#Richard Holliss

[starberry-cupcake]

Post #2 of the books I’m using to plan my workshop series, class II from module I will be about Disney. 

These aren’t all the Disney books I own, nor all the editions of The Art of Walt Disney I own (maybe one day I could share my collection), but these are the ones I used to plan my class: The Walt Disney Film Archives by Taschen and directed by Daniel Kothenschulte, The Art of Walt Disney (1983, 1995 & 1999 editions) by Christopher Finch, The Disney Studio Story by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley, Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast by Charles Solomon, The Art of Tangled by Jeff Kurtti and Disney Villains, Delightfully Evil by Jen Darcy. Not pictured but included in the class, the following movies: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella (1950), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Tangled (2010) and Moana (2016). I also watched/rewatched the documentaries Frank & Ollie and Waking Sleeping Beauty though idk how much of them I’ll include. 

Also pictured, my baby Tink ♥ who is kind of a clue for the following class...

#books #disney #disney books #children's lit #in this case not particularly but that's what my workshop is about #I think I may also include some picture books of the princesses but I'm not sure yet #tinker bell #after being treated like shit on the internet I'm trying to feel better with something I love

[downthetubes]

Major Ray Harryhausen retrospective announced for Summer 2020 - in Scotland

Major Ray Harryhausen retrospective announced for Summer 2020 – in Scotland

Art for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. © Ray Harryhausen

The Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art and the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation have announced provisional dates for an exhibition celebrating the work of the extraordinary film maker Ray Harryhausen, in 2020, encompassing his entire career.

Ray’s wife, Diana, had very strong links to Scotland, as the great-great granddaughter of…

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#Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation #Ray Harryhausen #Richard Holliss #Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art #Titan Books

[mcbastardsmausoleum]

the 2-disc region-B Blu-ray of Saul Bass's PHASE IV (1974) arrives on April 6th from @101.films - this includes a new HD restoration, a audio commentary, a featurette and the original ending, plus a disc of the director's short films and booklet. Looks like it's time for an upgrade, the previous US Blu-ray was barebones, yet another reason you should be region-free. Extras • New HD restoration of the main feature • The Original Saul Bass ending (plus optional commentary) • An Ant’s Life: Contextualising Phase IV • Commentary with film historians Allan Bryce and Richard Holliss • Limited Edition Booklet: includes Phase IV by Deborah Allison, and Adapt or Die: Killer Bug Cinema and Phase IV by Liam Hathaway Saul Bass: Short Films (Disc 2) • The Searching Eye (1964) • Why Man Creates (1968) • Bass on Titles (1977) • Notes on the Popular Arts (1978) • The Solar Film (1980) • Quest (1984) Specs: Certificate: 12 Runtime: 101' 45" (Disc 1) 127' 27" (Disc 2) Aspect ratio: 16:9 (1.85:1) (Disc 2: various) Region: B Sound: Stereo PCM (Disc 2: various) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Z3YbSFXAM/?igshid=1p4fk2ffbgvca

[kultguy]

From 101 Films comes the 1974 sci-fi eco horror Phase IV, released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

If you suffer from formication – the sensation that resembles that of small insects crawling on (or under) the skin – then you’re not likely to enjoy this intelligent sci-fi story from 1974 directed by the legendary graphic designer Saul Bass. But if you don’t then you are in for a visual treat…

Triumphant from a 15,000 year battle in space, a bolt of energy reached Earth and a new life force spawned seven grey towers in the Arizona desert. Now, from out of their dark mysteries, marches a new breed of killer ants to herald the dawn of Phase IV…

In a sealed lab in the Arizona desert, scientists James Lesko (Michael Murphy) and Dr Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) search for answers to an unexplained evolutionary shift in the ant population; the development of a collective intelligence and cross-species hive mentality.

With humanity under threat, the scientists are faced with the choice of either communicating with, or eradicating their antagonists. Hubbs believes that the insects are of high intelligence and capable of being reasoned with. But he is wrong… very wrong!

Most famous for his distinctive opening title sequences for films like The Man with the Golden Arm, North by Northwest and Psycho, Bass’ only feature film as director has images and ideas of genuine power. The macro footage of the ants (shot by wildlife photographer Ken Middleham, who also worked on the similarly-themed 1971 faux documentary, The Hellstrom Chronicle) is cleverly incorporated into the action and the film builds up to a suspenseful, if ambiguous, finale.

Lynne Frederick (best known as being Mrs Peter Sellers at the time) is also under threat and the crises the two scientists face include their computer wiring being eaten away and some inevitable creepy crawling up Frederick’s leg. It might drag in places (particularly when the scientists are musing over their data on large bits of paper and on the TV monitors), but you just have to let Bass’ inventive visuals, Dick Bush’s blistering (East Africa) location cinematography and the eerie electronic music score take you on an 84-minute hallucinatory trip.

Included in the 101 Films release is Bass’ original ending, which (spoiler alert, unless you’ve read the novelisation) is a spectacularly surreal sequence blending live action and animation in which the surviving protagonists meld their minds with the ant Queen to witness the fate of humanity.

The 101 Films release features the following extras, plus a limited edition booklet.

DISC ONE • HD restoration • Feature commentary with film historians Allan Bryce and Richard Holliss • The Original Saul Bass ending (plus optional commentary from Allan Bryce and Richard Hollis). Vetoed by the studio upon original release, the footage (around 4 minutes) was long thought lost until it resurfaced in 2012. • An Ant’s Life: Contextualising Phase IV: Film critic and The Creeping Garden co-director Jasper Sharp and film director and writer Sean Hogan look at the film’s influences and legacy.

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DISC TWO (Saul Bass: Short Films) • The Searching Eye (1964, 18min): Created for the Kodak Pavillion at the New York World’s Fair, with a score by Jeff Alexander and narrated by All About Eve‘s Gary Merrill, this short about visual awareness follows the action of a suntanned youth on a beach to provide visual metaphors for the normally unseen world. Great use of stock footage combined with different camera and editing techniques.

• Why Man Creates (1968, 28min): Bass won his only Oscar for this short  in which he uses a series of live action and animated vignettes to illustrate the necessity for creation. And by creation, Bass means everything from art to mundane things, from words and numbers to unusual abstract works. The traffic lights sequence is a standout.

• Bass on Titles (1977). Bass discusses his evolution as the master of the film title sequence from pure graphics to live action; breaking down the key themes of some of his most famous titles. This one could have done with a remaster to really appreciate the beauty of the images.

• Notes on the Popular Arts (1978, 20min): Live action, animation and special effects are combined in a series of funny episodes illuminating the importance that American’s place on the popular arts.

• The Solar Film (1980, 9min) After watching this and his other shorts, I realise that one key image crops up in all of Bass’ personal works: the sun. This informative Oscar-nominated short film, co-produced by Robert Redford, advocates the use of solar energy using a combination of live action and animation to tell the history of our connection with the sun.

• Quest (1984, 30min) The descendants of a crashed spaceship living in a cave city on a distant planet have been subjected to mysterious forces that cause them to age and die in eight days. In order to be free from this ‘curse’, they send a young boy on an eight-day quest to open a gateway that will allow their lifespans to be lengthened. But can he achieve his goal before his own lifespan gives out? Directed by Bass and his wife Elaine, this rarely screened live-action short, written by Ray Bradbury (based on his 1946 tale, Frost and Fire), has some excellent visuals and effects (with imagery that echo Bass’ original ending in Phase IV), and is probably my favourite extra on 101’s release (it has also gets a HD restoration here). Watch out for The NeverEnding Story‘s Noah Hathaway as the boy and character actor Les Tremanye (War of the Worlds) as the old man.

    Phase IV | Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi eco horror is hauntingly hypnotic From 101 Films comes the 1974 sci-fi eco horror Phase IV, released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

#101 Films #Nigel Davenport #Phase IV #Saul Bass #Why Man Creates

[moviesandmania]

Phase IV - UK | USA, 1974 - reviews and 101 Films Blu-ray news

Phase IV – UK | USA, 1974 – reviews and 101 Films Blu-ray news

British-based 101 Films is releasing Phase IV, the only feature film directed by legendary credits sequences designer Saul Bass as a two-disc Blu-ray set.

The release includes the original ending that Bass wanted but was vetoed by the studio, as an extra. A new documentary, An Ant’s Life: Contextualising Phase IV, an audio commentary by Allan Bryce (The Darkside) and Richard Holliss, and a…

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#1974 #ants #film #Lynne Frederick #Michael Murphy #movie #Nigel Davenport #Phase IV #review #reviews #Saul Bass #sci-fi