2016 (Production)

2016-02-03 (Production)

English (Original)

Interviewee: Harrison Ellenshaw
Interviewer: Michael Mallory

Professional production

United States

Harrison Ellenshaw, a Visual FX Artist/Matte Artist, is interviewed by Michael Mallory at Ellenshaw’s home in Westlake Village, CA in 2016 in a co-production of the Art Directors Guild and the Academy Oral History Projects. Harrison Ellenshaw discusses the influence of his matte painter father on his decision to become a special effects artist. He recounts his years at Disney, while also contributing to the first two STAR WARS films. Projects discussed range from THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976) to TV's XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1999-2001).

Harrison Ellenshaw, a Visual FX Artist/Matte Artist, is interviewed by Michael Mallory at Ellenshaw’s home in Westlake Village, CA on February 3, 2016. This is a co-production of the Art Directors Guild and the Academy Oral History Projects. Harrison Ellenshaw recounts growing up in England though he was born in the US. He remembers the excitement about coming to America at age eight as his father Peter Ellenshaw pursued work as a matte painter at the studios. He expresses reservation about initially following in his father’s footsteps, choosing to study psychology in college then serving in the Navy until 1970. Recalling how he only got job offers to be an insurance salesman, he went to Disney on his father’s tip that there were openings for apprentice matte painters. He describes working with Alan Maley, then head of the Art Department, and regards him as his true mentor. He describes the basics of matte painting and how essential it is to understand that filmmaking tells a visual story through design. Ellenshaw goes on to detail becoming head of the department and describes the projects he worked on for Disney, Buena Vista Visual Effects, and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). He compares the different working environments at Disney and ILM, claiming the benefits of being exposed to various environments. The projects he speaks on range from THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976), STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE (1977) and STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980), THE BLACK HOLE (1979), TRON (1982) and DICK TRACY (1990). On the two STAR WARS films, he details specific mattes he designed. He recalls work on THE BLACK HOLE, Disney’s biggest VFX picture and first PG rated title, where he collaborated with his father for the first time. He regards the time working with his father as a pleasurable and frustrating experience. He describes his next film, TRON, as making STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK look like child’s play because everything was invented from scratch at a time when it took 24 hours to generate one frame with a computer. He considers DICK TRACY his biggest challenge and credits his psychology background for helping him deal with the pressure and director/actor/producer Warren Beatty. He discusses the first time he used digital intermediates on the TV series XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (1999-2001) and reflects on the changes digital technology has made on the special effects field. He explains his decision to retire after THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN (2003), claiming he was not on top of the latest trends and knew it was time to move on. On his participation with ADG, he voices appreciation for the guild and has enjoyed its benefits in his later years. Throughout the interview, Harrison stresses that technology is secondary to understanding the concept of narrative visual storytelling.

Harrison Ellenshaw (born 1945) is a matte painter and visual effects artist born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to an American mother and British father, notable matte painter Peter Ellenshaw. Harrison Ellenshaw was head of the matte department at Walt Disney Studios from 1974 to1980 and was involved in the formation of Buena Vista Visual Effects. He is known for his supervision on cutting-edge sci-fi films, including STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE (1977), STAR WARS: EPISODE V – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) and TRON (1982). He received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for his collaboration with his father on THE BLACK HOLE (1979). Ellenshaw was one of the creative forces behind what has proved to be a revolutionary digital technology: computer-generated imagery (CGI). He played a key role in creating visual effects on DICK TRACY (1990) and ESCAPE FROM L.A. (1996) and was a founding board member of the Visual Effects Society. Ellenshaw was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Directors Guild in 2016. He has also pursued a fine art career, exhibiting in galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.

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