Silicon Oct 07

I had the opportunity to appear & present at a comic/sci-fi/movie convention - the SiliCon on Oct 5, 2007 in San Jose (thanks to my friend Ed Martinez). I hosted a solo presentation about the CGI/VFX industry - basically, I just spoke about my background in the biz, then showed my reel, & walked through it, explaining the technical and contextual aspects behind each shot. I made a meta-version of my reel, including shots from Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers, thru King Kong (no Shrek 3 available then, though I did get my reel within 2 weeks after the event). It was fun - first time I've done public speaking at that level in a while, it went well - I was rather dry, but I didn't make any major gaffes or lengthy pauses. The audience was only about 10 people, but a few people had compelling questions. It was a bit convoluted at first - the room we were scheduled to be in had no A/V services (in fact, only1 room among all the conference did...) So, it was some wrangling, but the organizers were very apologetic and friendly, and it all worked out in the end. (well, maybe it would've been a larger turnout if we didn't wait till the last minute to switch rooms). Anyway... I appreciate the opportunity to be included.
After my presentation, Ed did a demo of makeup & FX, based mostly on Smooth-On & its wonderous qualities. Very interesting walk through of creating basic makeup FX & scar tissue.
We checked out some other things going on - the vendor hall, the film fest, the charity auction, the live music (maybe get my band to play there next year!),the 'Hollywood movie museum'. All good, I hope SiliCon gets more funding and attention next year, & can sustain for a while (though unfortunately I think they got royally screwed by the DoubleTree on many levels...)
Thanks again, Ed & Nina!