Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen is the greatest artist in stop-motion animation. With a career that spans 40 years of cinema, he became a by-word for innovation, excitement and entertainment in the world of special effects and film fantasy.
Born 1920 in Los Angelas, Harryhausen from an early age was fascinated
with stop-motion animation due to seeing King Komg at the agee of thirteen. Ray Harryhausen was given an opertunity to pursue
a dream and learn from the greatest of animators, Willis O'Brien. American Film magazine, (June 1981 p 49) "I had a magnicficent two year period while working on Mighty Joe Young with Obie", "covering the long perproduction and photography. He was so involved in production problems that I ended up animating about eighty-five percent og the picture".
After ganing vital experience with Willis o'Brien and having completed studies at the University of Southern California in painting, drama, sculpting, anatomy and photography. Ray Harryhausen produced a series of short films called Mother Goose Fairy Tales. Coming to the final phase of the series, Ray Harryhausen was approached by a young producer, Charles Schneer,and formed a productive patnership which lasted over thrity years. Ray Harryhausen and Charles Schneer went to work and produced a whole series during the science fiction boom of the 1950's. Titles included It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth versus the Flying Saucers and in 1957, Twenty Million Miles to Earth.
It was also in this period that Ray Harryhausen pioneered his new form of stop-motion animation – Dynamation – which then became a key feature consistent
through out all of his work.
Breaking away from the 1950's had Ray Harryhausen and Charles Schneer leaving science fiction behind and venture into the world of fantasy, fairy tale amd mythology.. in the decaide of 1950 to 1960, they both produced the highly acclaimed Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. This was also they're first opportunity to use colour film.
In 1963, Ray Harryhausen... [continues]

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