chase the light

The American Cinematheque had a screening of Ray Harryhausen’s The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. Across the street Ray did a book signing of his book “The Art of…” It was nice to meet him and I picked up two books, one for me and one for Liza. He signed them both and I got a few photographs before heading across the street to get in line for the movie.

As I was waiting in line I saw Ken Ralston and said hello. He’s good friends with Ray and was there just to watch his favorite film. Or so he thought. I went in and found a seat and Ken walked up to the front and joined the rest of the group! Dennis Muren had gotten sick so Ken stepped up and did some of the commentary.

The live commentary was by Ray Harryhausen, Ken Ralston, Randy Cook (3 times Oscar winner for visual effects, LORD OF THE RINGS), Phil Tippett (Oscar winning effects designer, STAR WARS, STARSHIP TROOPERS, SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES), Steven C. Smith (Bernard Herrmann biographer), Kathryn Crosby (Actress in 7th Voyage), and moderator/film historian Arnold Kunert during the screening. It was pretty fun as they turned down the sound a bit and just talked over the film as it played. If you had a question you just yelled it out. The audience had a lot of good questions except for one person who asked if they could turn the sound up on the film because she couldn’t hear it. Um, hello!