2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Session A:
Immersive Technology on TV, Movies and the Net - Expanding the Visual Horizon
For decades the film industry has experimented in wide-screen, surround sound or other visual concepts, but they have rarely found a sustained audience. Now the computer industry is following in the same direction, offering up a host of unique immersive visual experiences. From static 360 degree views to moving pictures that take the viewer into an immersive universe, a new experiences in all the entertainment arenas are on the way. You will not want to miss hearing from the leading developers in the field and experiencing their fantastic technologies.
Bill Sanders, Senior Vice President, Big Ticket Television, a Paramount/Viacom Company
Steve Schklair, President & CEO, Cobalt Entertainment Technology
Taj Tedrow, Managing Director, Entertainment Practice, Genex
Roger Raderman, President, Obscura Digital and Tekadence
Andrew Schneider, Senior Vice President, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment
Greg Roach, CEO & Artistic Director, HyperBole Studios
Bob Holmes, CEO, Sudden Industries, Moderator
Steve Schklair, CEO of Cobalt Entertainment, LLC., has had a love affair
with 3D for most of his eclectic career. Emerging from the Masters program at USC Cinema, he is a confirmed techie who enjoys working on the front edge of new technologies and has made his mark in movies, special effects, and interactive media. Armed with the conviction that digital capture and exhibition for movies and television is the next great platform, Schklair founded Cobalt Entertainment in early 2001. Cobalt’s mission is to develop the enabling technologies for the production and exhibition of 2D and 3D stereoscopic entertainment over multiple channels and venues. Previously, Schklair served as vice president and general manager of new media for Digital Domain, the studio responsible for the effects on such films as Titanic, Apollo 13, The Fifth Element, and True Lies. While at Digital Domain and in partnership with Mattel, he developed the award-winning CD-ROM Barbie Fashion Designer, which ranks among the best-selling software titles ever produced for the children’s market. Among his other accomplishments in the multimedia industry is the acclaimed Columbus: Encounter, Discovery and Beyond produced for Robert Abel and IBM. It is a project honored with numerous awards, including selection by the Library of Congress as the centerpiece of their multimedia exhibit. As one of the first users of HDTV technology, Schklair photographed and co-produced, with Doug Trumbull, To Dream Of Roses for release at the 1990 World Expo in Osaka, Japan. Directed by Keith Melton, the movie was the first ever project to originate in HD, utilize live real-time composite effects, and then transferred from HD to 65mm film for release. Schklair has photographed and/or produced a number of 3D film projects during his career, and is also a co-owner of Paradise FX, the service company who’s projects include Terminator 2:3D for Universal, Pirates and Haunts of the Olde Country for Busch Gardens, as well as Muppet Vision and Honey I Shrunk the Audience for Disney.Roger Raderman, President, Obscura Digital and Tekadence has helped define the relationship between technology and media ever since his first contributions since 1995, when he helped develop Marinex Multimedia's ground-breaking digital entertainment properties “The East Village”, and “The Biz: The Entertainment Cybernetwork”. In 1997, he became the third employee of Darwin Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising’s interactive marketing division. The office he established at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington, New Zealand has gone on to win multiple Clios Awards, the Oscars of the advertising, for its interactive work. Raderman came to national attention in 1999-2000, when his efforts with IFILM were covered by nearly every major media outlet, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Time, Newsweek, Red Herring, the McNeil Lehrer Newshour, ABC News, BBC News and FOX News. GQ Magazine even pronounced him "Man of the Moment" in its March 2000 "Hollywood" Issue. While founding Obscura Digital and Tekadence at the same time, Raderman dedicated the majority of his time in late 2000 and 2001 to Tekadence, as Chairman and President. Earlier this year, after recruiting Pete Deemer, founder of Game Spot, the Internet's leading video game portal (now owned by C|Net Networks), to be CEO of Tekadence, he became CEO of Obscura Digital. He remains Chairman of Tekadence, as well as a Director of IFILM, and that company's largest independent individual shareholder. "Audiences were amazed when flat-screen cinema first showed them the world in a wholly new way," says Raderman, explaining his passion for Obscura Digital. "You could say that Obscura Digital has capitalized on 100 years of technological progress since then. The world isn't flat, and our surround technologies and content production methodologies mean that cinema no longer needs to be. Surround Cinema gives audiences an unprecedented realistic experience that mimics the 3D world we live in, but offers images and perspectives impossible in real life."
Taj Tedrow, Managing Director, Entertainment Practice Genex: With nearly 10 years of entertainment and marketing experience, Taj Tedrow, managing director of the entertainment practice for Genex -- the largest Internet development and consulting firm in Los Angeles -- has been providing the entertainment industry with effective online marketing solutions for entertainment companies. Since joining the company, Tedrow has led Genex in developing the Clio award-winning site for Twentieth Century Fox's successful animation motion picture Ice Age, the Planet of The Apes site and home entertainment releases in 2001, and a series of high-profile sites this spring: Universal's About a Boy), Warner Bros.' Insomnia, and for Fox/DreamWorks, Minority Report, the latest Steven Spielberg project. Last year, Tedrow also managed sites for Universal Pictures' The Musketeer and Paramount's Sidewalks of New York.
Greg Roach is the CEO and Artistic Director of HyperBole Studios, which he founded in 1990. A digital media pioneer, Greg’s works include The Madness of Roland, the world's first original interactive multimedia novel; HyperBole: The Art of Digital Storytelling, one of the worlds' first digizines; the first narrative interactive film, The Wrong Side of Town; Quantum Gate, The Vortex, and the best-selling The X-Files Game. He also invented VirtualCinema®, an interactive video technology system. He is currently finishing a feature screenplay and developing several works for DVD. Greg has been a featured speaker at dozens of conferences and trade shows worldwide, and taught at USC School of Cinema-Television, Cambridge University, and the School for Television & Film in Munich, among others.
Bob Holmes, CEO, Sudden Industries (NYC). Bob Holmes has dedicat
ed his career to exploring and creating unique approaches to marketing entertainment - first as a performer, then as a producer and now as founder of rich media services firm, Sudden Industries. Bob Holmes started his entertainment career 20 years ago as a Grammy-nominated recording artist for Mercury/Polygram records, where he was recognized for his pioneering work with music video. He went on to produce and remix records for artists including David Bowie and k.d.lang. Founded in 1996, Sudden was one of the first NYC agencies to provide rich media marketing services for the music and cable TV markets, with clients that include Bravo, IFC, AMC, MuchMusic, Showtime, E!, USA Networks, MTV and A&E as well as all the major record labels for artists including Foo Fighters, Talking Heads, Tyrese, Busta Rhymes, Frank Zappa, Pete Yorn, the Who and Sum 41. Sudden provides a wide range of services including strategy, branding, promotion and technology and has recently launched online campaigns for Elvis Presley and Anna Nicole Smith. Bob has previously spoken at SXSW, Plug-In, NARAS, and Digital Hollywood.