March 13, 2013 - Vol 4, Issue13

This year's Oscar for Best Visual Effects was won by Life of Pi, which depicted a digital Bengal tiger and other effects worked on by Scott Vosbury a Downingtown 2000 graduate. Scott graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in film and animation, and works for Rhythm & Hues, a character animation and visual effects studio in Los Angeles.

 

"We helped bring him from a bunch of polygons to a living, breathing tiger, interacting with the title character of the film," Vosbury says. "It was absolutely wonderful to win. I surprisingly got a little emotional. It is nice to see something that you worked on for so long get some amazing recognition, and it was compounded by being surrounded by hundreds of coworkers experiencing the same joy."

 

 

When asked by DASD what teachers helped him along the way, Scott responded, "I might have to go through a yearbook to remember all my amazing teachers that helped me along my way, but Mr Diehl, a photography teacher at DHS back in 1999-2000 was instrumental in getting me in front of the school first Digital Editing Set Ups before the school had a curriculum for it. I've heard its a standard part of the technology curriculum now, but back in 1999, it was pretty ground breaking. I was able to use the school video editing set up, as well as a Hi-8 camcorder, to shoot a short documentary about the cheer squad competing in a cheer competition. I was on the squad (D-Dog from '99-'00) and I had to make a short film for my NYU film school application. Mr Diehl set me up with everything I needed and granted me access to the editing system whenever I wanted.  My video turned out great and I think the squad was able to use it to get accepted into the Walt Disney World Christmas/Holiday Parade down in Florida. The video also won the prize for the best documentary at the first ever DHS Film Festival (probably because it was the onlydocumentary)"

 

Scott worked as a lead digital compositor for the film with a team responsible for scenes involving Pi being stranded at sea, animal attacks and flying fish. "It's my job to take all the elements and assets from every other department and seamlessly integrate them on screen. It's my job to make you believe the unbelievable." An actual tiger was used in 24 of the 170 shots in the movie, but the animation is so lifelike, it isn't obvious which tiger image is real or not. "We were able to hold ourselves to a higher standard," Vosbury says. "We needed to make a tiger where you couldn't tell the difference between the real one and the computer generated one."

ART GOES TO SCHOOL invites you to join us in this program that brings art appreciation to elementary schools in the DASD. Our volunteers make fine art accessible to elementary school students; in our presentations, we encourage the pupils to "look, listen, and feel" art.

 

Cave art? We've got it! Monet, Matisse, Picasso? We've got them! Sculpture, photography, masks? Got that too! Wyeths and prints of Philadelphia Mural Arts? Yup, we do local, too! We've always presented works by the Wyeth family - next year we'll be presenting prints from the Philadelphia Mural Arts program, as one of our newest initiatives.

 

Art Goes to School is a non-profit volunteer organization; our DASD Chapter is one of 52 chapters throughout the Delaware Valley. Our annual portfolio pulls from over 900 different prints by over 300 different artists in our presentations. We present a wide variety of art to our students - almost like bringing a museum to the art classroom!

 

AGTS gives you the opportunity to meet others who share your interest in art and education through this valuable enrichment program. There is no need for prior teaching experience or an art education background. We'll teach you what you need to know, through informative workshops and lectures, then you'll take what you learn in these gatherings and, in your own style, share your knowledge with 2nd through 5th grade students. Scheduling is very flexible and can easily fit your needs. If you would like to visit a classroom and see ART GOES TO SCHOOL in action, please contact Anne Suss (610-269-6481) for a schedule of classes. You can also email us at annesuss@hotmail.com.

  

• Kelly Jo Davis - Human Resources Dept. - will be honored at the American Payroll Association's 31st Annual Congress. Kelly Jo was selected to receive the Citation of Merit recogition for contributions to the payroll profession through participation on the Government Affairs Task Force. 
• Springton Manor Elementary held its 5th Annual Jump rope for Heart event.  Congratulations to the teachers, parents and students for their great support and efforts in raising over $13,500 for the fight against heart disease and stroke.  That puts the five year total for Springton Manor at $50,000.  
• West Bradford Music teacher Valerie Crescenz added another publication to her impressive catalog of choral, vocal, instumental and chamber music.  "To Everything There is a Season" premiered at the Pennsylvania Music Educators District 12 ElementarySongFest.  

• The American Classic League has accepted the proposal of Downingtown West Latin teacher, Christine Meyer, to give a 60 minute presentation at its annual institute in June. The presentation will introduce a method of learning that the DW Latin students have mastered. The convention draws Latin teachers and professors from around the world. 

• On Saturday March 2nd, Shashank Bhargava and Sharika Bamezai traveled to Penn State to take a knowledge test and be interviewed as potential candidates for FBLA state officer.

  Both of them qualified for candidacy: Shashank will be running for State Parliamentarian and Sharika is running for State Secretary. Elections will be held at the State Leadership Conference in April. Good Luck to both!

• STEM Academy Juniors, Jonathan Yahr, Jeffrey Wang, and John George Armstrong participated in Drexel University's Innovation Generation Competition this past weekend. They were placed into separate teams with three students from other schools for the competition. Jonathan Yahr and his team's innovation idea won 1st place! The team designed a pillow that would detect the REM sleep cycle through a series of electronic devices placed inside the pillow. Each student on Jonathan's team won an iPad.

• Meghana Bhimasani, a senior at Downingtown East has been named one of more than 3,000 candidates in the 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. The candidates were selected from nearly 3.4 million students expected to graduate from United States high schools in the year 20113.

• Tel Hai Retirement Community Art Show:

  The Downingtown East Art Department is very proud to announce the amazing success our art students achieved at this year's annual Tel Hai Art Show. This year 2 juried artists judged the show in various categories. The winners of the juried portion of the show are:

  1st place - Ceramics and Glass - Nicole Kirshner - Super Nova

  2nd place - Ceramics and Glass- Colleen Gegeckas - Stepping Sideways

  1st place - Ceramics and Glass 11-12 - Elena White - Autumns Dead

  1st place - Design - Heather Nelson - Shining Star

  1st place - Drawing - Chloe DeVitis - The Ballerina

  1st place - Mixed Media - Jessie Potts - The future is calling

  1st place - Painting - Natalie Alvaro - Eyes

  2nd place - Painting - Tessa Butler - Ulysses

  1st place - Photography - Renee Lassow - Tree

  1st place - Jewelry - Steph Galliera - Aztec Queen

  1ST Place - Sculpture - Shannon Hiscock - Black Dog

  The Public also had the opportunity to vote to choose the overall winners of the entire show. Downingtown East art students took all three wins in the public vote category.

  Congratulations to all of the winners

  1st place Taeyoung Chang

  2nd place - Chloe Devitis

  3rd place - Shannon Hiscock

• Two more sopranos from Downingtown East were just called up to represent us at Region Choir.  Anne Dooley and Emily Goodrich will be joining Heather McConnell, Jackson May, Danielle Rodgers, and Steven Harding.