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Sep 25 15 5:17 PM
ryanbrennan wrote: Regarding George Lofgren, according to Mike Hankin's Master of the Majicks, Vol. 2, Lofgren invented a method for "rubberizing" the fur in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, didn't work with Harryhausen again until EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS on which he assisted with floor effects (wearing black velvet and moving a light around to create the "foo lights"), assisted Harryhausen in building two wire-armatured maquettes of the Ymir (one of which is handled by Frank Puglia in the film) for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and "building props and other things." On 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD he helped build the peaks of Colossa from castings of real rocks (and may have helped in the sculpting of the other miniatures) as well as handling "much of the puppet fabrication." "... the Roc's feathered exterior and that of its young chick (covered with duck down) were the taxidermy work of George Lofren." As Jim details, Hankin tells the story of the Dragon sculpt. He says no one knows which side was done by whom but that both are seen in the film so can be compared.Hope this helps.
Regarding George Lofgren, according to Mike Hankin's Master of the Majicks, Vol. 2, Lofgren invented a method for "rubberizing" the fur in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, didn't work with Harryhausen again until EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS on which he assisted with floor effects (wearing black velvet and moving a light around to create the "foo lights"), assisted Harryhausen in building two wire-armatured maquettes of the Ymir (one of which is handled by Frank Puglia in the film) for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and "building props and other things."
On 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD he helped build the peaks of Colossa from castings of real rocks (and may have helped in the sculpting of the other miniatures) as well as handling "much of the puppet fabrication." "... the Roc's feathered exterior and that of its young chick (covered with duck down) were the taxidermy work of George Lofren." As Jim details, Hankin tells the story of the Dragon sculpt. He says no one knows which side was done by whom but that both are seen in the film so can be compared.
Hope this helps.
Sep 25 15 7:17 PM
Sep 25 15 10:03 PM
Aupperle wrote:ryanbrennan wrote: Regarding George Lofgren, according to Mike Hankin's Master of the Majicks, Vol. 2, Lofgren invented a method for "rubberizing" the fur in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, didn't work with Harryhausen again until EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS on which he assisted with floor effects (wearing black velvet and moving a light around to create the "foo lights"), assisted Harryhausen in building two wire-armatured maquettes of the Ymir (one of which is handled by Frank Puglia in the film) for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and "building props and other things." On 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD he helped build the peaks of Colossa from castings of real rocks (and may have helped in the sculpting of the other miniatures) as well as handling "much of the puppet fabrication." "... the Roc's feathered exterior and that of its young chick (covered with duck down) were the taxidermy work of George Lofren." As Jim details, Hankin tells the story of the Dragon sculpt. He says no one knows which side was done by whom but that both are seen in the film so can be compared.Hope this helps.Thanks very much for the information on George Lofren's work with Ray Harryhausen. Missed the section in Majicks where Mike Hankin relates the story about the two sides of the dragon. Guess I always thought I was the only one who got that story from Ray but really should have known better. Unless I related the story to Ernie and Mike found out about it that way... HA Ha... round and round we go...EDIT: OK, so this is funny. Found the dragon story in Majicks and Mike even has a footnote. "Ray Harryhausen to Jim Aupperle in Santa Monica, California, October 1972." That was the Sunday morning Stephen Czerkas and I met Ray in Santa Monica and he got us breakfast at the House of Pancakes. Yeah, a couple of fans who just called him up out of the phone book. What a great guy!
Sep 26 15 12:11 AM
ryanbrennan wrote:Aupperle wrote:ryanbrennan wrote: Regarding George Lofgren, according to Mike Hankin's Master of the Majicks, Vol. 2, Lofgren invented a method for "rubberizing" the fur in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, didn't work with Harryhausen again until EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS on which he assisted with floor effects (wearing black velvet and moving a light around to create the "foo lights"), assisted Harryhausen in building two wire-armatured maquettes of the Ymir (one of which is handled by Frank Puglia in the film) for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and "building props and other things." On 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD he helped build the peaks of Colossa from castings of real rocks (and may have helped in the sculpting of the other miniatures) as well as handling "much of the puppet fabrication." "... the Roc's feathered exterior and that of its young chick (covered with duck down) were the taxidermy work of George Lofren." As Jim details, Hankin tells the story of the Dragon sculpt. He says no one knows which side was done by whom but that both are seen in the film so can be compared.Hope this helps.Thanks very much for the information on George Lofren's work with Ray Harryhausen. Missed the section in Majicks where Mike Hankin relates the story about the two sides of the dragon. Guess I always thought I was the only one who got that story from Ray but really should have known better. Unless I related the story to Ernie and Mike found out about it that way... HA Ha... round and round we go...EDIT: OK, so this is funny. Found the dragon story in Majicks and Mike even has a footnote. "Ray Harryhausen to Jim Aupperle in Santa Monica, California, October 1972." That was the Sunday morning Stephen Czerkas and I met Ray in Santa Monica and he got us breakfast at the House of Pancakes. Yeah, a couple of fans who just called him up out of the phone book. What a great guy! Sorry I overlooked that attribution, Jim. I didn't even notice a footnote!
Sep 27 15 9:18 AM
FANTAMATION wrote:Arthur Hayward may have experimented with stop motion briefly but that's all he did regarding animation. He was, however, responsible for sculpting and molding the majority of puppets for Ray starting from Mysterious Island all the way through to Gwangi....... which was when Ray and Arthur had their falling out from Arthur claiming to have done some of the animation for Gwangi which was just an all out lie.
Sep 27 15 12:58 PM
vayapues wrote:FANTAMATION wrote:Arthur Hayward may have experimented with stop motion briefly but that's all he did regarding animation. He was, however, responsible for sculpting and molding the majority of puppets for Ray starting from Mysterious Island all the way through to Gwangi....... which was when Ray and Arthur had their falling out from Arthur claiming to have done some of the animation for Gwangi which was just an all out lie.My understanding about Ray's disaffection from Arthur Hayward revolves around Gwangi, but in a different way: that Hayward made "unauthorized" images of the Gwangi puppet available on one or more occasions to a published in a magazine or book -- I forget if the publication in question was a natural history magazine for children or something like that. I'm sure someone around this joint will know. But nothing about Hayward "animating Gwangi" -- that's a goofy confabulation if ever there was one. Anyone who's seen the neat old British Pathé newsreel about Hayward can attest to that, maybe that's where this rumor got started. Hey, maybe we can fob off the blame on him for animating that horse & rider plunging into the water tank!Hayward, whose main job was supervising exhibits sculptor at the Museum of Natural History in London (where he mentored guys like Tony McVey & John Coppinger), did do a different, static T rex sculpt for the Museum that later appeared on the cover of a children's dino book in the 70s. I think this sculpt pre-dates the film, but looks very much like a prototype for the Gwangi we would come to know & love. Likewise, Hayward sculpted the Gwangi-like Rex toy figure for the Museum's famous line, now O.P., of plastic dino figures made by the Invicta company.In short, though Harryhausen & Schneer may have "owned" Gwangi (the honor of which now falls to Warner Communications), these iterations of da Gwang really reflect the essence of Arthur Hayward's personal style & brilliance as a master sculptor.
The Gwangi on the cover of Animals with all that fine skin detail looks so close to the stop motion puppet that it might even be from the same mold.
The book cover (below) appears more like it might be an early preliminary model.
Sep 27 15 3:39 PM
Sep 27 15 6:33 PM
Sep 27 15 7:55 PM
vayapues wrote:FANTAMATION wrote:Arthur Hayward may have experimented with stop motion briefly but that's all he did regarding animation. He was, however, responsible for sculpting and molding the majority of puppets for Ray starting from Mysterious Island all the way through to Gwangi....... which was when Ray and Arthur had their falling out from Arthur claiming to have done some of the animation for Gwangi which was just an all out lie.My understanding about Ray's disaffection from Arthur Hayward revolves around Gwangi, but in a different way: that Hayward made "unauthorized" images of the Gwangi puppet available on one or more occasions to a published in a magazine or book -- I forget if the publication in question was a natural history magazine for children or something like that. I'm sure someone around this joint will know.
Sep 27 15 8:41 PM
Here's the article from the "Animals" issue
Sep 28 15 4:45 AM
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Sep 29 15 12:50 PM
Mummified Remains wrote:FANTAMATION wrote:Let's not forget the contribution of Arthur Hayward and his masterful sculpting of Rays Dino's for that film as well as most of the Dino's in Gwangi If you Google image "Arthur Hayward" you'll get a few shots of the OMYBC Allosaurus, so it's certainly no secret. George Lofgren seems a more unsung hero, very few photos of him exist yet he supposedly created all of Ray's models up to and including FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Of course it was Ray who brought the models to very convincing life. Hayward may have had the sculpting chops, but his stop-motion work falls far short of Ray's technique , and as already stated Ray did wonders with models somewhat less than realistically rendered for THE ANIMAL WORLD.
FANTAMATION wrote:Let's not forget the contribution of Arthur Hayward and his masterful sculpting of Rays Dino's for that film as well as most of the Dino's in Gwangi
Sep 29 15 4:36 PM
Sep 29 15 8:50 PM
Mummified Remains wrote:I'd love to see Ray's finalized sketch design of the Cyclops or the Dragon- all I've ever seen is the non-satyr like Cyclops without horn in pre-production sketches and storyboards. What he sculpted, or didn't sculpt, Ray was still (for my money) the finest actor through a stop motion model to ever live.
Sep 30 15 6:26 PM
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