by the fans for the fans

This morning I turned on the TV and stumbled on a documentary on special effects titan Ray Harryhausen (I admit I did not know the man before, despite having seen at least one of his movies). I did not find it on YouTube but here is a trailer:



I only saw the final half our, but I liked it. He used stop motion to make fantasy movies. For quite a few years I have been wondering why I tend to prefer older movies over new ones - even movies thate were made way before my time. This documentary gave a few possible answers.

One was given by the documentary makers. With Harryhausen, actors did not just have to use their imagination while acting out the seens. He would put something typical of the 'monster' in the scene, like for instance the eye, on a large stick and then said "The eye! Look at the eye!". That's why the actors on screen always seems to look to something further than the actual scene, as if there was more.

A second one was given by Harryhausen himself: "Fantasy films are inspired by the imagination, by dreams or even nightmares. Stop motion always looks a bit different, unlike CGI, which can be as realistic as the rest of the film. So stop motion keeps that dreamlike feeling of not being sure wether it's real or not".

The documentary had a lot of famous movie directors in it. At the end, Steven Spielberg stated that digital effects are only real in so far as the audience is actal willing to go along with it. "At one point, we risk digital effects becoming so standard, the audience will lose interest in it. We may not be far from the point when people start to prefer actual things happening again".

I just recollected these quotes from my memory, they may not be accurate.
But I think there might be truth in them.

And I've gotten curious about his movies.

Peter Young wrote: This morning I turned on the TV and stumbled on a documentary on special effects titan Ray Harryhausen (I admit I did not know the man before, despite having seen at least one of his movies). I did not find it on YouTube but here is a trailer:

I only saw the final half our, but I liked it. He used stop motion to make fantasy movies. For quite a few years I have been wondering why I tend to prefer older movies over new ones - even movies thate were made way before my time. This documentary gave a few possible answers.

One was given by the documentary makers. With Harryhausen, actors did not just have to use their imagination while acting out the seens. He would put something typical of the 'monster' in the scene, like for instance the eye, on a large stick and then said "The eye! Look at the eye!". That's why the actors on screen always seems to look to something further than the actual scene, as if there was more.

A second one was given by Harryhausen himself: "Fantasy films are inspired by the imagination, by dreams or even nightmares. Stop motion always looks a bit different, unlike CGI, which can be as realistic as the rest of the film. So stop motion keeps that dreamlike feeling of not being sure wether it's real or not".

The documentary had a lot of famous movie directors in it. At the end, Steven Spielberg stated that digital effects are only real in so far as the audience is actal willing to go along with it. "At one point, we risk digital effects becoming so standard, the audience will lose interest in it. We may not be far from the point when people start to prefer actual things happening again".

I just recollected these quotes from my memory, they may not be accurate.
But I think there might be truth in them.

And I've gotten curious about his movies.

Oh its the old practical effects vs digital. I'll see if I can find a video discussing this. . .

[ After a quick search. . .]




I think this is it.

For my part, it was not intend as 'digital vs. non-digital'. I had not heard of the man untill a week ago, but I think I will like his movies once I see them. Many present day movies, I don't even consider watching.

Maybe I like the old effects better, but that would be only one of several things.

Funny someone mentioned George Lucas. Last week, I noticed that at least two effects in the 1999-2005 trilogy were tributes to Larryhausen-films.