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Laser
F/X On-line Newsletter - Special Reports
ILDA
- 1998
Amsterdam Meetings
ILDA Seminars and Awards Banquet
Monday morning, the conference resumed with more workshops and seminars.
The Trade Show was open for laserists to browse.
Morning Sessions
- A special interest group for Pangolin's Laser Show Designer users to
learn more about new features introduced this past year, and what is
planned for the future - conducted by Patrick Murphy of Pangolin Laser
Systems in the USA.
- A workshop on the use of laser animations in productions - conducted
by Roelf van der Bergh of ABC LaserEvents in The Netherlands.
- An open Board meeting billed as a chance to meet one-on-one with
ILDA's board members and executive director Linda Hare. Not all board
members were able to attend because of conference commitments so a
quorum was not present for decision making purposes. In a meeting
sparsely attended by members, the Board discussed a proposal to
translate ILDA standards into other languages to make them more
accessible to members who's first language is not English. The idea was
rejected on the basis that maintaining all that information in multiple
languages would be difficult.
An ILDA member had volunteered to act as ILDA's webmaster free of charge
to save the organization the proposed $4000 US$/year for the updates.
During the open Board meeting, it emerged that the Board had already
made arrangements to hire a webmaster despite the announcement the day
before that the idea was under consideration.
Roelf van der Bergh of ABC
LaserEvents leads the artist's workshop
After the coffee break:
The open board meeting continued and there were also various
committee meetings.
Afternoon
Session
The afternoon was devoted to the Design and Production
workshop, a new feature at ILDA, moderated by Chris Ward. Show designers
shared their experiences and design approaches for major productions crated
world wide during 1998 and discussed there approaches to the artistic use of
lasers. Presentations included:
-
The Pavilion of the Future at EXPO98 in Lisbon Portugal.
This included 3D stereoscopic laser graphics, computer graphics and HDTV
multimedia production including a computer controlled sprinkler system
to simulate going underwater. One interesting feature was a long, floor
mounted, mirror-covered truss used with a roof mounted scanner set to
project a wave of light that swept across the audience. Presented by
Chris Ward, Lightspeed Design Group, USA.
-
Dr. Harold Gerdes of Centrak Lasers in the USA gave a
presentation on the re-dedication of the Sphinx, May 1998, in Giza
Egypt. He outlined some of the technical and artistic challenges faced
when working in the desert.
Harry Gerdes fills in members
on the Sphinx production
-
Roelf van der Bergh of ABC LaserEvents in The
Netherlands made a presentation about working on a multimedia team. The
discussion covered the combination of laser graphics slides and video
from an artistic point of view in reference to the Hagemayer and Suzuki
presentations created by ABC.
-
Jose Pablo Cruz of Groupo Mundo Audiovisual discussed
the show produced for the introduction of the new Volkswagen Beetle in
Puebla Mexico and a corporate production for Hewlett Packard which was
shown both in Lisbon and Mexico City.
-
Alex Henning, artistic director for LOBO of Germany,
discussed E-motional - a revolving multimedia theatre which combines
physical experiences lasers and multimedia technology to show man's
different relations and feelings in the gap between technology and
nature.
-
Patrick Awouters talked about the production
consideration in the closing ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games 98 held
in Moscow's Red Square. The production involved 140 watts of lasers, a
boar, waterscreen, live control and computer graphics.
Despite the avowed intention of increasing professionalism
in the industry, there was a notable lack of same in some of the
presentations. Technical problems with the presentations included slides out
of order and a jammed slide projector necessitating hand feeding of slides.
1998
ILDA Awards Banquet
Laserists dressed in their best gathered in the Lobby to
board busses for Claus! where the banquet and ceremony took place. During a
plated service dinner of salad with smoked chicken, fillet of pork with
mushrooms and desert, laserists schmoosed and discussed the meeting.
Before the formal Awards Ceremony got underway, the board of
directors made some special presentations. Patrick Murphy, ILDA airspace
issues co-ordinator, and Greg Makhov, chair ILDA Safety Committee, received
plaques acknowledging the hard work they had put in on the airspace issue.
Host, Michel Wenzel, received a plaque and lengthy applause for his role in
organising ILDA's first meeting in Europe.
Makhov and Murphy at
the podium with ILDA director Tony Zmorenski |
Michel Wenzel with
executive director Linda Hare |
Next came the announcement of the site for the ILDA 1999
meeting. President Chris Ward announced that Orlando had been chosen and
with that, Tony Zmorenski representing Disney, Greg Makhov representing LSDI,
and Patrick Murphy and Bill Benner representing Pangolin trooped on stage in
Orlando T-shirts and Mickey Mouse ears hats!
Orlando's four mouseketeers with Chris
Ward
MC Steve Heminover then took over the podium to introduce
the 1998 ILDA awards which opened with a special beams and graphics module
set to original music created by Tim Walsh, awards committee chair.
Scene from the opening module
The 1998 ILDA artistic awards judges (L to R in photo below)
were; Alexander Bresinsky, Producer, "company b" - Germany; Steven
Hubbard, Production Designer, The Planning Stage - USA; Howard Ungerleider,
Lighting Designer, Production Design International - Canada (Judging co-ordinator
Richard Gonsalves can be seen in the background).
The 1998 ILDA award winners were as follows (LaserFX.com
gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Patrick Murphy from the ILDA
Awards Committee who provided this list):
ILDA
STANDARD PROJECTOR (ISP)
These four categories take advantage of the ILDA Standard
Projector format. Submissions are on ADAT tape. Judging, and presentation at
the Awards Banquet, is done in laser.
ISP Beam
Module
1 - "Mount Everest", AVI Imagineering With
Lasers
2 - "Rock It", FFP Laser Systems
3 - "Nightmare", FFP Laser Systems
Hon. - "MC303 Beams", Laser Spectacles
ISP
Graphic Animation
1 (tie) - "Dog & Pig", AVI Imagineering With
Lasers
1 (tie) - "Metamorphosis", Lightspeed Design Group
ISP
Graphic Module
1 - "My Way", Strictly FX
2 - "Dark and Long", Laseronics Northwest
3 - "Money", FirstLight Laser Productions
ISP
Graphic and Beam Module
1 - "Godzilla", AVI Imagineering With Lasers
Hon. - "Diana", AVI Imagineering With Lasers
SHOW
ELEMENTS
These three categories are for compositions that focus on
one of the three primary laser show elements: beams, abstracts and graphics.
Submitted on videotape.
Beams/Atmospherics
1 - "Living Lines III", tarm SLL Technik
2 - "Lobomania", LOBO electronic
Abstract
1 - "Sunshower", AVI Imagineering With Lasers
3 - "The Woof", Laser Animation Sollinger
Graphic
Module
1 - "BP Convention", CoCoTec Showlaser
2 - "Yamaha", ABC LaserEvents
3 - (tie) "Enso-1", ABC LaserEvents
3 - (tie) "Konica Cebit 98", CoCoTec Showlaser
Hon. - "Just One Day", Laser Animation Sollinger
Scene from AVI's winning
"Godzilla" module. The the beam and graphic module category was
new for this year
PERFORMANCE
These three categories are for completed shows that combine
two or more laser show elements: beams, abstracts and graphics. Submitted on
videotape.
Indoor
Show
1 - "Living Lines II", tarm SLL Technik
2 - "Tunnel of Love", ABC LaserEvents
3 - "Is There Life On Mercury?", LOBO electronic
Outdoor
Show
1 - "Hemispheric", LOBO electronic
2 - "Natale Sotto La Madonnina", Laser Entertainment
Multimedia
1 - "Convention Sanofi: 'Aprovel' Presentation",
Laser Entertainment
2 - "One Ocean", Lightspeed Design Group
3 - (tie) "Enso-2", ABC LaserEvents
3 - (tie) "Javelin Thrower", LOBO electronic
SPECIAL
APPLICATION
Laser displays with a unique application or concept that do
not fit easily into other categories. Submitted on videotape.
Hon. - "A Day Of A Caterpillar", LOBO electronic
FENNING
AWARD FOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
A product, software or hardware innovation worthy of
recognition. Can be new products, ideas, technologies, or notable
improvements in any of these areas. Submitted on video and judged separately
from the above ILDA artistic categories.
The award was renamed this year to commemorate the late Frederick Fenning,
who pioneered new laser display technologies and ILDA standards during his
career, from 1976 until his untimely passing in 1997.
The 1998 Technical Awards Judges were; L. Michael Roberts, Laserist, Author,
Laser F/X International - Canada, Tim Walsh. Laserist, Laser Spectacles -
USA, and Ante Uglesic, Software Engineer, Lasscan - Slovenia. The winners
were:
1 - "Showtime", Pangolin Laser Systems
2 - "Catweazle LC", MediaLas Laserproducts
3 - "LACON-5", LOBO electronic
Hon. - "DMX-Nova", Omicron Laserage Laserprodukte
ABC LaserEvents show at Claus!
Hoffddorp- image courtesy of ABC
It was a thrilling experience to see almost all of the
winners presented in the original medium - lasers - including a multimedia
winner with video and lasers. Only four videos were scheduled to be shown
but two had to be cut due to time limitations - the event ran nearly an hour
overtime.
Video tapes of all the winning entries, in both NTSC and PAL
formats, are available from the Awards committee chair, Tim
Walsh - a great way to spend the evening watching the best in laser
displays.
CONTENTS
In order to present as many pictures as possible, we have broken
this special report down into a number of pages to speed access:
SPECIAL REPORT -
Introduction and Background
6 Nov - PUG MEETING
7 Nov - ATW (Advanced
Technology Workshop)
7 Nov - Canal ride and Dinner
(NOTE: Large page long download time)
8 Nov - Meeting, Seminars and
Lase-off
9 Nov - Seminars and Awards
Banquet
ILDA Trade Show - A
(NOTE: Large page long download time)
ILDA Trade Show - B
(NOTE: Large page long download time)
Candid Camera (NOTE:
Large page long download time)
Essay: Sex and Drugs in Amsterdam
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