Flaming Turd Vanir
Number of posts : 4225 Registration date : 2007-08-28
| Subject: Stop-motion on CTB Sun 3 Jan - 21:24 | |
| From wikipedia, article about stop-motion animator JIM DANFORT. He was hired for stop-motion on "CONAN" - (Danforth had also made some animation for Harryhausen on "CLASH OF THE TITANS"): - Quote :
- "In 1979, Jim Danforth was hired, along with Rick Baker, to design effects for Edward Pressman's proposed production Conan. This film mutated into a different version (Conan the Barbarian, 1982), with which neither Danforth nor Baker were involved. Although Danforth was not firstly involved on the visual effects of the John Milius project, he was hired to paint a matte shot during postproduction. He executed a matte painting for the penultimate shot of the film, showing Conan and the princess walking down toward a painting of a landscape valley."
I thought Emilio Ruiz del Rio had made that matte painting... There are even photos of Emilio painting it!
Last edited by Flaming Turd on Sun 3 Jan - 21:47; edited 1 time in total | |
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Flaming Turd Vanir
Number of posts : 4225 Registration date : 2007-08-28
| Subject: Re: Stop-motion on CTB Sun 3 Jan - 21:45 | |
| - Flaming Turd wrote:
- I thought Emilio Ruiz del Rio had made that matte painting... There are even photos of Emilio painting it!
Ok, in this biography of the man they explain he worked in the team of Emilio: - Quote :
- sin olvidarnos de sus trabajos en “Conan the barbarian”(“Conan el bárbaro” 1982-John Milius) en la cual trabajo con nuestro gran técnico y maestro de las maquetas Emilio Ruiz
http://puppetsandclay.blogspot.com/2009/01/jim-danfort-magia-en-movimiento.html | |
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MightyMcT Admin
Number of posts : 16130 Registration date : 2004-12-15
| Subject: Re: Stop-motion on CTB Mon 4 Jan - 19:00 | |
| There is a quote from Jim Danforth somewhere on our site, where he talks a little bit about his involvement in the pre-Milius version (at that point, the movie was to be co-directed by Oliver Stone and Joe Alves): - Quote :
- Jim DANFORTH: "To set the record straight about CONAN: It was not originally a Dino de Laurentiis film; it was solely an Edward Pressman production, with a screenplay by Oliver Stone. That production fell apart and was revived when Dino de Laurentiis came on board. At that point Rick Baker walked, and I and several others were not carried across to the new version. The Oliver Stone script had a multi-headed dog, an artificial three or four foot tall female harpy-like 'construct', the small bat-like creatures of the Hyperboreans, an enormous creature (of which we see only a gigantic tentacle), robot-like mechanical warriors, a giant snake, and a snake-headed woman (whose snakeiness can be seen only in a mirror). Those were the stop-motion creatures: there were others, like Brak, that would have been make-up done by Rick Baker. There would also have been a number of matte paintings of the cities."
And Danforth was not exactly a member of Emilio's team... - Quote :
- Jim DANFORTH: "I painted a matte shot for "CONAN THE BARBARIAN." Unfortunately, the shot (...) was cut from the film prior to release. I'm told it appears in some European prints, however there is a caveat to this: the shot I painted was a redo of a preexisting "in situ" matte done in Spain, I assume by Emilio Ruiz del Rio, so it may be his version which was retained for the European prints.
Here is some more behind-the-scenes info from Cinefantastique (Vol 12, Issue 2/3 - april 1982 - page 62): - Quote :
- Then suddenly, Peter Kuran had a matte painting on his hands. "After I'd been hired to do CONAN's animation effects," Kuran said, "I was handed a scene of Conan and the Princess walking away in a long shot down a valley, the last shot in the film." They told me they wanted a matte to be put over this. So I immediately told them Jim Danforth [generally considered one of the finest dimensional animators and matte artists in the industry] could handle the job a lot better than I could. They agreed. I called Jim, and he said yes. He was really excited to be working on CONAN again.
"But then something funny happened," continued Kuran. "Danforth blew up this shot, projected it into a much larger image, sat back and looked at it. After studying it awhile, he suddenly sat up and said, 'You know, I think this already is a matte painting.' "
It was true. Danforth had been hired to do an augmentation of a matte Emilo Ruiz had painted in Madrid (unlike American matte painters, who usually paint on glass, Ruiz rendered his work on hardboard or sheet-metal). "Although I had very little communication with the Conan people on this part of the production," said Danforth, "I don't think they disliked Ruiz' matte. I can only speculate, but I think they wanted to add to what they already had.
"But I couldn't do it," Danforth continued. ''They wanted a shaft of light coming down and illuminating the landscape, plus some moving clouds, and that was pretty hard to do when I had no control over what was already in the shot. I think it was the limitation of Ruiz' system on the location that precluded them from moving the clouds or putting in these shafts of light."
Danforth had to completely redo the painted elements of the shot. He retained the live-action by masking off the unwanted matte; he then replaced the painted area with a valley of his own design, adding the desired light rays spilling over the landscape. Utilizing his own system to move the clouds, Danforth combined various sheets of painted glass with split screen work.
Danforth found himself in the unique position of working both on the very start and very end of CONAN giving him an interesting perspective on the film. "I was mildly amused that some of the things they'd said they didn't want in the film have crept into it," he said. "Things like harem girl costumes and sort of a bible-movie look. But really, that's the way films go. For instance, the work I'm doing now on CONAN may not be used anymore than the Ruiz matte. You never know. You just have to wait for the final cut." | |
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Cromulus The Destroyer Vanir
Number of posts : 1395 Localisation : Brooklyn, New York Registration date : 2007-01-22
| Subject: Re: Stop-motion on CTB Wed 6 Jan - 7:08 | |
| The movie couldve used more special effects and creatures. But Milius didnt want it to be like Raiders of the Lost Ark, which to me is strange.
Any luck on that episode of " Lights Camera Action" docu video? | |
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| Subject: Re: Stop-motion on CTB | |
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