ENVISAGE#1- What does the industry want?

Thanks to Mario Wynands (Sidhe Gaming), Jake Lee (Weta Digital) and Brent Chambers (Flux Animation Studios), our panel for the first session of the Envisage program, brought to you by CoLab in partnership with Film Auckland.

This inaugural session, introduced by Frances Joseph and Pete Rive , was entitled "What does the industry want?".  The panel explored this important question, addressing the relationships between education facilities and the Industry along with current and future needs.

Held on Thursday the 29th April from 6-8pm at AUT University Conference Room WA224. Details of the next Envisage session available soon.

 
SPEAKER BIOS

Mario Wynands, (Sidhe Gaming co-founder and Managing Director)
Mario Wynands is the Managing Director and co-founder of Sidhe, New Zealand's largest game development studio. In his 13 years at the company, he has negotiated and managed numerous game titles and content production deals, and overseen the creation of critically acclaimed titles including Shatter for PlayStation 3 and PC, as well as highly successful licensed titles including Speed Racer the game, Jackass the game and the Rugby League series. Mario is also the president of the New Zealand Game Developers Association, acting as an industry advocate as well as assisting and mentoring other game developers. He is a graduate of Victoria University with degrees in business management and computer science and has studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jake Lee (3D lighting technical director, Weta Digital)
With more then twelve years experience in the visual effects industry, Jake is known for his roles as Senior Camera Technical Director and 3D Lighting Technical Director in the Lord of Rings film series. He has also fulfilled roles as a Lighting Technical Director on Van Helsing and  I,Robot, and as a 3D Sequence Lead on King Kong. He was a CG supervisor on The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian and recently oversaw the upskilling of Lighting Technical Directors and supervised the B shots in this department on the film Avatar. He continues to work at Weta Digital on pipeline tools in the shots department.

Brent Chambers (Flux Animation Studios)
After Graduating AUT with a Diploma in Graphic Design in 1986 Brent became one of the founding animators at Freelance Animators working on contract animation work for Disney and Warner Brothers. In 1997 he and Wife Susan established Flux, and the company rapidly built a reputation as one of New Zealand's leading commercial animation houses working on campaigns for Telecom, Lotto, New Zealand Dairy and Tip Top among many others. Brent is the Chairman of Creative Digital Content Auckland and on the Board of New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation.

Pete Rive (Film Auckland)
With over 25 years experience in screen production and post production as an editor, Pete is a founding board member, and former Chair of Film Auckland; the current Chair of the CoLab Advisory Board; and a developer of the Screen Auckland social network. Pete is currently completing a PhD researching design innovation and collaboration in the virtual world, Second Life. He is also a Futurist, founder and CEO of the innovation and collaboration consultancy, RainRaker.


The Envisage program has been initiated to encourage industry, education, public interest and networking around key issues concerning innovation and capability development through new technologies. 

To register your attendance please contact CoLab Manager Dawn Hutchesson on dawn.hutchesson@aut.ac.nz or (09) 9219566

Click HERE for a review of this Envisage #1- What does the industry want? on ScreenhubNZ