2001

Irwin W. Young, chairman of the board of Du Art Film Laboratories and Du Art Video, has been voted the Gordon E. Sawyer Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy President Robert Rehme announced today.

John A. Bonner Medals of Commendation

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted N. Paul Kenworthy Jr. the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation. The medal will be presented during the Scientific and Technical Awards presentation dinner on Saturday, March 3, 2001.

To Vic Armstrong for the refinement and application to the film industry of the Fan Descender for accurately and safely arresting the descent of stunt persons in high freefalls.

Considered a standard of the industry, the Fan Descender provides a means for significantly increasing the safety of very high stunt falls. The system permits falls to be made under controlled deceleration and with a highly predictable stopping point without limitation of camera angles.

To Bill Tondreau of Kuper Systems, Alvah J. Miller and Paul Johnson of Lynx Robotics, and David Stump of Visual Effects Rental Services for the conception, design and development of data capture systems that enable superior accuracy, efficiency and economy in the creation of composite imagery.

These systems digitally record live action camera and axis data with practically no impact on the live action production process, allowing compositing for visual effects to become faster and more cost-effective.

To Leonard Pincus, Ashot Nalbandyan, George Johnson, Thomas Kong and David Pringle for the design and development of the Softsun low pressure xenon long-arc light sources, their power supplies and fixtures.

With the ability to dim these very high-powered lights at essentially constant Kelvin temperature and without flicker, these units produce a bright and even light source for general set lighting. The availability of very high wattage units allows production to extend the hours of work past the time when the crew would otherwise have "lost the light."

To Glenn M. Berggren for the concept, Horst Linge for research and development, and Wolfgang Reinecke for the optical design of the ISCO Ultra-Star Plus lenses for motion picture projection.

The unique optical design of the Ultra-Star Plus projection lenses achieves unprecedented edge-to-edge uniformity of illumination, combined with a significant increase in screen brightness, thus providing a substantial improvement in the cinema viewing experience.

To Udo Schauss, Hildegard Ebbesmeier and Karl Lenhardt for the optical design, and Ralf Linn and Norbert Brinker for the mechanical design of the Schneider Super Cinelux lenses for motion picture projection.

These projection lenses provide a significant improvement in the quality of the cinema viewing experience.

To Philip Greenstreet of Rosco Laboratories for the concept and development of the Roscolight Day/Night Backdrop.

This unique photographic scenic backing allows a smooth transition from day to night views with a single backing. The Roscolight backings provide an important new creative tool to filmmakers, saving time, money and stage space.

To Venkat Krishnamurthy for the creation of the Paraform Software for 3D Digital Form Development.

This system streamlines the creation of 3D computer graphics models by allowing artists to convert the data from automatically scanned physical models into a user-specified configuration of patches well suited for use in computer applications.

To George Borshukov, Kim Libreri and Dan Piponi for the development of a system for image-based rendering allowing choreographed camera movements through computer graphic reconstructed sets.

This component of the Manex Visual Effects Virtual Cinematography System provides theatrical-quality virtual settings.

To John P. Pytlak for the development of the Laboratory Aim Density (LAD) system.

The LAD system has become the standard method used by film laboratories and digital film recording facilities for the efficient and uniform control of color and exposure in camera negatives, interpositives and duplicate negatives.

The creators of the Trailer Audio Standards Association's (TASA) Trailer Loudness Standard were presented with an Award of Commendation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on March 3, 2001, at the organization's Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation dinner.

The Award of Commendation, a plaque, was given to Ioan Allen, Mark Harrah, and Robin Bransburyfor the concept, design and implementation of the TASA Trailer Loudness Standard. In 1997, cinema sound engineers, exhibitors, and the major studios formed the Trailer Audio Standards Association to develop a trailer volume standard.