At the first presentation of the Academy Awards this year, 20 computer geeks graciously accepted honors for their work on simulation technology of particle fluxes - stuff that makes the water scenes in movies look more realistic.With an end to the writers' strike in sight, and the prospect of a reassuring style of the Oscars ceremony on the minds of everyone most of the industry, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts kept its Scientific and Technical Awards Saturday evening dinner charm as glamorous as ever. A magician provided that the meal Pre-Show, Jessica Alba has shown so far prices - and to be gawked - nerddom and was regarded as something to celebrate.
"Fluid effects rock and all those of us who work in fluids know," an honoree, Nafees Bin Zafar, said seriously.
With all the writing for the show directed by an Academy director who is not part of the Writers Guild, picket lines were nowhere to be seen. And even though the three-month strike by Hollywood writers was not mentioned once by the Winners of the Academy Sid Ganis was president vertigo before a meal on the prospects for a settlement over the weekend and a green light to a real Oscar ceremony on February 24.
The organizers were forced to prepare for two Oscars shows - one with writers and stars and one without.
"Fortunately, I will make a call on my cell phone from those involved in all this," Ganis said. "If we have a go, then I will call the (TV producer) Gil (Cates) immediately . ... I can not wait. So I hope we can say "Plan A."
Jessica Alba was visibly pregnant in a frilly white dress as she nimbly resumed its way through a script laden with difficult technical references as "semi-Lagrangian" (this is a mathematical process used in special effects software that simulates clouds gas).
The star of "The Eye" has been the subject of several sidelong glances clumsy winners, all but one of them were male.
"For a computer geek like me, it's really sexy Jessica to hear of stability, semi-Lagrangian fluid flows," equipped with Duncan Brinsmead Autodesk, which develops tools for visual effects.
"They said I had 60 seconds so I can simply pass the latest achievement of 15 I am 10 feet of the most beautiful woman on the planet," said Ron Fedkiw, a Stanford University associate professor and consultant for Industrial Light and Magic on fluid simulation. "And any injunction this time."
Other winners have been wiser. Honored for the invention of pint-sized machines fog, Jorg Pohler remained silent, as if reading Rudiger Kleinke's Penn Teller. While Kleinke read an acceptance speech, smiled Pohler sublime as clouds of smoke wafted up from inside a tuxedo.
Screens at the ballroom of the Beverly Wilshire hotel display clips of movies that have used the honored technologies, including "Happy Feet", "Poseidon" and "Transformers". The only face of the most famous Oscar categories to make an appearance supporting actor was nominated Javier Bardem in a clip of "No Country for Old Men."
Make-up artist Christien Tinsley has developed the "Tinsley Transfer" process of self-adhesive Bardem marks that have shown his face bloody and beaten in the film.
Most of the winners received certificates, plaques or a medallion; only two real Oscars are handed over. The Eastman Kodak Company has received a statuette for its widely used Vision2 color negative film, and David Grafton got a genius for his glasses used to create special effects for movies including "Ghostbusters" and "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back . "
