PROFILE
ALEC GILLIS: PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF ANIMATRONICS IN TO THE FUTURE By TREVOR HOGG
Images courtesy of Alec Gillis. TOP: Alec Gillis OPPOSITE TOP: Alec Gillis has been part of some major Hollywood franchises such as Aliens vs. Predator.
There is no holding back Alec Gillis, especially when discussing whether special effects artists get the proper respect and recognition from the film industry. The two-time Oscar-nominee dislikes the practice of special effects being left off of award ballots and feels that more can be done to promote and support the efforts of their practical-minded colleagues. All of this is done good-naturedly as Gillis talks from the porch of his house via Zoom. He has earned the right to his own opinions after being schooled by legends Roger Corman and Stan Winston, co-founding Amalgamated Dynamics, and working on Alien3, Tremors, Starship Troopers, Cast Away, Zookeeper, It and The Predator. Even though special effects have been around ever since French illusionist, director and actor Georges Méliès dazzled audiences with the first of his 500 films in 1896, a lack of awareness and understanding remains today. “A lot of what we do is educating when we’re dealing with clients because people don’t know what goes into it, how meticulously things are crafted, and nothing exists until they put money into it, which is a difficult concept for producers to get,” states Gillis, who had to deal with the complications of running a business under pandemic protocols. “After six weeks of being in quarantine,” he says, “I went into the shop and was looking around thinking, ‘We have enough space to socially distance. We have four bathrooms so everyone can have their own.’ We fall under the category of manufacturing, so we are considered to be essential here in L.A. Nothing was stopping us. People were comfortable with it and came back. We have inched towards finishing projects, and there have been no COVID-19 illnesses.” Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Gillis grew up in Santa Ana, California. “I could see the Disneyland fireworks from my bedroom window. It was a time where my mom would drop my brother and I off when we were nine and 11 at Disneyland. We would run around the park for an entire summer. That was amazing because of animatronics. I remember when the Haunted Mansion was new. It was all great fuel for the imagination. The summer of 1969 was when The Planet of the Apes came out. We’d hide under the seats in between shows to watch the movie again. It was such a compelling story, and I felt that I was watching an adult movie with interesting themes and, of course, that twist ending. Then you realize that Rod Sterling wrote the script and he’s the Twilight Zone guy! You’re becoming a fan of people’s work and start thinking, ‘Individuals make these things that I love, so why couldn’t I be one of them?’” The patriarch of the family was a U.S. Marine turned insurance salesman who was a big fan of learning about how movies were made. “I remember my dad waking me up when Jason and the Argonauts premiered on CBS and seeing the moment when the skeletons are coming up out of the ground,” recalls Gillis. “That was when I was sucked into how wildly creative the world of effects was. But it was always mixed with storytelling.” The experience created yet another fan of Ray Harryhausen. “My business partner, Tom Woodruff Jr., is good about contacting people and sending letters, so when we were in London for Alien3, he arranged for us to meet Ray Harryhausen and his wife Diana. He showed us his big display case of all the skeletons as well as
34 • VFXVOICE.COM SUMMER 2021
PG 34-39 ALEC GILLIS.indd 34
5/3/21 4:55 PM
