Paul Babb

President/CEO |

MAXON US

MAXON’s flagship 3D software package, Cinema 4D, is beloved by its users for two reasons. One is the software itself, which Babb helped build to prominence after establishing MAXON US in 1998.  The other is the sense of community he has fostered as a fixture at industry events including NAB and SIGGRAPH, where he organizes rigorous schedules of presentations by guest artists—and has been known to run demos himself. On the Web, Maxon’s Cineversity features tutorials and other C4D resources to keep users’ heads above water. Under Babb’s guidance, C4D has become one of the most capable, highly respected implements in the 3D artist’s toolkit. www.maxon.net

What will be the biggest challenge of 2016 for the media industry? Virtual reality and 360-degree video are on the verge of being huge. Skillful filmmaking is about choosing what to show the audience as well as what not to show. Since VR puts a lot of that power in the hands of the viewer, content creators need to employ creative techniques to guide the viewer and hide the production process.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? My two favorite things are hiking in the mountains and live theater — two very disparate activities mostly unrelated to 3D.

Recommended viewing: My favorite read in the last year was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I loved Ex Machina, an intelligent psychological thriller that puts three brilliant minds against each other, while the film overall explores what it means to be human. Musicwise? The scores from shows like Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, Hamilton, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and so many more are great listens but even better live on stage.

Brian Cavallaro

Chief Creative Officer |

Mandt VR

Brian Cavallaro is a PGA and DGA member who’s figuring out how to tell stories in 360 video and VR — from building camera rigs to scripting, directing and editing. His recent projects include 360-degree experiences for Disney, Tom Green and the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as the Tribeca Film Festival feature Dog Years, starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Adam Rifkin. mandtvr.com

Terry Cullen

Founder and Chief Executive Officer |

1 Beyond

An engineer (and leisure-time speed demon) with rich experience in developing video editing systems, 1 Beyond founder and CEO Terry Cullen has kept his finger on the pulse of the pro video industry, developing storage systems that address content creation at all levels. Today, the line-up includes capable and affordable products for streaming, archiving, shared storage and even video conferencing. The company’s ExPetaSAN enables 6K storage workflow for NASA, and Discovery has implemented its little brother, the ExPetaSAN Lite, for VR. 1beyond.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The biggest challenge I see is the industry has been pushing and now customers are pulling, for higher and higher bandwidth. These requirements are putting an exponential strain on infrastructure, systems and storage. This challenge is also an opportunity that 1 Beyond has responded to with a new set of high-bandwidth-capable storage and systems.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I have a secret love affair with my Ferrari 458 Spider — incredible Formula 1 technology. I enjoy the movies, both being involved and kicking back with popcorn. Sailing is a lifelong passion, and during the week I live on my 44’ catamaran named Double Feature and dinghy named Trailer. I love my “hair on fire” (what’s left) riding my K1200RS BMW motorcycle. All engineering marvels, and all fast!

Recommended viewing: I enjoy non-fiction about history and business success. I find great businesses and their leaders have inspiring backgrounds and lives. We work a lot with NASA, and recently I found Hidden Figures very inspiring to see what was behind the US moving ahead in the space race of the 50s. American Experience – “Silicon Valley,” a documentary of incredible circumstances and leaders that ushered in America’s new electronic era. They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine by Harold Evans – always on my coffee table, two decades of incredible and inspiring people. I am continually rereading their short stories.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Stay nimble, erase all preconceived notions, set incredibly high goals, take fresh approaches, and deliver disruptive technology. It’s been my MO, and it’s brought me success my whole career.

Shannon Gans

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder |

New Deal Studios

A longtime visual effects producer on major feature films — Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Shutter Island, 2012 — Shannon Gans has crossed over to the role of co-producer on motion pictures, short films, streaming programming and commercials. With her fellow founders Ian Hunter and Matthew Gratzner, she has transformed New Deal Studios from a design and miniature effects house to a full-service visual effects studio and full-on narrative content production company. shannon-gans-i8ui.squarespace.com

Jess Hartmann

Chief Executive Officer |

ProMAX Systems

Under Jess Hartmann’s leadership since 2008, ProMAX Systems transformed from a VAR into a manufacturer of products that integrated storage, media asset management and archiving. Most recently, Hartmann oversaw the two-year project to update both hardware and software from the ProCache line it acquired in 2014. And he makes sure the company runs a regular schedule of educational sessions online and in the real world, all with the goal of helping existing customers make the most of their technology — and making sure prospective customers know what the company can offer. promax.com

Neil Mandt

Chief Executive Officer/Co-founder |

Mandt VR

An Emmy-winner for Olympics coverage who’s produced more than 3,000 hours of television content over a 25+ year career, Neil Mandt grew his namesake studio grew from a three-person company to a 40-person operation in less than a year. How did he do it? Striking partnerships with companies like PodcastOne to cover events in 360 degrees and getting on the field with sporting organizations like the Pittsburgh Steelers and College Football Playoff. www.mandtvr.com

Morris May

CEO and Founder |

Specular Theory

Morris May is a special effects expert with Hollywood credits including Spider-Man 2 and Happy Feet. At Specular Theory, he specializes in boundary-pushing VR experiences. Adapting  360-degree technology on a project-by-project basis, Specular Theory’s work has included a 360-degree YouTube tie-in to Terminator Genisys shot in the first person, a surfing experience for Xister Agency, and projects dealing with serious social issues, including one of the first immersive projects to play at the Sundance Film Festival, “Perspective Chapter 1.” Specular Theory is picking and choosing projects carefully, aiming to do work that shows the unique potential of immersive video. www.speculartheory.com

Grant Petty

CEO |

Blackmagic Design

Keeping pace with changing tech in the media industry has always made for a wild ride, but over the last several years Blackmagic Design has made it even wilder. CEO Grant Petty has played the role of disruptor across multiple industry segments, dramatically lowering the cost of entry for high-end color correction (DaVinci Resolve), compositing (Fusion), and format conversion (Teranex) and releasing a full slate of affordable cameras in bold, unusual form factors. Love it or hate it, Blackmagic Design under Petty’s leadership has scrambled industry paradigms time and time again, helping users stay nimble and keeping competitors on their toes. www.blackmagicdesign.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2016 for the media industry? At the moment, I feel that broadcasters have a crisis of confidence due to competition from the internet and streaming devices. However, I believe while broadcasters have never had to face this kind of competition in the past, they will soon realize they have some very powerful advantages in their business model that streaming devices don't have.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I started a company to make things — but most of my time is now taken up doing anything but making products, so when I have free time, I love to write code and develop small projects using Arduino’s etc. It's lots of fun!

Recommended viewing: For entertainment, 30 Rock or Better Off Ted. For education, I would recommend a wide range of books — but a lot of popular books often teach all the wrong things and play into the ego-driven culture that business suffers from.

Wes Phillips

CEO |

SmallHD

Here’s something you may not know about SmallHD CEO Wes Phillips: not once but twice, he and a small group of collaborators (including company CTO Dale Backus) won the Doritos Crash the Superbowl Contest. The whole experience — including a $600,000 prize that helped fuel the company’s growth — was a shot in the arm as Phillips got SmallHD’s signature line of highly portable field monitors off the ground. (You can see the whole story unfold in a short documentary on the early days of SmallHD co-executive produced by Shane Hurlbut, ASC.) SmallHD has recently branched out with bigger, brighter production monitors built for durable HDR display as Phillips seeks to solve more problems faced by production companies on the cutting edge of technology. www.smallhd.com

Nick Rashby

President |

AJA Video systems

If you’re looking to capture, convert, or otherwise connect the dots in your digital production or post environment, odds are not only does AJA make the gear you need but it’s built like a tank. Under President Nick Rashby, AJA’s offerings have simultaneously blossomed and remained focused — it surprised everyone when the company announced the CION production camera, but at the same time it made sense that a company so focused on workflow would develop its own acquisition solution. And the Ki Pro product line has been a home run, offering record and playback at up to 4K 60p. Solid gear, no BS. AJA is a vendor with a mission. www.aja.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2016 for the media industry? The desire to accommodate HDR, better streaming solutions and IP-based workflows — not to mention VR content — is growing. How files efficiently move from point A to point B within an organization and how they’re delivered and archived is more important now than ever.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Spend time with my wife and kids, go mountain biking and enjoy the beautiful areas in and around Grass Valley, CA where AJA is headquartered.

Recommended viewing: I think the best movie I’ve seen in a while is Sicario: well-crafted, engaging and brutally honest.

Sanjay Sharma

President and Chief Operating Officer |

All Def Digital

Sanjay Sharma, formerly EVP of strategy and business development at Machinima, brought his deep experience with multichannel networks to All Def Digital. He’s partnered with Russell Simmons on the startup, which is making an aggressive play as a multicultural, multiplatform media company with franchises in digital media, social video, live events, TV and film. All Def provides content to HBO, Spotify, Seeso, Fusion TV and MTV. How successful is it? The All Def network generated more than 300 million views last month across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. www.alldefdigital.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Grappling with the growing dominance of digital and social video.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Almost always working!  But when i’m not, watch movies/tv and listen to music, hang out with my kids.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Watched Get Out 2x in theater; currently binging Patriot on Amazon; listening to Mick Jenkins, Appleby, Jarvis Cocker and Xavier Omar on Spotify; Theotis Beasely and Blue The Great on Instagram; Combat Jack, Joe Budden and Brilliant Idiots podcast; All Def Digital video content daily on Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat; and just read and loved In Times of Terror, Wage Beauty by Mark Gonzales.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Stay on your grind. And know what your grind is —what do you love to do, what makes you smile, what gets you out of bed?

Alexander Vero

Co-founder |

Movidiam

Alexander Vero says the idea for Movidiam came from frustrations he encountered in his creative career. The concept is a combination of a social network with a project-management application and creative marketplace tuned specifically for filmmakers, with the goal of helping creative people find personnel to execute their projects as well as helping them track the job to completion. The result is a service that brings freelancers together as collaborators, and keeps them on the same page, as the global habits of highly creative people continue to transform and evolve. www.movidiam.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? There will be more media produced in 2017 then every before which is great for the industry as a whole. The challenge will be how companies and individuals adapt their business models and processes to meet the demand for the creation of quality content across multiple channels.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Getting out on the bike or going for a run. I find that getting away from your phone and out of the office gives you the time to be creative and think through strategic decisions without distractions.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which explores that you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good. A career is like training for a marathon — you can’t cheat the training, but if you put in the hours you’ll look up one day and suddenly realize how far you’ve come.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Far too often, the new business aspects of working in the industry are overlooked. Make sure that every touch point you have with potential clients represents you in the best light. Clients make snap decisions on if they do or don’t hire you. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make it count.

Evan Williams

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder |

Riverview Systems Group

Evan Williams has designed more than 600 theatrical and industrial productions over the last 35 years, including acting as production stage manager for the DGA Honors, the Gotham Awards on Bravo, and the opening ceremonies of the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. His experiences date back to a very analog world, but he has kept pace with digital technology, and is currently developing 4K and 8K theatrical experiences for corporate events. Among Riverview’s projects last year were the Xamarin Evolve 16 corporate event and Zimmer Biomet’s 19,000-square-foot exhibit at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting. www.riverview.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? I believe it will continue to be trying to exceed client expectations and stay within budget. The asks for higher resolution, and the lack of understanding of the various challenges by our clientele, continues to make this difficult.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I have an audio production studio built into the lower level of my home, and also build custom wood stave drums in my spare time. There will soon be a web site for Falcon Custom Drums — but I’ve been saying that for over a year already.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? On the TV side, I don’t watch much, but Homeland is very good, particularly when you consider that the current season was shot before the election. Book would be Sound Man: A Life Recording Hits with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, the Faces …, the autobiography by Glyn Johns.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Don’t get too comfortable. Complacency kills.

Joyce Cox

VFX Producer |

Freelance

There are fewer more monumental jobs in the realm of VFX production than Disney’s groundbreaking, Oscar-winning 2016 version of The Jungle Book, on which Joyce Cox served as VFX producer and co-producer. At the same time, she’s been working with Thinkbox Software on Vero, a system that would extend her own personal methodology into a cloud-based application that could be used by all kinds of productions — and an early build of the software is being used in Cox’s filmmaking class at USC. By the numbers: Cox has been VFX producer on 14 movies with budgets totaling $4.8 billion — that generated more than $10 billion at the box office — and has produced 12,500 VFX shots on a total budget of $720 million. Her credits include The Great Gatsby, Avatar and Titanic. Who wouldn’t want to learn her methods?

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? It seems to me everyone is trying to figure out how to mainstream the emerging virtual and augmented reality technologies.  So far we’ve seen a lot of interesting work.  I am quite interested to see how the media industry incorporates these new visual toys.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I enjoy working on my golf game, writing, painting and enjoying my home and garden.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? There is so much interesting work out there it’s hard to pick one thing but I recently watched the 2013 film The Great Beauty directed by Paolo Sorrentino.  Wonderful movie.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Have a solid plan, face the inevitable change with a calm head, focus on what is best for the project and always tell the truth.

Randall Dark

Filmmaker |

Randall Dark Productions

Randall Dark is a long-standing innovator in digital video, having founded HD Vision in New York City in 1992, becoming one of the first specialists in the technology behind HDTV. More recently, he has been executive producer on films including Angels Sing, featuring Harry Connick Jr., Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, and the documentaries Makarios: A Rising Tide and Seadrift vs. the Big Guy. He also produced the trailer for the Howard Lukk-directed SMPTE documentary Moving Images. He runs Randall Dark Productions out of Austin, TX. randalldarknews.blogspot.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The biggest challenge is finding funding for projects. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I have said during my entire career that I have never worked a day in life. I love what I do therefore it doesn’t feel like work to me. That being said, I do like to play a round of golf once in awhile.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I recommend seeing or reading or listening to whatever is hot. Keeping your finger on the pulse is important.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Go big or go home.

Jason & Josh Diamond

director/filmmaker |

The Diamond Brothers

New York-based filmmakers The Diamond Brothers have always been on the cutting edge of content creation, so it’s no surprise that they’re turning their attention toward virtual reality. As part of VR consultancy and production company SuperSphere VR, the Diamonds have been figuring out different ways to capture VR experiences, from integrated camera systems like the Nokia Ozo and Jaunt VR’s Jaunt One to customized set-ups like the “Diamond EYE” rig built around Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4Ks. At the same time, they’re pressing forward in their roles at Frame.io, a cloud-based review-and-approval system with integrated Final Cut Pro X and Premiere Pro CC workflow. Look for a lot more from Frame.io, SuperSphere and the Diamonds in 2016. thediamondbros.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2016 for the media industry? The media industry is always chasing the future — whether it's a company announcing a product it doesn't ship for a year or a trend that gets accelerated by trade show cycles. We'd love to see more focus on operating codecs, language and hardware as a means for industry standardization. Proprietary methodology can be beneficial, but often it's too compartmentalizing. The future is an amazing place. We all want to be there. But we all need to realize the future is here and will quickly become the past.

What do you like to do when you're not working? When we're not working we're playing music, hanging with our friends and families. However, we're always thinking about new ways to do what we do and developing IP in hardware, software and story.

Recommended viewing/reading/listening? Movies: Wake in Fright, Killing Them Softly, Raiders of the Lost Ark; TV Show: the current political circus is the best reality TV ever created; Book: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski; Music: Daughter, Windhand, Clutch, John Grant

E.J. Hassenfratz

Creative Director |

Eyedesyn

3D motion-graphic designer EJ Hassenfratz is a three-time Emmy award-winner specializing in Maxon Cinema 4D whose résumé includes collaborations with top-tier clients as well as presentations and instruction aimed at helping other designers  up their skills. He’s a regular presenter at NAB and SIGGRAPH and a LinkedIn Learning instructor who runs a Colorado C4D user group based in Denver, Colorado — as well as an avid home brewer. His design blog [eyedesyn.com] features more than 100 tutorials on C4D techniques. www.eyedesyn.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? I think the biggest challenge will be adapting to the ever-changing new media landscape and the new ways companies will effectively advertise on these new media platforms. Digital advertising is now dominated by Google and Facebook and, while major brands still make :30 traditional TV ad buys, there’s a lot of room for disruption via these other online advertising markets. For motion graphics artists, effectively leveraging these new platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, will determine who gets noticed.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I live in Colorado so I am always outdoors with my wife and pug, hiking, biking, snowboarding and just taking in the fresh air. When you’re on a computer all day, its important to enjoy the analogue world.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? If you want to see where the future of media is, you need to check out what brands are doing in the VR space. It’ll be another 10-15 years to really mature, but there are some exciting uses being explored. And if you’ve never played with Google Tilt Brush, you need to give that a whirl! One thing I’m obsessed with right now is this bi-daily live safari Youtube broadcast called Safari Live. A group of safari guides takes viewers on a live safari inside of Kruger National Park, answering questions from schools from across the globe that tune in, as well as viewers who post questions on Twitter & Youtube. The hosts are really entertaining and are great sharing their knowledge on all the flora, fauna, and wildlife they encounter in the African bush. I always geek out a bit when they run into a herd of elephants! The technology they use to broadcast a live show in the middle of a huge National Park in the middle of Africa is really fascinating. Right now they’re in the middle of testing some 360 VR cameras as well as night-vision solutions so they can capture moments when the sun goes down! It’s really interesting to see how media can allow people from all around the globe a window into something as amazing as an African safari!

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Don’t compare yourself to others, because that can lead to discouragement. Realize that the only person you’re competing with is yourself. Only you can stop yourself from improving, from achieving your goals, or working to get to where you want to be. There are so many resources out there for you to learn anything you want to learn and so many people like myself who are willing and love sharing their knowledge. I created my motion graphics training blog, Eyedesyn.com, as well as regularly contribute to other great learning resources like LinkedIn Learning and Cineversity.com because of the fact that so many before me were willing to help me learn.

Art Haynie

Director |

Big Monkey Films

Former ad agency creative and commercial director Art Haynie’s awards shelf includes national OBIEs, ADDYs, and TELLYs. He jumped into the world of 360-degree video with a concert film featuring Eagles of Death Metal playing the San Manuel Ampitheatre in San Bernardino, CA, but he’s earned recognition for less rockin’ immersive work, as well. With agency HighGround, he was named a finalist in the Reed Awards for political campaigns and advocacy, recognizing a VR campaign ad in the categories of Best Web Video and Best Use of Virtual or Augmented Reality. Haynie, owner of longtime production company Big Monkey Films, recently signed up with Digital Development Management, through which he is set to work in video games and digital experiences as well as on AR and VR projects. arthaynie.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Monetization.  I hear it in every conversation every single day.  All these great ideas, all this great technology, and everyone and their brother is making content, but between technology changing how media is made and consumed, and mercurial consumers changing it further, it’s an even faster moving target than before.  When I got into directing, everyone was freaking out about cable and satellite fragmenting the market, and that target was moving but it was the size of an aircraft carrier and moving about the same speed.  With the media market now and where it’s going, that target is the size of a golf ball and moving at about 17,000 miles an hour.  I’ve watched over the years as everyone I know in the creative and production industry has been effected by it, including me.  Most that were making a good full time living on it have had to reinent themselves or have simply gotten out of the business entirely.  It’s not enough to just stay on top of it.  Now it’s like a chess game and I’m having to think three steps ahead of it.  Thats the reason I got into VR and AR.  But now I know the pattern, and it’s paying off.  Sorry, I know that’s longer than a few sentences… I can’t talk in a few sentences when it’s not a yes or no question.   That or I ramble a lot.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I’m an amateur race car driver and certified race driving instructor.  Lot’s of geeking out on all the science involved, and you go fast.  And tennis – it’s exercise, mental discipline, and you get to hit things at people.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Probably the thing I’ve recommended the most in the last few years is the book Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen. It has nothing to do with science fiction or aliens, but instead is an investigation narrative about 50 years of the CIA and US Military’s covert operational complex.  She was an investigative reporter for the L.A. Times, and did this by pouring through declassified documents and interviewing over 100 people who worked in it and are now so old they want the world to know what they accomplished, so they’re breaking their silence and don’t care if the government comes after them because they’re going to die in a few years anyway.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Learn your history, figure it out what it means, and stay way out as far ahead of it as you can … or, as Churchill said, you’re “doomed to repeat it.”

Andrew Kramer

Founder |

Video Copilot

Ask an After Effects artist how they develop their skill set, and odds are they’ll mention Video Copilot, Andrew Kramer’s website featuring a plethora of tutorials on innovative methodologies for creating visually sharp and complex effects. Kramer started out as a freelancer posting tutorials to the Creative Cow community, but he developed Video Copilot to offer its own line of software and plug-ins designed to make VFX artists’ lives easier — packages of physical shaders, reflection maps, HDRI environments and light maps, and more. But training remains key to Kramer’s ethos, and he continues to make tutorials to help motion designers and VFX artists wrap their heads around the tools and techniques available to them. www.videocopilot.net

Maria Rapetskaya

Founder/Creative Director |

Undefined Creative

A motion graphics designer since 1999, Maria Rapetskaya founded Undefined Creative, a New York creative agency specializing in motion design, in 2010. Her clients include the NHL, NBCUniversal, Meredith and the United Nations. In addition to sitting on Sports Video Group’s Sports Graphics Committee, she is an adjunct professor at New York University and Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, teaching motion graphics. Her recent work has included a promo campaign for the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer initiative, on-air and marketing packages for Harry Connick Jr.’s new daytime show Harry, and a pro bono brand-awareness video for eGirl Power, a nonprofit organization dedicating to empowering young girls. www.undefinedcreative.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Remaining focused on storytelling and creativity amidst technological growth.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I try to meditate daily, work out as often as my week allows, spend as much time outdoors as I can and travel whenever I get the chance.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier; Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr; Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Remember that underneath our titles and professional responsibilities, we are all people with lives outside of work. Take the time to build authentic relationships with your team, clients, vendors and consumers.

Miguel Santos

General Manager |

Myx TV

Fed up with Hollywood whitewashing? Miguel Santos is on your side. As general manager of Asian-American entertainment network Myx TV, Santos is a force against typecasting in the entertainment industry. He executive-produced Cast Me!, a reality show depicting diverse actors — people of color, LGBTQ performers, and military veterans — going through a Hollywood casting process. Myx TV has joined campaigns encouraging political involvement and discouraging bullying in minority communities. Santos continues to advocate for diversity in the industry as he spearheads an expansion of Myx’s web-focused digital content initiative.

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? In my opinion, the challenge is cutting through the clutter. It’s always been difficult to stand out in our industry, but with the speed and volume of content coming at viewers through social and digital platforms, even niches are becoming more competitive. It all boils down to three things: the quality of the content you’re putting out there, knowing how to target your audience effectively, and honestly, luck.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Sleep! I’m kidding. I really enjoy traveling and discovering new places. Traveling gives you a broader perspective of the world and expands your horizons. It’s a learning experience that can be enjoyable, relaxing, as well as exhilarating.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I loved watching Santa Clarita Diet! It is an amazing and unique blend of humor and gore. If a colleague is looking for an escape, I’d recommend taking some time to binge-watch a few episodes and just relax.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Keep an open mind and try new things that you’re not sure will even work. If you take a risk and it pays off, the rewards are a lot bigger than sticking to a formula. Be ready and willing to make mistakes and learn from them — just don’t repeat them!

Chris Sobchack

Co-owner |

Wraptastic Productions

As DIT jobs go, Chris Sobchack has a heck of a gig. For 17 years, he’s traveled the world as Elton John’s touring drum technician. At some point, his life outside the tour — where he co-owns a production company, Wraptastic Productions, with his wife, Nicole — crossed over onto the stage, and he began working with director John Steer to record and archive every performance, in addition to his percussion duties. Keeping both sides of his career moving forward must be a balancing act, but Sobchack’s getting it done, adeptly making use of downtime on tour to finish other projects. Wraptastic’s shortform comedy series, Please Tell me I’m Adopted!, is streaming on Amazon Prime.

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? I believe the challenge hasn’t changed — remembering to focus on the quality of the content and not just the rapidly evolving technology.  In film and television, the technology has becomes so interesting in itself that sometimes we forget that we are storytellers.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I try to be an amateur competitive road cyclist!

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Other than our own show, Please Tell Me I’m Adopted!, streaming on Amazon, I love going back to see how effects and shots were done before the advent of CGI. I recently saw a documentary on Blade Runner and was totally stunned at the amazing low-fi solutions to the visual problems

What’s your best advice for others in this business? My best advice comes from working on our project. I was able to make my computer and the software do things that even the companies who made them didn’t know was possible.  Try and learn as much as you can, but don’t forget to think outside the box, especially when it’s by necessity, as you never know what you might find!

Josh Wakely

Principal Partner |

GRACE: A Storytelling Company

Josh Wakely understands the narrative power of music. The Australian producer, director and screenwriter is leveraging the catalogs of legendary artists to create new media. He built the award-winning Netflix animated series Beat Bugs around songs by The Beatles, covered by artists including Eddie Vedder, Rod Stewart, Jennifer Hudson and Sia. Smokey Robinson will be executive music producer on another Netflix show inspired by the Motown catalog. Also coming is an Amazon drama series based around characters and subjects drawn from the music of Bob Dylan. Wakely’s goal is to create TV shows that represent classic songs for a new generation. www.graceinc.com

Jillian Arnold

Video Engineer/Cinematographer |

Freelance

Jillian Arnold is a video engineer specializing in live broadcast recording, media management and workflow architectures who founded Mission Critical Media, dedicated to consulting on digital acquisition and training video engineers. She was the very first Pronology mRes encoder operator, and she has recorded and media-managed Grease Live, Hairspray, the MTV Movie Awards and Video Music Awards, and Oscars and Golden Globes for E! Entertainment, along with frequent work for NFL Films. She often oversees high-speed, high-resolution productions in the Mars Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition, she is on the board of IATSE Local 695, the Sound and Engineering Union, is a member of IATSE Local 600, the International Cinematographers Guild, and is the first digital recordist and media manager to be selected to join the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Did we mention she holds a master’s degree in cinematography? jillianharnold.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Live broadcast has been undergoing a cultural change — the traditional role of the tape operator has changed and expanded in responsibility. The biggest challenge we face in 2017 is finding operators with live experience who also are well versed in digital acquisition, IP networking, editing platforms, and storage. The recordists of today need to update their skills to meet this new demand, because the days of physical media are now behind us.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I have so little free time, but I do try to read, travel internationally, and cook when I can. I also love catching a hockey game in the city I’m working in, especially if the Blackhawks are in town.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? My TV show of choice right now is Netflix’s Chef’s Table. I’m always curious what inspires someone’s thought process and how they execute groundbreaking techniques. Its also comforting and relatable to note that people who push the boundaries of success often fail in the process. The end product may be different, but our journeys are often the same.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? If you want to be a technologist, you can never stop pushing the technological limits, while learning from the process. A technologist has to be creative in how they are going to take it to the next level.

Peter Bailey

Co-founder and Executive Director |

Sideshow Studios

Peter Bailey co-founded Santa Monica creative studio Sideshow Studios with Daniel Cordeniz back in 2006. The studio grew out of their background in producing and editing for Fox Sports, and they quickly built a well-rounded post-production client list — and then added efficient production services. Among its projects are opening curtain videos for Los Angeles Lakers games at the Staples Center and work for local schools and charities. Today, Sideshow is using its green-screen production knowhow to pioneer the “virtual pilot,” a methodology for quickly and inexpensively building sizzle for game show pitches. With demand for TV programming continuing to increase, Bailey wants to help creators get their show concepts in front of executives for approval faster and more affordably then ever. www.sideshow-studios.com

Leslie Bloome

Lead Foley Artist |

Alchemy Post Sound

Alchemy Post Sound is a bit of an outpost in the growing New York post-production community, with offices up the Hudson River in Peekskill. It’s a quiet location — all the better for Bloome to ply his trade as a Foley artist, boasting more than 250 credits in features, TV, animation and videogames. His work in Peekskill builds on years of experience on stages at Sony’s Culver City studios, The Saul Zaentz Center in Berkeley, CA, and the East Coast’s C5 and Soundtrack.  An Emmy-winner for his work on the documentary Cartel Land, Bloome recently contributed Foley to director Matthew Heineman’s follow-up feature, City of Ghosts, as well as an array of Sundance and Tribeca festival premieres. Bloome also enjoys performing live Foley for theatrical presentations and recording and performing music. www.alchemypostsound.com

Tony D’Amore

Senior Colorist |

Encore

Few technologies have garnered as much interest and attention from both content creators and consumers as HDR, which is proving to be a critical part of the equation for next-generation TV. As colorist, Tony D’Amore has already graded a mountain of episodic HDR content, including Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Luke Cage, Marvel’s Daredevil and Marvel’s Iron Fist. That makes him a pioneer in a new realm — helping directors and cinematographers wrap their heads around the technology and use it to push their finished work closer to their creative visions. www.encorepost.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Adapting to new technology. There are many new complicated delivery platforms. From Dolby Vision HDR to the blurred lines between IMAX and television. Change is coming very quickly. It’s important that we all share what we have learned and ask questions for what we haven’t.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Play with my children, hiking, photography, finish carpentry, antique restoration — including telephones, radios, phonographs, and jukeboxes.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I have always loved Amélie. A very visual film. It’s beautiful and unusual. Fargo (the tv show and the movie), Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Accept change in the current technology, and quickly adapt to the new workflows that follow. Along with change comes exciting new opportunities.

David Durlach

Founder/Director |

TechnoFrolics

David Durlach explores new ways to create and experience media. His patented FrameGlide software environment uses a special Spin Browser dial to give viewers temporal control of a video — watching it at frame-step rates, or zooming through tens of hours, time-lapse style. It’s a way to let users grasp a longform experience in short-attention-span environments like expos and museums. He’s also developing a system to let experienced CG animators choreograph the motions of real-world objects in real time. www.technofrolics.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2016 for the media industry? For smaller producers with limited advertising/promotion budgets, to cost-effectively make their work respected and known amidst the veritable deluge of random videos flooding the online world from mobile phones and the like.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? a) Exercising – outdoor cycling and running in particular.
b) Eating spicy, sweet, and tasty foods. (Though this is my vice as well as pleasure…)
c) Thinking about cross-disciplinary ideas that have broad application and consequence, with particular focus on synergistically combining art, science/technology, and human psychology/social-interactions. Then brainstorming with friends and colleagues about.
d) Giving, and being the recipient of, kindness.
e) Learning how things work, in both the “natural” and “engineered” world.
f) Playing and joking around with others – both friends and strangers.
g) Experiencing beauty: Sky, ocean, animals, music, trees, flowers, people, art, architecture, clear explanations.

Recommended viewing: Pixar’s The Incredibles. Wonderfully fun, perceptive and uplifting.

What’s your best advice for others in this business?
To think about video not (just) as a relatively short-duration (20 seconds to 2 hours) “produced experience”, but rather, as a “data set” that can be interactively employed/deployed within highly diverse contexts.

Karin Fong

Co-founder, director and designer |

Imaginary Forces

Imaginary Forces co-founder Karin Fong is a five-time Primetime Emmy award nominee for title design for Black Sails, Boardwalk Empire, Rubicon, Human Target, and Chuck — plus a win for the Masterpiece Theatre special “American Collection.” Her list of credits as a title designer includes Terminator Salvation, Sex and the City 2, The DUFF and A Monster Calls, not to mention commercial work for McDonald’s and Lexus, game trailers for the likes of God of War, and video installations at Times Square and LA Opera. She has taught at Yale, RISD, Art Center and Cal Arts. www.imaginaryforces.com

Robyn Haddow

Motion Graphics Artist and Designer |

Freelance

A Maxon Cinema 4D power user who specializes in motion design for feature films and TV series, Robyn Haddow got experience working on cinematic cut scenes and trailers for AAA videogames including the Madden, FIFA and Deus Ex franchises before moving to screen graphics for The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow. Currently, she’s helping develop the look of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, contributing screen graphics for specific sets in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming. What could be cooler? How about a stint of creative work on early stage UI and motion tests for the Microsoft HoloLens? Haddow is imagining the look of the future. www.robynhaddow.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The writers’ strike. Keeping up with demand and speed.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Spend time with my family and being outdoors, particularly by the water.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? The Gap by Ira Glass. The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters and The Learners by Chip Kidd

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Be curious, feed the beast, and have good taste.

Andrew Heimbold

Co-founder |

Reality Check Systems

Over 20 years in business, Andrew Heimbold, who co-founded Reality Check Systems with cousin Steven Heimbold, has become a sought-after expert in broadcast graphics. Evolving from the days of SD analog broadcasting to the new frontiers of social media networks and multiscreen consumption, Reality Check has left a mark in the industry with innovations like the UpperCut and LaunchPad touchscreen interfaces. Today, the company is working on personalized interactive graphics for mobile devices and connected TVs with a development contribution to cloud-based web/mobile graphics platform Singular. realitychecksystems.com

Steven Heimbold

Co-founder |

Reality Check Systems

Reality Check Systems Co-founder Steven Heimbold boasts a wide-ranging knowledge of real-time graphics technology for broadcast, from the overarching concepts of design and production to the specifics of data integration and control. He got his start in the media industry working on animated titles for film trailers with his cousin Andrew Heimbold. The Heimbolds expanded their offerings to include photoreal 3D VFX, and went to work for Fox in 1997 on an NFL-related project that earned a Sports Emmy for graphic design. More recently, the company’s clients include NBC, CBS Sports, NFL Network, NHL Network, MLB Network, Sky Deutschland, Univision, and more. realitychecksystems.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? 2017 will be a year of transition for the media industry as it increasingly embraces IP, 4K/UHD, AR/VR and HDR.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I restore vintage cars and spend entirely too much time following the San Francisco Giants!

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? My colleagues have heard me say more than once that The Shawshank Redemption is as close to a perfect movie as I’ve ever seen.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Listen to your customers and innovate. We’ve survived and ultimately thrived at RCS by not only working incredibly hard but by continually innovating and taking care of our customers — year after year.

Petra Holtorf-Stratton

Producer and Visual Effects Producer |

Petra Holtorf-Stratton is an accomplished visual effects producer who got her start working on the Oscar-winning Independence Day back in 1995. One thing led to another, and she ended up with visual effects producer credits on a wide range of films, from 61* and Hulk to Twilight and The Thing. She transitioned to associate producer status on Battleship (2012) and then co-producer and post-production supervisor on Lone Survivor (2013) and Deepwater Horizon (2016).  She was part of the Deepwater Horizon team that won a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature.

Laura Jans Fazio

Senior Colorist |

Encore

In the era of peak TV, colorists have a chance to thrive, working on projects with detailed and widely varying palette. Laura Jans Fazio has established herself as a crucial (and prolific) asset for the production of scripted content, with an enviable résumé featuring her color work on shows including Netflix’s House of Cards and its Gilmore Girls revival; USA’s Mr. Robot; CBS’s Hawaii Five-o and The CW’s Crazy Ex Girlfriend. She got into the business at the age of 17, and her credits include “I Want My MTV” promos from the early days of cable.  www.laurajansfazio.com

Glenn Melenhorst

VFX Supervisor |

Iloura

VFX supervisor Glenn Melenhorst was responsible for major sequences in one of the most monumental action set pieces in television history — the epic “Battle of the Bastards” in the latest season of Game of Thrones. His work earned him a spot on the team sharing the Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, as well as Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and HPA awards for that episode. https://vimeo.com/172374044 His credits as VFX supervisor at Iloura also include John Wick: Chapter 2 and Ghostbusters. iloura.com.au

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? I think that there is a lot of buzz around emerging technology like VR and AR and it seems everyone is hell bent on telling stories with these new tools. Developing narrative structures for these technologies will be quite a challenge.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? There’s always some new bit of 2D or 3D software to tinker with. I like to make art for myself as well as write and illustrate for children.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Movies: Raising Arizona, Arsenic and Old Lace. Book: The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams. Web: Every Frame a Painting

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Always make time for your own art. Keep learning.

Sean Mullen

CEO/Lead Designer |

Rampant Design

A three-time Emmy-winning VFX artist, Sean Mullen spent the better part of two decades working on films and television projects including Any Given Sunday and Ally McBeal, where he learned the art of practical effects. Now, he devotes himself mainly to Rampant Design Tools, shooting visual effects elements — light flares, animated transitions, distortions — recorded to 2K, 4K and 5K ProRes files that other creatives can layer into their own footage. And there’s a reason why these effects look completely photoreal — Mullen gets them in camera. Rampant is a full-time job and then some, but he keeps his skills sharp by turning in VFX work for a select client list. rampantdesigntools.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? All new tech and data involving live streaming, 360 Video/AR/VR, Drones, 8K and above workflows and much more. There’s quite a bit to digest. The biggest challenge is wading through all of this data and figuring out how it applies to you, your business and your clients.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Travel. Unplug. Explore. Whatever I can do that would be the opposite of being strapped 18+ hours a day to my desk.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? That would be a tossup between The $100 Startup and #AskGaryVee. Both books changed my life.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Keep moving forward. Absorb what you can, shrug off the negativity. Focus on helping others succeed and you will, too.

Stefanie Mullen

CFO and Web Designer |

Rampant Design

Stefanie Mullen is a web designer and certified Final Cut Pro X trainer who handles customer support and keeps the business running that undergirds Rampant Design. After the effects library’s founding in 2010, the company moved into its own studio space in Orlando, FL in 2013 and more recently introduced libraries of effects at resolutions up to 5K. You can pick up some of her Final Cut techniques on Rampant Media’s YouTube channel, where she and partner Sean trade off hosting tutorials and training aimed at helping Rampant Design’s users — and the creative community at larger — make better video. rampantdesigntools.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The ever-growing need to understand and develop content for social platforms. Everyday there is a new way to communicate to our audiences and keeping up with that demand is challenging.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Travel and explore anything that is not connected to a computer. My husband and I run a travel blog and enjoy exploring different cultures and places. It is nice to experience life outside a computer screen.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? The $100 Startup. This book is such a great inspiration to anyone thinking about, starting up or knee-deep in entrepreneurial life. A must-read for anyone interested in starting a business.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Life comes at you fast and this industry is always changing. Do what you can today and leave the rest for tomorrow.

Rodolphe Pierre-Louis

Chief Executive Officer |

ActionVFX

Rodolphe Pierre-Louis says he’s had the idea for building a company around stock VFX shots since day one of his career. Realizing that creating usable stock VFX would require a serious investment in cinematography, he launched a Kickstarter campaign that reached nearly three times its original funding goal, and used the money to begin creating hundreds of VFX elements as stock shots. Pierre-Louis and ActionVFX haven’t slowed down since. www.actionvfx.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? Making VR relevant to a mainstream audience will be one of the biggest challenges of 2017. There’s been a lot of push for VR in the past couple years, but the industry still struggles to make it practical in the everyday life of an average person. I’ve personally invested in a VR headset, but only played with it the first day I received it; there just isn’t enough interesting content available for VR right now to encourage regular use. When it comes to mainstream entertainment, regular 2D movies and games still do the job, and they don’t require you to wear bulky goggles. VR has a lot of potential, but until the industry figures out a way to make the experience more accessible and practical for the average user, it’ll simply remain a neat toy users try out at trade show booths.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? Usually I just think about what I’m going to do next time I go to work, but I also enjoy kayaking, watching endless amounts of Netflix, and eating out with friends.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I’m a die hard fan of the original 24 series, and I always recommend it to everyone I meet.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? No matter what you hope to accomplish in this business, having a strong vision is the most important thing. Your vision is your foundation; it dictates how hard you work, what sacrifices you make, and what you spend your time doing. Set your aim on a target, and go after it with everything you’ve got!

Paige Raynes

Director, Content Operations |

Immersion

An experienced scriptwriter, Paige Raynes has become an advocate for an emerging medium: haptic effects that add touch feedback to mobile advertising. His editorial team has delivered more than 50 haptic tracks for live ad campaigns. The idea is to execute even more strongly on the director’s vision and brand message — and get a stronger emotional response from the ad’s audience. To get an idea of what it’s all about, download Immersion’s Content Portal app for Android or read its study on the power of haptic feedback. www.immersion.com

Jon 9

Creative Technologist |

Holonyne Corporation

Jon 9 is a maestro of the multiscreen installation, dedicating himself to the exploration of the storytelling potential of high-resolution video walls and other large-scale display systems. His company, Holonyne, directs production and programming for the IEMS digital signage system at the LAX International Terminal, where clients include American Express, Chanel, Cartier, Burberry, Cadillac and others. He was also head of the video department for The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, with 28 projectors and 20 media servers. www.holonyne.com

Sergio Ammirata, Ph.D.

Chief Technical Officer |

DVEO

Sergio Ammirata is a hands-on CTO and the inventor of Dozer ARQ — a technology for internet video distribution over long distances. When we say “long distances,” think U.S. clients streaming video from Bangladesh or South Korea without packet loss or stream interruptions.  The patented algorithm automatically corrects for UDP packet loss, allowing the use of public internet or provisioned lines that suffer from packet loss instead of satellites. It’s another important piece of the bigger video-over-IP picture — and Ammirata’s fingerprints are all over other DVEO solutions for file encoding, transport and distribution. www.dveo.com

Pankaj Bajpai

Senior Colorist/Senior VP of Business Advancement |

Deluxe TV

As his title indicates, Pankaj Bajpai’s responsibilities at Deluxe are those of a working colorist as well as a developer of new workflows and business strategies. In color correction, he strives to quickly but carefully adjust portions of the image to ensure that, while an HDR version of a scene will exploit the expanded color space, it will still feel of a piece with the Rec. 709 color grade. Moreover, he aims to design looks before production begins — like film-emulation LUTs he built for ABC’s Dirty Dancing and FX’s Snowfall — the better to help cinematographers get their desired looks on set and in dailies. His TV credits include AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, Showtime’s Masters of Sex, HBO’s True Detective and Amazon’s Good Girls Revolt.

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? In the post-production space I can say that the speed of technological change will present incredible opportunities and enormous challenges. There are so many different cameras and sensors and formats to shoot with and an increasing number of formats to deliver to — optimized for HDTV, high dynamic range displays and many kinds of personal devices. All that expands what filmmakers can do and how their content can reach viewers, but it also means there’s no longer a standard way of getting from A to B.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I like to cook and I swim to exercise.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I find great inspiration in photographs of Alfred Stieglitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ernst Haas and Steve McCurry, amongst many, and would recommend experiencing their work for its ability to touch us profoundly.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Be prepared for change. This has really always been a particularly unpredictable industry, but that’s more true than ever now. The ways content is being produced, the places it’s being produced, the ways metadata is being used — it’s all evolving very quickly. You need to either be on top of those changes or work closely with a company, like Deluxe for example, that is.

Chris Bobotis

Co-founder |

Mettle

Chris Bobotis co-founded Mettle as a Montreal production studio. The studio’s first After Effects plug-in, FreeForm, was licensed by Adobe in 2010, and was followed by ShapeShifter AE and FreeForm Pro. More recently, Bobotis has seen the 360-degree writing on the wall, as After Effects artists have tried to figure out how to apply their existing techniques to spherical 360-degree experiences. So Mettle started building transitions specifically to work in 360-degree space, and developed the Skybox VR Player for viewing Oculus Content in Premiere Pro and After Effects. And Mettle is porting its products to Premiere Pro, where it can take advantage of GPU acceleration that makes the software more powerful than ever before. As 360 and VR continues to grow, Bobotis and Mettle are continuing to develop ways to solve workflow problems, improve artist interfaces, and enhance immersive narratives. www.mettle.com

Annie Chang

VP of Technology |

Marvel Studios

Annie Chang has been at Marvel Studios for more than 11 years, and became VP of technology for Marvel in 2016. A crucial architect of Disney’s technology backbone for feature film post-production and mastering, Chang is also a SMPTE fellow, co-chair of SMPTE’s 10E Essence Technology Committee and has been a five-year chair of SMPTE’s IMF standardization project. In October, she became the 25th member of the AMPAS Science and Technology Council for 2016-2017. She’s an expert in modern image-making standards, but more than anything, she is a passionate industry advocate for quality picture and sound.

Chris Conti

Product Manager |

Production Resource Group

Lighting system expert Chris Conti boasts a resume that includes five Super Bowl half-time shows, two Olympic Games, and touring stints with Coldplay, Fleetwood Mac and Guns & Roses. At Production Resource Group (PRG), he led development of the patented PRG GroundControl Followspot System, which allows a high-output luminaire to be operated as a followspot from up to 2,000 feet away. That reduces the size of the light itself, substantially expanding the placement options for lighting designers. It’s gone on tour with Bruce Springsteen, Drake, and Elton John, and has been used for The Voice, the iHeart Music Awards, and MTV awards. www.prg.com

Erik Elvgren

Senior Producer and Animator |

University of Virginia

An animator with extensive experience in Autodesk Maya, NewTek LightWave and SynthEyes as well as Adobe’s Creative Suite, Erik Elvgren produces and animates the “Cavman” team entrance videos for Virginia’s football and basketball teams. He also directs live event coverage for Hoovision and provides AV engineering support to the athletics department — including the changeover of the UVA production facility to HD. He recently oversaw development of a new virtual set at the University of Virginia using trackless studio technology from Ross Video. www.virginiasports.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The biggest challenge in 2017 will continue to be trying to figure out when and how to use VR.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? When I’m not working I love to go prospecting for gold!  I’m happiest tromping through a creek with a wet pan.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? I’d recommend everyone watch The Incredibles.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? My best advice for people in the business is to outwork everyone else and make sure that you build good relationships.  Work hard because it’s the only way to get good at anything. And we all face hard deadlines and frantic moments.  Our coworkers will mean the most to us at these times. Cultivate those relationships.

Marcos Fajardo

Senior Software Architect |

Autodesk/Solid Angle

Solid Angle founder Marcos Fajardo started development work on the Arnold renderer 18 years ago, popularizing the advanced Monte Carlo ray-tracing approach. In fact, Arnold had such an impact on the industry that Fajardo received an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award this year for his work on it. At Autodesk, he has continued to develop Arnold following its acquisition, and is also leading work on plug-ins for 3D content creation applications including Houdini, Cinema 4D, Katana, Maya and 3ds Max. www.solidangle.com 

Will Harris

Autodesk Flame Family Product Manager |

Autodesk

A post-production pro with experience in the trenches at Key Code Media, Company 3, and Framestore, Will Harris joined Autodesk in 2008 and has managed the Flame family of products for three years. His user-centric approach continues to add functionality to Flame, with recent key features including Matchbox Camera FX based on Autodesk’s Stingray game engine technology and the connected color workflow that allows Batch nodes to be used to add effects to shots during a Lustre grading session. www.autodesk.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? I’d say a big challenge right now is adapting to new products and services business consumption models. Businesses, just like end users, want the flexibility of monthly or shorter offerings, and they want to see value on a regular basis. For post-production technology, acquisition, edit, VFX and color are being done faster, most sophisticated, and at better image quality. New standards like HDR 10plus, ACES and IMF are making great pictures even greater. Achieving all of this, whilst collaborating in a more geographically distributed way, is a key challenge for our industry.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? 2001: A Space Odyssey was the movie that started it all for me. Practical, optical and impossible shots! Meaningful, spiritual, avant garde — amazing! The Revenant is a beautiful example of the best digital technology enhancing a very “analog” frontier drama! Book: William Gibson’s Neuromancer — er, the internet! There are so many more great sci-fi novels and comics that have not been explored/adapted with the visual technology we have today. Imagine what we’ll be able to do in the future. 🙂

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Work hard, never stop learning and adapting. In this industry, you have to enjoy what you do!! Creatively, keep being inspired by the limitless possibilities of the technologies that allow us to make great moving images.

Andrea Kalas

VP of Archives |

Paramount Pictures

Andrea Kalas came to Paramount Pictures from the British Film Institute, where she was head of preservation for six years. As the head of archives at Paramount, Kalas leverages the latest technology to preserve and restore the studio’s library of titles. Among her projects there was a stunning restoration of Wings (1927) that played theatrically and was released on Blu-ray. Meanwhile, Kalas serves as president of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, where she works to share knowledge among industry professionals — and to make sure the heritage of moving pictures is preserved for future generations of viewers. www.amianet.org

Jesse Korosi

Director of Workflow Services |

Bling Digital

Director of workflow services is a big title, and Jesse Korosi has proven it with a workload that has included Mr. Robot, Narcos, Whiplash, and the ARRI Alexa 65-acquired The Great Wall. Since coming on as Bling Digital’s first employee seven years, ago, he has developed the dailies department to service multiple jobs around the globe. Last year, as workflow producer on the mammoth VFX project that was Warcraft — the first project to shoot ARRIRAW in Open Gate mode — Korosi oversaw dailies workflow as well as the color pipeline between production, VFX, stereo 3D and editorial. Back in L.A., he built out Legendary’s screening theater, designing a control center to manage VFX and stereo pulls and reviews and 2D and 3D conform. www.blingdigital.com

Scott Squires

Chief Technology Officer, Creative Director and Co-founder |

Pixvana

Scott Squires is a longtime fixture in the VFX industry — he’s the co-founder of Dream Quest Images and a three-time Oscar nominee for visual effects. He won the Academy’s Scientific and Engineering Award for his work developing one of the first film scanners, during his tenure as CTO at ILM. Those decades of creative and technical VFX experience, along with his knowledge of Showscan and other specialty formats, has made him eager to tackle immersive video, a challenge he’s embracing as CTO at Pixvana. With hands-on experience in both shooting and stitching VR scenes, Squires is helping research and build Pixvana’s creation and delivery platform for virtual, augmented and mixed reality — the next generation of media. pixvana.com

Chris Vienneau

Senior Director, Film and Television |

Autodesk

Chris Vienneau leads management, learning and design for Autodesk Maya, a responsibility that has him devoting much of his time to extending rendering capabilities for Maya users, who are increasingly looking to scalable cloud solutions. With Solid Angle joining Autodesk, Vienneau helped develop the Autodesk Maya Google Cloud Platform to address that demand. He’s also working on enabling adoption of Autodesk’s Bifrost procedural effects system among VFX houses working on 2017 productions and is keeping an eye on the latest developments in machine learning that could affect the VFX industry. www.autodesk.com

What will be the biggest challenge of 2017 for the media industry? The biggest challenge will be answering the call for the largest demand increase for compelling content and experiences the world has ever seen.

What do you like to do when you’re not working? I like getting out into the wild and skiing and hiking far from a Wi-Fi or cell signal.

What movie, TV show, book, music, or other media would you most recommend to your colleagues? Seven Eaves by Neal Stephenson is thick but so detailed and sweeping.

What’s your best advice for others in this business? Let the vision of the creatives drive your hand. If you can help tell one good story that would have been lost, you have done well.

Mike Wagner

Senior Product Manager, Lighting |

ARRI

As ARRI’s senior product manager for lighting, Mike Wagner plans out the company’s roadmap for product introductions, deriving features and specifications for new products based on creative and artistic feedback from users. Wagner recently spearheaded development of the award-winning ARRI SkyPanel LED soft light, integrating the latest LED technology into a line of tuneable, easily controllable lighting fixtures with excellent color rendition for film and television. The result was a major launch for ARRI — the successful culmination of more than a decade of LED research and development. www.arri.com

Tom Wolzien

Founder |

The Video Call Center

Tom Wolzien was an NBC broadcast executive before he became a Wall Street media analyst. Synthesizing those experiences into a new business model, Wolzien has patented the Video Call Center, his enabling technology for building live content around contributions from a highly engaged audience at a substantial cost savings over traditional video programming. He believes this technology. which runs on a dramatically simplified broadcast control room model, will help usher in the first new programming genre since the advent of reality TV. www.thevcc.tv/shows/