. In this role, he supports Netflix filmmakers and creators to enhance their storytelling through the use of new production technologies. He also oversees the company's Virtual Production R&D initiative, NLAB. Throughout his career, Girish has sat at the intersection of real-time graphics and virtual cinematography at companies such as MPC, Digital Domain, and Side Effects Software, working on the R&D of innovative visualization paradigms for filmmakers. Most recently, his involvement in productions such as Disney's The Lion King and Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One helped engage directors, production designers, and DPs through the use of game engine technologies and virtual/augmented reality.
NOMISH BHARDWAJ
As a Technical Director, Nomish Bhardwaj has supported various departments for the feature production pipeline at DreamWorks Animation and is now working as an FX TD on a sequel of Puss In Boots. Whilst pursuing a B.Tech in Software Engineering from NMIMS in Mumbai (India), Nomish ran a Graphic Designing firm that handled brand management projects and Ad campaigns for various corporate brands in the city. He pursued an MSc in Computer Animation & Visual Effects from NCCA at Bournemouth University, UK. Nomish joined DreamWorks Animation's India unit as a Technical Director in 2015 having worked as an FX artist on a few projects before then. Nomish also spent two years at Axis Studios in Glasgow, Scotland where he worked on a BAFTA winning episode of Love, Death & Robots before joining DreamWorks Animation at Glendale, CA in 2018. His credits at DreamWorks Animation include Kung Fu Panda 3 as an IMF TD; Boss Baby, How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World & Abominable as a Lighting TD; and has recently wrapped up as an FX TD on Croods: A New Age, scheduled to release in Nov 2020.
ADRIENNE KLOTZ-FLOYD
Adrienne Klotz-Floyd is a production professional with 20+ years of experience in the Film, TV, and Media Production industry, an IATSE Local 600 International Cinematographers Guild member, DIT, Photographer and serves as Producer & Host of FilmCraft.Biz. She holds Degrees in the Arts and Science from Penn State University, Drury University, and UCLA.
CAROL ALYNN PAYNE
Carol Alynn Payne started her career in visual effects, working for almost six years at Industrial Light & Magic, a Lucasfilm Company, most prominently as Color & Imaging Engineer. It was there she found her passion - in how we capture, create, digitally manipulate, and display imagery to make content shine. At ILM, Carol worked on over 30 films, including The Irishman, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity War. In May 2019, Carol joined Netflix as Imaging Specialist on the Creative Technology team, focused on standards of the future and how we can best utilize imaging technology to preserve creative intent. Carol is a Virtual Working Group chair for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), as well as a Technical Steering Committee member of OpenColorIO, and a chair of the Academy Software Foundation’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. Active in SMPTE and ACM SIGGRAPH, she's also a founding member of Women in Visual Effects.
HORST SARUBIN
With 28 years in the film and television industry Horst Sarubin has experience covering nearly every aspect of production, from managing people and budgets, set operations with the latest technology, to in depth post-production technical expertise. Horst’s passion for the filmmaking process started at the age of 9 and has only intensified over the years. From a two-person documentary crew in the jungles of Papua New Guinea to VFX on a frozen lake in Iceland for The Fate of the Furious (F8), he travelled the world working on any and every kind of set he could. More than a technologist, Horst has spent his career on the creative side of filmmaking as well which ensures that he approaches all technological issues with a creative’s mindset. Horst has spent the last two years as Universal Picture’s Director of Production Technology bringing the breadth of his experience to projects that will take the film industry into future.
MODERATOR
ANNIE CHANG
Annie Chang is the Vice President, Creative Technologies for Universal Pictures, responsible for developing strategies and designing innovative next-generation workflows across film and emerging immersive media experiences. Prior to joining Universal Pictures, Chang was the VP, Technology for Marvel Studios and held various roles during more than a decade tenure at The Walt Disney Studios. Chang is the AMPAS ACES Project Chair and Co-Chair of the AMPAS SciTech Council. She has been a Co-Chair of the 10E Essence Technology and Chair of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) Working Group at SMPTE. She is an SMPTE Fellow and is a recipient of the SMPTE Workflow Systems Medal Award, Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership award and StudioDaily’s 2018 Exceptional Women in Production and Post. In 2020, The Hollywood Reporter named Chang on their list of top “Hollywood Innovators.”