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ray
harryhausen fx
Many
of you don't who is Ray Harryhausen. The truth is that Ray Harryhausen
is for thousands of people the precursor of the 3D animation, so and as
we know it in the present time.
His
work in films like 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad', in 1958, or 'Jason and
the Argonauts', in 1963, with an amazing animated skeletons by the technique
known as stop motion, have made of Ray Harryhausen a living legend of
the special effects cinema. Stand out, in addition, among his films, some
like 'It came from beneath the Sea' or Clash of Titans'.
We
have spoken with Ray on his beginnings, his training, the stop motion,
'King Kong', the film that wake up his passion for the cinema, the effects
in the 60s and nowadays, ...
El
Portal del 3D y la Animación - First of all, ¿how
do you feel when you are the pioneer of the Animation, as we know this
nowadays?
Ray
Harryhausen - I'm not actually the
founder of the Animation. Willis O'Brien was the father of the Animation
in America. There people in Europa who also do the Animation in the early
days, like George Méliès, and there was any people who work
with stop motion, but Willis O'Brien, in America, was the first one to
put in a feature film the dinosaurs. He made stars of the dinosaurs. If
you remember 'The Lost World', the dinosaurs were the stars, and not the
actors.
Probably
Willis O'Brien was the grandfather of the Animation, and surely I would
be the father.
3DA
- You began to be interested in Animation when you saw 'King Kong', of
Willis O'Brien, for the first time, What you felt when you saw that film?
What meant for you?
Ray
- The first time I saw 'King Kong' I didn't know
how it's done. Nobody knows much about stop motion in 1933. I thought
there was a man in a suit prtending to be a gorilla. I know that you couldn't
have a man in a dinosaur, but I didn't know how it's done.
Today,
everybody tells you how special effects are done before the film comes
out, and you lose the illusion. Actually there isn't the illusion. It's
like a magician, if you tell everybody that you have a rabbit in the hat,
nobody would be interested in you.
3DA
- Peter Jackson, after 'The Lord of the Rings' is going to make a remake
of 'King Kong'. How do you think that it will be? Do you think that it
will be better or worse than the original?
Ray
- It won't be the same. It will be a different interpretation,
but I think that if anybody is going to be a remake, is Peter jackson
who would do the best job, because he loves the original, and that's very
important.
When
Dino de Laurentis made the renake of 'King Kong', back in the 70s, he
was doing it for the dollars, and he left all the fantasy of the film
out. Just had the girl talking smart talk to the gorilla. Which really
have nothing to do with the oiginal 'King Kong'.
So,
I think that if anybody is going to remake it, is
Peter jackson who would do the best job, but still only be one original
'King Kong'. You can't destroy a classic. He will do a different interpretation,
perhaps, and probably, surely, a better interpretation than the one of
the 70s.
3DA
-
Sometimes, you have said that the CG Animation impresses to you very much,
but that does not convince to you at all. What does not convince to you
of this type of Animation? What do you prefer of the animation of your
time?
Ray
- I was rise when we dindn't have computers,
so I'm astounded to that particular way of making films. The computers
are a wonderful thing. It's the modernst tool, but everybody thinks that
everything must be discarded, and that's not true.
Jim
Henson droped back the hand puppets with Kermit the frog, Thunderbirds
droped back to the screen puppets,...
Different
stories require different techniques. The computers are good for certain
stories, stop motion is good for other type of stories, upstring puppets
are good for some other types,... So it's another tool, a wonderful tool,
but I consider it just a tool. I don't disliked, I just find it confusing
the way I have to work.
3DA
- Many people think that there is certain similarity between
your work in films like 'Jason and the Argonauts' and the work of a 3D
animator of the present time. Do you think that they really have something
in common? It was more difficult in the 60s?
Ray
- It was more difficult. Yes. You didn't
have the advantage of computers.
In
computer you can do it digitally. You can do it over and over, refine
and refine, but the stop motion process, once you started, if the puppet
falls over or there's a problem you have to start just from scratch and
go over. With the computer you can solve the problems, you can go over
and over.
Everything
in my films, usually, is a first take. He have no time or money to do
a retake, so everything that you saw in 50s, 60s films, are the first
takes rather than retakes. Today for making a work right, there's a retake,
a retake. That's right, but we couldn't do that.
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