Film festivals are usually seen as events for cineastes, not movie lovers. Both groups share a passion for cinema, but entertainment isn't enough for festival crowds: They like to discuss, deconstruct and disseminate.
But with the help of featured guest Stan Winston, a renowned makeup and creature effects artist (not to mention a University graduate), the 12th annual Virginia Film Festival is turning that elitist notion around, opening the Festival with a screening of "Aliens." Winston designed the title creatures, along with the Terminator and a host of other memorable figures.
Film snobs, take cover. How base, how gauche, to open a serious repertory festival with a sci-fi action movie, a big-budget thrill ride for the popcorn-popping minions! The director is none other than that loathsome boor James Cameron, self-proclaimed "king of the world" and iron-fisted dictator behind that overstuffed turkey "Titanic."
Open-minded Festival-goers, take note: He's also the greatest American action director working today, perhaps ever, and "Aliens" is a definitive classic of the genre, a vast and complex vision of a futuristic, extraterrestrial wasteland. With Winston's help, Cameron created images that burn into the memory of anyone who sees them.
And Winston is quick to defend his work against those who would dismiss it as a "TechnoVision" that has poisoned the moviegoing public into a bigger-is-better mentality.
"I hope the message I can bring to the Film Festival this year, and especially since we're talking about 'TechnoVisions,' is that we never let things get out of balance between art and technology," he said in an interview with The Cavalier Daily.
"We hopefully will never get to the point where technology leads the art. We need to understand the basics of filmmaking, of storytelling, of the artistic world, and if we find that we want to use some new technique, some new technical advancement as a tool to help tell a story, or as a tool to help create a work of art, we should do so."
Judged by these criteria - and none other would be appropriate - "Aliens" is a masterpiece, as are Winston's other collaborations with Cameron, "The Terminator" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," both of which will also screen at the Festival. Unfortunately, their effects-heavy work is often faulted for spawning inferior knockoffs that eschew story in favor of a wretched excess of special effects (think "Godzilla").
Winston understands this, of course: "The problem is that people see a story, well told, that involves a certain new technology, and unfortunately what they don't realize is that what they really, thoroughly enjoy is the story, not the technology. People who don't realize that go out and they then want to create a film based on a technology that they saw, not understanding that's really not why they enjoyed the film."
He has tried to avoid this problem by working with the best, and he places Cameron at the top.
"My experience with Jim Cameron is one of the most positive experiences of my career. He is a demanding, challenging, imaginative, brilliant filmmaker. He does not compromise, and if you've ever heard any stories that are negative about Jim Cameron, it usually comes from people who possibly haven't come up to the bar he raises when it comes to filmmaking," he said.
Having worked behind the scenes in various capacities, Winston is loaded with insight about the filmmaking process. He has directed two features himself, as well as numerous teasers, music videos and shorts. And even though his artistic effects leave an indelible mark on the films he has been involved with, he appreciates that film is a director's medium.
"I direct on a daily basis - if we are doing a character or a creature for a film [in Stan Winston Studios], my job is to direct that creation," Winston said. "When you're directing a film, you have to allow the people you have hired as artists to do their job and make the right choices ... Filmmaking is a hugely collaborative art form, but the only author to a film truly is the director."
Winston's most poignant character creation can be seen in Tim Burton's beautiful fable "Edward Scissorhands," which will screen tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Newcomb Hall Theater. And Winston isn't one to hog the credit. "My job, if I am not directing, is to get into the mind of the director, to help bring his vision to the screen. Tim Burton has a vision of his art unlike any other filmmaker, ... and I don't lay ownership or claim to any of [his] characters. I'm glad I was part of the collaborative team to make those characters come alive."
(Stan Winston will introduce "20 Million Miles to Earth" today at 1 p.m. at Regal Cinemas Downtown Mall 6. He will also present "Terminator 2" at 7 p.m. and an encore screening of "Aliens" at 10 p.m. tomorrow at Culbreth Theatre.)
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