Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick "Ray" Harryhausenwas an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionOther
Date of Birth29 June 1920
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
director effects european imagine laid laying otherwise picture price ready special until worked
I always worked with the writer, and the producer, and sometimes the director wouldn't come in until the picture was ready to go. It's not a director's picture as you imagine in the European sense of the word. It has to be laid out -- otherwise we couldn't make them for the price we did. I was responsible for laying out the special effects and making the picture practical.
american-director eighty listed people
I had to learn to do everything because I couldn't find another kindred soul. Now you see eighty people listed doing the same things I was doing by myself.
american-director felt full
Many times I felt like I'd do better than what the director did, but some of them got a little discouraged because they didn't have full charge of making the film, and sometimes there'd be battles of egos.
american-director limited
I was very limited in what I could do with flying saucers, because they're just a metal disc. I had to try and put character in as if they were intelligently guided.
class columbia field frank kodak pictures professor signed
I was going to Columbia Pictures and Eastman Kodak had a class going for cameramen. I signed up to be a field cameraman. I showed this film to my professor and he showed it to Frank Capra.
american-director entertainment films glad people
So our films had a lot more to them than entertainment value, and I'm glad that a lot of people recognize that now. People realize now the value of them as educational.
american-director
I was never restricted. I was never told what to do.
american-director looked people point work
A lot of people thought my work was very tedious, and it can be if you look at it from that point of view, but I never looked upon it as tedious.
hands snakes mad
Medusa was fascinating to work with because I gave her a snake's body so that she could pull herself with her hands which gave her a very creepy aura. I didn't want to animate cosmic gowns. Most Medusas you see in the classics have flowing robes which would be mad to even try to animate.
photography kings real
There’s a strange quality in stop-motion photography, like in King Kong, that adds to the fantasy. If you make things too real, sometimes you bring it down to the mundane.
new-york kings tired
Animation had been used only for things like King Kong and the destruction of cities, which was very popular in the 1950s. I got tired of destroying cities. I destroyed New York, I destroyed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Rome, and Washington. I was looking for a new outlet, and I came across the Sinbad legends.
coffee phones asking
Animation requires a great deal of concentration, and I preferred to work alone because then I'm not deterred by somebody asking me if I want coffee, or the phone ringing or something.
patience people directors
That's why I never became a director. I never had patience with people.
action scene stage
I know pretty well in the broad sense what I'm going to do, because I have to know that when we shoot the live-action, so that it'll synchronize. Then I know pretty well when I get to the animation stage, what that scene requires.