Stan Winston Studios, founded in 1972 by Stan Winston, has worked on notable films such as the Terminator, Predator, and Jurassic Park series, along with Aliens and Avatar.
Early Work[]
The first real job that Stan Winston had worked on was the television-movie Gargoyles (1972), that won Stan Winston his first Emmy award. For the film, Stan Winston had made several one-piece, slip rubbe, masks for bacground gargoyles. Stan Winston went on to be nominated for several more Emmys for his work.
1980's[]
Stan Winston first attained fame through his work on the James Cameron film, The Terminator (1984). Yet, it was Stan Winstons' work on another James Cameron film, Aliens (1986) that Stan Winston recieved his first Oscar for Best Visual Effects. For the film Aliens, Stan Winston created the alien warrior costumes, as well as the full scale animatronic alien queen. Stan's other projects in this decade included the two Predator films, as well as Edward Scissorhands, and Pumpkinhead.
1990's[]
During the 1990's Stan Winston once again teamed up with James Cameron for the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). In this film, Stan Winston recieved two more Oscars, for Best Makeup Effects and Best Visual Effects. Next, Stan worked on the film Batman Returns (1992). From there, Stan moved from cyborgs and aliens to dinosaurs. Stan Winston teamed up wtih director Steven Spielberg for the film Jurassic Park (1993). Here Stan created nearly lifesized representations of dinosaurs such as T. rex, and Velociraptor (although the latter was actually larger than it's real-life counterpart). Jurassic Park became a hit, and Winston won another Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Other films Stan Winston Studios worked on at this time were The Ghost and The Darkness (1996)and Ghosts (1997). Stan returned to dinosaurs in 1997 with The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Stan Winston and his Studio also worked on the films Small Soldiers, Inspector Gadget, Galaxy Quest and Lake Placid.
2000's[]
Here, Stan Winston Studios went into more digital works. In 2001, Stan Winston did makeup works for Pearl Harbor. The first major digital work of the dacade was AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Stan returned to dinosaurs in 2001, when working on Jurassic Park 3 with Joe Johnston. This time he created a massive Spinosaurus animatronic. He then returned to familiar grounds. Stan Winston once again worked on the Terminators with the third film in the franchise, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Winston also worked on Zathura (2005), Eight Below (2006) and The Shaggy Dog (2006). He also worked on the Marvel film Iron Man (2008), and the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdon of the Crystal Skull (2008). Stan Winston returned to his famous cyborgs, the Terminators, in his last film Terminator Salvation (2009). It was during the post production of this film that Stan Winston died, on June 15 2008, after suffering for seven years from multiple myeloma.
Work Continues[]
Even though Stan Winston was no longer alive, his legacy lived on. At the end of Terminator Salvation, there is an "In Memorium" to Stan Winston. Stan Winston Studios are also responsible for the major character designs of Avatar (2009).
Sources:[]
- The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studios, by Jody Duncan
- Wikipedia - Stan Winston article