Last year, I remember looking wistfully at the programme for VIEW Conference 2017 and thinking what a great lineup it was. At the time, our hectic publishing schedule made it impossible for any of the Cinefex editorial team to attend, but this year is different. The stars have aligned and I’ll be heading out to Turin in October for VIEW Conference 2018, ready to report back on the proceedings via the Cinefex blog.
What’s so great about VIEW? For me, personally, it’s a chance to rub shoulders with people I’ve admired for years, among them Dennis Muren. Creative director at Industrial Light & Magic and a true legend in the field of visual effects, Dennis has been conjuring movie magic since the days of The Empire Strikes Back through Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park and beyond. Then there’s Hans Zimmer, whose epic film scores seem hellbent on filling up my iTunes library. Both Dennis and Hans are delivering keynote speeches at VIEW this year, and I can’t wait.
On top of that, VIEW will give me the chance to meet up with a bunch of visual effects supervisors I interviewed for Cinefex earlier this year, but have never actually met in person – like Rob Bredow (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Dan Glass (Deadpool 2) and Geoffrey Baumann (Black Panther). I’ll also get to prowl the conference hall in search of new victims – sorry, interviewees – watch the many presentations and, best of all, report back to our readers.
Here’s a tiny selection of highlights from the conference programme, which you can view in full at the official VIEW Conference 2018 website:
TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER
- “Creatively Driven – The VFX For Solo: A Star Wars Story” – Rob Bredow, overall visual effects supervisor, senior vice president, executive creative director, head of ILM
- “Step into my Music – Hans Zimmer
- “Black Panther” – Geoffrey Baumann, overall visual effects supervisor, Marvel Studios
WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER
- “Westworld” – Jay Worth, overall visual effects supervisor, HBO
- “Venom” – Troy Saliba, animation director, DNEG
- “Adrift” – Dadi Einarsson, visual effects supervisor, co-founder, RVX
- “Avengers: Infinity War” – Matt Aitken, visual effects supervisor, Weta Digital
THURSDAY 25 OCTOBER
- “From Puppets to Pixels: Bringing the Dinosaurs of Fallen Kingdom to Life” – Glen McIntosh, animation supervisor Jurassic World, and animation co-supervisor Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- “Next-Gen Virtual Reality” – Dr. Don Greenberg, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics, Cornell University
- “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” – David Vickery, overall visual effects supervisor, creative director, ILM
FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER
- “Breathing Life into the Alien Robot of Lost in Space” – Joao Sita, visual effects supervisor, Image Engine
- “What is the Magicverse?” – John Gaeta, senior vice president, Magic Leap
- “Deadpool 2” – Dan Glass, overall visual effects supervisor, second unit director
- “Visual Effects: Defining that Critical, Elusive and Final 5%” – Dennis Muren, senior visual effects supervisor, creative director, ILM
VIEW Conference 2018 takes place 22-26 October 2018, at OGR (Officine Grandi Riparazioni), Turin, Italy. Reserve your place at the official VIEW website. See you there!
Graham Edwards 