Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis presenting Disney’s Pinocchio at VIEW Conference 2022

In a live presentation on stage at Torino’s OGR venue, visual effects supervisor Kevin Baillie takes the VIEW Conference audience on an eye-opening journey behind the scenes of Pinocchio, with a comprehensive analysis of the many and varied techniques used to bring the film’s unforgettable characters and fantastical worlds to life. Following this, appearing on video, Pinocchio director Robert Zemeckis discusses with Baillie his innovative approach to filmmaking, and talks about the creative journey he took to bring this new adaptation of the beloved story to the screen.

The two Pinocchio presentations are part of VIEW Conference 2022, the 23rd edition of Italy’s premiere animation, VFX, games and computer graphics conference, which takes place from October 16 to 21 in the stunning baroque city of Torino, Italy. An English language event, VIEW Conference 2022 invites industry professionals, students and enthusiasts to attend in person at Torino’s futuristic OGR venue, where our live program of talks, presentations, workshops and masterclasses promises a vibrant and inclusive atmosphere. This year most speakers are attending in person, however online access enables a global audience to enjoy the entire event via exclusive livestream.

“There is nothing more exciting than pairing up a classic story with a legendary film director,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “I am thrilled to welcome Robert Zemeckis to VIEW Conference 2022, and just as excited to welcome Kevin Baillie onto our stage to talk about Disney’s wonderful new adaptation of Pinocchio. I know that together they will knock the ball out of the park in terms of insight and inspiration.”

Purchase tickets for VIEW Conference 2022 at the official website:

https://www.viewconference.it/pages/registration 

Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Director’s Guild of American Award for Best Director for the hugely successful and popular Forrest Gump. The film’s numerous honors also included a Best Picture Oscar and for Tom Hanks, a Best Actor Oscar. Early in his career, Zemeckis co-wrote with Bob Gale and directed Back to the Future, which was the top-grossing release of 1985, and for which Zemeckis shared Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Screenplay. He then went on to helm Back to the Future, Part II and Part III, completing one of the most successful film franchises in motion picture history. 

Zemeckis has brought an impressive number of popular films to the screen including the comedies Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, the romantic adventure Romancing The Stone starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner and the macabre comedy hit Death Becomes Her starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. He also directed Who Framed Roger Rabbit? cleverly blending live-action and animation in a feature film, resulting in a worldwide box office smash. 

Zemeckis re-teamed with Hanks directing and producing the contemporary drama Cast Away which opened to critical and audience acclaim. He directed and produced Contact, starring Jodie Foster, based on the best-selling novel by Carl Sagan. He also co-wrote and directed the motion capture film The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks as a charming train conductor taking children on a magical adventure to the North Pole. Zemeckis produced and directed his second motion capture film, Beowulf which starred Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, based on one of the oldest surviving pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature, written before the 10th Century A.D. He released another advanced motion-capture film, A Christmas Carol, based on the celebrated and beloved classic story by Charles Dickens which he both wrote and directed for The Disney Studios. 

Zemeckis returned to live-action direction with the critically-acclaimed dramatic feature Flight, for Paramount Pictures starring Denzel Washington. Under the direction of Zemeckis, Washington received an Academy Award nomination for the role. For The Walk, he directed Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ben Kingsley in the story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit’s 1974 attempt to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. He then directed the romantic thriller Allied starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, telling the compelling story of the relationship between a Canadian Intelligence Officer and a French Resistance Fighter against the backdrop of WWII in North Africa in 1942. 

Along with Caroline Thompson, Zemeckis wrote the screenplay for Welcome to Marwen, which he directed for Universal Pictures. The film starred Steve Carell as artist Mark Hogancamp who created a miniature WWII-era village as a way to recover from a violent assault. He then directed The Witches for Warner Bros. Studios.

Zemeckis produced such films as The Frighteners, Monster House, Last Holiday, and as a producer brought the true life story of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson to the big screen. Along with Bob Gale, Zemeckis co-wrote Trespass. He and Gale previously wrote 1941, which began a long-time association with Steven Spielberg. For his present directorial effort, Zemeckis has completed Pinocchio which he co-wrote for The Disney Studios. The film is currently on Disney+ 

In 1998 Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke partnered to form the ImageMovers, a production company dedicated to telling character-driven stories across many genres for film and television incorporating into their both cutting-edge and innovative digital technology. For the small screen, his television directing credits include episodes of Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and HBO’s Tales From the Crypt. He serves as executive producer on Medal of Honor for Netflix and also executive produces on Blue Book for the History Channel and on Manifest for NBC and Warner Bros. Studios. 

In March 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. This state-of-the-art center is the country’s first and only fully digital training center and houses the latest in non-linear production and post-production equipment as well as stages, a 50-seat screening room and USC student-run television station, Trojan Vision.

Kevin Baillie

Kevin Baillie's visual effects career started when he joined Lucasfilm's JAK Films as a previs artist on Star Wars: Episode I at age 18. In the 25 years following, Kevin has blazed a bright path, helming visual effects at The Orphanage on features including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Night at the Museum, Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Hellboy. He supervised cutting-edge motion capture for features at ImageMovers Digital and co-founded Atomic Fiction in 2010, where the company’s outstanding work on The Walk, Allied, Flight and Welcome to Marwen garnered awards and recognition. Kevin’s visual effects supervisor credits also include two Star Trek movies, two Transformers features and, most recently, Disney’s live-action Pinocchio, another title in his long collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis. In 2018, Atomic Fiction was successfully sold to Deluxe, and Kevin now works as an independent visual effects supervisor and second unit director. Kevin is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and Directors Guild of America, and founded cloud rendering technology company Conductor.

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About VIEW Conference 2022

The international VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere event for Computer Graphics, Interactive & Immersive Media, Animation, Visual Effects, Games, Real-time Rendering, Virtual Production, AI, VR, AR, and Mixed Reality, brings top professionals from those fields to the beautiful baroque city of Torino, Italy for a week of talks, presentations, and workshops. The 2022 VIEW Conference will take place from October 16 to 21 in Torino’s state-of-the-art OGR venue, and virtually.

For more information:

https://www.viewconference.it