The Wizards of Hollywood: My Life from Jumanji to STAR WARS
ED KRAMER BIO:
You may not know his name, but you've definitely seen pioneer Visual Effects Artist Ed Kramer's work. As a Senior Technical Director and Sequence Supervisor for George Lucas' company, Industrial Light + Magic, Ed's CGI effects work appeared in STAR WARS Episodes I, II and III, and 2006 OSCAR-winner Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Chest, as well as many other influential Visual Effects movies in recent history. He led the teams creating the Scarab beetle shots in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, the Rock Monster shots in Galaxy Quest, the Droid Factory and End Battle shots in Attack of the Clones, and he contributed to such classics as Jumanji, Twister, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter 2, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Stargate, Deep Impact, Herbie Fully Loaded, 101 Dalmatians, Van Helsing, and many other seminal visual effects blockbusters from 1992 through 2006. He has worked with such Visual Effects luminaries as Douglas Trumbull, Dennis Muren and John Knoll, and Directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. Perhaps the most recognizable creation from Ed's more than 30 years as a CGI professional is the iconic Columbia Pictures "Lady with a Torch" logo, which he helped create for visual effects wizards Joel Hynek and Jeff Kleiser.
Ed made the difficult decision to leave the movie life in 2006, when, after twelve years and twenty-four feature films, he was part of a Senior-level round of layoffs. Moving his wife and young kids (Hannah, now 17, and Jeremy, now 13) to Denver in 2006, Ed knew that when you make movies, the movie ALWAYS comes first, and being present as a Dad while his kids were growing up was his most important priority. Freelance work in Denver has included clients like STARZ, Lockheed-Martin, the Discovery Channel, and even a logo for an event coordinated by Governor John Hickenlooper, for which Ed received a Platinum Pixie award. He also spent a year creating CGI for futuristic medical simulators used to train surgeons virtually on complex new procedures.
Ed is an authority on the History of Computer Graphics, and has spoken at conferences worldwide, including SIGGRAPH, FMX in Stuttgart, Germany, and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and at Denver venues Mile Hi Con, Starfest, and Denver ComicCon. In addition to his freelance work created under the company name edk/3d, Ed has been a Full-Time Instructor at the Art Institute of Colorado for more than five years, teaching the next generation of CGI artists his professional approach to advanced Modeling, Lighting, and Dynamics techniques.
The Bliss Awards
Ed will share inspirational stories about his early years using ancient Computer Graphics technologies, and his career arc through those cutting-edge technologies during the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000's. That career culminated with twelve years at, as Ed describes it, “The coolest possible job on the planet Earth!” This was his period working for George Lucas on STAR WARS Episodes I, II, and III, with the ultimate career moment coming when he was asked to be a Sequence Supervisor on Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Ed will speak about creating CGI characters and effects for all three Prequels, and will answer audience questions about working at ILM on those and many other movies. He will also bring in a number of pieces from his personal collection of STAR WARS memorabilia to present attendees with a rare opportunity to see one-of-a-kind items from Ed’s private collection of movie magic!
