Originally published at: Ray Harryhausen describes how he shot the classic skeleton fight scene from Jason and the Argonauts (1963) | Boing Boing
…
7 Likes
"So how do you kill skeletons? We puzzled over this conundrum for some time and in the end we opted for simplicity by having Jason jump off the cliff into the sea, followed by the skeletons. It was the only way to kill off something that was already dead, and besides, we assumed that they couldn’t swim.
but didn’t we learn from The Pirates of Caribbean that they could just walk (on the sea bottom) and/or ‘lungs’ who needs gas exchange?
7 Likes
Duh, bash em with blunt weapons. Pointy and slashy weapons only cause half damage.
10 Likes
The funny thing is, I bet it doesn’t actually take that much less time in CG, between model building, rigging, movement, lighting plus render times…at least to make it look and feel this good anyway. And in all that time, no one got to move a little clay figure, so whatever time saved, did it really improve anyone’s life?
3 Likes
When I was a kid our school owned a print of Jason. So whenever there was an early release for snow … show Jason and the Argonauts. Pipe burst in the west hallway, show Jason and the Argonauts. Week before Christmas? Last minute cancelation for the assembly guest. Show Jason and the Argonauts.
I saw that at least five times a year for three years.
FREAKED ME OUT. When the Talos statue turns its head and that grating sound it makes … yeah, that’s the stuff of nightmares to show some tweens. (I think I did read all the Greek & Roman myth collections after that, though.)
Later my siblings and I tried doing our own stop motion with a 8mm camera and some playmobile and modeling clay. Turned out more like Mr. Bill than Ray Harryhausen.
9 Likes
Those skeletons look as though they haven’t been fed in awhile.
2 Likes
Of course we now need this…
4 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
