I dont know why other people got into this entertainment journalism type thing. But for me a big reason is to get to talk to my idols such as Ray Harryhausen.
The name, Ray Harryhausen, conjures up images of angry skeletons, Medusas eyes turning great beasts to stone and monsters crushing slow running Americans beneath their lizard feet.
Now a very special DVD has been released that will be of interest to anyone who loves fantasy pictures. Its the Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection. It has early films Ray produced on his own based on such fairy tales as The Queen Of Hearts and Little Red Riding Hood, his animated army training films and early tests and experiments he did in his backyard. The second disc is a treasure trove of documentaries and tributes to this legend of cinema.
Sparkhill has the DVD on sale now
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hello Ray, sorry if I sound flustered. Im just a bit nervous.
Ray Harryhausen: Why?
DRE: Youre Ray Harryhausen!
RH: [laughs] Well I only have one head.
DRE: Whose idea was this DVD?
RH: Weve wanted to put it out for a long time. Theyve only been distributed to schools in olden times. The general public hasnt seen very much of them though occasionally theyve been on television.
DRE: Ive never seen them before and Ive always seen as much of your work as I could.
Did you have the films or were they somewhere in Columbias vaults?
RH: I had the films and now theyve been restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. They were made some time ago and the color had faded from the negative in some of them. Ive also tacked on the end to The Tortoise and the Hare which was started in 1950 and then it was finished in 2000. The longest production for a short film ever.
DRE: You didnt animate the ending to The Tortoise and the Hare, so who did?
RH: Back in 1950 I only animated four minutes of it. I let [TIME Magazine film critic] Richard Schickel put excerpts of it in his documentary he did about me about four years ago. These two young men saw it and wrote to me through a friend and told me they would like to finish it even though they live in Burbank and I live in London. I looked at some of their work and I loaned them my original puppets and my original camera. They studied my other films to give it the same look then after 52 years they finished it and I defy you to tell the difference.
DRE: Did you have to watch all your old short films for the DVD set?
RH: Yes I did. It wasnt that hard because they are only ten minutes apiece. It brought back a lot of memories.
DRE: Good memories?
RH: All of them. The schools found the films very educational and they were used there for years.
DRE: I really liked the animated birthday tributes that animation companies did for you. What was it like seeing yourself animated in one of them?
RH: [laughs] That was amusing.
DRE: Had you ever put yourself into one of your movies?
RH: No not really. I occasionally did but you couldnt see it. I project myself in through these animated figures.
DRE: Were your animated army training films actually used by the armed forces?
RH: No they didnt use them. But I mostly made the films to demonstrate what stop motion could do. They are rather historic. When I was working with George Pal I knew that the war was coming along and I knew I eventually would go into the army. So I wanted to do something that I could do well I so I enrolled in school to learn how to be a combat cameraman. I didnt know that they were shot like clay pigeons. I made this little demonstration film on 16mm of how to build a bridge over a gorge. My teacher at Eastman-Kodak showed it to Frank Capra and thats how I got to work with George Pal.
DRE: Youre very famous for having a lot of control in the movies you worked on. I would imagine that the studio people you worked with had no idea how you did what you did.
RH: Not really no. Some did, but not the details. Thats one reason I did the drawings so they knew what they were looking at. Thats also why the puppet films on this DVD are so historic. Before that I was just doing experiments, which are also on the DVD. When I got out of the army I wanted to do something with a beginning, middle and end so I latched onto these fairy tales which were in public domain. I learned so much from doing them that I called them my teething rings.
DRE: I also enjoyed the few minutes that you animated of Baron Munchausen talking to the giant.
RH: Oh yes I would have liked to have finished that.
DRE: I thought the articulation you got out of the giants face was amazing.
RH: I was trying to avoid having separate heads like George Pal. He had 550 heads to animate Jim Dandy. I made a rubber head that could articulate the mouth with. It got so lengthy and complicated that I gave it up.
DRE: Besides being an animator you are obviously a talented industrial designer. Did you ever use those skills for anything else?
RH: No I mostly did the films. My dad was an inventor so he did most of my armatures based on my designs in the early days. Actually my dad invented and patented a center finder. I got the mechanical things from my father and my artistic side from my mother. She was just a normal housewife but she was interested in sewing and making costumes. She costumed all the fairy tales. In those days I was very modest so I didnt want the name Harryhausen everywhere. My mother was credited as Martha Reske and my dad went under the name of Fred Blasauf. I often went under the name Jerome Wray.
DRE: Is it true you didnt really work with assistants until Clash of the Titans?
RH: Yes, every inch of film you saw I did myself. For Clash we had some technical problems and were under deadline so we had to bring some other people in.
DRE: By the time you worked on movies like Jason and the Argonauts and then Sinbad, had you gotten dinosaurs out of your system?
RH: Oh no I always loved dinosaurs. I destroyed San Francisco, Washington and then New York but I tired of that especially when Tokyo got destroyed by Godzilla which is practically a copy of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. I was looking for a new avenue to use the animation. I came across the Sinbad stories and then the next step was Greek mythology.
DRE: What made you decide to retire after Clash of the Titans?
RH: There are many reasons. Ive had long sessions in the darkroom where the rest of the crew will go off and make two or three pictures while Im still finishing one. Also the subject matter that seemed to be attractive to the public wasnt my cup of tea. You cant have an explosion every five minutes in Greek mythology. It seems like today you have one explosion after another with no continuity or story.
DRE: Do you ever go see new films?
RG: Not if I can help it. They just dont appeal to me. So many of them are downbeat subjects. I dont want to sit there and watch someone die for an hour and a half. I dont call that entertainment.
DRE: What do you with your time at home in London, do you still do models?
RH: No I dont do busmans holiday. Ive done a lot bronzes because a lot of characters were cannibalized due to time constraints. We would take one character model, tear it down then build it up for the next picture. Ive restored some and there is a permanent exhibit of my memorabilia in the Sony museum in Berlin.
DRE: How often do you get to meet with Ray Bradbury?
RH: Just when I come to Los Angeles. Usually we just chat and reminisce. Sometimes we do panels together at conventions.
DRE: Did you have a chance to see the Lord of the Rings movies?
RH: Yes I did and if anyone can remake King Kong its Peter Jackson because he loves the subject as much as I do. It will be his interpretation of the story.
DRE: I got a chance to interview Henry Selick recently. He said you stopped by his studio while he was working on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He said you saw the Jaguar Shark which is the largest stop motion puppet ever.
RH: It was just delightful. Im glad people at places like Aardman Animations and Will Vinton Studios are carrying on the tradition. I also visited the set of Tim Burtons The Corpse Bride. CGI is fine but it doesnt mean everything has to be done on computers.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
The name, Ray Harryhausen, conjures up images of angry skeletons, Medusas eyes turning great beasts to stone and monsters crushing slow running Americans beneath their lizard feet.
Now a very special DVD has been released that will be of interest to anyone who loves fantasy pictures. Its the Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection. It has early films Ray produced on his own based on such fairy tales as The Queen Of Hearts and Little Red Riding Hood, his animated army training films and early tests and experiments he did in his backyard. The second disc is a treasure trove of documentaries and tributes to this legend of cinema.
Sparkhill has the DVD on sale now
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hello Ray, sorry if I sound flustered. Im just a bit nervous.
Ray Harryhausen: Why?
DRE: Youre Ray Harryhausen!
RH: [laughs] Well I only have one head.
DRE: Whose idea was this DVD?
RH: Weve wanted to put it out for a long time. Theyve only been distributed to schools in olden times. The general public hasnt seen very much of them though occasionally theyve been on television.
DRE: Ive never seen them before and Ive always seen as much of your work as I could.
Did you have the films or were they somewhere in Columbias vaults?
RH: I had the films and now theyve been restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. They were made some time ago and the color had faded from the negative in some of them. Ive also tacked on the end to The Tortoise and the Hare which was started in 1950 and then it was finished in 2000. The longest production for a short film ever.
DRE: You didnt animate the ending to The Tortoise and the Hare, so who did?
RH: Back in 1950 I only animated four minutes of it. I let [TIME Magazine film critic] Richard Schickel put excerpts of it in his documentary he did about me about four years ago. These two young men saw it and wrote to me through a friend and told me they would like to finish it even though they live in Burbank and I live in London. I looked at some of their work and I loaned them my original puppets and my original camera. They studied my other films to give it the same look then after 52 years they finished it and I defy you to tell the difference.
DRE: Did you have to watch all your old short films for the DVD set?
RH: Yes I did. It wasnt that hard because they are only ten minutes apiece. It brought back a lot of memories.
DRE: Good memories?
RH: All of them. The schools found the films very educational and they were used there for years.
DRE: I really liked the animated birthday tributes that animation companies did for you. What was it like seeing yourself animated in one of them?
RH: [laughs] That was amusing.
DRE: Had you ever put yourself into one of your movies?
RH: No not really. I occasionally did but you couldnt see it. I project myself in through these animated figures.
DRE: Were your animated army training films actually used by the armed forces?
RH: No they didnt use them. But I mostly made the films to demonstrate what stop motion could do. They are rather historic. When I was working with George Pal I knew that the war was coming along and I knew I eventually would go into the army. So I wanted to do something that I could do well I so I enrolled in school to learn how to be a combat cameraman. I didnt know that they were shot like clay pigeons. I made this little demonstration film on 16mm of how to build a bridge over a gorge. My teacher at Eastman-Kodak showed it to Frank Capra and thats how I got to work with George Pal.
DRE: Youre very famous for having a lot of control in the movies you worked on. I would imagine that the studio people you worked with had no idea how you did what you did.
RH: Not really no. Some did, but not the details. Thats one reason I did the drawings so they knew what they were looking at. Thats also why the puppet films on this DVD are so historic. Before that I was just doing experiments, which are also on the DVD. When I got out of the army I wanted to do something with a beginning, middle and end so I latched onto these fairy tales which were in public domain. I learned so much from doing them that I called them my teething rings.
DRE: I also enjoyed the few minutes that you animated of Baron Munchausen talking to the giant.
RH: Oh yes I would have liked to have finished that.
DRE: I thought the articulation you got out of the giants face was amazing.
RH: I was trying to avoid having separate heads like George Pal. He had 550 heads to animate Jim Dandy. I made a rubber head that could articulate the mouth with. It got so lengthy and complicated that I gave it up.
DRE: Besides being an animator you are obviously a talented industrial designer. Did you ever use those skills for anything else?
RH: No I mostly did the films. My dad was an inventor so he did most of my armatures based on my designs in the early days. Actually my dad invented and patented a center finder. I got the mechanical things from my father and my artistic side from my mother. She was just a normal housewife but she was interested in sewing and making costumes. She costumed all the fairy tales. In those days I was very modest so I didnt want the name Harryhausen everywhere. My mother was credited as Martha Reske and my dad went under the name of Fred Blasauf. I often went under the name Jerome Wray.
DRE: Is it true you didnt really work with assistants until Clash of the Titans?
RH: Yes, every inch of film you saw I did myself. For Clash we had some technical problems and were under deadline so we had to bring some other people in.
DRE: By the time you worked on movies like Jason and the Argonauts and then Sinbad, had you gotten dinosaurs out of your system?
RH: Oh no I always loved dinosaurs. I destroyed San Francisco, Washington and then New York but I tired of that especially when Tokyo got destroyed by Godzilla which is practically a copy of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. I was looking for a new avenue to use the animation. I came across the Sinbad stories and then the next step was Greek mythology.
DRE: What made you decide to retire after Clash of the Titans?
RH: There are many reasons. Ive had long sessions in the darkroom where the rest of the crew will go off and make two or three pictures while Im still finishing one. Also the subject matter that seemed to be attractive to the public wasnt my cup of tea. You cant have an explosion every five minutes in Greek mythology. It seems like today you have one explosion after another with no continuity or story.
DRE: Do you ever go see new films?
RG: Not if I can help it. They just dont appeal to me. So many of them are downbeat subjects. I dont want to sit there and watch someone die for an hour and a half. I dont call that entertainment.
DRE: What do you with your time at home in London, do you still do models?
RH: No I dont do busmans holiday. Ive done a lot bronzes because a lot of characters were cannibalized due to time constraints. We would take one character model, tear it down then build it up for the next picture. Ive restored some and there is a permanent exhibit of my memorabilia in the Sony museum in Berlin.
DRE: How often do you get to meet with Ray Bradbury?
RH: Just when I come to Los Angeles. Usually we just chat and reminisce. Sometimes we do panels together at conventions.
DRE: Did you have a chance to see the Lord of the Rings movies?
RH: Yes I did and if anyone can remake King Kong its Peter Jackson because he loves the subject as much as I do. It will be his interpretation of the story.
DRE: I got a chance to interview Henry Selick recently. He said you stopped by his studio while he was working on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He said you saw the Jaguar Shark which is the largest stop motion puppet ever.
RH: It was just delightful. Im glad people at places like Aardman Animations and Will Vinton Studios are carrying on the tradition. I also visited the set of Tim Burtons The Corpse Bride. CGI is fine but it doesnt mean everything has to be done on computers.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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