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Published on 03/25/1996 All articles from this issue

Los Altos resident's camera wins a Hollywood Oscar

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

While working with Mountain View-based CEI Technology as a consultant and designer, Hazem Nabulsi literally grabbed the spotlight. He developed a small camera that has revolutionized the filmmaking industry and earned him an Oscar.Nabulsi, of Los Altos, and the owners of CEI Technology received the Technical Achievement Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for inventing a self-contained, flicker-free color video assist camera. The award was presented March 2 at the Academy Awards ceremony for technical achievements. The big-name ceremony for actors and movies was held Monday.The camera was introduced in "Apollo 13" and is now used in 80 percent of the films today, Nabulsi said. The tiny video camera is attached to the movie camera and makes a picture of everything the movie camera sees. The difference is the film in the movie camera has to be developed and time is lost. With Nabulsi's camera you can see the action immediately, saving a day's production."When feature movies cost more than $25 million to make, this camera can save them a mint," Nabulsi said. "The camera costs between $8,000 and $10,000, but it's worth it because it saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in production time."Nabulsi, an engineer, works on video products and video cameras. He has worked on scrambling and de-scrambling techniques for surveillance systems for government agencies. He is presently consulting for Macro Vision in Sunnyvale. "When my husband's name was announced by presenter Richard Dreyfus, I was on such a high," said Nabulsi's wife Debra. "Then when Hazem stood up there and thanked me for putting up with his long working hours I broke out in tears. "It was such an honor to see him get his Oscar."Nabulsi is currently spending as much free time as possible on the ski slopes. He said he loves the fresh air and the serenity of the mountains. Along with the exercise, he said it gives him time to think about what he'll do to earn his next award.