Uncle Ray is Right.

Here is an interview done in 2006 with Ray Harryhausen on the point of remaking a film like King Kong and Clash of the Titans...



OK, so some of you would say, "C'mon old man, get with the times! Stop Motion is SO fake!" He hits it right on the head with the description of its "nightmare quality". I don't think I have ever been mesmerized or traumatized by videogame visuals. Stop motion visually is tangible. CGI, no matter how detailed is still hollow looking, void of any dimension, a 2-D rendering in a 2-D medium.

Hello.

Let me begin this by saying my disdain for CGI is not absolute. I think in instances like cartoons, Pixar especially, it works out well. It is when CGI replaces the practical, or when it is used as a less creative way to get a special effect across as seeming believable, that is where I have issue.

I have always had a strong love for film and the processes behind filmmaking. As a kid, I would watch every single “making of” that they would show on broadcast TV. World of The Dark Crystal, From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga, The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc… To see what they would go through to get one shot on film was fascinating to me. It made watching it that much more exciting. It’s like listening to an album like The Beatles “Let It Be” knowing all the drama that was behind the scenes masked by perfect songs like “Two Of Us” & “I Got a Feeling”.

Half the magic of the films that I grew up with were the craft of the special effects. My impressionable mind was saturated with the films of the late 70’s, early 80’s. The golden age of special effects: ILM, Rob Bottin, Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Tom Burman, the list is endless.

This is the kind of stuff I love and hope to post daily about. I will also post about the flaccid state of modern special effects as well. Citing comparisons to today’s technique with yesterdays.