Head Sculptures, Starman, 1984
Designer and maker, Dick Smith
Actor, Jeff Bridges
In an early sequence of Starman, an alien assumes a human form by growing from infancy to adulthood overnight. Designer Dick Smith fabricated more than one hundred full-size heads, each one conveying a minute step in the transition. The sculptures were photographed sequentially, occupying only a single frame of film. The result was a fluid, five-second transformation enlivened with eye blinks and a slight head turn. Today, an effect like this one would be created digitally.
Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York
May 13th, 2018
The Humble Fabulist 