Published: November 1, 2006 (first edition).
Publisher: Titan Books.
Pages: 336.
Written by: Jody Duncan.
Foreword: James Cameron.
Description:
“For over 30 years, Stan Winston and his team of artists and technicians have been creating characters, creatures and monsters for the silver screen, from The Terminator and the extraterrestrial monstrosities of Aliens and Predator to the amazing dinosaurs of Jurassic Park and the fanciful character of Edward Scissorhands.
Now, at last, he’s opening up the Stan Winston Studio to collaborate on the first-ever book to reveal all the behind-the-scenes secrets of his groundbreaking and hugely influential artistry and effects work.
Featuring an extensive array of sketches, production art, and photographs straight from the studio archives, this is the book his fans have been waiting for!”
Review:
The legendary Stan Winston Studio has been responsible for some of the most important movie moments in history, including; The Wiz (1978), Heartbeeps (1981), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Monster Squad (1987), Predator (1987), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Batman Returns (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Lake Placid (1999) and many many more… that’s not including work for television and other projects.
Stan Winston’s special effects live on through his work and the work his studio (now named Legacy Effects) continues to do, ever broadening the imagination and vision of Hollywood, something which was important to Stan, making movies such as Pandorum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Avatar, Enthiran and Shutter Island. The legacy lives on.
This beautiful hardback book actually made me both happy and sad, happy because it’s an awesome collectible and sad, because to read it is to touch it. I should have considered soft wollen-gloves…
The pages themselves are stunningly laid out with truly awesome images, all in amazing high quality and all completely absorbing. The detailed and informative narrative set out perfectly by Jody Duncan never fails to amuse and inspire as we read about Stan’s early life dabbling in effects for a Halloween Wolfman costume, all the way through to the stylishy indexed awards and filmography.
This book will be a marvel to any fan of film young or old as positively it bursts at the seams with facts, figures and anecdotes from an industry which draws forth awe from even the most hardened movie-goer.
For Terminator fans this book offers up plenty of cyborg-related information:
“The new idea Winston was exploring in the early 1980s was applying state-of-the-arts animatronics and the highest artistic standards to create puppets that were so animated and lifelike, they could withstand the extended scrutiny of a camera throughout a scene.”
Stan Winston Studio created a head and torso half-puppet endoskeleton for The Terminator (1984) the technique was inspired by Stan’s love of Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal (1982).
But you don’t have to be a Terminator fan to want this book.
Stan Winston Studio has brought audiences all around the world many inventive and innovative ideas, designs and technologies; this big gorgeous book is filled with all that and more!
Summary:
As a tribute to one of the most imaginative and influential legends cinema has ever seen it doesn’t miss the mark at all. Well worth reading and collecting and well worth taking time out to do so.
The Stan Winston School of Character Arts:
Do you want a career in the field of character arts? Well join The Stan Winston School of Character Arts. Anyone in the world can join!
