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Sound Arts Guest Speaker:
Keith Olsen
East End - 9am
Multi-Platinum Record Producer, Engineer, Musician and Author
As Keith began his career in the music industry, he sensed achange in the direction of Pop and Rock music, and spent the next 25 years helping define it. With over 120 albums produced netting a 1 in 4 Gold or better ratio, of which more than 24 are Platinum or better, and more than 14 are multi-Platinum. Keith Olsen’s work exceeds 110 million units at retail, equaling more than a Billion dollars in business. To date his work appears on more than 250 albums and is in many feature films.
Olsen has always stated, “It’s about the music and how it affects the listener at home, in the car, or listening on their iPod. The Song, the Performance of that song, and lastly the Sound, are all extremely important.” He tells us, “making music, regardless of the form or genre, is what I do, it’s what I do best. Life is a game of skill, not a game of chance, and doing records that contain world class artists, great vocalists, wonderful musicians, great songs, great feels, and a uniqueness that makes it special is what production is all about.” Finally he adds, “Remember, we play music, we’re not supposed to work at it”.
Keith Olsen now produces several albums per year, yet he gives his time and energy tirelessly to The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Hawaiian Music scene (HARA), as well as the NARAS Producers & Engineers Wing, the mission of which he strongly believes is so necessary in this era of digital revolution.
Sound Arts Guest Speaker:
Buzz Burrowes
Meyer Hall - 2pm
Director of Tools, Technology and Service Sony
Computer Entertainment of America
He began his career with Sony in January, 1995 as Chief Audio Engineer prior to the North American launch of the first Play Station console.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Buzz spent 7 years in Los Angeles as a staff engineer at the famous Record Plant recording studios and as a freelance recording engineer before taking the position at Sony. He is credited on albums by Guns ‘N Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Yes, Y&T, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Bob Seger, and others.
Buzz was hired by Sony to create a “Hollywood Caliber” audio department for the software development arm of Sony Computer Entertainment America. This department has grown into Sony’s multi-room, audio recording facilities located in both San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also the author of SCREAM, Sony’s proprietary audio architecture. This is a full-featured audio engine for the PlayStation platforms which includes sophisticated streaming, adaptive MIDI and Sound Scripting.
In addition to the Sound Design and Music groups, Buzz is now responsible for the Tools & Technology, Motion Capture and Cinematics groups as well - a department of over 120 people.
Animation and Visual Effects and Motion Graphic Design
Guest Speaker:
Stephen Price
Meyer Hall - 9am
Founding Editor and Creative Director of STASH Magazine
Stephen Price is the founding editor and creative director of Stash Magazine, the monthly video showcase of animation, VFX and motion design. The Stash DVDs have become an invaluable creative resource for advertising, broadcast, post production and design professionals and students in over 50 countries.
Graduating from graphic design and computer animation, Stephen has since designed, produced, executive produced and reported on animation and visual effects for commercials, television series and feature films. He also created and executive produced 52 episodes of SPLAT!, the 1/2 hour TV magazine show about animation.
Animation and Visual Effects
Guest Speaker:
Rob Clarke
East End - 2pm
Lead Environment Artist - LucasArts
Forged by the ethereal hammer of Thor himself, Rob Clarke has come to Earth in service of the gods. Truthful and modest to a fault, Rob decided to live the life of a common earth being, so as to fully understand their curious ways.
First studying Theater Design at Cal State Fullerton, and later, Animation at San Francisco State University, Rob graduated with a Bachelors in Arts and a degree in Animation…that he was never to use. Despite an internship on James and the Giant Peach, Rob did no animation and instead built ship models and other props for the film. For you see, animation was not his true calling.
Nay, Rob was drawn by the awesome power of 3D Studio DOS and the promise of building 3D models. Self taught, he began his career working on a presentation CD for 3Com. This landed him his first job at Stormfront Studios in San Rafael, California. Allotted 10 polygons and a picture of a NASCAR bleacher, Rob set out to recreate the fast paced world of professional race car driving. NASCAR 99 was released later that year. Rob moved onto NASCAR Revolution and then Hot Wheels Turbo Racing for PSX and N64.
He left shortly thereafter for Midway games in Chicago to work in the ill-fated Arcade division. Rob built tracks on the second to last arcade game ever to see light of day from Midway, CART Fury. Blistering cold followed by sweltering humidity sent him packing not a year later, however and Rob found himself at Namco in San Jose. Ridge Racer USA , though a great idea, was canceled after 9 months of preproduction. Rob was moved onto Dead to Rights.
Drawn by some old friends, Rob rerooted in Berkeley, California at GameFlow; a small startup with big aspirations. However, the siren song of Stormfront grew stronger and it was not long before he returned to his first studio gig. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers tested his mettle and Rob rose thru the ranks, to find himself in charge of a team for Dungeons and Dragons: Demonstone.
But opportunity knocked once more and Rob moved across the street to LucasArts to work on Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. And now Rob leads the Environment Team for Indiana Jones 07 for PS3 and X360 which is surely to be the greatest game ever created.
Motion Graphic Design
Guest Speaker:
Ben Flax
Chuck Jones- 2pm
Creative Director of Media and Technology
for Ursa Minor Arts and Media
Ben Flax is proud to have been building Ursa Minor Arts and Media’s motion graphics and interactivity departments since the company’s foundation. He carries numerable credits working in various capacities for film and interactivity, including clients such as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Ken Wilber, Global Mindshift, and Earthdance.
He carries Bachelors degrees in Visual Art and Digital Visual Media, and manages a vibrant team of developers, designers, and artists in articulating humanity’s highest goals in multimedia messages. His broad technical experience across visual media from sculpture to 3d, from programming to design, to award-winning theater direction skills, provides him a diverse palate of skills to offer in the creative visioning process. Ben is grateful to the creative community of San Francisco for dedicating themselves to experimental and innovative new work that makes a difference.
