Fred Scobey

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Fred James Scobey (* 28. June 1924 in Los Angeles , † 5. June 2014 ) was an American film technicians , who at the Oscars in 1973 , 1976 and 1979 with the Oscar for technical merit ( Technical Achievement Award was awarded).

Life

His parents were Lee George Scobey († 1964) and Minnie Mae Cleary († 1987). Fred Scobey grew up in Inglewood and attended Washington High School. While still a student, he joined the United States Navy in 1941 during World War II . There he served as a radio operator on a maritime patrol that hunted submarines on the west coast of North and South America, and rose to Chief Petty Officer . In 1944 he married Doris Dolores Downs (1926-2007).

After the war, Scobey worked as a cleaner at Paramount Studios and Lookout Mountain Laboratories in Laurel Canyon (1947). He attended evening classes at the University of Southern California , earning an engineering degree.

Eventually Scobey got a job at the Deluxe General film lab, a later subsidiary of 20th Century Fox , in Hollywood . In 1949 he moved to Los Angeles, where he first lived with his family in the Van Nuys district and from 1956 in Canoga Park . From 1963 he worked for seven years on the liquidation of a New York film laboratory and its return to the Hollywood location of Deluxe. During this time he lived in New Jersey and then also moved to Hollywood.

Scobey conducted research in the field of film technology, gave lectures on his findings at conferences of the film industry and published them in the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and in the Journal of the BKSTS, among others . He filed several patents, often with David J. Degenkolb , who also worked for Deluxe General.

Scobey, Degenkolb and other employees were awarded three technical Oscars in the 1970s. In 1973, her services in the field of computer-controlled implementation and monitoring of the film development and printing process were recognized. In advance, Scobey had published, among other things, a new automatic sensitometer about the use . Other aspects of quality control were also automated in the Deluxe laboratory at this time, such as the evaluation of the results of the densitometer using an IBM System / 7 computer.

In 1976 and 1979, Scobey and co-workers also received Oscars for working out methods of recovering silver by means of ion exchange from the water bath used in film development.

Scobey was a member and interim president of the SMPTE. He was also a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (from 1974).

In 1976, Scobey was promoted to senior vice president of Deluxe General. In 1983 he moved to Technicolor Film, a film laboratory headquartered in Universal City . There he was also Senior Vice President in the International Technical Operations division. In 1992 he retired.

In 1998, Scobey and his wife moved from Hollywood to Nipomo in San Luis Obispo County, California . She died of cancer in 2007. Scobey spent the last years of his life in a senior citizens facility in Nipomo. He died in 2014 at the age of 89 from complications from his Alzheimer's disease. He left three grown children, three sons had already died before him.

Publications (selection)

  • Manfred G. Michelson, Fred J. Scobey: A New Automatic Sensitometer In: Journal of the SMPTE. Vol. 80, No. 12 (1971/12), pp. 968-969.
  • David J. Degenkolb; Harold W. Larson; Manfred G. Michelson; Fred J. Scobey: Computerized Process and Printer Control: Part I: Color Positive Developing Control and Printer Tape Preparation. In: Journal of the SMPTE. Vol. 82, No. 3 (1973/03), pp. 145-148.
  • Manfred G. Michelson, Fred J. Scobey: Computerized Process and Printer Control Part II: Printer Control. In: Journal of the SMPTE. Vol. 82, No. 8 (1973/08), pp. 662-665.
  • ML Schreiber, Robert P. Ghyori, Fred J. Scobey: Present status of silver recovery in motion-picture laboratories. In: Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Vol. 74, No. 6 (1965/06), pp. 505-513 and Vol. 81, No. 8 (1972/06), pp. 503-606.

Awards

  • 1973 : Oscar for technical merits ("for the development of a computerized motion picture printer and process control system")
  • 1976 : Oscar for technical merits ("for the development of a technique for silver recovery from photographic wash-waters by ion exchange")
  • 1979 : Oscar for technical merit ("for the development of a Method to Recycle Motion Picture Laboratory Photographic Wash Waters by Ion Exchange")

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Obituary: Fred James Scobey. In: Los Angeles Times . June 8, 2014. ( online at legacy.com );
  2. ^ Rodger J. Ross: Computerized Laboratory Control Systems. In: Cinema Canada. March 1976, pp. 12-13.
  3. ↑ Broadcasting. 23 August 1967, p. 87 ( online , PDF).
  4. ↑ News. In: SMPTE Journal. August 1983, p. 874 ( online , PDF).
personal data
SURNAME Scobey, Fred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scobey, Fred James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film technician
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 2014