Entertainment Technology Expo Speakers

Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, Cinematographer

Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC continues to uphold his reputation as one of the most innovative DPs filming today with his 2012 Oscar-nominated work on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by David Fincher. The Sony Pictures adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel stars  Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.

Cronenweth is also nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Best Cinematography award for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this year.

In 2011, he earned Best Cinematography nominations from the Academy Awards and the ASC for his work on The Social Network. His “haunting visuals” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) for director David Fincher and scribe Aaron Sorkin’s biographical picture about the founders of Facebook reflected the film’s darkly ambiguous moral center.

Cronenweth’s wide-ranging feature resume includes the Fincher film Fight Club, which Cronenweth’s peers in the American Society of Cinematographers recently voted one of the Top Ten Best Shot Films of 1998-2008. Other highlights include One Hour Photo with helmer Mark Romanek and K-19: The Widowmaker with director Kathryn Bigelow.

When he's not shooting features, Cronenweth adds to his extensive body of commercial work, lensing for directors including Spike Jonze, Michael Haussman, Michel Gondry, Francis Lawrence and David LaChapelle. Cronenweth’s commercial campaign for Mountain Dew won the 2001 CLIO Award for Best Cinematography. Cronenweth’s music videos have also received accolades, including five Best Cinematography MTV Music Video Award nominations and two subsequent wins, for Macy Gray and Nine Inch Nails videos.

A native Los Angeleno, Cronenweth studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California and began his professional career apprenticing to some of the film industry’s greatest cinematographers, including Sven Nykvist, ASC, John Toll, ASC, Conrad Hall, ASC and his father, the late Jordan Cronenweth, ASC.

Cronenweth is represented by Dattner Dispoto and Associates.

Greg Downing, President, xRez Studio

Greg Downing specializes in image-based 3D technologies and computational photography techniques. His photographic work has been displayed in some of the nation's most prestigious museums including the Ars Electronica, American Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Tech Museum. Greg has worked on the development of photogrammetry and stitching software at Realviz and in film production as a technical director at Rhythm & Hues and Sony Pictures Imageworks (Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderman 3, I Am Legend). He teaches at Gnomon School for Visual Effects and has published professional training DVDs on photogrammetry and panoramic stitching. Greg has previously presented at professional conferences for photographers, visual effects, and immersive media artists.

No'a Winter Lazerus, Composer

No'a Winter Lazerus utilizes a wide range of skills in pursuit of his artistic vision and expression. Scoring is a passion for cinema, television, visual art, installation art, music recording projects, and live event performances. His work has been used for the DVD releases of the films 300, Watchmen, The Brave One, and A Scanner Darkly. No'a has composed for films and series on PBS, Discovery Channel, and with major advertising and promotional projects. He has worked on several projects with director Ondi Timmoner, the only two time Sundance Award winning director, and with two time Emmy Award winning and twice Academy Award nominated Director Jonathan Stack. No'a is Grammy nominated for his work in music recording and production and has ten worldwide gold and platinum awards for work done with a "Who's Who" of music artists globally. He has worked on two Sundance Award winning films, Dig! and Fuel. The time spent in record production with stellar artists now allows No'a to create a very spectral, cinematic sound as he creates/composes and mixes virtually at the same time and uses sound, fx's, and complex mixing skills as an innate part of what he creates in flow with composition.

Audri Phillips, Visual Poet/3D Animator

Audri Phillips is a visual poet/3d animator based out of Los Angeles. Starting out as a painter, Audri was quickly drawn to time based art. Always interested in using new tools, she has been a pioneer of using computer animation/art in experimental film work. Audri has created animations and paintings for single screen, multi-screen, immersive environments, dance performances, performance spoken word (VJ Style), stereo projection, and print.

Audri's work has been shown at such places as The Young Projects Gallery, The Los Angeles Film Forum at the Egyptian Theater, Imersa Summit, Siggraph Animation Festival, Siggraph Video Review, Not Still Art Film Festival with the Louise Reichlin Dance company, and others. Besides numerous galleries, her paintings have been shown in Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” video, The Beastie Boys' “Shadrach” (which she also art directed), “Whatsupwitu” an Eddie Murphy-Michael Jackson animated video (which she also art directed), and Konchalosky’s “Shy People”.

Audri has worked for over 20 years as an artist/digital artist in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. Besides giving her credits on numerous feature films, working in the entertainment industry has given her a knowledge of computer animation/visual effects that she has been able to use to her advantage in her visual poetry work. She has worked at such major studios as Disney Feature Animation, Sony Imageworks, DreamWorks Feature Animation, Rhythm and Hues, Digital Domain, and Electronic Arts as well as a number of small design boutiques. Her production experience includes art direction/design/visual development /storyboards/color and lighting/efx/layout/modeling/compositing.

Currently, as well as her visual poetry work, Audri writes online content and a blog for Intel. Audri is an Adjunct professor at Woodbury University, a founding member of the Los Angeles Abstract Film Group, a board member of the Iota Center and is also an exhibiting member of the LA Art Lab. In 2011, Audri became a resident artist of Vortex Immersion Media and the c3: CreateLAB.

Brian Quandt
For over two decades Brian Quandt has served as a pioneer of visual and interactive technologies and businesses. He put his considerable entrepreneurial and engineering expertise to work developing new technologies and award-winning products that allow audio and video to be experienced in a wide variety of environments—from a movie set on- location in a remote village in Romania, to exhibits with Matthew Barney at the Guggenheim museum, to a Mars 3-D
visualization center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, to a 3D art installation with Intel at Cochella, to websites and living rooms throughout the world.

Currently, Quandt is in high demand for his deep understanding of both the stereoscopic business and stereoscopic technologies. Quandt’s stereoscopic and other visualization systems as well as consulting services have been used on over 100 major motion pictures in the past 10 years including My Bloody Valentine 3D, 2012, Julie and Julia, Year One, Underworld, Love Ranch, Zorro, Casino Royale, and many more. Quandt has worked directly with many of the Hollywood major studios including Fox, Sony, Disney, and Lionsgate. His technology products have been used extensively by some of the largest production services companies in Hollywood including Deluxe, Fotokem, Laser Pacific, and Technicolor.

Miles Regis

Miles Regis is an internationally celebrated artist whose work has been featured in profiles on CNN, The Huffington Post, and Extra TV to name a few. The Trinidad native relocated to Los Angeles to attend USC, graduating with a BA degree in creative writing. It is no coincidence that Miles' large-scale paintings tell wonderful and thought provoking stories that combine his American experiences with the culture and flavorings of his native land. Recent partnerships have included relationships with Intel, Vice Magazine, Adobe, The Creators Project, and the launch of a 3D Art world tour at the Coachella Music Festival 2011. Supporters of Miles' work include American Rag Cie, CCH Pounder, Nicollette Sheridan, Manifest Equality, Ron Perlman, and Tonny Sorenson. Art institutions that have generously supported Miles include the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Miracle Mile Art Walk, La Musee Boribana in Senegal, and numerous art institutions around the world.

Jeff Smith and Russ Haines, Eye Vapor
Eye Vapor creates live, interactive performances, including augmented reality and projection mapping with multiple high definition feeds. The Eye Vapor system allows for real-time interaction with video and 3D graphics through the use of custom wireless solutions, proprietary full body interaction, iPod/iPad/Android and Kinect. Eye Vapor offers a variety of cutting edge solutions for any live visual application. Eye Vapor has created experiences for the Hollywood Bowl, Jabbawockeez, and numerous corporate clients.

Eye Vapor's principals are Jeff Smith and Russ Haines. Jeff has worked in the computer graphics industry for more than two decades. Having held high-ranking creative positions at Electronic Arts (EA) and THQ, Jeff created Eye Vapor when computer hardware finally could support his lifelong vision of producing stunning, real-time visualizations for concerts and events. Russ is a founding member of Severe Tire Damage, the first band to produce a live Internet video and audio broadcast in 1993. Russ co-invented the Web-controlled camera, audio mixer, and fog machine. His book Digital Audio is used as a textbook and is published in six
languages.