Posted by R90 Lighting on May 25th 2020
Extreme Realism Pre-Viz Contest Winners
The time has come to finally announce the winners of this years Extreme Realism Pre-Vis Contest! Due to the quarantine and a severe sense of reality loss, it took us a little longer than we had hoped to get these contest entries judged and ranked. This is partially because we have no idea what day or month it is anymore, but primarily it's because of the sheer unexpected volume of submissions that we received. Suddenly we faced the EXTREMEly difficult task of ranking each contest entry. Luckily, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to invest the time and energy needed to carefully examine each entry for the level of realistic quality that we had outlined in the contest.
Each entry was reviewed by a number of judges here at R90 Lighting. Our brilliant master electrician Terra Duggan placed the paperwork of each entry under a microscope to make sure the utmost quality level's were achieved.
This would be as good a time as ever to give a warm shout out to Flavio Menis. We loved your unashamed style of paperwork. You have no idea how many of our designs were drawn out on napkins or paper plates in bars using condiments! We didn't love it enough to consider it a winning submission, but good on you all the same!
(Absolutely brilliant!)
The actual pre-vis presentations were reviewed by a team of our very own show leads, lighting designers, and one disgruntled operations manager to make sure that each entry received a fair shake from a wide range of industry backgrounds. These brave individuals included Rachid Schultz, Davis Alexander, Josh Fulcer, James McKenna, and our very own evil genius and contest brain-child Joe Cole, the owner of this flaming circus known as R90 Lighting.
Pre-vis entries were judged based upon the following criteria: Technical understanding/programming ability, timing, color choice, and music selection. The winners were selected based upon how well all of these elements were combined to forge a solid final product.
It is our absolute pleasure to announce the winners of this years Extreme Realism Pre-Viz Contest!
The winner for best pre-vis lighting presentation goes to Michael Berger! We collectively felt that Michael's pre-vis presentation stood out above the rest of the contest submissions. It was both thick as steak and smooth as butter. His programming, color choice, and song choice all flowed together in a fluid manner as if they were made for each other. It is for that reason that we decided that Michael Berger would be this years winner for pre-vis entries.
Please check out his submission below. I think you'll agree that he did a phenomenal job working within the parameters of the contest!
(Music Credit: Payson Lewis, Lighting Design: Michael Berger)
As a result of his tremendous victory in this competition, Michael will be taking home the following contest loot:
(1) American DJ Vertigo Hex LED
(1) Magic Dongle Full compliments of Chamsys
(1) Swag package compliments of Elation Lighting and ADJ.
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Now, on to the winner for the Extreme Realism Pre-Viz Contest paperwork portion of the competition. It's one thing to create a dazzling pre-vis performance on your computer, but what good is it if it's impossible to actually build? For some reason we assumed that whoever won one half of the contest might come up short when it came to the other half.
We were wrong.
Congratulations to Michael Berger for successfully beating out the rest of the competition with his paperwork submission. Of course, this means that he wins an additional American DJ Vertigo Hex LED, a second helping of swag from Elation Lighting and ADJ, and a Robe PATT desk lamp compliments of Robe Lighting.
Honestly, it's sort of the best turnout anyway. We know how important symmetry is in lighting design. Think of how EXTREME your set up will be with not one, but TWO Vertigo Hex LEDs! ¡Muy caliente!
If you'd like to see Michael's EXTREME paperwork, here's a zip file containing all of the submitted pdfs.
Congratulations again on your conquest of the Extreme Realism Pre-Viz Contest! If you'd like to check out what Michael is working on, check his work out at:
Instagram - @mlbergerld
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/
Website - www.innovativeintensity.com
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As for the second place submissions. We were convinced that only one person was capable of winning both sides of this contest. There's no way that two people could dominate the competition so completely.
Again, we were wrong. I think it qualifies as a theme now.
Congratulations to Erik McCandless for his second place victory of both the pre-vis performance as well as the paperwork submission. For his EXTREME achievement in demonstrating his lighting prowess, he will walk away with:
(2) 8" Mirror Balls
(1) Swag package compliments of Elation Lighting and ADJ.
(1) Magic Dongle Basic compliments of Chamsys.
Please check out Erik's submission below:
(Music Credit:YourVoice. Lighting Design: Erik McCandless.)
As you can see, it was a tough decision between the winners. I'd like to take the time to give Erik a special nod for the camera angle additions to his pre-vis presentation. Way to go the extra mile for production quality!
You can check out Erik's paperwork submission that also netted him second place in that category here (zip file).
If you'd like to check out what Erik is all about, please do so:
Instagram: @erikmccandless
website: www.mccandlesslighting.com
Enjoy those dual mirror balls!
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There were two runner-ups in each category that we felt deserved honorable mention, as well as some EXTREME swag for their efforts. All runner-up winners will receive:
(1) Misprinted and randomly sized Anti Lighting Lighting Club hoodie courtesy of the fabled Christian Jackson.
(1) Swag package compliments of Elation Lighting and ADJ.
(1) Magic Dongle Basic compliments of Chamsys.
Pre-vis presentation runner-ups:
(Music Credit: Corpo Docenti. Lighting design: Flavio Menis
You can check out what Flavio is up to:
Instagram: @flavio.menis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzaGtBAt7XALQTg0EDsZjAg
(Music Credit: Maze. Lighting design: Zacharie Filteau.)
You can check out what Zacharie is up to:
Instagram: @zachariefilteau.dwg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010442479794
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For the paperwork runner-up winners, we have the following:
Josh Lowenstein. You can view his paperwork submission here (zip file). I'd like to add that Josh had some pretty cool programming ideas for his previs submission, and it's worth checking out. Here it is.
You can check out what Josh is all about:
Instagram: @joshlowenstein.ld
Website: lionlightingdesign.com
Marcel Goetting. You can view his paperwork submission here (zip file). Also, please have a look at Marcel's pre-vis. Here it is.
You can check out what Marcel is all about:
Instagram: @capture.lite_productions
Website: capture-lite.webflow.io
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And so that concludes this year's Covid-19 sponsored Extreme Realism Pre-Viz Contest! Thanks to everyone who submitted to this competition. We feel it was a resounding success!
A big shout-out to the event sponsors!
We hope you've enjoyed participating in this contest as much as we've enjoyed sitting at home eating ice cream for breakfast for the last two months. Thanks, global pandemic.
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You can be as cool as Christian Jackson and follow R90 Lighting:
Instagram: @r90.lighting
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/R90lighting/
Website: r90lighting.com
We hope to see you all for whatever global catastrophe happens next year! Once again, thank you to everyone for making this competition a huge success! See you on the next one!