Ray Harryhausen

A few weeks ago I visited the Ray Harryhausen exhibition at the Bill Douglas Museum situated within the grounds of Exeter University. I'm afraid the exhibition has finished now but I took a few photos in case you missed it. I was hoping I could live blog but again I was thwarted by a lack of mobile internet - seeing as I was in the grounds of a university I had expected at least some signal but whatev. I also ran into another small problem with the pics; the exhibition itself (actually just 3 cabinets) was set-up opposite a floor to ceiling window facing the sun which resulted in some awful reflections and my phone's camera autofocus getting a bit confused.

Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer. He worked on 25 films and numerous other projects from 1937 to 2002 with his most memorable works being Mighty Joe Young (1949), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981).

I grew up watching Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad films. For these films (and many others) Ray created a form of stop-motion model animation known as 'Dynamation' (explained here).

The exhibition displayed props and concept art from the following films:

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

 

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

 

 

 

The Valley of Gwangi

 

 

 

 

War of the Worlds

 

 

 Mighty Joe Young

 

 

 

 

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

 

 

 

 

The Story of King Midas

 

 The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

 

Clash of the Titans

 

 

 

 

Jason and the Argonauts

 

 

My favourite has to be Talos from 'Jason and the Argonauts'. As a kid I remember seeing this colossal bronze statue come to life and thinking that even though it could move and appeared to be alive, it's blank, dead eyes betrayed its soulless existence (I was 8 so I didn't use those exact words but you know what I mean). I hoped that there was an island somewhere where these huge statues actually existed and that one day I might get to see them.

 

Even though the exhibition is over, if you're a film fan a visit to the Bill Douglas Museum is a must - it's quite small but there's so much packed in.

Here's some useful links and as always the full list of sources is at the bottom of the page:

http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/

 

http://www.rayharryhausen.com/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talos

Catch you later!

 

 

Credits:
http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/
http://www.rayharryhausen.com/dynamation.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-noteworthy-rip-ray-harryhausen-1920-2013-dirty-old-new-york-subway-hanekes-lessons
http://www.bookandnegative.com/gallery/the-art-of-ray-harryhausen/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/relive-ray-harryhausens-movie-magic-518692
http://bavatuesdays.com/talos/
http://dcairns.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/talos1.jpg
http://www.blackgate.com/2013/05/07/remembering-ray-harryhausen-through-ten-great-visual-effects-scenes/
http://www.moviefancentral.com/hubbs/top10s/27552
http://second-reel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/happy-birthday-ray-harryhausen.html
http://www.cinemaerrante.it/2013/06/12/cinema-errante-ricorda-ray-harryhausen/
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2003/01/14/at-sundance-ray-harryhausens-the-tortoise-and-the-hare
http://www.animationmagazine.net/top-stories/ray-harryhausen-talks-technique/
http://buzzdixon.com/art-2/the-era-is-officially-over-ray-harryhausen-1920-2013/
http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/film/ray-harryhausen
http://moozine.co.uk/2014/05/15/kaiju-review-2-the-valley-of-gwangi/
http://gwangipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Styracosaurus
http://cscottrollins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/ray-harryhausen-this-is-dynamation.html
http://gwangipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sinbad
http://screenrant.com/ray-harryhausen-obituary/
http://ocdviewer.com/2014/02/10/mighty-joe-young-july-27-1949/http://imdb.com