We lost a huge talent last weekend: legendary special effects guru Stan Winston died at his home on June 15th, after battling myeloma for the past seven years. If you don’t think you know who he is, you most certainly know his Oscar-winning achievements (and if you’re a card-carrying sci-fi/horror geek and you didn’t already know how amazing he was – shame on you!).Mr. Winston has brought us some of the vilest, most terrifying creatures on the big screen since the mid-seventies. The difference between his work and any other FX schlub in the business, though? He actually made you believe these monsters could be REAL. And in the mid-eighties, armed with no CGI and a lot of sculpey, this was a feat that really meant something. From making you believe that a Terminator was coming from the future to kick your ass to showing you what an ugly mother a Predator looked like to forcing you to poop a little when you first saw the creepy-crawlies in Aliens – he was responsible for all of that, in an era where others in his field might as well have been using sock puppets.
And when the CGI did start to come around? Lots of people thought that the old creature creators would become irrelevant, but Stan proved them wrong. Not only did his designs help the computer graphics come to life, but the interaction with, say, a manmade giant T. Rex head in Jurassic Park brought his work to a new level. Not all shots could look as real with only the use of new-fangled animation, but layer in old-school effects? About as near to perfect as you can get – I mean, who else could actually make you scared of a cloned dinosaur? (The entire cast and crew of Carnosaur, for example, should be hanging their heads in shame right now.)
So what had Winston done lately? Do you remember the ridiculously popular Iron Man film that just came out? Well, after Jon Favreau worked with Stan on Zathura, he asked him to create the suit of armor for that recent Marvel Studios production – and once again, jaw dropping results. An appropriate exclamation point to an incredible career - he will be greatly missed.
(For a more detailed list of Stan Winston’s works (including films, comics and toys) go to StanWinston.com or imdb.com)
2 comments:
First Stan and now George Carlin... pretty soon there will be no one left on this earth to make me laugh, smile, or pee my pants.
When I was a little kid, before I even understood the idea of having a job in the film industry, I knew who Stan Winston was and though having a job like his would be amazing. Spending all day making killer robots, aliens, dinosaurs... How could there possibly be a better life than that?
And then, when I ended up in the industy, I was always happy to hear how easily he adapted with the times and technology, while at the same time staying respectful and true to the classics. He was one of the several effects people who put his foot down and said his company would never work on a remake of Creature From the Black Lagoon simply because some producer wanted to make a "better" Creature.
It's a sad time for monster-lovers.
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