Interviews | Roger Ebert: Special-effects wizard Tom Savini is most famous for his collaborations with fellow Pennsylvanian George Romero, whose “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead” are still two of the most influential modern horror films. But Savini’s work as a character actor and director continues to inspire new generations of horror fans. Savini—a Vietnam vet who received an unprecedented fellowship from Carnegie Mellon’s acting and directing program—continues to oversee a school for aspiring make-up artists in Monessen, PA (which has been open for almost 18 years now).
5 comments:
I had never heard of Savini before reading this article, however it seems that I am quite familiar with his work. I have seen much of his collaborations with Romero, thanks to a zombie-happy best friend, and strangely, have seen a couple episodes of Ghostwriter (as I went through my, 'I can only watch tv shows made before 1999 phase'). It's odd that someone who has created such visually recognizable characters (and who still does) has never made it on my radar before, so this article was interesting to me in learning about who Tom Savini was. However, while as a common viewer I have an idea about the work that a SFX artist does, and a common scary, zombie creator at that, the craftsmanship (and Savini's specifically) seems to go beyond that.The interviewer said something very interesting about Savini and who is he as an artist: "A lot of your monsters and special effects are realistic, thanks in no small part to the fact that, as a former Vietnam vet, you hold your work up to a higher standard of realism." I don't know why, out of this whole article, that really stood out to me, but I think that especially considering the time period of much of his original works with Romero, realism doesn't really equate with zombies. However, considering his background I'm glad that as an artist he has a specific style that he can bring personal moments/memories into.
I had no idea who Tom Savini was until I read this, but now I find myself really looking up to him. I’ve always had trouble trying to choose what I want to do for a living, and I’ve settled on the fact that I don’t have to, I can have as many careers in my lifetime as I want to, and Savini is kind of an example of that. Though this article only spoke about a certain section of his work, he’s an actor, director, and special effects artist, and sometimes all at the same time. That sounds like so much more fun to me than doing the same thing for the rest of my life.
This article was particularly interesting in content for me because it reminds me of the way I talk to my uncle about his work. He works for a Bulgarian film company that does a lot of work on American movies – namely the Expendables franchise, Conan the Barbarian, Black Dahlia, and some others. But he would always talk about the weird and fun things he got to do with special effects while working on those films and I learned a lot from him that way. It was cool to see someone else talk about their experiences in such an open and casual interview style. Many of these articles are mostly from the perspective of the writer rather than who they are writing about so this was refreshing.
It is interesting to see Tom Savini speak and look back on his life’s work. It is definitely impressive to have that drive and clear visual inspiration, and having those skill sets has clearly affected his work very much. However, I also see how those aspects might negatively impact a production. He very clearly creates a production in his mind, which is something many people can’t do. However I feel as though having so much force upon trying to replicate something exactly how you envisioned it can lead to missing out on possibly better ways something can go. It limits a production to how well people can listen and copy, instead of a hive of ideas coming together. That being said, there is also something beautiful about a production being a very close manifestation of an idea.
I've never heard of Savini before, partly because I am not the biggest horror fan and partly because I do not really look into the production crew of a movie all that much. However after reading this article, I may be inclined to take a look into all the movies that really blew me away in terms of technical aspects. I thought it was really cool how he went from being in the army to being a special effects person. That is a very big leap but he used his experiences in the army to create the realism in the movies he worked on and I think that that is something most people try to do but fail in horror films. The films just seem fake. But with his work it is obvious that there is an amount of personal connection and he makes the terror more believable for the audience.
Tom Savini Is a name that I can honestly say I am not very familiar with but apparently he is a very prominent figure in the world of special effects and it seems more focused on horror. While I not really that familiar with the horror genre due to the fact that just isn’t my cup of tea, I do love reading about both the special effects that were pulled of on older films and the people who did them. This article is interesting because it feels like they did a really good job in framing this interview so that we are able to experience both the passion and joy that Tom Savini has for his work. I really like they way that he describes the method by which he tries to focus a killing scene in one of his films and how he wants to think about his scenes as one large magic trick. In all it’s cool to see his passion and wisdom.
Post a Comment