Tonight a good number of us got together for remembrances, a few laughs, more than a few moments of silence, a walk past a number of Ralph's pieces (including the very first drawing he did for Star Wars and many fantastic layouts for the paintings that we know well..: many an interesting change between his tight layouts and the finals, cool notations on our history) This followed with a screening of Star Wars.
I think Ralph would have been completely shocked by it. Was very happy that Joan made it down; she was herself surprised to see a couple of the pieces from Ralph's collection that were on display. A couple she couldn't recall, guessing that they were done so long ago that if she saw them 'then' she's forgot in the time since.
Dennis Muren, Scott Farrar, Lorne Peterson and Steve Gawley (who had the best and funniest 'poor Steve' stories concerning Ralph) took to the stage in the theater and spent most of an hour recalling their first meetings with Ralph and his influence on them in the early days of their individual and collective collaborations. Dennis went so far as to muse as to whether he'd have been involved with Empire and on if it hadn't been for a trip to the burgeoning Kerner site, only to find a couple of Ralph's images, in every way superior to the concepts and execution for what we now now as Episode 4, already on the wall.
I didn't have much of a chance to catch up, but Bill George, John Knoll, Terry Chostner, John Goodson, and I know I'll remember more names after I hit 'Submit'... also made it for the talk. vfx art directors, a few concept artists, a couple more amazing model builders and painters and even a few of the more technical staff-- pretty well represented. Everyone knew why we were there, literally in that space not just getting together to reminisce, and that to honor Ralph is in a way to remind ourselves that we have work to do, shoulders to stand on, and while doing so to dig a little deeper to convey what we do.
It's never easy to lose a hero. Harder to lose a friend. And when loss becomes a regular part of how you mark time, when you measure your co-workers as friends/family for half of your life, nights like tonight have the potential to reek of regret and opportunities lost. So I hope for those of you chasing dreams, if there's someone like Ralph in your life, if you have questions and are worthy of the answers, if you do the work... then I hope you're speaking with them, learning, and looking just a bit beyond the horizon they show you. Ralph would like that.
I think Ralph would have been completely shocked by it. Was very happy that Joan made it down; she was herself surprised to see a couple of the pieces from Ralph's collection that were on display. A couple she couldn't recall, guessing that they were done so long ago that if she saw them 'then' she's forgot in the time since.
Dennis Muren, Scott Farrar, Lorne Peterson and Steve Gawley (who had the best and funniest 'poor Steve' stories concerning Ralph) took to the stage in the theater and spent most of an hour recalling their first meetings with Ralph and his influence on them in the early days of their individual and collective collaborations. Dennis went so far as to muse as to whether he'd have been involved with Empire and on if it hadn't been for a trip to the burgeoning Kerner site, only to find a couple of Ralph's images, in every way superior to the concepts and execution for what we now now as Episode 4, already on the wall.
I didn't have much of a chance to catch up, but Bill George, John Knoll, Terry Chostner, John Goodson, and I know I'll remember more names after I hit 'Submit'... also made it for the talk. vfx art directors, a few concept artists, a couple more amazing model builders and painters and even a few of the more technical staff-- pretty well represented. Everyone knew why we were there, literally in that space not just getting together to reminisce, and that to honor Ralph is in a way to remind ourselves that we have work to do, shoulders to stand on, and while doing so to dig a little deeper to convey what we do.
It's never easy to lose a hero. Harder to lose a friend. And when loss becomes a regular part of how you mark time, when you measure your co-workers as friends/family for half of your life, nights like tonight have the potential to reek of regret and opportunities lost. So I hope for those of you chasing dreams, if there's someone like Ralph in your life, if you have questions and are worthy of the answers, if you do the work... then I hope you're speaking with them, learning, and looking just a bit beyond the horizon they show you. Ralph would like that.