It is always a moment of great sadness when you learn that another of your heroes has passed away, and so it was for SCI-FI-LONDON when we heard that special effects supremo STAN WINSTON had finally lost his battle with multiple myeloma, and passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family, on Sunday, at the far-too-young age of 62.
Winston grew up watching classic horror movies in Virginia and after studying painting and sculpture graduated from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1968. He moved to Hollywood soon after and had stints as an actor and stand-up comedian before eventually finding his niche behind the scenes and in 1969 he started a three-year make-up apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios.
His break came on the 1972 TV movie Gargoyles quickly going from strength to strength. During a 40-year career in which he won three Academy Awards for visual effects and one for make-up, Winston created some of genre cinema’s most enduring classic creatures, from The Terminator to Predator, the Alien Queen to Edward Scissorhands, the Penguin from Batman Returns, The Thing, the cyborgs of AI and, in what still stand as some of the best visual effects of any movie, the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. More recently he created the armoured suit worn by Robert Downey, Jr. in Jon Favreau’s big screen adaptation of Iron Man and he had just started work on Terminator Salvation, the next movie in that franchise.
He had an all-encompassing approach to visual effects and was renowned for integrating practical effects, animatronics and CGI but his attitude to his craft can best be summed up in his own words:
“Ultimately, any new technology, if used properly, should be embraced; however, I think it’s very important for people to realize what happens whenever a new technology is introduced. I think it’s a wonderful new tool to be able to use digital tools to help create magic. But, the secret is creating magic….and you don’t create magic by your audience knowing how you did your trick.
The downfall is when too much digital is used. When an audience walks into what I call a ‘live action movie’, I am not talking about a digitally animated movie because that is an animated film and that’s an art form. Toy Story, Shrek and Nemo are wonderful and could not be better. They are great stories and told in a particular art form. But when digital is used in a live action movie, people should not be aware that it’s digital animation. It must be magic. The only way to make it invisible is not to make it all digital; mix it up. To have live action and digital so that from cut to cut, from moment to moment, you are not aware of what you are looking at, and then it’s magic and it’s a brilliant tool.
Unfortunately it’s only a few filmmakers…there are only a handful of brilliant filmmakers who know how to dazzle you and trick your mind and allow you to believe you are seeing something that is real and that you don’t know how it was done because it doesn’t look like digital…and it couldn’t be done live because they couldn’t possibly do that with puppets…it couldn’t be done with animatronics and it also couldn’t be digital because once you no longer know how it’s done as an audience then you are watching a movie. You are watching what is happening and it is magic. And anything that helps us do the magic is a good thing. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of great magicians out there and they don’t know how to use the tools and so the magic is gone. So, instead of going to see a movie and seeing magic you end up seeing technology and that’s a downfall.”
As we reflect on his passing it’s important to remember that it was the genius of Stan Winston that enabled the likes of Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Michael bay and a host of others to realise their imaginations on the big screen. Hollywood, indeed the whole moviemaking world, owes Stan Winston an enormous debt of gratitude. He leaves behind an incredible legacy and his passing is a huge loss.
RIP sir, you will be sorely missed.