Color Grading in the Cloud and Production & Post in the Multi-Cloud Universe are the titles for the two sessions hosted by SMPTE Hollywood featuring a host of industry professionals as speakers.

The first of the two sessions hosted by SMPTE Hollywood takes place on  Sunday, April 16 at 1:00 pm in the Connect Inspiration Theatre, West Hall (W3421A). Remote Collaborations – Color Grading in the Cloud will feature AWS’s Marlon Campos, Colorist Society (CSI) Fellow Lou Levinson and Filmlight’s Peter Postma in conversation about the advent of remote work in post-production color.

The three professionals will discuss the cutting edge technology that is enabling colorists to work remotely and to overcome the challenges of image quality, security, latency and other technical issues. They will also contrast the benefits of pure-cloud, hybrid and brick-and-mortar workflows.

Marlon Campos, Senior Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS, has dedicated more than two decades of his professional life to the IT and M&E industry. With a profound passion for content creation, he has been instrumental in driving innovation and technical excellence in his role as the technical lead for Color in the Cloud at AWS.

Lou Levenson, Fellow, Colorist Society (CSI), has been one of the industry’s top colorists for more than three decades. He helped to craft the look for such classic films as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Batman and Batman Returns. Currently with Apple, he has held senior positions with MCA, Technicolor, PostLogic Studios and Modern VideoFilm, among others. Originally from Northbrook, Illinois, Lou earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in design from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a Master of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He began his career with Columbia Pictures.

Peter Postma, Managing Director of the Americas, FilmLight, developer of Baselight color grading and Truelight color management systems used in motion picture productions of all sizes. Previously, Peter worked as a systems engineer at Eastman Kodak helping pioneer digital intermediate technology. He has taught seminars on color management for production and post-production around the world and holds a BFA in Film and Animation from Rochester Institute of Technology.

The impact of AI-driven technologies

The second session, titled Production & Post in the Multi-Cloud Universe, is scheduled for Monday, April 17 at 10:30 am in the Connect Inspiration Theatre, West Hall (W3421A). Journalist Debra Kaufman will moderate. The session is produced for SMPTE Hollywood, in association with SMPTE, by Steven B. Cohen, Laura Thommen and Linda Rosner.

Production & Post in the Multi-Cloud Universe will bring together Microsoft’s Andy Beach, Google Cloud’s Buzz Hays, AWS’s Katrina King and MTI Film’s Victor Vaile for an exploration of the myriad cloud workflow solutions that have arisen in recent years via hyper-scalers, SaaS offerings and private clouds. They will offer insight into the impact of AI-driven technologies, global connectivity, cloud processing and content delivery networks, and describe how post-production providers can benefit from the unlimited applications, computing power and storage resources available through the cloud.

Andy Beach, CTO, Media & Entertainment, Microsoft, is responsible for the technical strategy for Microsoft’s three clouds -Azure, Dynamics, and Office 365 – as they relate to the M+E industry. He collaborates closely with product groups and account teams to help customers and partners in developing their media related technology solutions and reference architectures that address their rapidly changing needs. He has extensive experience in combining technology, creativity, and business strategy in the media industry. Andy has published books on video compression and streaming media and is a recognized expert on topics spanning media creation and distribution pipelines.

Buzz Hays, Global Lead Entertainment Industry Solutions for Content Creation, Google Cloud, is one of the world’s leading experts on advanced imaging production and technology in the media and entertainment industry. Buzz is responsible for Google Cloud’s Content Creation Solutions development in the Media and Entertainment Vertical. He works closely with the top M&E customers of Google Cloud to tailor and build solutions to transform traditional methodologies into cloud native workflows from production to post-production to archive migration. Buzz has been involved in technology for media and entertainment for over 30 years with Google, Lytro, Sony, and Lucasfilm THX. He has produced numerous film and television projects for Disney, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. He is a member of SMPTE, he is the founding Chairman of the Advanced Imaging Society, he is a board member at the ETC at USC, and he is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where he serves on the Science and Technology Council.

Katrina King, Global Strategy Leader for Content Production, AWS, is a motion picture technologist and production technology executive with over 20 years of experience supervising production and technology for motion pictures, television and live events. She has authored more than ten patents in film and tv production, interactive streaming and cloud based post-production. Katrina led the AWS Color in the Cloud project which recently won the 2022 HPA Engineering Excellence Award. She is currently Global Strategy Leader for Content Production at AWS.

Victor Vaile, Director of Engineering, MTI Film, has a wide and varied background in IT and Video infrastructure. When Victor joined the MTI team, he provided the company with a level of expertise required for the demanding challenges of today’s post production process. Everything from the smallest to the largest issues are overseen by Victor and his group of engineers, making MTI a safe, secure, and robust environment.

SMPTE has other programs at NAB. One of them is titled “The Future of Cinema: Scene in a New Light: How New Technologies Enhance Visual Storytelling” and looks at what the future will bring to the industry. SMPTE notes on the program presentation page that “The visual impact of a story can create a lasting impression on audiences. Many people can remember the first time they were left in awe at the movie theater, watching spectacular cinematography or an epic special effect. As technology improves, these visuals will become more immersive and defined, allowing audiences to feel like they’re part of the story. The technologies needed to make these experiences possible are already being used to create works of art that will stand the test of time.”

Follow the link to know more about SMPTE programs at 2023 NAB Show, which runs from 15 to 19 April in Las Vegas.