And the winner is 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'! Hurrah!
The 'Oscar' for Best Visual Effects goes to Richard Edlund, Bruce Nicholson, Joe Johnston and Kit West!
That must have been a fantastic evening! Strong emotions, happy faces and a fair
competition with your old mate Brian Johnson with 'Dragonslayer'.
Kit:"What a coincidence, you ask me about the night of the Oscars for Raiders
and the fact that we were up against Brian Johnson and 'Dragonslayer'.
In the theatre my wife and I were seated next to Brian and his wife, so I did have some moral support.
Brian and I have been close friends for many many years now,
as his mother was Les Bowies personal assistant at Bowie Films and
I knew Brian even before he became involved in Special Effects.
Of course his first involvement with effects was at Bowie Films.
Well only yesterday did I sit down to lunch with Brian, at Pinewood
Studios, and we talked of that very night at the Oscars and how terrified we both were.
When I won, I was so relieved that Richard Edlund had prepared a little 'thank you' speech.
I think I would have made a right 'balls up' in front of the audience of millions.
The reason I was lunching with Brian, was every Christmas the old Special boys get
together for an XMAS reunion.
Peter Dawson, and quite a few of my old crew were there."
'Cocoon', 'Return to Oz' and 'Young Sherlock Holmes' (Dennis Muren, Kit West, John Ellis, David Allen).
My winner would be 'Sherlock' but the jury chose 'Cocoon'.
'Young Sherlock Holmes' is really a lovely eye-boggling VFX movie.
The Visual Effects Supervisor was Dennis Muren and Kit was responsible for all Physical Effects.
Dennis Muren is the VFX wizard with the most nominations ever (15!) and the most awards ever (8!).
On the photo above he is looking over the shoulder of matte painter Chris Evans,
who did several paintings for 'Sherlock' (uncredited).
'Independence Day'. All great, with outstanding VFX.
But 'Twister' and 'Dragonheart' (Kit West, Scott Squires, Phil Tippett and James Straus)
had little chance against Roland Emmerichs pure USA firework 'Independence Day', which has won the race.
Kit: "I was equally scared while sitting in the theatre, waiting to hear the winners announced.
Of course it was always a wonderful honour, and on reflection
I feel very proud of my work in this wonderful world of movie making."