An estimated 450 guests turned out for the 5th Annual HPA Awards, the post industry’s biggest party, held Nov. 11 at the Skirball Cultural Center. During the ceremony, awards were presented in categories for outstanding color grading, compositing, editing and sound. Additional honors included Engineering Excellence and the HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation. Fox’s President of Feature Post Production, Ted Gagliano received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“The accomplishments we acknowledge with these Awards are embodied within the amazing and talented artists we are so proud to be honoring tonight,” said HPA President Leon Silverman, who served as the evening’s host. “Their work exudes consummate skill, dedication to craft, and creativity that is undeniable. That work is too often underappreciated and not only do the people in this room deliver much of what is perceived as the magic of Hollywood, but post production itself literally stitches together the pictures and sound in a way that not only brings our stories to life, but is the vital link that delivers increasingly technically and creatively complex finished masters to the air in television, to the movie theater, online and increasingly around the world in multiple forms in timeframes that makes it difficult for anyone in this room to get much sleep.”
During his career, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Ted Gagliano has overseen post production on such films as Avatar, Titanic, Moulin Rouge, Master & Commander, Walk the Line, and both the X-Men and Ice Age franchises.
“If Ted believes in someone, he'll do whatever's necessary to get things done, even if he has to do it himself,” said Cyril Drabinsky, president and CEO of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group. “Michael Mann was editing The Last of the Mohicans over a weekend and he desperately needed an extra KEM. So, Ted found a post house in Hollywood that had one. Somehow, Ted managed to wrestle this heavy, awkward machine out of the building and was last seen personally rolling it down Sunset Boulevard.”
Avatar producer Jon Landau and Academy Award nominated composer Patrick Doyle also saluted Gagliano—who received a standing ovation.
This year’s HPA Awards for Outstanding Editing, sponsored by Avid Technology, was presented by Academy Award winning editor for The Hurt Locker, Chris Innis, A.C.E. As she introduced the feature category, 2009 HPA Award winner Innis recalled: “Last year we were nominated in this category for Outstanding Editing for a feature film. It was the first of several nominations for us for best editing for The Hurt Locker. I remember I was so nervous, I could feel my heart pounding from inside my chest. I was actually hoping we wouldn't win, just because I didn't want to have to get up here and give a speech.” Lee Smith, A.C.E., won the feature competition this year for his work on Chris Nolan’s Inception.
In the television category, Mark J. Goldman, Christopher Nelson, A.C.E., Stephen Semel, A.C.E., and Henk van Eeghen, A.C.E. - representing Touchstone Television - earned the HPA Award for the final episode of “Lost,” titled, “The End.” Chris Franklin of Big Sky Editorial’s work, American Express’ "Geoffrey Canada" earned the commercial editing trophy.
In color grading, Company 3’s Stefan Sonnenfeld accepted the award for a feature film that went through a DI process, for his work grading Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Fellow Company 3 colorist Siggy Ferstl won the commercial competition with AT&T “Legends.” Colorist Steve Porter was honored in the television category for his work on “The Pacific – Episode Five,” which was completed out of Riot.
In the categories for outstanding sound, the team at Park Road Post Production in Wellington, NZ was honored for its work on District 9. Recipients were Michael Hedges, Gilbert Lake, Brent Burge and Chris Ward.
Brad North, Joe DeAngelis, Luis Galdames and Jackie Oster of Universal Sound topped the television sound category for “House – Help Me.” And Universal Studios’ David Brolin and Giaronomo’s Phil Daccord were recognized in the commercial category for “Devil Theatrical Trailer #1.”
The team of Erik Winquist, Robin Hollander, Erich Eder and Giuseppe Tagliavini at Weta Digital earned the award for outstanding compositing in a feature film for their work on Avatar.
UK-based Framestore’s team of Diramid Harrison Murray, Russell Dodgson, Tim Osborne and Adam Rowland topped the commercial compositing category for Kia Soul “This or That.”
ARRI, Digital Vision and Cine-tal earned Engineering Excellence Awards, which were sponsored by NAB. ARRI was recognized for its new Alexa camera; Digital Vision, for its Open EXR workflow, and Cine-tal, for its Davio Signal Processor. A special recognition went to Texas Instruments for its DLP Cinema Technology.
FotoKem, Gradient Effects, Light Iron Digital and Reliance MediaWorks received the HPA Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation in Post Production, which recognizes inventive thinking and execution of concept.
FotoKem was honored for nextLAB Mobile, a toolset for file-based workflows in remote locations; Reliance MediaWorks was recognized for its Custom Image Processing software applications; Gradient Effects was awarded for GLoW (Gradient Location-Optimized Workflow), a 2D or stereoscopic 3D previsualization and nonlinear production system; and Light Iron Digital was honored for its OUTPOST and LIGHTSTREAM tools that enable file-based workflows that begin on set.
A party followed the ceremony, where guests had time to celebrate, catch up and - led by the post production team at Fox - dance.
