A celebration of the talent and legacy of important VFX projects with the creators who made them happen.
Considered a financial and creative failure when it was first released in 1982, Blade Runner is now considered to be one of the most culturally influential films of all time. For a whole generation of filmmakers – including the cinematographers, production designers and VFX artists – a direct line can be drawn between Blade Runner and the imagery of modern sci-fi movie.
Often copied but never replicated, Blade Runner is a true masterpiece of cinema. But what makes it so influential? Join us for a roundtable discussion as three film history professors (and one who was there behind the scenes) discuss the story, characters and production designs that make Blade Runner such an essential film forty years later.
Image Credit: © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.
SPEAKERS
Micheal Fink
Professor // USC School of Cinematic Arts
Michael has earned degrees from California State University Northridge, San Francisco Art Institute, and California Institute of the Arts, in an attempt to leave behind a checkered past that included stints as an Army officer, a money manager, and a studio artist and photographer.
Michael started his film career on The China Syndrome, followed shortly by films such as Star Trek – The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner. Michael received his first Visual Effects Supervisor credit on War Games in 1982. During the very early years of digital animation and visual effects, on films such as Buckaroo Banzai and Project X, Michael innovated novel ways to integrate computer graphics with live-action and traditional visual effects.
Michael received an Academy Award nomination and BAFTA Award nomination for Batman Returns in 1993. In that film he supervised the creation of the first photo-real computer graphic creatures in a feature film that faithfully replicated existing, living, beings (penguins and bats).
Michael was happy to contribute to the Academy Award-winning film Life of Pi in 2012, working with BUF Compagnie on a 1½ minute sequence known as Tiger Vision, which was often cited in reviews of the film as a seminal moment in the story, establishing the strong bond between Pi and Richard Parker, the tiger.
Michael is a Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he holds the George Méliès Endowed Chair in Visual Effects. Michael continues to do 2nd unit directing, visual effects supervision, and consulting on visual effects, animation, and 3D projects. He is a founding member, Board member, and a Fellow of the Visual Effects Society. Michael and his wife Melissa Bachrach live in Los Angeles.
Sean Redmond
Professor of Screen and Design // Deakin University
(Liquid Space: Digital Age Science Fiction Film and Television, Endangering Science Fiction Film: AFI Film Reader Series, Liquid Metal: the Science Fiction Cinema Reader, Studying Blade Runner)
Sean Redmond is professor of screen and design at Deakin University, Australia. He is the author of Liquid Space: Science Fiction Film and Television in the Digital Age (I.B. Taurus, 2017), the Cinema of Takeshi Kitano: Flowering Blood (Columbia, 2013), and Studying Blade Runner (Auteur Press, 2008).
He is co-editor of Endangering Science Fiction Film (Routledge, 2015), and editor of Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader (Columbia, 2004). He sees in science fiction not only the fears of the present but the possibilities of tomorrow.
MODERATOR
Keith Blackmore
Sr Lecturer // Vancouver Film School
As an animation historian, Keith Blackmore has been a passionate cheerleader and a voice for all-things animated in the Vancouver area for almost 30 years. As one of the producers of the SPARK ANIMATION Festival and an active member of the local SIGGRAPH chapter, Keith has presented, interviewed and moderated at many festivals, local and national.
Since 1995, Blackmore has educated, entertained and inspired students in the history of animation and media studies at the Vancouver Film School. When he’s not reading, teaching or talking about animation, he’s watching it.
A celebration of the talent and legacy of important VFX projects with the creators who made them happen.
Considered a financial and creative failure when it was first released in 1982, Blade Runner is now considered to be one of the most culturally influential films of all time. For a whole generation of filmmakers – including the cinematographers, production designers and VFX artists – a direct line can be drawn between Blade Runner and the imagery of modern sci-fi movie.
Often copied but never replicated, Blade Runner is a true masterpiece of cinema. But what makes it so influential? Join us for a roundtable discussion as three film history professors (and one who was there behind the scenes) discuss the story, characters and production designs that make Blade Runner such an essential film forty years later.
Image Credit: © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.
SPEAKERS
Micheal Fink
Professor // USC School of Cinematic Arts
Michael has earned degrees from California State University Northridge, San Francisco Art Institute, and California Institute of the Arts, in an attempt to leave behind a checkered past that included stints as an Army officer, a money manager, and a studio artist and photographer.
Michael started his film career on The China Syndrome, followed shortly by films such as Star Trek – The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner. Michael received his first Visual Effects Supervisor credit on War Games in 1982. During the very early years of digital animation and visual effects, on films such as Buckaroo Banzai and Project X, Michael innovated novel ways to integrate computer graphics with live-action and traditional visual effects.
Michael received an Academy Award nomination and BAFTA Award nomination for Batman Returns in 1993. In that film he supervised the creation of the first photo-real computer graphic creatures in a feature film that faithfully replicated existing, living, beings (penguins and bats).
Michael was happy to contribute to the Academy Award-winning film Life of Pi in 2012, working with BUF Compagnie on a 1½ minute sequence known as Tiger Vision, which was often cited in reviews of the film as a seminal moment in the story, establishing the strong bond between Pi and Richard Parker, the tiger.
Michael is a Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he holds the George Méliès Endowed Chair in Visual Effects. Michael continues to do 2nd unit directing, visual effects supervision, and consulting on visual effects, animation, and 3D projects. He is a founding member, Board member, and a Fellow of the Visual Effects Society. Michael and his wife Melissa Bachrach live in Los Angeles.
Sean Redmond
Professor of Screen and Design // Deakin University
(Liquid Space: Digital Age Science Fiction Film and Television, Endangering Science Fiction Film: AFI Film Reader Series, Liquid Metal: the Science Fiction Cinema Reader, Studying Blade Runner)
Sean Redmond is professor of screen and design at Deakin University, Australia. He is the author of Liquid Space: Science Fiction Film and Television in the Digital Age (I.B. Taurus, 2017), the Cinema of Takeshi Kitano: Flowering Blood (Columbia, 2013), and Studying Blade Runner (Auteur Press, 2008).
He is co-editor of Endangering Science Fiction Film (Routledge, 2015), and editor of Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader (Columbia, 2004). He sees in science fiction not only the fears of the present but the possibilities of tomorrow.
MODERATOR
Keith Blackmore
Sr Lecturer // Vancouver Film School
As an animation historian, Keith Blackmore has been a passionate cheerleader and a voice for all-things animated in the Vancouver area for almost 30 years. As one of the producers of the SPARK ANIMATION Festival and an active member of the local SIGGRAPH chapter, Keith has presented, interviewed and moderated at many festivals, local and national.
Since 1995, Blackmore has educated, entertained and inspired students in the history of animation and media studies at the Vancouver Film School. When he’s not reading, teaching or talking about animation, he’s watching it.
