Slimer puppet question (Ghotsbusters)
- Thread starter IndyFanChuck
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itsalive
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised no ones mentioned Howard S. Studios. Howard used to sell from the mold GB1 Slimers a few years back.
I saw a miniature GB1 Slimer at Atlanta's Planet Hollywood back around 1999-2000. I cant remember who was credited. Steve or Mark. It was very accurate to the original 1:1 scale puppet.
I thought it was used for the chandelier scene. Now they claim a peanut was used.
Amazon is selling an Exclusive "Slimer Edition" of the Ghostbusters game for $109.99- It comes with a softball sized Slimer replica created by Steve Johnson. It's the best official mass produced replica I've seen yet. I hate that's it's cast in transparent resin though.
I saw a miniature GB1 Slimer at Atlanta's Planet Hollywood back around 1999-2000. I cant remember who was credited. Steve or Mark. It was very accurate to the original 1:1 scale puppet.
I thought it was used for the chandelier scene. Now they claim a peanut was used.
Amazon is selling an Exclusive "Slimer Edition" of the Ghostbusters game for $109.99- It comes with a softball sized Slimer replica created by Steve Johnson. It's the best official mass produced replica I've seen yet. I hate that's it's cast in transparent resin though.
Kerr Avon
Master Member
I can see the argument to cast it in opaque resin, but with the way Slimer was double exposed in the movie to be partly transparent I think he looks better as he was done.
MR BARLOW
Well-Known Member
Howards is not from GB 1 or any movie mold to my knowledge. It was a resculpt done by A*** S********* at Steves shop . Howards is remolded from the translucent copy that was made to hang in the Lobby of the FX studio.
Ive always thought Steve was responsible for Slimer, I have never heard otherwise but Im interested to hear what comes from diff sources.
Ive always thought Steve was responsible for Slimer, I have never heard otherwise but Im interested to hear what comes from diff sources.
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d_osborn
Sr Member
my bad... you're right, it was randy cook that sculpted the mini dogs. steve johnson and his partner in crime, paul francis, just acquired cook's original miniature terror dog mold. i have my fingers crossed for licensed casts... they just had a licensed release of a new onionhead sculpt in special editions of the GB video game, so they apparently have a good working relationship with sony/columbia. sony advertised the video game casting as "from the original sculptor of slimer", as well as had him produce a mini-documentary about creating the sculpt for the first film.
of course, i'm not saying that other artists didn't work on onionhead throughout the development process of the film. it's not like i was there.
i'm sure don shay knew what he was talking about when he wrote the article, as well as the MAKING GHOSTBUSTERS book.it's been a while since i've thumbed through the old cinefex, starlog and MAKING GB books... i need to dig them out.
artoo77
Well-Known Member
I received this email from Mark Siegel regarding his involvement with Slimer:
******************
Having seen artists incorrectly credited for work (myself included), I always try to correct mis-information, hence the purpose of my original post(s). No disrespect to Steve, but at times heads of departments get most of the credit, even though they don't do the work. Additionally, either to keep up the mystique or out of plain old poor memory, proper credit gets warped and twisted. In certain circles, I have been credited with creating the miniature boats for "Pirates of the Caribbean", because I led the team that built it, when in fact about a dozen people worked on them. Since Mark is a friend, and I was present for the work he did on GBII, I wanted to make sure he got due credit. I'm glad Mark cleared this up, and I apologize to anyone who might've been hurt by my misinformation.
--Don Bies
******************
So, as to your question:
Your contact is correct. Steve Johnson sculpted the original Slimer (whose original name was "Onionhead"). At least most of him.
Steve did a series of maquettes to nail down the design, so it was really Steve who did the final design. And when the design was approved, Steve sculpted the full size body for the puppet/suit. I sculpted some parts: the teeth and the tongue (which was a glove puppet for my arm). Kevin Brennan sculpted the arms. I've never told people I sculpted Slimer, but that I worked on the team that did, and was one of the puppeteers, but people always seem to remember that I did. Ah well.
Now, I did sculpt two alternate expression versions of Slimer: one full-sized puppet body with a wide-open "terrified" mouth, and one "drinking face" Slimer, with his lips puckered up as if drinking from a bottle. I cleverly came up with the idea to create it as a prosthetic appliance -- used a casting of Steve's main Slimer face, cut away parts of the cheeks, nose, mouth, and chin, and sculpted a replacement part to glue onto the puppet. If I recall correctly, there's a photo is a Cinefex of that Slimer, with Jon Berg (first time I met him -- he had come down to help out for a while.) having his hand shoved up under the puppet and into the puckered lips, which were designed to work as a hand puppet to make him drink. Sadly, the "drinking face" Slimer was never used in the film. Someone in production made the decision that it was too different and might confuse audiences... as if they'd think there just happened to be another all green blobby character who suddenly came into the scene. Ah well.
I also sculpted two tiny miniature Slimers, about 3 inches long: one of full-body character, with arms, that was used for insert shots a bit when he was shot after circling the chandelier in the ballroom scene, and flies off tumbling; and one "bullet" Slimer, oval shaped with no arms, which was used when he sped flying down the hotel hallway and through a wall.
I did sculpt all of Slimer for Ghostbusters II, at ILM, including the one that's mounted at ILM's Presidio Headquarters, which was not for the movie, but as a display figure for Planet Hollywood. And I sculpted the maquette of him for Ghostbusters II, except for his arms/hands, which Howie Weed sculpted.
So that's the full and true Slimer story. Make sure it gets out there so the public knows, and make sure it gets back to Steve. I hate taking credit for someone else's work, and Steve Johnson certainly deserves the accolades!
*********************Your contact is correct. Steve Johnson sculpted the original Slimer (whose original name was "Onionhead"). At least most of him.
Steve did a series of maquettes to nail down the design, so it was really Steve who did the final design. And when the design was approved, Steve sculpted the full size body for the puppet/suit. I sculpted some parts: the teeth and the tongue (which was a glove puppet for my arm). Kevin Brennan sculpted the arms. I've never told people I sculpted Slimer, but that I worked on the team that did, and was one of the puppeteers, but people always seem to remember that I did. Ah well.
Now, I did sculpt two alternate expression versions of Slimer: one full-sized puppet body with a wide-open "terrified" mouth, and one "drinking face" Slimer, with his lips puckered up as if drinking from a bottle. I cleverly came up with the idea to create it as a prosthetic appliance -- used a casting of Steve's main Slimer face, cut away parts of the cheeks, nose, mouth, and chin, and sculpted a replacement part to glue onto the puppet. If I recall correctly, there's a photo is a Cinefex of that Slimer, with Jon Berg (first time I met him -- he had come down to help out for a while.) having his hand shoved up under the puppet and into the puckered lips, which were designed to work as a hand puppet to make him drink. Sadly, the "drinking face" Slimer was never used in the film. Someone in production made the decision that it was too different and might confuse audiences... as if they'd think there just happened to be another all green blobby character who suddenly came into the scene. Ah well.
I also sculpted two tiny miniature Slimers, about 3 inches long: one of full-body character, with arms, that was used for insert shots a bit when he was shot after circling the chandelier in the ballroom scene, and flies off tumbling; and one "bullet" Slimer, oval shaped with no arms, which was used when he sped flying down the hotel hallway and through a wall.
I did sculpt all of Slimer for Ghostbusters II, at ILM, including the one that's mounted at ILM's Presidio Headquarters, which was not for the movie, but as a display figure for Planet Hollywood. And I sculpted the maquette of him for Ghostbusters II, except for his arms/hands, which Howie Weed sculpted.
So that's the full and true Slimer story. Make sure it gets out there so the public knows, and make sure it gets back to Steve. I hate taking credit for someone else's work, and Steve Johnson certainly deserves the accolades!
Having seen artists incorrectly credited for work (myself included), I always try to correct mis-information, hence the purpose of my original post(s). No disrespect to Steve, but at times heads of departments get most of the credit, even though they don't do the work. Additionally, either to keep up the mystique or out of plain old poor memory, proper credit gets warped and twisted. In certain circles, I have been credited with creating the miniature boats for "Pirates of the Caribbean", because I led the team that built it, when in fact about a dozen people worked on them. Since Mark is a friend, and I was present for the work he did on GBII, I wanted to make sure he got due credit. I'm glad Mark cleared this up, and I apologize to anyone who might've been hurt by my misinformation.
--Don Bies
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Westies14
Master Member
Very cool, very detailed information! Thanks for sharing that, Don. Ghostbusters is my favorite film of all time and I love seeing the layers peeled back to learn some new details of how it was created.
Can Mark shed any light on why the GBII Slimer was so different aesthetically from the first one? It's hard to believe that a show which would be concerned about the potential confusion associated with a different expression would be happy to see a complete redesign of the character. Whose concern was it over the original drinking puppet anyway? Reitman's? I think the pursed lips/drinking slimer is a good representation of the Onionhead puppet.
Thanks again!
- Douglas
Can Mark shed any light on why the GBII Slimer was so different aesthetically from the first one? It's hard to believe that a show which would be concerned about the potential confusion associated with a different expression would be happy to see a complete redesign of the character. Whose concern was it over the original drinking puppet anyway? Reitman's? I think the pursed lips/drinking slimer is a good representation of the Onionhead puppet.
Thanks again!
- Douglas
itsalive
Well-Known Member
Kerr Avon
Master Member
It's cool! I'm sure Steve didn't get his feelings hurt! :lol
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