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Blindraven
June 23rd, 2008, 04:00 PM
Growing up in the era of breakthrough technologies and effects used in movies like that of an "exo/endo skeleton" used in Terminator, or the effects which made my skin crawl in Alien, I never really thought about who was behind the actual drafting and deployment of what was written, to what we see.

I guess when you are young and all you want is a "super hero" or a "star", you seldom take time to think about the people that actually made them appear the way they did. The people (or in this case, person) That sat down for countless hours upon countless months, and sometimes years, designing a palatable character to scare, to fright, to relate to or to genuinely move the audience.
Sure, the directors cast them in a suite of events and the screen-writers & screen-play guys unravel the script to the final movie. But who is the guy actually responsible for the cast and how they look? Who made Edward scissor-hands look like Edward scissor-hands? Who made Gotham city? The Joker? The Penguin? The Terminator?

Who designed the 40 foot Dinosaur next to a jeep in a sequence that would change cinema history forever? And I'm sure we all remember "The Thing".

His list of credits are remarkable and his design and technique inspired the Cinema as we "expect" it to be today.

I am an avid movie buff, a directors critique, an actors bane and a firm believer of the underdog.
Stan did for Cinema effects and character creation what Mark Twain did for balls and wit. And I'm not overshooting here.

I would like to extend a thanks to the fond memories of the many movies in my era bought to life in character reality by the great Stan Winston. His last notable role was overseeing the studio behind Iron Man, along with his armor.

R.I.P
Stanley Winston. April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008

Notable films

* Heartbeeps (1981)
* The Thing (1982)
* Friday the 13th Part III (1983)
* The Terminator (1984)
* Aliens (1986)
* The Monster Squad (1987)
* Predator (1987)
* Pumpkinhead (1988
* Leviathan (1989)
* Edward Scissorhands (1990)
* Predator 2 (1990)
* The Flash (TV series) (1990)
* Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
* Batman Returns (1992)
* Jurassic Park (1993)
* Interview with the Vampire (1994)
* Congo (1995)
* The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)
* T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996)
* Ghosts (1997)
* The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
* Small Soldiers (1998
* Lake Placid (1999)
* End of Days (1999)
* Pearl Harbor (2001)
* A.I. (2001)
* Jurassic Park III (2001)
* Darkness Falls (2002)
* Big Fish (2003)
* Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
* Wrong Turn (2003)
* Constantine (2005)
* Iron Man (2008

DeadSuperHero
June 23rd, 2008, 04:28 PM
Aw, man. I wasn't even aware he had died...
Rest in Peace.

LaRoza
June 23rd, 2008, 04:46 PM
He died? I have followed his work for a while, and I always enjoyed his creations.

RIP

Blindraven
June 23rd, 2008, 05:53 PM
Aw, man. I wasn't even aware he had died...
Rest in Peace.

Sadly, a lot of people didn't know who he was, or wont be aware that he died - because he was not a "frontman" so to speak.

LaRoza
June 23rd, 2008, 06:09 PM
Sadly, a lot of people didn't know who he was, or wont be aware that he died - because he was not a a "frontman" so to speak.

I know of him, and consider him to be the "frontman" :-)

In fact, any movie I hear he worked on, I tend to want to see.

Blindraven
June 23rd, 2008, 10:50 PM
I know of him, and consider him to be the "frontman" :-)

In fact, any movie I hear he worked on, I tend to want to see.

Same.
Sadly, though, I'm never going to get to go "Oh sweet, Winston's on this one" again. :(