The Optical 008 - King Kong, Willis O’Brien, Stop-Motion Animation, Cinefex 7

Complete show notes (with links) are available at http://opticalpodcast.com/episode/008/

We chat with creator and publisher of Cinefex, Don Shay, about the life and work of stop motion pioneer Willis O’Brien, including The Lost World, King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, and more. We also interview animation director Rob Shaw about his films and experience as a stop-motion animator.

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Cinefex magazine — The journal of cinematic illusions.

Features

Willis O’Brien

The Lost World (1925)

King Kong (1933)

Mighty Joe Young (1949)

Follow along with our List on Letterboxd, featuring films we’ve covered, and upcoming films to watch.

Guests

Don Shay, Creator and publisher of Cinefex magazine, and Willis O’Brien biographer

Rob Shaw, Stop-motion animation director

Music

(Almost) all tracks by Digital Droo

(Except) a teensy snippet of the James Bond Theme by Monty Norman and John Barry

A small clip of the 1938 re-release trailer for King Kong features the music of Max Steiner.

Research Materials

Cinefex 7 — October 1981, available in the Cinefex iPad app

Cinefex 138 — July 2014, with “O’Brien vs Dawley” update by Stephen Czerkas

Revisiting Cinefex (7): Willis O’Brien by Graham Edwards

The Making of King Kong, by Orville Goldner and George E. Turner

King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson, by Ray Morton

More Bits

Willis O’Brien

The Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1915), on YouTube

Edison Conquest Pictures

R.F.D. 10,000 BC (1917), on YouTube

The Edison film monopoly — The Motion Picture Patents Company

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918), on YouTube

Herbert M. Dawley’s “Articulated Effigy” patent for stop-motion animation

Ralph Hammeras’ glass painting patent for in-camera composites

The Lost World (1925), on YouTube, or the Lumivision DVD which also features several of O’Brien’s Edison shorts.

Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Kong pitch painting, “Giant Terror Gorilla” by Willis O’Brien and (via Giant Monsters Among Us)

King Kong title sequence at Art of the Title

1938 re-release trailer for King Kong

DeLaurentis’ full-size Kong is discussed in this delightful AV Club review of King Kong (1976)

Hays Motion Picture Production Code

Peter Jackson and WETA’s Lost Spider Pit Sequence

Linwood Dunn and the optical printer

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

How King Kong was Filmed (or Not), on the Cinefex Blog, about the 1933 King Kong magazine article with effects misinformation

Son of Kong (1933)

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

WAR EAGLES: The Unmaking of an Epic - An Alternate History for Classic Film Monsters by David Conover & Philip J. Riley

The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

George Lofgren, taxidermist

Willis O’Brien accepts his Oscar — “Thank you very, very much.” Delightful.

The Black Scorpion (1957)

Pete Peterson, stop-motion animator

The Giant Behemoth (1959)

The Lost World (1960)

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

Jim Danforth, stop-motion animator

Nitrate film stock

Celebrating Cinefex — The Video

Rob Shaw

Dragonframe motion control

Downshooter for animation

Happy Tree Friends. “Cubtron Z”

They Might Be Giants, “I’m Impressed”

Article on George Pal’s Puppetoons, with a picture showing Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen working on the shorts

Puppetoons replacement animation

Portlandia Rats

Coraline

Flushed Away (2006)

How to use a Surface Gauge for Stop Motion Animation](http://www.animateclay.com/index.php/articles/8-video-tutorials/18-how-to-use-a-surface-gage-for-stop-motion-animation)

Dragonframe Frame Grabber software

Rob’s Two Bottles Blog

The Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

As ever

The Optical theme by Digital Droo

The Optical “aperture” logo by Mike Gower

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