As the pop culture awards season is in full swing, a woman formerly from Schuylkill County is among those garnering recognition for her work on SyFy, ABC and Marvel television productions.
Addie Manis, a 2000 Tri-Valley graduate, has been nominated for two awards at the 14th annual Visual Effects Society Awards gala slated for Feb. 2 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
“I am lucky to be nominated twice due to VES’ decision to differentiate between ‘big’ visual effects shows, with creatures and science fiction worlds, and ‘little’ visual effects shows with more invisible or background visual effects,” said Manis, 34, who now resides in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
This year, Manis is nominated for a VES in two different categories — for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photo Real Episode for “Night Three” of the SyFy mini-series, “Childhood’s End;” and then again with a different team for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photo Real Episode for her work on “Agent Carter” for Marvel and ABC.
“I just so happened to work on one show of each type in 2015, so I am a rare person to be eligible to compete in both categories. However, ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Black Sails’ are the front runners, as they have won nearly all previous awards competitions. I am very happy to be honored and have the work my teams did this year recognized by the Visual Effects Society, regardless of who wins,” Manis said.
“For all the shows I was nominated for, I have done the same thing — my role is visual effects producer. This means that I work with the show’s writers, producers, directors and visual effects supervisors to figure out how to make the fully digital aspects of the show look great and tell the story while staying within our budget and schedule.”
Manis still has ties to the county. Her mother, Bim Angst, resides in Saint Clair, and works as senior instructor of writing at Penn State Schuylkill. Addie’s grandparents are Bud and Alice Angst, Valley View.
“Addie’s understandably pleased to be recognized by her industry,” her mother said. “It’s been quite a long time since Addie has been a visual effects technician; she’s a ‘big picture’ person who can keep a project rolling and encourage crew members to collaborate to achieve some amazing things. She’s a great ‘people person’ too, a skill that surely helps her get projects completed to high standards. So I don’t actually get to ‘see’ Addie’s work when I watch the productions she’s credited on!” Angst said.
During Manis’ work on “Agent Carter”, she was an ABC Television and Marvel TV employee, who made the show for ABC to air. While working on “Childhood’s End”, the studio she worked with was Universal Cable Productions, and the show was aired on SyFy.
“I was surprised to be nominated in both categories because the competition in television for good visuals is now both broad and deep. With so many great looking projects being made, I was surprised that both shows I produced last year were being honored. However, the supervisors, teams and vendors I worked with were top-notch and I am completely proud of the work we did together,” said Manis, a 2004 graduate of Penn State’s College of Communications, Film & Video.
Manis also served as a presenter at the 2015 Gordon Research Conferences on Visualization in Science & Education, held Aug. 2 to 7, 2015, at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.
“I spoke to the room full of scientists from various disciplines about visual storytelling and how to better communicate their research and concepts through narratives,” she said.
Manis previously won a VES for Best Visual Effect in a Broadcast Series for “Terra Nova” in 2012. In 2013, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Special and Visual Effects for her work on “Cosmos,” but lost to “Game of Thrones.”
According to the VES website, the awards celebration recognizes outstanding visual effects, artistry and innovation in film, animation, television, commercials and video games, and the supervisors, producers and hands-on artists who bring that work to life.
“I may attend the awards on February 2, schedule pending. If so, I’ll go with Andy Williams, my significant other,” Manis said.
The rest of Manis’ family includes her father, Jim Manis, Du Quoin, Illinois; sister, Nellie, and brother-in-law, Ivan, Washington, D.C.; and brother, Charles, Philadelphia.
“Addie’s in LA, but she gets home once or twice a year,” her mother said. “What’s the best part is my kids are all doing what they want to do. They did the hard work to achieve their ambitions.”