Within the minds of many, Ray Harryhausen is synonymous with movie computer graphics. Much of his earlier life might be found online but his work in computer graphics began after viewing the 1933 film, King Kong. This viewing and an arranged meeting with King Kong‘s model animator, Willis O’Brien, prompted Harryhausen to start taking classes in art direction, photography, and editing to show his new-found passion into something more. These classes from the School of Cinematic Arts on the University of Southern California made it possible for him to start a friendship with Ray Bradbury and Forrest J. Ackerman, who would go on to grow to be science-fiction writers.
During his service in World War II, Harryhausen made military movies with the U.S. Army’s Special Services Division. After his service, he used remaining stock footage to make The Mother Goose Stories, based on popular fairy tales. He assembled the models and animated every frame of the film by hand. He worked on The Story of Little Red Riding Hood in 1949, The Story of Hansel and Gretell and The Story of Rapunzel in 1951, and The Story of King Midas in 1953. Charlotte Knight, a Los Angeles City College drama teacher, adapted the stories Harryhausen used. She would later write 20 Million Miles to Earth in 1957.
Upon ending his studies, Harryhausen began a project called The Evolution of the World. George Pal, a director and animator, gave Harryhausen his first job as a industrial model-animator on Puppetoons based on the unfinished demo reel. Puppetoons were a series of puppet shorts produced in Europe and the USA through the Thirties and 40s. They were made using substitute animation by the use of hand-carved wood puppets. In 1947, Harryhausen was hired as an assistant animator on Mighty Joe Young, his first major film.
In 1953, the film, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (based on a brief story by Ray Bradbury) became the primary film during which Harryhausen can be accountable for technical effects.
On this film, he used a method he created called “Dynamation.” The background and foreground of pre-shot live motion are split into separate images. Animated models are inserted alongside live-action events and actors. Dynamation utilized matte-painting and photography, as well. To make this look as smooth as possible, Harryhausen often controlled the lighting of each the set and the projector. He utilized an optical printer, which used a number of film projectors linked to a movie camera so the strips of film may very well be re-photographed. Harryhausen also used diffused glass to melt sharp lighting.
Harryhausen explains this process as “sandwiching” in an interview available on YouTube. https://youtu.be/ftve5PT1sYI
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was the primary live-action film to feature a large monster delivered to the surface by atomic bombardment. It got here before the primary Godzilla film by not less than a yr. The budget for the film was low and to lower your expenses, Harryhausen worked on its effects, himself.
“I discovered that working by myself, where I don’t have any distraction of anybody, is the most effective policy to make use of for concentration. That’s why every film I did, every inch of it’s my animation,” Harryhausen says in the identical YouTube video.
The success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms made other creature-films not only possible but lucrative for his or her studios. Impressed by the computer graphics, producer, Charles Schneer hired Harryhausen to oversee the creation and animation of the monster for It Got here From Beneath the Sea in 1955. This film’s screenplay, by George Worthing Yates was written with Harryhausen’s work in mind. Even so, budget constraints would require two of the eight tentacles from the film’s monstrous octopus to be eliminated. Harryhausen worked with just six animated limbs. For close-up shots where only one tentacle is seen, a bigger model was used as a substitute of the smaller stop-motion models. Miniatures, matte-paintings, and these larger models achieved what shooting on the actual Golden Gate Bridge couldn’t. Schneer was denied access to the Bridge for his film.
To perform the consequences for the film, Harryhausen rented a protracted store in Culver City, California. Using his own projector, he filmed the stop-animation points while Schneer worked on the live-action in Hollywood. Lots of the stop-motion motors for the film got here from his previous film, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which cannibalized parts from Mighty Joe Young. Filming the stop-animation for It Got here Beneath the Sea took 7-8 months. Dailies for the film were sent to Hollywood via courier.
Considered one of the harder effects to create was the speed at which the creature moved. Because octopi move at such slow rates, recreating the movement meant having to shoot two shots of 1 movement (or double-framing). Each movement of the model needed to be controlled or the finished product can be too “jerky.” The frames required millimeters of movement.
The stationary model of the monster sat on a table, not beneath the water. Distortion glass, also called ripple glass, was placed between the projection and the model. Between takes, the glass would even be moved and photographed. This gave the shot the illusion of getting been shot underwater. Harryhausen said, of the shot, “I normally had a matting glass within the foreground, and I might matte out certain sections of the live-action projection…after which substitute a miniature for that section.” Done right, the join between the 2 needs to be invisible.
As a way to give the film a sensible feel, other effects were essential. Some of the crucial was the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Camera angles for the bridge needed to be duplicated in miniature so the Dynamation technique can be seamless. Projection plates of the bridge were often used with the intention to maintain scale with the octopus model. Water across the base of the bridge and across the monster’s tentacles needed to be matted into the frame.
The miniature for the bridge was product of lead and stood two and a half feet high. Each frame saw the lead structure crushed, sometimes as little as one millimeter at a time. Although time-consuming, the effect made its destruction look all of the more real. Because the octopus crushes the bridge, pieces of it disintegrate. These pieces were suspended from wires so that they may very well be moved millimeters at a time, as well.
Timing of the shot, texture of the various elements, and the spacing of all of these items are the various considerations for execute a successful computer graphics scene for a movie like this. Harryhausen understood each of those elements in a novel way.
It’s rumored, Peter Jackson owns the unique model of the Golden Gate Bridge utilized in this film.
One other detail about It Got here From Beneath the Sea makes it way more impressive. “Practically every little thing you see within the film was the primary take.” ( – Harryhausen in a YouTube interview)
Although critics called the film, “…cool, clipped, (and) realistic,” reception for the film made more monster-type movies to be made. Harryhausen’s repute as a computer graphics technician continued to grow. His collaboration on It Got here From Beneath the Sea with Schneer led to his work on Earth vs. the Flying Saucers in 1956.
It became a staple of his work for Harryhausen to be involved in other elements of a movie. The pre-production conceptualizing, art-direction, storyboards, and sometimes, the tone of a movie were things he participated in. Due to Director’s Guild of America’s guidelines, Harryhausen often took smaller credits in movies than those he can be afforded today.
The several models used for the images contained “motors,” or metal armatures, allowing the general model to maneuver. Nearly all of these structures were machined by Harryhausen’s father. His mother helped with making a few of the costumes. Willis Cook built lots of the miniature sets. Apart from these people, and a number of others, Harryhausen worked alone.
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, in 1956, utilized flying saucer models of various sizes, all comprised of wood and aluminum. The most important of those models measured twelve inches across. Saucers of various sizes were utilized in the identical shot to create forced perspective. These saucers were machined by Harryhausen’s father. The inspiration for his or her design got here from eyewitness accounts recorded by Major Donald Keyhoe in his book, Flying Saucers From Outer Space.
Harryhausen used wires to carry up his saucers and to maneuver them through the frames of the film. Stock footage from other movies, corresponding to War of the Worlds, was used to maintain budget costs down. Fairly often, the footage needed to be examined frame by frame to eliminate the wires and to wash up the scene. One example is the explosion of city hall where the saucers destroy the identical constructing the invading aliens of War of the Worlds did.
The death-rays for the aliens were created by shooting footage of Roman Candles and sparklers against black, then super-imposed upon the film. An identical effect was used for War of the Worlds. Sound effects for the saucers got here from recording sewage moving through the pipes of the Hyperion Treatment Plant near Redondo Beach.
The challenge, in accordance with Harryhausen, was, “…to offer an inanimate object, corresponding to these saucers, a personality; that there was intelligent life contained in the machine.”
Variety magazine and the Los Angeles Times gave the movie good reviews while an article within the Latest York Times stated the film was “utter nonsense.” Still many agreed, the consequences were the true stars of the movie and had little to say about them.
20 Million Miles to Earth began production in 1956. Based on an idea by Harryhausen, this film would see him reunited with producer and director, Charles Schneer. They’d direct the Italian sequences of the film while Nathan Juran would direct only the American sequences. As with It Got here From Beneath the Sea, this screenplay was written to showcase Harryhausen’s work.
Ymir, a creature from Venus, is the feature of this movie. It begins very small and triples in size in lower than an evening. Throughout, it continues to grow until it’s the dimensions of a full-grown elephant. Just as he did for the alien craft, Harryhausen desired to make Ymir feel as if it was an actual character, not only a monster.
“He wasn’t really aggressive until the dog and the farmer became aggressive to him,” Harryhausen said during an interview for The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles in 1998. “And, he really became quite vicious because he was tortured and tormented by man. The poor boy was only a helpless soul out of his environment.”
The budget for the movie was small, meaning it will not be shot in color. As an alternative, the black and white filming made the Dynamation process all the higher looking. The method utilized in King Kong and Mighty Joe Young imposed live-action onto a miniature set. Harryhausen’s process took miniature, animated creatures and imposed them into live-action. By the point 20 Million Miles to Earth began production, the method was almost nearly as good at it will get.
When the creature is first seen, it comes out of a gelatinous blob and rubs its eyes. This primary hint of confusion is a real testament to Harryhausen, because it gives the creature a sympathetic feel, just as intended. In other movies, the main target had been on the various ways recognizable landmarks may very well be destroyed. The main focus, here, was on the creature and making it relatable.
Unlike the rubber suits utilized in 1954’s Godzilla, the miniature models allowed for facial expressions and different, articulated movements. Filming in daylight meant lots of Ymir’s movements may very well be seen and appreciated in a way movies like 1957’s The Giant Claw didn’t achieve.
Sounds for Ymir were made by speeding up the trumpeting sounds of elephants. Similarities might be heard through the ending sequence where Ymir battles, and kills, a startled elephant.
Many critics of the film called the acting, “cardboard,” and the script, “dotty.” Nonetheless, all of them agreed with Radio Times who said the movie was “one among animation master, Ray Harryhausen’s best fantasy movies…the snake-tailed Ymir creature was also one among Harryhausen’s finest creations. It has a well-defined personality and manages to evoke sympathy for its bewildered plight.”
Nobody scene evokes this personality just like the ending of 20 Million Miles to Earth.
The creature ends the movie standing on the Colosseum, in Rome, while soldiers fire on it in an try and bring it down. Harryhausen said, “In fact, that was influenced by Kong on top of the Empire State Constructing. I assumed it will be a fairly dramatic way of ending the film. Man, in fact, destroys what he doesn’t understand.”
In 1958, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was a movie conceptualized by Harryhausen and released in Technicolor. It was billed with the extra tagline of “Dynamation,” the method invented by Harryhausen. Many other movies involving the title character had not done well. To pitch his idea, Harryhausen did plenty of large drawings depicting the proposed actions within the film and brought them to different studios for consideration. They were all rejected. Long-time collaborator, Charles Schneer decided to supply the film with Columbia Pictures.
Since the film was announced in 1957, Harryhausen had almost a complete yr to supply the stop-motion effects for the film.
For his design of the cyclops, Harryhausen based his idea on the Greek god, Pan. The creature for the film had goat legs, cloven hooves, and a horn. As a basis for its movement, he used the identical style as he did for Ymir in 20 Million Miles to Earth. To construct the cyclops, he used the identical armature from Ymir, as well. He added humanoid features to the creature so the audience could relate to the expressions and body motion.
The concept for the dragon got here about through Harryhausen’s own imagination. In an interview in regards to the effects for the film, he talked about previous work on The Mother Goose Stories. “I attempted to be clever and go around to all the faculties and see what they wanted (for the dragon) within the film. I got so many alternative answers, I just decided, at the moment…I might make something I liked.” What’s seen in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is Harryhausen’s personal concept of a standard dragon.
The respiratory feature of the dragon was achieved by inserting an Orsat device into the foundational model. An Orsat devise is used to research gas samples but on this instance, the bulb and tube apparatus made the stop-motion dragon appear to breathe. The bulb would have to be squeeze to inflate the bag, then a single frame of film can be taken. The Orsat bag would deflate and one other frame can be taken. This may proceed until the model appeared to inhale and exhale.
“Sometimes, it takes twenty-four frames to make him inhale,” Harryhausen said. “And, perhaps twelve or fifteen frames to make him exhaust it.”
Flames for the fire-breathing Taro dragon got here from several shots of a flamethrower shot against black at night. These frames can be added in and finished with the matte process.
A cobra-woman was also created. The flowery sequence got here from Harryhausen’s sketches, which the director selected to include into the film. The 4 arms of the creature were built with a snake in mind, so their movements can be fluid, not hard like the opposite creatures. A miniature model was built for the sequence and animated by hand.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad also featured a fictional bird called a roc. To stop the audience from seeing this as just one other bird, the creature was given two heads. The egg from which the bird hatched was built to scale of the model. For the animation, the roc had several wires attached to varied parts of its body. As a way to hide the wires, Harryhausen photographed the model in specific ways. For those shots where this proved not possible, he went in and painted them out of every frame.
The skeletons can be jointed in the identical way an actual skeleton was. Harryhausen’s father built the metal armature with ball-and-socket joints, which were then covered with cotton and latex. This was done so the animation sequences can be smoother and look more natural. The facial expression were altered to offer the skeleton a type of character. The skeleton fighting the title character within the film was an animated version. The one dropped from the highest of the steps was an actual one dropped onto actual rocks. Six of those skeletons would later be used for Jason and the Argonauts in 1963.
Producing the scene with the shrunken princess, Harryhausen used a process he refers to as “traveling matte.” It involved filming parts of the live-action against a blue backing, then putting it along with other footage. The scenes with the actress required the constructing of a forty-foot pillow, which can be used as a background. It could be matted into the ultimate shot. Other shots of the actress interacting with other objects relied on camera angles and the identical matting process.
This film would spawn The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in 1973 and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger in 1977, each of which were the product of Harryhausen’s conceptualization. They, too, would feature the stop-motion animation strategy of Dynamation.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was chosen for preservation in the USA National film Registry in 2008.