BLOCKBUSTERS, "GLADIATOR," "U-571," STOP-MOTION FEATURE "CHICKEN RUN" PART OF VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY SLATE FOR VES 2000: A FESTIVAL OF VISUAL EFFECTS

Hollywood - The industry trade organization, Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced its slate for the upcoming VESÔ 2000: A Festival of Visual Effects. This year's event, to be held at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, July 14 - 16, will feature presentations and discussions about the visual effects produced by the award-winning VFX teams from some of the current outstanding visual effects film and television productions.

In making the announcement, Tom Atkin, VES, Executive Director, explained, "VES 2000 is not only just about rocket ships and dinosaurs. We've become the world's best platform to educate the industry and public about the art of story-telling and how effects artists assist in bringing the director's vision to the screen. In many instances, we create images that don't exist, but, if we do our job properly, audiences can't recognize our work. And, that's the way it should be."

With stellar participants from around the world, VES 2000 brings together leading visual effects masters and their award-winning VFX teams to discuss their artistry. Visual effects disciplines including examples of Matte Painting; Model & Miniature techniques; Stop-motion, Motion-control, 2D, 3D, modeling, rendering, shading, scene building, animation and special effects including practical and mechanical with illustrations of the artist's work and how these elements are integrated seamlessly into the productions.


Speakers include visual effects professionals from ILM, Sony Pictures Imageworks, The Secret Lab and Mill Film with discussions about such motion pictures as "Gladiator," "U-571," "Hollow Man," "The Perfect Storm," "Mission to Mars," "Dinosaur," and "Chicken Run" as well as the Emmy-winning television programs, "Gulliver's Travels," "The Odyssey," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Merlin." Friday evening's discussion of "The Perfect Storm" will be followed by a screening of the film. On Saturday evening, "Chicken Run" will be screened after a presentation of the making of the stop-motion feature. (See attached agenda for times and speakers.)

Founded in 1997, The Visual Effects Society is the world's largest organization of distinguished visual effects professionals with over 500 members. VES routinely holds symposiums, educational forums and screenings for its membership and is also developing a youth outreach and scholarship program. One of the primary missions of the VES is to educate not only its membership, but also the general production community and the public at large about visual effects production.

For ticket information contact, Visual Effects Society, email: visual.effect.society@worldnet.att.net.

VES 2000: A Festival of Visual Effects
July 14 - 16, 2000
Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
North Hollywood, CA

Friday, July 14 12:00 Noon - 2:00 PM "Hollow Man" Scott Anderson and his team from Sony Pictures Imageworks discuss The visual effects from Hollow Man, "the digital human project."	Saturday, July 15 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon "U-571" Jon Johnson & Peter Donen set the tone for this exciting, old-fashioned WWII picture with seamless integration of models, miniatures and other effects.	Sunday, July 16 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon "Mission to Mars" Hoyt Yeatman, visual effects super-and the visual effects team from The Secret Lab and ILM present making of Mission to Mars.
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM "Gladiator" John Nelson, visual effects supervisor and Mill Film's Robin Shenfield, Tim Burke and Laurent Hugueniot will discuss the visual effects creations from one of the summer's biggest Boxoffice hits.	2:00 PM - 4:00 PM "Gulliver's Travels," "TheOdyssey," "Alice in Wonderland" and "Merlin" Tim Webber and Mike McGee from Complete FrameStore, review the last four consecutive visual effects Emmy winning television programs	2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Matte Painting An all-star panel of distinguished Matte artists will present "The Art of Movie Matte Painting from Glass to Digital" including a tribute to Al Whitlock.
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM "The Perfect Storm" Stefen Fangmeier from ILM presents The visual effects from The Perfect Storm followed by a screening of the film.	6:00 PM - 9:00 PM "Chicken Run" Dave Sproxton and Tom Barnes Aardman present the making of The stop motion feature, Chicken Soup, followed by a screening of the film.	6:00 PM - 8:00 PM "Dinosaur" The team of Neil Krepela, Neil Eskuri and Mike Belzer from The SecretLab, presents the making of Dinosaur.

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