News:2002:1:7

21 Scientific and Technical Achievements Receive Academy Awards®

Jan 07, 2002 by Ian Evans

Twenty-one Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievement will be presented on March 2nd by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy President Frank Pierson announced today.

The Academy’s Board of Governors voted 7 Scientific and Engineering Awards, which will be presented in the form of plaques, and 14 Technical Achievement Awards, presented as certificates, based upon recommendations from the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, chaired by Academy Visual Effects Branch Governor Richard Edlund.

Awards Administration Director Richard Miller said that achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards don’t have to have been invented during the current year. They are considered, he said, “only if they have proved their exceptional merit through successful use.”

The 2001 Awards will be presented at a gala black tie dinner on Saturday evening, March 2, 2002, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical achievements for the year 2001 are:

Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques)

To John Eargle, Don Keele and Mark Engebretson for the concept, design and engineering of the modern constant-directivity, direct radiator style motion picture loudspeaker systems. The work of John Eargle, Don Keele and Mark Engebretson has resulted in the over-20-year dominance of constant-directivity, direct radiator bass style cinema loudspeaker systems.
To Iain Neil for the concept and optical design and Al Saiki for the mechanical design of the Panavision Primo Macro Zoom Lens (PMZ). This compact, wide-angle, macro focus lens enhances and expands the picture-capturing ability, both technically and artistically, of the cinematographer. It is the first cine lens that allows macro photography while still being able to zoom.
To Franz Kraus, Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the ARRILASER Film Recorder. The ARRILASER film recorder demonstrates a high level of engineering resulting in a compact, user-friendly, low-maintenance device while at the same time maintaining outstanding speed, exposure ratings and image quality.
To Peter Kuran for the invention, and Sean Coughlin, Joseph A. Olivier and William Conner for the engineering and development of the RCI-Color Film Restoration Process. This photo-chemical process restores color to faded color negative using off-the-shelf film stocks with a unique approach. The resulting film intermediate can be used to create a new internegative.
To Makoto Tsukada, Shoji Kaneko and the Technical Staff of Imagica Corporation, and Daijiro Fujie of Nikon Corporation for the engineering excellence and the impact on the motion picture industry of the Imagica 65/35 Multi-Format Optical Printer. This liquid-gate optical printer offers ease of set-up and change-over to various formats from 35mm to 65mm 15-perf with both additive and subtractive lamp houses.
To Steve Gerlach, Gregory Farrell and Christian Lurin for the design, engineering and implementation of the Kodak Panchromatic Sound Recording Film. Allowing all four soundtrack systems to be exposed on a single negative with relative ease, this stock has allowed single inventory prints, facilitating the more economic distribution of motion pictures.
To Paul Constantine and Peter M. Constantine for the design and development of the CELCO Digital Film Recorder products. CELCO recorder products have had a significant impact on the industry through continual improvements in their technology.

Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificates)

To Pete Romano for the design and development of the Remote AquaCam, an underwater camera housing system for use in motion pictures. The Remote AquaCam brings to the industry an underwater camera housing specifically designed for remote and high-speed operation. Its hydro-dynamic shape facilitates ease of operation for surface hand-held filming, and its remote capabilities allow it to film in confined areas or in situations where an operator cannot be near the camera.
To Jordan Klein for his pioneering efforts in the development and application of underwater camera housings for motion pictures. With over 50 years of involvement in the design and development of underwater camera housings, Jordan Klein has had significant influence in the field of underwater photography.
To Bernard Werner and William Gelow for the engineering and design of filtered line arrays and screen spreading compensation as applied to motion picture loudspeaker systems. Employing both tapered line array and filtered line array technologies and unique passive and active filter networks, their work with cinema loudspeakers was both innovative and dedicated specifically to cinema applications.
To Tomlinson Holman for the research and systems integration resulting in the improvement of motion picture loudspeaker systems. For over 20 years Tomlinson Holman has been involved in the research and integration of the constant-directivity, direct radiator bass type of cinema loudspeaker systems.
To Geoff Jackson and Roger Woodburn for their DMS 120S Camera Motor. This well-engineered camera motor features built-in time-lapse programmability and is useful in an unusually wide range of applications, including MOS production filming, high-speed photography, animation and motion control.
To Thomas Major Barron for the overall concept and design; Charles Smith for the structural engineering; and Gordon Seitz for the mechanical engineering of the Bulldog Motion Control Camera Crane. This motion control camera crane represents an unprecedented combination of long reach, high-speed and a novel approach to its transport, which allows a very rapid setup on location.
To John Anderson, Jim Hourihan, Cary Phillips and Sebastian Marino for the development of the ILM Creature Dynamics System. This system makes hair, clothing, skin, flesh and muscle simulation both directable and integrated within a character animation and rigging environment.
To Dr. Steve Sullivan and Eric Schafer for the development of the ILM Motion and Structure Recovery System (MARS.) The MARS system provides analysis of camera motion and object motion, and their dimensions. It employs a rich set of user-interface tools and sophisticated algorithms.
To Carl Ludwig and John Constantine Jr. for their contributions to CELCO Digital Film Recorder products. CELCO recorder products have had a significant impact on the industry through continual improvements in their technology.
To Bill Spitzak, Paul Van Camp, Jonathan Egstad and Price Pethel for their pioneering effort on the NUKE-2D Compositing Software. The Nuke-2D compositing software allows for the creation of complex interactive digital composites using relatively modest computing hardware.
To Lance Williams for his pioneering influence in the field of computer-generated animation and effects for motion pictures. The ongoing influence of Lance Williams is exemplified in his three seminal papers “Casting Shadows on Curved Surfaces,” “Pyramidal Parametrics” and “View Interpolation for Image Synthesis.”
To Dr. Uwe Sassenberg and Rolf Schneider for the development of “3D Equalizer,” an advanced and robust camera and object match-moving system. This dominant commercial tracking system provides “survey-free” tracking, which significantly reduces the need for painstaking, error-prone measurements on sets.
To Garland Stern for the concept and implementation of the Cel Paint Software System. All current cel painting applications in the motion picture industry can be traced back to the original idea and pioneering implementation of Garland Stern.
To Mic Rodgers and Matt Sweeney for the concept, design and realization of the “Mic Rig.” This self-contained, low bed “picture car” carrier and “camera platform” enables the safe, economic and realistic filming of action sequences that may involve principal actors and dialogue.