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The Lost Worlds of Willis O'Brien
Although listed in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the History of Motion Pictures, Willis H. O’Brien is essentially unknown to the general public and seldom mentioned by the contemporary media. The irony is that thousands of cinema's craftsmen owe their livelihoods to O’Brien. Moreover, without O'Brien the public would be deprived of one of the most famous movie icons of all time: King Kong.
O'Brien's life was inextricably linked with the rise of American cinema. In 1932, RKO producer Merian Cooper originated the idea of a giant gorilla running amuck in New York City — but it was just an ephemeral idea until O’Brien bestowed a jointed steel armature (only eighteen inches high, covered in rubber and rabbit fur) with life! If this singular act of stop-motion puppetry were the only contribution O’Brien made to motion pictures, it would be noteworthy in of itself. More incredible is that O’Brien was the unlikeliest of candidates to create such a performance.
Born March 2, 1886 to wealthy parents in Oakland, California, O’Brien was a daydreamer who rejected genteel civility. Seeking a life of adventure he ran away from home at age thirteen to become a cowboy. A rough life of ranching in the untamed Pacific Northwest led to a new vocation: wilderness guide and fossil hunter for a group of USC paleontologists. O'Brien soon became fascinated with all things prehistoric. This impromptu education would prove invaluable when O'Bie (as he preferred to be called) entered the burgeoning field of cinematic entertainment. But other vocations would precede his adventures in Hollywood.
By age seventeen he was employing his natural gift for drawing as a draftsman at an architectural firm, working on buildings designed for the 1915 World's Fair. Dissatisfied that his artistic ability was being squandered on technical exercises, O'Brien joined the San Francisco Daily News as a sports cartoonist. This job inspired O'Bie to dabble in semi-professional boxing, but his heart proved stronger than his hands. “Canvas Back O'Brien” won nine fights before a round defeat convinced him to move on.
One sunny afternoon, while dabbling as a hobbyist in motion picture photography, O'Bie thought it would be amusing to construct a pair of clay boxers one frame at a time... moving them incrementally between shots. Unsurprisingly, the results of his experiment (for which he coined the term “stop-motion” photography) yielded the illusion that the clay puppets were moving of their own accord. His efforts were crude, but they caught the eye of Thomas Edison. O'Bie soon found himself contracted by the famed inventor to produce a series of comedic animated shorts such as The Dinosaur and the Missing Link.
Excerpted from the magazine Directed By from Visionary Media.
To be continued... in the feature length documentary Creation: The Lost Worlds of Willis O'Brien.
https://vimeo.com/201505126
Although listed in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the History of Motion Pictures, Willis H. O’Brien is essentially unknown to the general public and seldom mentioned by the contemporary media. The irony is that thousands of cinema's craftsmen owe their livelihoods to O’Brien. Moreover, without O'Brien the public would be deprived of one of the most famous movie icons of all time: King Kong.
O'Brien's life was inextricably linked with the rise of American cinema. In 1932, RKO producer Merian Cooper originated the idea of a giant gorilla running amuck in New York City — but it was just an ephemeral idea until O’Brien bestowed a jointed steel armature (only eighteen inches high, covered in rubber and rabbit fur) with life! If this singular act of stop-motion puppetry were the only contribution O’Brien made to motion pictures, it would be noteworthy in of itself. More incredible is that O’Brien was the unlikeliest of candidates to create such a performance.
Born March 2, 1886 to wealthy parents in Oakland, California, O’Brien was a daydreamer who rejected genteel civility. Seeking a life of adventure he ran away from home at age thirteen to become a cowboy. A rough life of ranching in the untamed Pacific Northwest led to a new vocation: wilderness guide and fossil hunter for a group of USC paleontologists. O'Brien soon became fascinated with all things prehistoric. This impromptu education would prove invaluable when O'Bie (as he preferred to be called) entered the burgeoning field of cinematic entertainment. But other vocations would precede his adventures in Hollywood.
By age seventeen he was employing his natural gift for drawing as a draftsman at an architectural firm, working on buildings designed for the 1915 World's Fair. Dissatisfied that his artistic ability was being squandered on technical exercises, O'Brien joined the San Francisco Daily News as a sports cartoonist. This job inspired O'Bie to dabble in semi-professional boxing, but his heart proved stronger than his hands. “Canvas Back O'Brien” won nine fights before a round defeat convinced him to move on.
One sunny afternoon, while dabbling as a hobbyist in motion picture photography, O'Bie thought it would be amusing to construct a pair of clay boxers one frame at a time... moving them incrementally between shots. Unsurprisingly, the results of his experiment (for which he coined the term “stop-motion” photography) yielded the illusion that the clay puppets were moving of their own accord. His efforts were crude, but they caught the eye of Thomas Edison. O'Bie soon found himself contracted by the famed inventor to produce a series of comedic animated shorts such as The Dinosaur and the Missing Link.
Excerpted from the magazine Directed By from Visionary Media.
To be continued... in the feature length documentary Creation: The Lost Worlds of Willis O'Brien.
https://vimeo.com/201505126