Beast Whisperer: Winston gets in touch with the T. Rex from Jurassic Park, and (below) a prop he created for The Thing.
“I remember the first time Dad did a demonstration,” he shares. “I was in kinder-
and animation company, with director James Cameron and ILM’s Scott Ross]. We are covering it all – digital lessons, practical lessons, old-school stop-motion tech- nique, anything that is about creating characters is fair game for a lesson.” More than 12,000 students are currently enrolled in courses at the SWSoCA –
an exceptional response that has inspired the launch of a hands-on, year-long course called “The Art of the Moving Creature” at Winston’s alma mater, the Uni- versity of Virginia, this fall, as well as continued work with similar brick-and-mortar institutions that will offer the school’s online curriculum as an additional resource. Add to that the nearly 725,000 followers that, according to Matt, places the school in the top twenty Facebook pages in the world and it would seem we are indeed in the throes of a monster craze. “It shows that whatever the ups and downs of creature creation might be, in
terms of differing approaches in Hollywood methodology, the enthusiasm for crea- ture craft has never been stronger. It’s kind of blowing our minds every day.” Matt insightfully suggests that perhaps part of the reason why the characters
his father created – despite how gruesome or deadly they appear to be onscreen – have enjoyed such long-lasting popularity has much to do with our instinctual love of being scared witless. “Monsters give us a safe way to deal with the very necessary and primal act of
being afraid, which we all have in us,” he offers. “Fear is part of how we are made. We like to exercise that feeling when we know it is safe. That is why human beings are so fascinated by ghost stories around the fire, because there is something about being scared that we secretly love, as long as it won’t ac- tually hurt us. It is therapeutic. I am sure the first stories told in the Neanderthal days were about the big scary mammoth coming to step on you if you strayed too far outside the cave.” While the man behind these monsters may no longer be with us, the aim of
the SWSoCA is to ensure that a new generation of creature craftsmen can con- tinue to adapt and evolve the techniques Winston and his team invented, while sharing the joy that Matt says his father brought into his own life.
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garten. He came and did a Planet of the Apes makeup on me for all the class. I was very much into sharing it with all of my friends. My dad was always very cool about it. How lucky we were. My entire youth was, ‘Wow, look at the fun make- believe you can do, and get paid!’” At the time of his death, Winston was working on Terminator Salvation, after
which the surviving members of his crew changed the name of Stan Winston Stu- dio to Legacy Effects and continued to honour him with their work on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Avatar and Shutter Island. Given that the company’s current projects include forthcoming blockbuster fare such as Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, the long-awaited adaptation of Max Brooks’ World War Z, Iron Man III and this sum- mer’s Total Recall remake, it seems Winston’s legacy is as unshakeable as the colourful array of creatures he left behind. “Just like his heroes, Lon Chaney and Jack Pierce, Dad had a hand in the
creation of characters that will be remembered forever. He felt he was the luckiest guy in the world because he got to work with the coolest and most amazing artists, every day. These creatures Dad became known for were the creations of an army. He always gave credit to that army. That is why Stan Winston Studio did things no other shop before or since has been able to do. Dad was someone who never grew up, and ‘play’ was his num- ber one key to success. He never lost the wonder of it.”