An update on the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

This paper is another installment in a long line of presentations before this Society, describing the technical activities of a transitory and migrating entity known by such names as the Producers-Technicians Committee, the Academy Research Council, the Motion Picture Research Center, the Technology Council, and now the Academy Science and Technology Council. First discussed in a paper delivered to the Society of Motion Picture Engineers-no "T" in there yet-in 1929 by famed producer and visionary Irving Thalberg, and most recently before SMPTE in 1998 by visual effects pioneer and Academy governor Jonathan Erland, the "'Council" has been an integral and important part of the motion picture industry's evolution as an art form and the dominant out-of-home group entertainment medium. This paper reviews the history behind the Council and provides an update on its current activities.