Rick has bowed out surprisingly early for a creative master, selling off many of his prized collection of original props, with a handful of bitingly rueful comments about what it is like for a singular artist working in theCGI dominated effects industry today. "I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast". He was one of the last of a dwindling group of in-camera make-up effects legends, Dick Smith, Rob Bottin, Chris Walas and Stan Winston among them, who have either died, retired, or been relegated to minor advisory roles in the face of a wave of world-obliterating digital mayhem that now swamps almost every big summer movie production. There was a time, in movies from the 1970s and '80s, when I could often recognise immediately the stamp of an individual artist responsible for an effect, such was their unique personality. I knew in an instant a Matthew Yuricich painting, or a Phil Tippet mechanical creation, or the blue-screen model work of John Dykstra. Like a great film composer or cinematographer these artists imprinted their character as well as pouring unparalleled skills into their work and so materially contributed to the unique look, feel and personality of the films they enhanced.
CGI today can indeed show us pretty much anything you care to imagine in pristine photorealistic perfect detail. Used well I acknowledge it is indeed a fine craft and I do not seek to belittle those that have mastered it and continue to push back the boundaries of what can be achieved. But from a studio perspective it is far too often now a mere marketing tool; a soulless, tiresome splurge of wave after wave of destruction, devoid of character and curiously lacking in substance in spite of its vast overwhelming scale. One by one we have lost from film-making a precious few unique and gifted individuals, replaced by squadrons of anonymous CGI work-houses. It is as if, in some parallel reality, Enrico Caruso announced his retirement because One Direction and a bank of Autotune plug-ins could do the same job with half the fuss. So I feel indeed it is kind of RIP. Not to Rick himself thank goodness, but sadly to much of what he represented.
I guess this guy just heard too...
