Ronald Lee Martin

articleissues|autobiography=August 2008|orphan=August 2008|A significant contributor to the field of television and film post production engineering,Ronald (Ron) Martin has contributed some of the most crucial developments to today's entertainment industry. Moving through multiple generations of engineering technology, and working with teams of manufacturing and user developed processes, Ron aided the development of home video entertainment on a mass scale, help lead the way for computerized special effects, developed many of the film-to-video transfer protocols, and assisted in the development of digital cinema standardization and mastering for theatrical films. cite

Jerry Pierce, Universal Studios [http://www.jerrypierce.com/Jerry_Pierce/Bio_Resume.html] Francis Gyermek, Twentieth Century Fox [http://center.spoke.com/info/p3bSZKf/FrancisGyermek] Orly Kroh, Deluxe Digital Studios

Biography

Early life and education

Ronald Lee Martin was born on August 10, 1955 at the Kaiser Maternity Hospital in Hollywood, California to Harmon and Madeline and Martin. He was the youngest of six half-siblings and one full brother. Ron grew up in the San Fernando Valley, where he went to school and worked until moving to Simi Valley in 1978.

In High School, he was introduced to the art of architectural drafting and design, where his teacher entered him in a local design contest; The entry won third place the contest, and he was hired by the architect Alex Miller on the spot. Ron designed several custom homes, including Nancy Sinatra's house, the local chain of Denny’s restaurants and the Hilton hotel at Los Angeles International Airport. Ron married his High School sweetheart, Lauren Pendergraft in 1977 and moved to Simi Valley in 1978.

Career

The Chief Engineer at NBC, who was a family friend, introduced Ron to the world of television engineering. After taking a few engineering courses, Ron left architectural design and accepted a job at a small independent station, KHOF, where he worked for nine months before moving on to ABC in 1978.

Within eighteen months, Ron had advanced from his entry level position to Senior Post Production Engineer, all the while deepening his interest in the field of post production. Rapid changes were underway as computers replaced manual editing practices; the industry was in flux and ripe for innovation.

The newly invented microprocessor made possible the integration of various forms of technology, providing ample opportunity for Ron to do extensive research and development, which eventually led to his participation in the creation of two computer-controlled editing systems: the CMX-300 and the Mach I.

In 1981, Ron left ABC to work for Merv Griffin at Merv‘s post production studio, Trans American Video (TAV). This is where Ron was first introduced to working with film and the telecine systems that transfer optical images to video. This was also where Ron contributed to the early development of digital special effects, and was instrumental in the development of various systems that manipulate video imagery. He was among the first to make use of the new Paint Box, which produced digital effects and which he utilized to create the first special effects ever used for the Academy Awards Show.

Working at Compact Video, beginning in 1985, Ron developed the memory technologies for digitally manipulating color images from film to video. He combined his knowledge of architectural design with his understanding of film editing and created a state-of-the-art control room which allowed the operator to sit in a panoramic setting with the controls easily accessible. At the time, this was an innovation however, today it is considered the only acceptable way to build a telecine bay.

While at Compact Video, Ron was heavily involved with the Rank Corporation to develop the Ursa, which was the first fully digital telecine machine in the world. Ron designed and built six telecine rooms for the company and was one of the first to utilize fully digital videotape recordings for mastering and broadcast.

In 1987, Ron moved to The Post Group and designed the first completely digital editing bays and telecine bays in the industry. Additionally, it was here that Ron devised the method for editing twenty-four frame video to follow film editing.

Ron moved to Universal Studios in 1993 as Chief Engineer. He was charged with the task of involving the Studio in developing the high definition television standard for the United States, which was lagging behind Japan in this technology at the time. He researched and standardized the HDTV format as a mastering and distribution format for Studio movies and created an on-site post production facility for the studio. Eventually, Universal boasted one of the first and only successful high definition telecine operations in the industry.

In addition, during these years, Ron contributed to the development of the DVD movie format, the digital cinema model for mastering, and the digital intermediate process for film production.

Ron served as Vice President of Engineering at Universal for 12 years and in 2004 the operation he managed, with some 85 employees, was sold to Deluxe Digital Studios, where he is currently serving as Vice President. While at Deluxe, Ron has worked on industry teams to develop Digital Cinema distribution models and the Blu-Ray DVD format, as well as DLP projector and television technologies.

Among Ron‘s creative contributions can be numbered the special effects of multiple movies, museums, and theme parks.

References

Rebecca McCullough Jerry Pierce Orly Kroh Lauren Martin

External links

[http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/video_mtis_intellideck_software/] [http://www.bydeluxe.com/about_news_details.php?news=17]