Harrison Ellenshaw
As a visual effects artist and filmmaker, Harrison Ellenshaw has
spent more than twenty- five years in the film industry, with
credits that include STAR WARS, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, TRON,
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, CAPTAIN EO and DICK TRACY.
After a three-year stint as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he
began his film career with the Matte Department of Walt Disney
Studios. Four years later, Ellenshaw became head of that
department. He remained at Disney for the next five years,
supervising matte paintings for all of the studio's productions.
During this time, he also created visual effects for Nicolas
Roeg's cult classic THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. As a result of
that work, George Lucas asked Ellenshaw to work as the matte
artist for a highly speculative science-fiction film: STAR
WARS.
The success of STAR WARS began revitalization of
effects films; and in 1978, Disney went ahead with a long
planned project: THE BLACK HOLE. Ellenshaw supervised over 150
matte paintings and composites for the film. He also supervised
a portion of the miniature photography and effects animation. In
addition, he designed and implemented the first motion control
matte stand, MatteSCAN, and was responsible for the creation of
the black hole itself. Ellenshaw received an Academy Award
nomination for his work on the film.
In late 1979, Ellenshaw left Disney to rejoin Lucasfilm's relocated effects
facility, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), in Marin County, to
supervise the painting and compositing of 85 matte shots for THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. In 1981 and 1982, Ellenshaw was visual
effects supervisor (with Richard Taylor) and associate producer
for TRON, a film containing 68 continuous minutes of effects,
including the first extensive use of backlight compositing and
revolutionary computer generated imagery (CGI). Photographed in
65mm, never before had such an ambitious film been undertaken;
literally adding effects to every single frame for two-thirds of
a feature. This required rotoscoping and re-photographing more
than 75,000 frames of live action, enlarged individually onto 16
by 20" Kodalith cels. With as many as 25 exposures per frame,
over half a million additional cels had to be created, inked,
painted, catalogued and composited in only seven months time.
More than 500 people were supervised in post-production,
utilizing effects systems created especially for the film. The
16 minutes of CGI included in TRON were a breakthrough in the
use of this technology for a feature length film.
During 1983, Ellenshaw supervised miniature photography and was visual
effects consultant for SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. In 1984,
he directed a one-hour videotape documentary (the first non-ENG
use of Betacam) and a live action short for The Disney Channel.
The short, a Bruno Bettleheim psychosexual version of RED RIDING
HOOD, was considered too risquŽ for a family audience. At the
same time, Disney had also commissioned a short of HANSEL AND
GRETEL directed by Tim Burton. Not surprisingly, this too was
deemed inappropriate. Then in 1985, Ellenshaw was again
associated with George Lucas for the 3-D dual 70mm film CAPTAIN
EO. Directed by Francis Coppola and starring Michael Jackson,
this 16 minute Disney theme park project contained over 180
visual effects shots. In 1986 Ellenshaw helped create over 600
effects shots for SUPERMAN IV, where he was both visual effects
supervisor and 2nd unit director.
Then in 1988, Ellenshaw again stepped away from effects to direct an
independent feature, DEAD SILENCE. The film, a comedy about the
foibles of independent filmmaking was shown at numerous film
festivals, receiving a number of awards and positive reviews.
After work on the hit film GHOST in 1989, Ellenshaw then helped
create the spectacular effects for DICK TRACY. The combination
of matte paintings, miniatures, effects animation and live
action created a color saturated super realism never before seen
on film. From 1990 to 1996 Ellenshaw was head of Disney's
independent effects facility, Buena Vista Visual Effects (BVVE).
During those six years BVVE was profitable in every year as they
created over 2,700 shots in more than 40 films including,
notably, HONEY I BLEW UP THE KID (Disney), DAVE (Warner Bros.),
THE PELICAN BRIEF (Warner Bros.), WILDER NAPALM (Tri-Star), THE
SANTA CLAUSE (Disney), DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (20th Century
Fox), CONGO (Paramount), THE JUNGLE BOOK (Disney), BATMAN
FOREVER (Warner Bros.), OPERATION DUMBO DROP (Disney), ASSASSINS
(Warner Bros.), JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (Disney), THE PHANTOM
(Paramount) and ESCAPE FROM L.A. (Paramount). During this time,
Ellenshaw was also head of Buena Vista Imaging (titles, trailers
and opticals) and the film services divisions of Park Films and
Library Restoration at The Walt Disney Studios (in this capacity
he successfully supervised Cinesite's first all digital
restoration of the animated classic SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN
DWARFS). From 1999 to 2001, Harrison supervised all effects
for Renaissance Pictures' television projects including
HERCULES, THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS and XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS.
Ellenshaw has taught a number of film courses and workshops both
here and abroad, including Visual Effects Production and
Management (European Digital Arts/MEDIA II Programme), The
Artistry and Technology of the Moving Image (Gnomon), and The
Perception and Reproduction of Color in Film. Video and Digital
Media (with Charles Poynton/UCLA Ext.). He is also a founding
director of the Visual Effects Society (VES) as well as a member
of AMPAS and BAFTA. And during 1998 and 1999, he was the Digital
Media Faculty Chair at the Center for Advanced Television and
Film Studies of the AFI (American Film Institute).
Harrison is presently developing projects for Ibyx Entertainment
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