In four of the last five James Bond adventures, special effects supervisor John Richardson has acted as an off-camera 'Q' to the indomitable 007 - engineering a speedboat chase over a waterfall in Moonraker; flying a minijet through an aircraft hanger in Octopussy, snaring a blimp on the Golden Gate Bridge in A View to a Kill and staging a massive ground and air battle in The Living Daylights. Eschewing opticals in favor of full-scale physical effects or cleverly integrated miniatures, Richardson has earned a reputation world-wide as an effects artisan of consummate ingenuity and skill.

Article by Nora Lee

When a film script calls for an actor to age, one name comes quickly to mind - Dick Smith. In a celebrated career that has spanned more than forty years, Smith has designed and executed aging makeups for such classic films as Little Big Man, The Godfather, The Exorcist and Amadeus. Smith discusses in detail the evolution of old age makeup and gives an anecdotal account of his experiences adding years and decades to such motion picture notables as Dustin Hoffman, Marlon Brando and Walter Matthau.

Article by Jody Duncan Shannon

When producer Joel Silver went to R/Greenberg Associates with a script that called for an extraterrestrial being capable of rendering itself virtually invisible in the jungle, the challenge of creating such an effect - and others including it's thermographic vision - was eagerly accepted. By employing a red creature suit to generate mattes and a laborious optical technique for creating a multifaceted quasi-invisible figure, visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek and his crew were able to successfully render the alien in visual terms that were both effective and unique.

Article by Paul Mandell