There are a few spaces left in the J&M Special Effects class offered on Monday, May 19, 2008 by The ESTA Foundation. This professional-level class on special effects applications and equipment, systems, compliance, and safety will be led by Gregory Meeh, award-winning special effects designer, founder, and president of J&M Special Effects. The class takes place 2pm-8pm at J&M headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. The class is limited to 20 participants.
Gregory Meeh designs, builds, and supplies special effects for theatre, opera, dance, industrials, television, film, and print. Some recent credits include KA for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, Lord of the Rings in Toronto and London, and the Broadway productions of Grinch, Pirate Queen, Spamalot, Julius Caesar, Nine, Into The Woods, Aida, Ragtime, Showboat, An Inspector Calls (Drama Desk Award), Damn Yankees, Angels In America, Tommy, The Phantom Of The Opera, Les Misérables, and Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Eddy Award). His work also includes the television productions of Fool's Fire for American Playhouse, Late Show, Saturday Night Live, and One Life To Live.
The six-hour class will cover a wide spectrum of effects including uses of special effects in a variety of mediums from performing arts to print to TV and film. The first section of the class will cover designing special effects based on hundreds of images and drawings from Meeh’s 35 years of special effects design. He will comment on and discuss the techniques and applications used to realize the needs of many types of productions, from the Off Broadway originations of Broadway hits to major Las Vegas hotel venues to fashion shows, auto shows, and daytime television.
Demonstrations and discussions will follow about the tools used to create the following effects: confetti and snow, water effects, atmospherics, wind, firearms, flames, and pyrotechnics. Each technical section will include experienced J&M technicians expert in the area and will include examples of functioning equipment as well as applicable safety information.
The day, which includes a light dinner, will end in classic J&M style, with a bang. Attendees of the class will be invited to an outdoor pyrotechnic (indoor in inclement weather) demonstration to display the variety and functionality of pyrotechnics.
Each participant will receive a binder with class outline, specification sheets and diagrams, references, and space for notes. The fee for the class is $395 including dinner, $295 for members of ESTA, IATSE, and USITT.