User:Brian Kurtz/Sandbox

Raymond Harryhausen is a special effects artist and film producer born in Los Angeles, California on June 29th, 1920. Harryhausen is best known for his pioneering work in the field of stop-motion animation.

Career
After having seen King Kong for the first of many times in 1933, Harryhausen spent his early years experimenting in the production of animated shorts, inspired by the burgeoning science fiction literary genre of the period. A friend arranged a meeting with Harryhausen's idol, Willis O'Brien, animator of King Kong. O'Brien critiqued Harryhausen's early models and inspired Harryhausen to take classes in graphic arts and sculpture to hone his skills. Harryhausen became friends with an aspiring writer, Ray Bradbury, with similar enthusiasms. Bradbury and Harryhausen joined a. L.A. science fiction club formed by Forrest J. Ackerman in 1939 and the three became lifelong friends.

Harryhausen's first major film work was 1949's adventure movie Mighty Joe Young. Ray and fellow animator Willis O'Brien won Best Special Effects category at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for that year. Harryhausen's first solo-feature film work came in 1953 when he took on the animation chores for the giant monster in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. The film became a major international box-office hit for Warner Brothers Pictures.

It was on The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms that Harryhausen first used a technique that split the background and foreground of pre-shot live action footage into two separate pieces of film. The background would be used as a miniature rear-screen with his models animated in front of it, rephotographed with an animation-capable camera to combine those two elements together, the foreground element matted out to leave a black space. Then the film was rewound, and everything except the foreground element matted out so that the foreground element would now photograph in the previously blacked out area. This created the effect that the animated model was "sandwiched" in between the two live action elements, right into the final live action scene. Many shots were embellished with additional elements painted on glass, also sandwiched in between the rear screen and camera, as O'Brien had done on his films.

Harryhausen soon met and began a fruitful partnership with producer Charles H. Schneer, who was working with the Sam Katzman B-picture unit of Columbia Pictures. Their first tandem project was It Came from Beneath the Sea about a giant octopus attacking San Francisco. It was a box-office success, quickly followed by Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, set in Washington, D.C. -- one of the best of the alien invasion films of the 1950s, and also a box office hit.

Harryhausen returned to Columbia and Charles Schneer to make 20 Million Miles to Earth, a film about an American spaceship returning from Venus that crashes into the ocean near Italy, releasing an on-board alien egg specimen which washes up on shore and soon hatches a creature that, in Earth's atmosphere, rapidly grows to gigantic size and terrifies Rome. Harryhausen refined and improved his already-considerable ability at establishing emotional characterizations in the face of his Venusian Ymir model, creating yet another international box-office hit film.

Harryhausen continued his life-long friendship with Ray Bradbury. Another long-time close friend was "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine editor, book writer, and sci-fi collector Forrest J. Ackerman (who loaned Harryhausen his photos of King Kong in 1933, right after Harryhausen had seen the film for the first time). Harryhausen also maintained his friendships with his long-time producer, Charles H. Schneer, who lived next door to him in a suburb of London, and with model animation protege, Jim Danforth, still living in the Los Angeles area.


 * Ray Harryhausen's work in stop-motion animation inspired a legion of filmmakers including notable horror directors such as James Cameron, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg and Sam Raimi.


 * Ray Harryhausen made a cameo appearance in 20 Million Miles to Earth as a man feeding the elephant that later scraps with Ymir.


 * at Wikipedia
 * at Wikipedia
 * at Wikipedia

Supernatural: Pilot

 * Lawrence, Kansas
 * Palo Alto
 * Stanford
 * Jericho, California

Twenty-two years ago John and Mary Winchester set their infant son Sam down to sleep. John goes downstairs, but shortly thereafter, Mary begins hearing strange noises coming from the baby monitor. The lights in the hallway begin flickering and she grows nervous. She goes into the nursery and sees the shadow of a man standing in front of Sam's crib. When she realizes that the man is not her husband, she screams. John hears her and runs upstairs. He looks up and sees his wife sprawled out across the ceiling. Suddenly, she bursts into flames. John scoops up Sam and gives him to his older son Dean, with instructions to get out of the house. John wants to save Mary, but he cannot. The flames erupt throughout the room, forcing John outside as the house goes up in flames.

Twenty-two years later Halloween party; wants to go to law school; doesn't want to tell family. Night: dean breaks in; fight; tells him that dad went on hunting trip and is now missing. sam complains about the way they grew up. dean says he doesn't want to do this alone. sam has to be back by monday.

john was investigating case in Jericho, California. 10 people disappered off a five-mile stretch of Centennial HIghway in Jericho over hte span of 20 years. Recorder; "Never Go Home".

In Jericho, Constance gets ride from Troy Squire. She lives at the end of Breckinridge Road. agrees to go home with her. disappears; walks into house; bird; drives off; kills him in car on bridge.

Next day: gas station; runnign credit card scams; hector afranian. black sabbath; motorhead; metallica; drive to jericho; get to bridge; blocked off; masquerade as federal marshalls; deputies don't know anything; stop in town; find troy's girlfriend Amy Hein putting up missing person' poster. diner; ask them questions about troy's disappearance; rachel tells them about a local legend; phantom hitchiker; whoever picks her up disappears forever. goes to library; researches Jericho Herald; learns about Constance Welch's suicide.

go to bridge at night; walk around; dean and sam argue about their lives; wants sam to get back into the job; sam doesn't want to be part of dad's crusade; sees constance jump off bridge; car starts; tries to run them off; dive off bridge; dean lands in the mud.

check into motel. same name on creidt card; find out that john's been there. room is weird. sam finds that john was very close to cracking the case. woman in white;

November 1st: dean leaves to get food; deputies outside; quickly calls sam to warn him. arrested; sheriff's office. tells Pierce his name is Ted Nugent. john winchester's journal; Dean 35-111; coordinates;

sam goes to salvage yard; talks to joseph; john was there a few days ago asking where constance is buried; tells him he buried constance out by the old house; sam gets him to admit that he cheated;

Woman in white = wicked woman; spirits sighted in hawaii; new mexico; wyoming; indiana for hundreds of years; unfaithful husbands; wives suffer temporary insanity and mruder their own children then take their own life; spirits wander highways seeking out unfaithful men.

sam fakes 911 phone call to sheriff's office; sheriff gets called away; dean escapes by using paperclip in journal to undo handcuffs. dean calls sam and tells him that john left jericho. he found his journal and it has coordinates. sam nearly hits woman in white. echoey voice "Take me Home". takes control of car; drives to house. tries to force sam to be unfaithful; kisses him; fingers burn into chest. dean comes up; shoots out window; constance disappears; sam drives car through house. constances uses TK to pin sam and dean to wall with dresser. water drips down steps; children appear; "You've come home to us, Mommy". Grab mom; bright light; she screams; disappears.

takes sam back to stanford; goes into room; calls out for jess. lies down. blood drops. looks up; jess bursts into flames. dean hears sam scream and helps him out of burning buidling; sam decides to go with dean to find dad and hunt down the thing that killed jess.

30 Days of Night stuff

 * The character of the was created by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. She was further developed by David Slade, Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson.


 * The character of was created by David Slade, Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson.


 * is exclusive to the continuity of the 30 Days of Night feature film and has no counterpart in the original 30 Days of Night comic book series.