6 new members in the Science and Technology Council of the Academy

David Ayer, Rod Bogart, Theo Gluck, Leslie Iwerks, Colette Mullenhoff and Jeff Taylor have accepted invitations to join the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, bringing the Council’s 2018–2019 membership roster to 25.

Ayer is a director, producer and screenwriter whose credits include “Bright,” “Suicide Squad,” “Fury,” “Sabotage,” “End of Watch,” “Street Kings” and “Harsh Times.” He also wrote screenplays for several acclaimed features, including “S.W.A.T.,” “Dark Blue,” “Training Day,” “The Fast and the Furious” and “U-571.” Ayer is the co-founder of the independent studio Cedar Park Entertainment. He became a member of the Academy’s Directors Branch in 2017.

Bogart is an imaging science technologist who has worked for such companies as Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar and HBO. At ILM, he was instrumental in the design, implementation and deployment of the industry standard OpenEXR image format, which is at the core of ACES (Academy Color Encoding System). As the lead color scientist at Pixar, he pioneered file-based workflows with Pixar’s image mastering team and contributed to the design of the system that became the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Interoperable Master Format (SMPTE IMF). Bogart is a member of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch, SMPTE and the Visual Effects Society (VES).

A 28-year veteran with Walt Disney Studios, Gluck is the director of library restoration and preservation. Since 2004, he has guided the studio’s restoration program and coordinated the digitization and preservation of a significant portion of the nitrate negatives on the studio’s classic animated features and shorts. During his tenure at Disney, he was part of the post-production team for Disney Character Voices International, and prior to that was the manager of film operations for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Gluck is an Academy Member-at-Large and serves on Science and Technology Council’s committees for technology history and education and public programs.

Director-producer Iwerks earned an Oscar^® nomination for the documentary short “Recycled Life” and an Emmy^® nomination for “The Pixar Story.” For more than a decade, she has produced, directed and edited feature and short documentaries, television specials, tributes, corporate films and digital content. Other credits include “Citizen Hearst,” “Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible,” “The Hand behind the Mouse – The Ub Iwerks Story,” and such environmental and social issue documentaries as “Pipe Dreams” and “Downstream.” She is a member of the Academy’s Documentary Branch, the Producers Guild of America and the International Documentary Association.

Mullenhoff is a research and development engineer at Industrial Light & Magic. In 2014, she was recognized with an Academy Technical Achievement Award for her contributions to the ILM Shape Sculpting System. Her software has been used in the production of numerous films, including “Ready Player One,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” She became a member of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch in 2017.

Taylor is chief engineer of post production at Universal Studios, where he invented MediaSeal, serving as the product director and receiving three additional patents. He has designed numerous multi-audio-format re-recording stages (Atmos, DTS-X, IMAX), ADR and Foley rooms, screening theaters and Universal’s BluWave Audio facility. In his 38-year career, he also worked for The Droid Works, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., where he wrote software for and trained editors on the EditDroid picture editing system; consulted on the digital technology transformation of the animation department at Walt Disney Pictures Animation Group; and was an early pioneer of the SDDS system at Sony Pictures. Taylor is a member of the Academy’s Sound Branch, Audio Engineering Society (AES), SMPTE and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The Council co-chairs for 2018–2019 are Wendy Aylsworth and Visual Effects Branch governor Craig Barron.

The Council’s 17 other returning members are Academy president John Bailey, Nafees Bin Zafar, Maryann Brandon, Rob Bredow, Annie Chang, Bill Corso, Douglas Greenfield, Rob Hummel, Andrea Kalas, Academy governor John Knoll, Ai-Ling Lee, Beverly Pasterczyk, Cary Phillips, Douglas Roble, Leon Silverman, Academy governor Michael Tronick and Steve Yedlin.

Established in 2003 by the Academy’s Board of Governors, the Science and Technology Council provides a forum for the exchange of information, promotes cooperation among diverse technological interests within the industry, sponsors publications, fosters educational activities, and preserves the history of the science and technology of motion pictures.