ACADEMIA

The Grid Institute has appointed visual effects pioneer Jeff Kleiser a fellowship to participate in the design and development of Media Grid rendering and digital cinema standards. Kleiser, whose career spans nearly three decades, is widely recognized as a leader in animation and visual effects. He has produced and directed visual effects for numerous award-winning television commercials, and has created unique location-based entertainment projects such as the 3D stereoscopic films Corkscrew Hill (for Bush Gardens), Santa Lights up New York (for Radio City Music Hall), and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (for Universal Studios). Kleiser's film credits range from Walt Disney's Tron, the ground-breaking CGI movie released to critical acclaim in 1982, to recent Hollywood releases such as X-Men (including X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand), Fantastic Four, Scary Movie (3 and 4), Slither, Son of the Mask, Exorcist: The Beginning, and many more. In 1987 Kleiser and partner Diana Walczak founded the visual effects studio Kleiser-Walczak and together coined the term "synthespian" to describe digital actors (synthetic thespians). In 2005 Kleiser and Walczak founded Synthespian Studios (synthespians.net) to create original projects for animated characters. In 2006 Kleiser was a keynote speaker at Boston's first annual digital media summit (mediagrid.org/summit/). He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of directors of the Visual Effects Society, Williamstown Film Festival, and Norman Rockwell Museum. As a Fellow of the Grid Institute, Mr. Kleiser will participate in the design and development of Media Grid standards for rendering and content delivery. Media Grid reference implementations will be developed and tested in cooperation with Synthespian Studios using the firm's recent Sun-Maid and Santa Lights Up New York projects: -- Sun-Maid "Grapes and Sunshine" Campaign - The Sun-Maid Girl, famous for her red bonnet and for holding a tray of freshly picked grapes, received a digital make-over for her 90th anniversary. Working closely with Sun-Maid, directors Kleiser and Walczak carefully guided the character's make-over as Synthespian Studios designed, developed, and produced an ad campaign comprised of two pilot commercials, several print ads and visual imagery that today appear in a variety of marketing and public relations applications including Sun-Maid's website (www.sunmaid.com). -- Santa Lights Up New York - For America's most beloved holiday theatrical, "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular," starring the world-famous Radio City Rockettes, Kleiser and Walczak directed a 3D stereoscopic film that takes audiences on a thrilling sleigh ride with Santa through New York City. The film plays at Radio City Music Hall for more than 200 performances each Christmas season. Liz Smith, writing in the New York Post said, "It is simply magnificent! When they hand you the program, stapled to it is a pair of 3D glasses which you don for Santa's sleigh ride through the canyons and over the buildings of NYC. This is the best short movie of the year!" After screening this film and Corkscrew Hill, Lenny Lipton, author of "Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema" and one of the world's leading experts on 3D imagery, said these films "show a complete mastery of the medium. I have never seen anything better."