Sydney Pollack's recent passing is sad enough, but considering my strong personal connection to The Thing and Aliens and a hundred other genre classics, the death of Stan Winston marks a black day indeed.
The Winston link above connects to a fine article discussing his knack for blending prosthetic and digital effects, a topic that's been on my mind since seeing Favreau's smooth incorporation of both in Iron Man, while bracing myself for The Incredible Hulk.
And here is a collection of eulogies and tributes to Winston posted on AICN.
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2 comments:
Will, I met Winston once at his shop, briefly. Aside from the obvious accolades made of his filmic accomplishments, let me add one small addition-- Stan Winston had the coolest conference room I've ever been in.
You walk in to find a rather large rectangular table, surrounded by chairs. Then you look around. Looming over you-- Terminators, monsters, aliens, Predators, dinosaurs, Edward Scissorhands... all life-size... reaching out to you from the darkness, meticulously lit... looking alive, like some kind of crazy group of spectators in 360 degrees.
It was like a life-sized toy shop. And you'd look down and see Sarah Connor, half-charred as she huddles with a child during the Nuclear Explosion fantasy from T2. And then across from that-- the Monster Squad dudes... and so on... And every one of these creatures looks like at any point they could turn to you and chime in on the conversation (or eat your face).
The one thing that sticks in my mind when I met him (they were working on AI at the time so everything was under wraps and I didn't get to see most of the place) was the overall gist I got from him. It wasn't a "here's a big-time movie guy" vibe it was- well, he carried himself like an artist- a guy who works with clay, who sketches, who gets his hands dirty. Hard to explain, but there you have it.
Thanks for dropping in and describing the conference room. The dinky picture on AICN doesn't do your description justice.
Appreciate it,
Wm.
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