Future Media Concepts calls on epic storyteller Stephen Rivkin to chronicle his stereoscopic journey through Pandora at Europe's largest broadcast exhibition

New York, NY ‘ July 29, 2010 ‘ Future Media Concepts (FMC), the premier authorized digital media training organization for post-production, broadcast, and content creators, has announced that Oscar-nominated Avatar editor, Stephen Rivkin, will be the keynote speaker at their first-ever IBC Digital Media Training Workshops, held from Saturday 11 ‘ Sunday 12 September amid the IBC 2010 Conference.
Rivkin’s feature editing career began in 1979 with the low budget romantic comedy The Personals. Soon thereafter, he worked on a variety of TV movies and a mixture of comedy and action films, including Robin Hood: Men in Tights for director Mel Brooks, four films for director Norman Jewison, including: The Hurricane starring Denzel Washington; the action-thriller Swordfish with John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry;and Michael Mann’s bio pic Ali, starring Will Smith. Rivkin achieved monumental success editing the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise from 2003-2007, including two Eddie Award nominations and a win. His career reached new heights in 2009 with BAFTA and Oscar nominations alongside James Cameron and John Refoua for his revolutionary work on Avatar, the highest-grossing motion picture of all time. Rivkin will discuss the 2 ½-year challenge he faced while editing Avatar, and present various clips thattouch on Performance Capture, Virtual Cameras, 3D, and the stages of shot development and finishing that brought this film to life.

“From start to finish, Avatar was the biggest creative challenge I’ve ever faced – but it opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities of filmmaking. Its groundbreaking techniques continue to revolutionize the industry and the IBC Digital Media Training Workshops gives me a fantastic opportunity to share my experiences with industry peers. I look forward to demonstrating the evolution of Avatar with attendees, and am excited to be part of this world-class international event,” says Rivkin.

“We are excited to present post-professionals with the new IBC Digital Media Training Workshops,” comments Ben Kozuch, co-founder, president and workshop chair, FMC. “As always, we wanted to provide our attendees with a keynote speaker that had a deep understanding of the industry’s latest innovations. As the 3D trend continues to grow and infiltrate new mediums, we felt it would make sense to find someone familiar with stereoscopic filmmaking. Stephen is the ‘best of the best’… he worked alongside one of the greatest minds in the industry, James Cameron, to edit what has now revolutionized moviemaking. We are thrilled to welcome him to our newest training event.”
 
Rivkin’s keynote address, titled: “Editing Avatar: The Creative Challenges,” will be delivered on Saturday 11 September 2010 at the RAI, Amsterdam in the Emerald Room. It is scheduled to begin promptly at 10:30AM and conclude at 11:30AM. For additional speaker information, please visit: http://www.ibc.org/page.cfm/link=299.
 

The IBC Digital Media Training Workshops Details

Working closely with IBC, FMC is bringing their world-class training methodology to the industry’s preeminent broadcasting event. Held at the RAI, Amsterdam; the 2-day training event will be lead by FMC’s industry Certified Instructors, power users, authors and thought-leaders, offering advanced technical training for editors, producers and directors on today’s most popular applications from Apple ®, Avid ® and Adobe ®. Its session tracks span a vast range of current industry topics, including the advantages of digital editing, eye-popping motion graphics and 3D production techniques, HDSLR production technology. Invaluable certification opportunities are also available for interested participants.

For more information about The IBC Digital Media Training Workshops, including a full-schedule and registration details, please visit:http://www.ibc.org/training.