John Lasseter, Pixer & Disney Imagineering
The Producers Guild of America (PGA), a non-profit trade group that represents, protects and promotes the interests of producing teams in film, television, and new media, commissioned Bennett Awards to create a new custom award design for their inaugural Digital V.I.P Awards. These new recognition awards honor producers who have made significant contributions to the advancement of digital entertainment and storytelling over the past year.
These achievement awards demonstrate the PGA’s strong commitment to new media that is unique among the major entertainment guilds.
The PGA created three unique categories for these achievement awards:
VISIONARIES honor those who have brought forth new ideas about the creative application of technology to advance storytelling across all media. The 2012 recipients of the VISIONARY award were Jim Carrey, John Raatz, and Eckhart Tolle of The Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment (GATE); and Bruce Sterling, multi award winning science fiction author, for his influence upon technology as it relates to storytelling, and in co-founding the cyberpunk movement.
INNOVATORS recognize those who have developed new methods or technology that enables the production of storytelling. The 2012 recipients of the INNOVATOR award were Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the Co-Founders of Instagram; Bill Westenhofer, Academy Award-winning VFX supervisor for Rhythm & Hues Studios, for LIFE OF PI; and Ed Ulbrich (Digital Domain), Philip Atwell (Geronimo Productions), Dylan Brown (The Yard Entertainment), Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre for Virtual 2Pac.
PRODUCERS spotlight those who have created content whose reach, execution and influence have advanced the audience experience. The 2012 recipients of the PRODUCERS award were the Disney Imagineering team and developers of Disney’s Cars Land; Louis C.K., Emmy Award-winning stand-up comedian, writer, director, actor and producer, for his show “Louie” and re-engineering the role of artist in entertainment distribution; Ben Donovan, Danny Zappin and Lisa Donovan of Maker Studios, for pioneering the online multichannel network; and Conan O’Brien, Emmy Award-winning television host and comedian, for the “Team Coco” digital experience.
Award honorees were selected by the PGA Digital VIP Committee, in conjunction with PGA President Mark Gordon and a distinguished list of Industry Advisory Board members. These custom awards were presented to recipients at the inaugural Digital V.I.P awards gala, held April 11, 2013, at Elon Musk’s mansion in Bel Air, California.
Bennett Awards worked closely with the PGA to create a new custom award design that captured the essence of these awards. The pewter sculpture awards are based on an abstract, curving lightning bolt that represents the spirit and spark of innovation. One side of the lightning bolt is smooth, signifying the “clean sheet” upon which ground-breaking innovations are borne, while the other features a series of 1’s and 0’s imprinted in the metal, signifying the binary code that is one of the key building blocks of new media. The pewter sculptures are mounted on black marble bases with personalized engraving of the award name, year of presentation, and recipient information. A closer view of this custom award design can be seen at: "PGA Digital V.I.P. Awards".
The Producers Guild of America is the non-profit trade group that represents, protects and promotes the interests of all members of the producing team in film, television and new media. The PGA has over 5,000 members who work together to protect and improve their careers, the industry and community by facilitating members health benefits, encouraging enforcement of workplace labor laws, the creation of fair and impartial standards for the awarding of producing credits, as well as other education and advocacy efforts. The PGA hosts important industry events including the annual PGA Awards and the Produced By Conference. More information on the PGA can be found at their website: www.producersguild.org.
