Kevo
04-09-2006, 10:33 AM
Sunday 3rd September at the Museum of Film, TV & Photography in Bradford, Ray Harryhausen (along with co author Tony Arnold) was signing copies of his books An Animated Life and The Art of Ray Harryhausen.
Must say, i've never felt so humble in all my life, meeting and shaking the hand of one of Hollywood's true Gods, I didn't know what to say to him and all I can muster up was a 'thank you' and a 'it's an honor'!
Ray's influence and inspiration to a lot of the modern Hollywood Directors and SFX/CGI artists and even sci-fi writers, shouldn't be under-estimated. Spielberg, Lucas, Jackson, Landis, Carpenter, Burton and our very own Nick Park are just a few who are heavily influneced by Harryhausen and his work.
Ray is now 86 years old and obviously still very active. He was a real gent, charming and extremely polite, considering his age and obvious frailty. On shaking his hand I was scared to grip it too tight yet his grip was very strong!
It was the first book signing I've ever been to and didn't think of bringing the DVD covers Of Argonauts, Sinbad and Titans to be signed, like others in the queue. I regretted it and was cursing myself afterwards and all the way home to Manchester. Anyway I bought two books and another copy of the Titans DVD, so three signatures isn't too bad.
After the signing there was a lecture/on stage interview. Q&A with the audience with Ray by his co author Tony Arnold. Needless to say the theatre was full and the whole presentation was immaculate and well worth the £5 ticket price for 2 and a half hours (I paid more to see Pirates of The Carribbean 2 recently which ran the same length of time. In terms of entertainment and value for money, there is no comparison, Ray beats any CGO fest any day!).
I had a whole load of questions to ask Ray but was just too shy to ask!
Also prior to this there was an exhibition in one of the galleries of Ray's work including a lot of his artwork for his films by Ray himself as well as most of the models from his films, some of which are bronze replicas with one or two originals. This was an excellent exhibition, which I visited twice and was surprsingly free admission. I would have gladly paid to have seen this. You don't have to be a fan to appreciate it but if like me you are then it was like 'Harryhausen Heaven'! It runs until 24th Sep so there's still time to catch it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
It was my first visit to the museum and was very impressed, although it's more aimed at British television and photography rather than British cinema.
Anybody else go?
I would be very surprised and dissapointed if I was the only AV Forum member there yesterday.
Must say, i've never felt so humble in all my life, meeting and shaking the hand of one of Hollywood's true Gods, I didn't know what to say to him and all I can muster up was a 'thank you' and a 'it's an honor'!
Ray's influence and inspiration to a lot of the modern Hollywood Directors and SFX/CGI artists and even sci-fi writers, shouldn't be under-estimated. Spielberg, Lucas, Jackson, Landis, Carpenter, Burton and our very own Nick Park are just a few who are heavily influneced by Harryhausen and his work.
Ray is now 86 years old and obviously still very active. He was a real gent, charming and extremely polite, considering his age and obvious frailty. On shaking his hand I was scared to grip it too tight yet his grip was very strong!
It was the first book signing I've ever been to and didn't think of bringing the DVD covers Of Argonauts, Sinbad and Titans to be signed, like others in the queue. I regretted it and was cursing myself afterwards and all the way home to Manchester. Anyway I bought two books and another copy of the Titans DVD, so three signatures isn't too bad.
After the signing there was a lecture/on stage interview. Q&A with the audience with Ray by his co author Tony Arnold. Needless to say the theatre was full and the whole presentation was immaculate and well worth the £5 ticket price for 2 and a half hours (I paid more to see Pirates of The Carribbean 2 recently which ran the same length of time. In terms of entertainment and value for money, there is no comparison, Ray beats any CGO fest any day!).
I had a whole load of questions to ask Ray but was just too shy to ask!
Also prior to this there was an exhibition in one of the galleries of Ray's work including a lot of his artwork for his films by Ray himself as well as most of the models from his films, some of which are bronze replicas with one or two originals. This was an excellent exhibition, which I visited twice and was surprsingly free admission. I would have gladly paid to have seen this. You don't have to be a fan to appreciate it but if like me you are then it was like 'Harryhausen Heaven'! It runs until 24th Sep so there's still time to catch it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
It was my first visit to the museum and was very impressed, although it's more aimed at British television and photography rather than British cinema.
Anybody else go?
I would be very surprised and dissapointed if I was the only AV Forum member there yesterday.