American Cinematographer - May 2011 - 24

Left: Sherak (top) and Edlund (bottom) greet the audience at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Above: ASC associate Clairmont accepts the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation.

practical at feature-film scale. This important step in the evolution of global illumination techniques, first used on Shrek 2, was shared with the industry in the duo’s technical paper, “An Approximate Global Illumination System for Computer Generated Films.” Tony Clark, Alan Rogers, N eil Wilson and Rory McGregor,for the software design and continued development of CineSync, a tool for remote collaboration and review of visual effects. Easy to use, CineSync has become a widely accepted solution for remote-production collaboration. Scientific and Engineering Awards were presented for achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. This year they were awarded to: Mark Sagar,for his early and continuing development of influential facialmotion retargeting solutions. His work led to a method for transforming facial-motion capture data into an expression-based, editable character-animated system that has been used in motion pictures with a high volume of digital characters. Mark N oel ,for the design, engineering and development of the NAC Servo
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Winch System, and John Frazier ,for his contributions to the system’s design and safety features. The NAC System allows fullsized cars, aircraft and other heavy props to be flown on wires with unprecedented freedom of motion and a high degree of safety onset and in real time. The system responds to the motion of the operator’s hand, permitting the recording and playback of all axes of motion simultaneously, which may be edited and refined for playback in subsequent takes. In addition, two Scientific and Engineering “upgrade” plaques were awarded to the following individuals, who previously earned Academy certificates for their work on cable-driven camera systems that have made it possible to move a camera safely and accurately anywhere through a threedimensional space: James Rodnunsky, Alex MacDonald and Mark Chapman,for the development of the Cablecam 3-D volumetric suspended cable-camera technologies. Tim Drnec, Ben Britten Smith and Matt Davis ,for the development of the Spydercam 3-D volumetric suspended cable-camera technologies. Finally, the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation , given for “outstandAmerican Cinematographer

ing service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,” was presented to ASC associate member Denny Clairmont. In a later interview with AC, Clairmont noted that he grew up doing everything he could to avoid working in the motion-picture business. His father was a commercial cinematographer, and Clairmont strove to stay as far away from “Dad’s work” as possible. However, he and his younger brother,Terry, took an early interest in cars. “I loved anything with a motor in it,” recalls Clairmont. “I started making my own scooters when I was around 12 years old. In high school,I took auto shop and built my own hot-rod cars.” After high school, the Clairmont brothers started a shop and fixed up cars for fellow racers. It became the go-to place for local San Fernando drag racers. “We did pretty well, but we weren’t really rolling in cash,” he recalls. “Our customers were, though. They all worked for the movie studios in various positions, so Terry and I went to our father and asked him how we could get into the business. He taught us photography and the tools of the trade, and he said the best way to learn was to get a

American Cinematographer - May 2011

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