Former Ripon Grammar School student Mark Hills has added an Oscar to the Emmy award that he received last year.
Computer expert Mr Hills and and his colleague Jim Vanns, were rewarded for their work with creative studio Framestore, on the design and engineering of FQ – a technology-based management tool utilised by movie makers.
The pioneering system has been used for the rendering of images that feature in more than 120 films, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Mark Hills pictured at last year’s Emmy Awards.
The development of FQ was recognised at the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards for advancing the art of filmmaking and 42-year-old, Mr Hills, who left RGS in 1999 to study computer science at university, dedicated his Technical Achievement Award to his parents Greta and Peter, who live in Sharow.
Barbara Ford Grant, chair of the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, pointed out:
“Unlike the Oscars recognising the year in cinema, the Sci-Tech awards are unique in that they cover achievements that can take a decade or more of invention, refinement, engineering, and evolution to be recognised.”
The technical awards were presented ahead of last night’s Oscars in a ceremony held in February at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Last year Mr Hills won an Emmy award for his involvement in the creation of a ground-breaking audio production system credited with revolutionising the television industry.
The system has been used in the production of innovative soundtracks for hit TV series such as The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit, The Flight Attendant and Line of Duty.
Emmy award for former Ripon Grammar School student
Former Ripon Grammar School (RGS) student Mark Hills has won an Emmy award for his work in creating an audio production system credited with revolutionising the television industry.
The computer expert and his business partner Marc Bacos created the ground-breaking system used in the production of innovative soundtracks for hit TV series such as The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit, The Flight Attendant and Line of Duty.
The pair received their Emmys at a glitzy award ceremony in Beverley Hills and afterwards Mr Hills said that receipt of the small screen equivalent of an Oscar had come ‘completely out of the blue.’
He added:
“It’s great that as a technologist these awards are within reach. We hadn’t had any previous contact with the Television Academy.
“The judges seemed to be really impressed with what we had done.”
Their Cleanfeed system, which works for radio, TV and film, connects studios together so that the quality sounds as if it’s all being recorded in the same room.
Mr Hills, whose parents Peter and Greta live in Sharow, pointed out:
“We made this kind of technology accessible in a way it wasn’t before.”
The 41-year-old, who left RGS in 1999 to study computer science at university, is no stranger to awards.
In 2014, he was part of a large team at British visual effects company Framestore which won both the Oscar and Bafta for best visual effects for the film Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.