American Cinematographer - August 2011 - 74

Sébastien Dostie (right) serves as visual-effects designer and supervisor at Montreal-based Boogie Studio, whose credits includ e a series of commercials for kitchen-and-bath company Canac (left).

But changing paradigms come at a cost. “What happened in desktop publishing and music was a big shake-up,” says Youngren. Many of the big pillars of those industries didn’t survive, but new ones arrived to take their place. Youngren believes the power shifted from companies that had big resources to people who were the most creative. For artists and facilities, Dostie says, it’s critical to be well rounded. “Whether you’re in a big or small facility, the key is curiosity. When you have Maya installed in your room, and the guy in the next room has Smoke, it’s good for you to know what Smoke is doing.” He encourages artists to try the 30day free trials of unfamiliar applications, to take part in lots of forums, and to network with people in the industry who are willing to share their knowledge. “Don’t stay in your apartment and play with Maya — talk to people,” he says. “There are a lot of people who can bring awesome stuff to the table, but in the production environment, they break, and that’s very unfortunate. In the end, you’re always collaborating with other people.” Youngren is hopeful about the new generation of post artists. Although he sees students coming out of school who are very specialized — who only want to be character animators or riggers, for example — he is also starting to see people who are learning a lot of tools, and who do one particular thing in each tool. “They’ll learn Side Effects Houdini just to make a particle effect, and then they’ll add that to a model
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in Autodesk 3ds Max, use a renderer they like, and put it together in Adobe After Effects. They’re generalists taking the compositing tools as part of their lineup. The 3-D and 2-D are coming together as a means to an end, especially in the younger crowd. I think that’s really exciting.” Youngren says he feels fortunate to be in a career where he is consistently exposed to new technology. “It fosters an environment where you want to evolve as much as your software does. An interesting side effect of having software that’s upgraded is that you have to adapt. You’re constantly changing and progressing.” Free 30-day trials of the new Macbased Autodesk tools are available at http://usa.autodesk.com/products/free-prod uct-trials. Sixteen19 Celebrates First Anniversary N ew York-based post company Sixteen19 recently celebrated the completion of its first year in business. Co-founded by managing partners Pete Conlin and Jonathan Hoffman, the company offers DI, editing, color-correction, mobile dailies, onset data management and finishing solutions, and boasts satellite offices in Los Angeles, New Orleans and London. The New York headquarters features 17 Avid editing suites, two color-correction theater/screening rooms, digital dailies, file transcode/encode and workflow management. “We opened our doors to a set of high-profile projects,” says Claire Shanley, Sixteen19’s managing director. “Our initial
American Cinematographer

clients included Black Swan , Salt, The Adjustment Bureau, Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and the hit HBO series Treme.” Conlin adds, “We conceived Sixteen19 around an exceptional team [that shares] a broad sphere of technical knowledge across all departments. They embody a wealth of experience with feature film workflows and Avid systems for feature film and broadcast. Their industry foundations are universally rooted in internships. Each of us has worked our way up through the ranks.” Other members of the team include Emmy-winning editor Anthony Cortese, executive producer Ben Baker, director of technical services Travis Boyer and director of technology Brandon Bussinger. “It’s unusual for a company in our business to open its doors with no fanfare whatsoever,” Conlin continues. “But our primary mandate was to create a blueribbon, international, service-oriented organization which would attract and maintain a high-level client base. Our first year has been extraordinarily gratifying. We are currently working on a number of projects, and are extremely optimistic for our future.” For additional information, visit www.sixteen19.com. Imagineer Systems, ICO VFX Streamline 3-D Conversion Imagineer Systems has partnered with visual-effects company ICO VFX to develop a streamlined 2-D-to-3-D conversion pipeline based on Mocha Pro, Imagineer’s 64-bit planar tracking and rotoscop-

http://usa.autodesk.com/products/free-product-trials http://www.sixteen19.com

American Cinematographer - August 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2011