Previsualization Society Founders
David Dozoretz
Country: United States
Founder: POV Previs LLC
Company / IMDB / Vimeo
David Dozoretz got his start at age 20 in the art department of George Lucas' famed Industrial Light & Magic, where he contributed to the visual effects magic of "Jurassic Park," "Forrest Gump” and the "Star Wars Special Editions,” among other projects. Having produced his first digital previsualization while working on the film “Mission: Impossible” (1996) with ILM visual effects supervisor and Photoshop creator John Knoll, he was hired by Lucas as the first digital artist for the highly anticipated "Star Wars" movie prequels being produced at Lucasfilm.
During his seven-year tenure at Skywalker Ranch, Dozoretz created the facility's previsualization pipeline and went on to manage the art department for the prequel films. In 1999, he formed his own previsualization and vfx company, Persistence of Vision Digital Entertainment or POV, based in Hollywood.
Since its founding, POV has amassed an impressive catalog of credits working with top studios on films including "Titan A.E.," "Moulin Rouge," "Behind Enemy Lines," "X-Men 3," "Mission: Impossible 3,” J.J. Abram's "Star Trek” and the world's first live-action digital stereoscopic movie, "Journey to the Center of the Earth."
A member of the Director's Guild of America and the Visual Effects Society, Dozoretz has served as a previsualization supervisor, visual effects supervisor, second unit director, concept artist and film lecturer across his career. He is working on his feature film directorial debut.
Chris Edwards
Country: United States
Founder: The Third Floor Inc.
Company
Chris Edwards was recruited by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1997 after earning a film degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. At Disney, he gained a wide range of experience working as a lead 3D layout artist and an assistant character animator on such films as “Dinosaur” and “Treasure Planet.”
In 2002, he joined the team at Lucasfilm, where he previsualized extensive changes to George Lucas' first feature film, “THX-1138,” as well as the final “Star Wars” prequel, “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” Upon wrapping the final prequel project, Edwards spearheaded the creation of The Third Floor, an independent previs company in Los Angeles, in 2004.
As CEO and Creative Director at The Third Floor, he has contributed to a laundry list of Hollywood projects, including motion pictures, commercials and game cinematics. Theatrical credits include “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” “Valkyrie,” “Eagle Eye,” “Beowulf,” “Cloverfield,” “Star Trek,” “Iron Man 2,” “Avatar,” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
Ron Frankel
Country: United States
Founder: Proof Inc.
Company / IMDB
Ron Frankel began working in the field of previsualization in 1996 and has made integrating previs within film production departments and among directors, cinematographers, production designers and visual effects supervisors a focus of his career. Over the years, his expertise has been sought out for notable collaborations with filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Marc Forster, Tarsem Sing and Zack Snyder on projects such as “The Terminal,” “Minority Report,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Panic Room,” “The Cell” and “Fight Club.” His credit list also includes “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo,” ”Terminator: Salvation,” “Tropic Thunder,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “”Live Free or Die Hard,” “Charlotte's Web,” Alexander,” and many other movies.
In 2002, Frankel founded the dedicated previsualization company Proof, based in Los Angeles. The company''s previs credits include “Fast and Furious,” “21,” I Am Legend,” “The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dan Man's Chest,” “The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End” and “Constantine.”
Proof also completes previs for video games, commercials production and interactive and immersive experience design, with notable clients including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Midway Games.
Frankel holds a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a Master's degree in architecture from MIT. He has been active in the educational community as a teacher in animation and previsualization at institutions such as SCI-Arc and Otis College of Art and Design.
Colin Green
Previsualization Society President
Country: United States
Founder: Pixel Liberation Front
Company / IMDB
Colin Green entered the film industry in the early 1990s, working on breakthrough simulation and special venue projects for legendary cinematic innovator Doug Trumbull. Having recognized the potential of fledgling 3D animation applications on the Trumbull projects, he began applying these tools to design and technically plan shots for feature film. His first project using this technique was 1995's “Judge Dredd,” which successfully aligned live-action footage, extensive miniature photography and computer-generated imagery via digital previsualizations. “Judge Dredd” also achieved a motion control data delivery workflow that allowed the shooting of miniatures to be tightly integrated into a 3D pipeline, and organized a group specifically called and known as the previs department. Green founded Pixel Liberation Front (PLF), a company dedicated to producing previs, that same year.
In his tenure as president of PLF, Green has worked as a hands-on previs supervisor and artist on dozens of feature film projects, collaborating with David Fincher, Larry and Andy Wachowski, Bryan Singer and other top Hollywood storytellers and their crews to map out complex visual effects sequences in advance of shooting and help make previs a true director's tool. Green's screen credits include such movies as “Starship Troopers,” “Fight Club,” “Minority Report,“ “iRobot,” “Panic Room” and “The Matrix” sequels.
Located in Venice, CA, PLF has been a leader in completing previs and final visual effects for film, commercial, game and music video clients. The company's previs filmography includes “Iron Man,” “Speed Racer,” “Terminator: Salvation,” “Spider-Man 3,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,” “The Last Samurai,” “Minority Report,” “The Bourne Supremecy,” “Zathura,” “Dreamgirls,” “The Ring” and many other films.
An important mission for Green and PLF over the years has been providing hands-on experience and training to young animators and designers to help cultivate and grow today’s previs artist pool. Green holds a bachelor’s degree from the Yale School of Architecture and studied graduate-level architecture and design at Harvard and MIT.
Dan Gregoire
Previsualization Society - Treasurer
Country: United States
Founder: Halon Entertainment
Company / IMDB
Daniel Gregoire began his career in 1996 as a technical director for pre-rendered adventure video games and then game cinematics. Three years later, he was tapped to help create finals visual effects shots for the animated feature “Titan A.E.” at Persistence of Vision Digital Entertainment, where he was also introduced to the previs process during the company's work on the film “Moulin Rouge.” Building on this experience, Gregoire spent four years working for George Lucas and Rick McCallum at JAK Films on “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “THX1138 – The George Lucas Director's Cut,” moving from previs artist to previs supervisor by 2001 and vfx supervisor/producer on “THX 1128” in 2003.
Following work with Steven Spielberg on sequences for the final “Star Wars” prequel, Gregoire was tapped to supervise previs for “War of the Worlds” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” His other notable collaborations include projects for directors Andrew Stanton, M. Night Shyamalan and Mark Waters and producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.
Gregoire launched his own previsualization company, HALON Entertainment, in 2003. The company's credits include “Transformers” (pre-Michael Bay), “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Ghost Rider,” “Walt Disney's Eight Below,” “Evan Almighty,” “Spider-Man 3,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” “Speed Racer,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Eagle Eye,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” “Terminator: Salvation,” “Gamer” and “Avatar.” HALON also has numerous commercial advertising and social projects to its credit.
Brian J. Pohl
Previsualization Society - Secretary
Country: United States
Senior Previs Supervisor
IMDB
Brian J. Pohl has nearly 16 years of experience as a graphic designer, visual effects artist, technical director, and previs supervisor. A veteran of George Lucas’ JAK Films’ previsualization team and Industrial Light and Magic’s art department, Pohl is credited for creating or supervising previs on over 20 films including "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002), "I, Robot" (2004) , "Open Season" (2006), "Star Trek" (2009) and "Battle: Los Angeles" (2011). Currently Pohl is teaching previsualization at Gnomon School of Visual FX and is working on a new independent venture that focuses on creating new intellectual properties for entertainment and educational materials designed to train the previs process.
