Ray Harryhausen Titan Of Cinema

[Foxbat]

An exhibition of his work opens on saturday in Edinburgh. It’s pretty frustrating because I really want to go. However, I have to be careful with this pandemic - not so much for myself but ensuring that I don’t catch it and pass it on to my mum who is in the vulnerable category. I’ve been trying to avoid places where there could be a lot of people and I think this could be well attended. The good news is that it’s running until september 2021 so I may still get the opportunity to see it some time later.

If anybody here is interested, here’s the info

Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema

Film special effects superstar Ray Harryhausen helped elevate stop motion animation to an art. His innovative and inspiring films, from the 1950s onwards, changed the face of modern movie making forever. This largest and widest-ranging exhibition of Ray Harryhausen’s work ever seen contained...

www.nationalgalleries.org

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive got several of his films on dvd

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
Jason and the Argonauts
The 3 World of Gulliver
The First Men in the Moon

All Terrific films .

 

[Narkalui]

I watched Jason the other night for the first time in over 20 years. Still a masterpiece!

 

[Foxbat]

There was an article on the BBC about this exhibition. It looks fabulous. I wonder if I'll be allowed to take in a camera? Sometimes these type of events don't mind but I suspect that this one (image rights and all that jazz) will be a great big NO!

 

[Ursa major]

I watched Jason the other night for the first time in over 20 years. Still a masterpiece!

I've convinced myself that I saw Jason and the Argonauts in the cinema -- I'm pretty sure Talos (amongst other terrors) would have been far less terrifying on a small black & white TV (and, obviously, not in colour) -- but it was released in 1963, when I was only 6 years old.

Would it have been re-released in the later 60s or early 70s?

 

[BAYLOR]

I've convinced myself that I saw Jason and the Argonauts in the cinema -- I'm pretty sure Talos (amongst other terrors) would have been far less terrifying on a small black & white TV (and, obviously, not in colour) -- but it was released in 1963, when I was only 6 years old.

Would it have been re-released in the later 60s or early 70s?

Sometimes Hollywood did re-release old films, long after their initial run at the Theaters.

 

[Foxbat]

Talos was awesome but I think my favourite model (and the one I want to see most at the exhibition) is Medusa. She gave me the willies when she was stalking Perseus and his men in her lair.

Interesting aside, I once read somewhere that, in the Black Sea region, people used to filter water through a goat fleece in the search for gold. Just thought I’d mention that

 

[BAYLOR]

My favorite is the Cyclops .

 

[Ursa major]

My favorite is the Cyclops .

I'll keep an eye out for that the next time the film is on the TV....

 

[dask]

Sinbad's sword fight with the skeleton ranks high. I know the Jason one is mind-boggling too, but I really like the Sinbad.

 

[Foxbat]

The skeleton fight was mentioned in the news article. Apparently, it took 8 hours of work to film 2 seconds, with Ray making minute adjustments for each frame. He must have been a man of infinite patience.

I once tried a stop motion short film myself but got bored and cut corners where the frame count was concerned. It was a simple plasticine head on top of a piece of blue paper being circled by the fin of a shark (the eyes of the head following the fin movement) all to the jaws soundtrack.

It was only a few seconds long but the experience taught me that I’ll never be another Harryhausen.

 

[BAYLOR]

I watched Jason the other night for the first time in over 20 years. Still a masterpiece!

They just don't don't make wonderful films like that , anymore.

 

[Foxbat]

Here's a screenshot from my own attempt at stop/motion animation. I don't think the Harryhausen estate need worry about competition

 

[Guttersnipe]

I always loved Jason and the Argonauts. As a kid, Talos terrified me. I picked up a lot of these at my local library. Fun stuff. It got me into claymation (PlayDoughmation, rather).

 

[BAYLOR]

I watched Jason the other night for the first time in over 20 years. Still a masterpiece!

Along with the great special effects, they put an equal amount of emphasis on good story telling.

 

[K. Riehl]

In the early 2000's I spotted an oversize blank green cover book in the bargain books section in Barnes and Noble. It had a bargin list price of $75. I thought that was weird but when I opened it up it was 300+ pages of testimonials, private pictures, articles, film stills, drawings, story boards etc..It was a collaboration of Harryhausen's friends who put together lifetime collections for this book honoring Ray. I asked them to hold it and went to ATM. When I got back it was gone. Someone claimed to be me and took the book. I still growl about this to fellow collectors even today.

 

[Foxbat]

The exhibition is still currently closed until further notice. Scotland looks like approaching a lessening of restrictions in the next couple of months so I’m still hoping to see this sometime in 2021. With any luck, they might extend the run past September’s closing date.

 

[BAYLOR]

The skeleton fight was mentioned in the news article. Apparently, it took 8 hours of work to film 2 seconds, with Ray making minute adjustments for each frame. He must have been a man of infinite patience.

I once tried a stop motion short film myself but got bored and cut corners where the frame count was concerned. It was a simple plasticine head on top of a piece of blue paper being circled by the fin of a shark (the eyes of the head following the fin movement) all to the jaws soundtrack.

It was only a few seconds long but the experience taught me that I’ll never be another Harryhausen.

They recreated the Jason Skeleton battle scene an episode of the Hercules tv series.