Interview with Ray Harryhausen

NewImage Here's a 1974 interview with SFX pioneer and "Dynamation" inventor Ray Harryhausen, whose stop motion magic brought to life such classic films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and One Million Years BC (1967). (via Dangerous Minds)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: animation • Entertainment • harryhausen

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danimagoo

You dropped an “h”.
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Art Carnage

I got the chance to meet him briefly, back in 1981, at a preview screening of “Clash of the Titans”. Afterwards, he gave a talk on his career. He was an assistant on “King Kong”, and the had a nightmare trying to make adjustments to the model without disturbing the fur. They decided to explain the weird fur movement as Kong’s rippling muscles. Once he reached a point in his career where he could call the shots, he never again animated a fur-covered creature. He brought some props, not only from “Clash”, but other films, including one of the skeleton warriors from “Jason and the Argonauts”. It took me back to when I was nine years old, seeing the film for the first time, and being dumbfounded when the skeleton warriors emerged from the earth. Afterwards, I managed to talk to him briefly, and get his autograph. Both it and the memory of the evening are treasured.
Tralala

A better interview about stop frame animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YlEpI00ouU
puppybeard

I know of a man, a friend’s colleague, who was nuts about special effects as a teenager, to the point where his mother took it on herself to write to Harryhausen asking for advice.

He responded by having the young lad over for dinner with him and his wife. One of the things he told him was that he couldn’t simply teach him to do what he does, because every job is different, and new solutions were always needed, you need to be able to think on your toes.

Yer man ended up working on Aliens, Jurassic Park, and a bunch of other pretty flippin cool special effects jobs.
Preston Sturges

“Mars Attacks” was a loving tribute to “Earth Versus The Flying Saucers”

“20 Million Miles To Earth” is also a fine movie, and the creature sequences were well composed and edited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Million_Miles_to_Earth