(photo by Bonnie Burton)
San Francisco Chronicle profiles legendary movie effects artist Ray Harryhausen and his poster that he signs every time he visits Industrial Light & Magic.
When one works at a special effects house, even the giant space bugs can become routine. Industrial Light & Magic in the Presidio is filled with relics from two generations worth of science fiction and fantasy films – model spaceships and dinosaurs and dozens of movie posters – that begin to fade into the background on the second or third visit.
But there’s one piece of art on the wall that few in the building take for granted: A giant print of the Cyclops from “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” with a signature scrawled on it once for every visit by the monster’s creator. It was displayed prominently in the lobby of the old ILM offices in San Rafael, and now gets a place of honor near the cast photos from each of the company’s productions.
“Every time I walk by that and see those signatures, I think, ‘This has got to be the coolest place in the world,’ ” says Tim Harrington, an animator in his mid-30s who is working on the new Indiana Jones movie. “Ray Harryhausen has been here five times.”
Read the full article:
Ray Harryhausen’s monster gift to film
[...] Profiles Legend Ray Harryhausen Brent Evans wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt(photo by Bonnie Burton). San [...]
I saw The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad along with The Lords of Flatbush during a double feature at a drive in movie theatre with my parents when I was around 5 years old.
I ended up becoming a monstrous D&D and Star Wars geek not too many years after that. I was also into superheroes, Godzilla and dinosaurs, How and Why books and all sorts of light science, science fiction and fantasy, but, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad was the closest I came in my formative years to being exposed to something that was actually close to D&D in spirit and zeitgeisst. I wonder if it was an early butterfly effect at work.
I wonder if Palpatine still rages and defeats Galactus, Superman, Gandalf, and the Borg because of this film…for there was a feedback loop between Star Wars and D&D. Indeed, in 7th grade, I combined the 2 into what I called ‘Space Age D&D’. It was essentially Star Wars characters and technology wreaking havoc on all of Greyhawk. To enter the Space Age part, the PCs entered and operated Land of the Lost-style pylons. Wacky!
Oh, such memories…but, wait.
They are anything but memories!
The present moment is as thrilling and giddifying as any prior. :O)
Paul Roe
antiaging4geeks.com
[...] The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, Jason And The Argonauts, and King Kong. …www.computercrowsnest.comSFGate Profiles Legend Ray HarryhausenSFGate Profiles Legend Ray Harryhausen February 28, 2008 photo by Bonnie Burton San Francisco [...]