Harry here... Meeting Ray Harryhausen and getting to talk with him about his work is earth-shattering. In your life, you'll never meet a more cordial or wonderfully peaceful soul. There is a zen about him, that is calming yet energizing all at once, and when you hear that bear of a voice of his, melodiously telling stories about the days of 24 frames a second, measuring the heat from the lights, how a single lapse in concentration could result in days upon days of lost time, as he'd have to begin anew. To everyone that attended this event, YOU WIN. To those that might get the chance to meet Ray in the future, never pass the opportunity. The experience could change your life, if his films haven't already...
Harry,
I wanted to add some very cool news about what Father Geek posted about Ray Harryhousen and Phil Tippet attending a ceremony at Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Well I was one of the very lucky ones, I was there in attendence and felt like I was a child seeing Santa Claus delivering presents! Mr Harryhausen and Mr Tippet were presented their honary doctorates from school president, Dr. Elisa Stephens.
They both had wonderful stories to tell and as well fantastic clips from their work. Mr..er pardon me..Dr Harryhausen had so many fantastic little remarks and jokes, like being the first to destroy the Washington Monument, long before Mars Attacks. He gave a funny remark about how he destroyed San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge many years back but yet he is still welcomed in this city. I am enclosing a picture of Dr Harryhausen with one of the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts as well as a mold copy of Medusa from Clash of the Titans. I SOOOOOOOOOOOO wanted that little skeleton. At one point he actually played with it to try to get it to pose for the camera that was being displayed on a large screen behind him, and just seeing him moving that stop motion model around, was awesome. The master with one of his toys at play..truly a fun moment. The quality for that picture is not that great =( .
Ok, now I have to add some things of personal note that will make any true geek drool with envy.. I showed up and helped some guy put up posters...original one sheets of all those famous and beloved movies Dr. Harryhausen has created and that I grew up on. Well I thought that was pretty cool, that this guy had those and that I got to help put them up. But then I found out he is a writer for Cinefantastique, yee! Very cool man, Larry French, I could tell he really loved being there about as much as me, and I thought at that point noone coulda been more excited than me! Okay, well thats not all. While waiting for the presentation to start, I got the pleasure..though I honestly had no idea at the time, that I spoke with none other than.....John Landis!!!! Later Mr Landis was extrememly nice and let me get a picture with him. This guy who is someone I have always looked up to and enjoyed their work, is a really nice person and I was amazed when I found out who he was, my jaw must have hit the floor. I did not have anything for the honored guests to autograph for me, but I did get pictures with them. I figured that would have pretty much been the end of the day of excitement for me, but not yet. Mr French was very generous and offered me a copy of a picture he had from the Golden Voyage of Sinbad as well as from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, for me to get signatures =) Yee..talk about fanboy dreams come true. I received both authgraphs and Dr Tippett made light as he said 'I didn't work on these movies, you know?' I replied I knew, but as Ray Harryhausen had a great deal of influence on his work, I can definately say the same of Dr Tippett's influence on what I am studying for. He smiled and knew what I meant, and wished me luck. Can't get much better than that folks!
A 'thank you' video was played for Dr Harryhausen, and it was so wonderful to see so many big names thanking him and explaining how his work gave way to new generations of effects, but that his is so special in our hearts. Ray Bradbury had been planned to be there to present, but was not able to attend, he did though leave a video message as well as a written note read by Dr. Stephens. I also had the very nice pleasure of speaking with Mrs Harryhausen for a few minutes. What a treat that was, such an incredibly nice woman, and oh how I so longed to hear more of what tales she might tell me.
Well Harry, thats my report. I hope you and the guys at AICN think this is 'Cool News' because I sure thought it was. This presentation that was done is an ongoing series at the school, and I will hopefully report again. Hello to Mori and Father Geek! =)
George Bailey =P
Then 'Toons' was there too...
So I AM a lucky fucking bastard..go figure.. I'm new to this forum, but I just wanted to say that I just got back from the Harryhausen/Tippett thing and it was awesome!!! First Mr. Harryhausen talked a while about his career and then they showed clips from pretty much every movie he's worked on (everybody clapped like crazy when they showed the classic skeletons scene from Jason and the Argonauts!) and then he proceeded to open a suitcase and show us one of the original skeletons (I swear I almost peed my pants at that point) and an exact replica made, from the same molds (not the actual one...but still..) of Medusa from Clash of the Titans...Then Phil Tippett got onstage, and he was as excited to be there receiving the same honors as Harryhausen as we were of seeing them both..he also talked about his career and showed us some clips from stuff he worked on (and yes, from some movie called Star Wars, I think..)..there was a q & a session after that. Overall, I swear it was one of the coolest experiences ever..I can't think of any other way to describe it! I feel really lucky to have been there..
