From Hammer classics The Quatermass Xperiment and X the Unknown under the supervision of Les Bowie and Vic Margutti, Field learnt the art of on-set visual effects plate photography, and the disciplines required in order to match live action with visual effects. Communication, quick understanding and obeying time to keep costs low were the rules discovered here. He understood that a good technician was a professional technician, one who was fast and efficient and provided an economic as well as artistic benefit to each production. Minimal involvement was the key, and if a shot could be done live, it was in the effects artists best interest to support this.

Through British movies lead by the likes of Vic Margutti such as The Dam Busters, John and Julie, Hell Drivers, A Tale of Two Cities, Carry On Sergeant, Dunkirk, Room At The Top, Journey To The centre Of The Earth, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, Doctor In Love, Peeping Tom, Sons And Lovers, Sink The Bizmark, the Sean Connery Bond movies, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Khartoum, Field learned the fundamentals of process, model and matte work, and he also saw the development of travelling matte blue screen work straight from the Rank Laboratories at Pinewood Studios. The precise photochemical process was a flawed, unpredictable art form that required delicate handling and patience. On the Ray Harryhausen showcase Mysterious Island, Field learned to communicate with the performance minded animator, accomodating the stop-motion icons technical requirements as far as light and exposure fell, while also focusing on the character animations budget, time and storytelling. He also learned first hand from Harryhausen the benefits of shooting stop motion figures against rear and front projection, the ability to see rushes/dailies the following day, and the beauty of having composite effects completed without having to worry about weeks of optical hassle in post production.

It was following a later Harryhausen film that Field entered the elite of world leading visual effects supervisors. Following work on Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, Les Bowie, who had taught Field many tricks of the trade, offered the effects maestro the oppurtunity to co-supervise the visual effects of Superman with himself.

Superman had extensive visual effects research and development, with dozens of months work, millions of dollars worth of funding and groundbreaking techniques consuming everyone involved. Again however, it was Roy Field's grounding in keeping things simple and minimal that not only got the production where it finished, but allowed for the artistic expression of other artists whose work he felt was best suited to the job at hand. A great example of this would be the Air Force One scene from Superman, a sequence dealing with a falling aircraft hit by a lightning bolt. whereas any other visual effects giant such as Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Trumbull or Dykstra would have opted for total control of the shot with blue screened miniatures filmed against a blue screen with a complex and time consuming computer controlled camera to be matted with various background elements, Field decided to keep the shot simple. He passed the work onto Derek Meddings miniature effects department, who produced the whole sequence in-camera using high speed miniatures. The only optical involvement from Field in this effects piece was the lightning bolt that appears for a split second. The shot was delivered on time and is exceptionally life-like because most of the shot was cheated live action with minimal optical work. However, the best example of this artisitic knowledge was in Field's belief that Christopher Reeve was the film's greatest special effect, believing the actors performance to be greater than any manufactured cinematic illusion. With the recent release of Spider-man, criticised for having an unconvincing, cartoony, totally manufactured rendering of Marvel superhero, fans have been reminded of how true Field's belief was.

Roy Field, along with his peers at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Boss film and Apogee, was one of the top visual effects artists in the world during the visual effects boom of Star Wars. When Jim Henson made the films Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, despite having the wizards of ILM at his disposal, he made sure Field filled the supervisory role of the visual effects unit. Unlike his contemporaries, Field was rarely given direct recognition for his work, even though, for example, his work on Superman III left critics from the trade paper Variety and the notoriously negative Leslie Halliwell cheering with joy over the picture's untouched visual effects. The latter critic went as far as to say that the effects work was the main reason to watch the film, while the former noted that the technical credits were so invisible that you now take them for granted.

Roy Field received the greatest amount of attention from film fans everywhere with the arrival of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, a production he was not involved with. From director Sidney J Furie to vocal Superman fans across the globe, the Cannon groups decision to slash the film's budget and fire the original visual effects artists lead by Field and Derek Meddings spelled out inevitable disaster. True enough, when released, the film displayed none of the visual effects progress, technical sheen or polish that was expected from a Superman movie.

When Great Britain's film industry entered a huge recession in the late 1980s that lasted through a good part of the 1990s, a change was also happening within the special effects world. Digital technology was in vogue, meaning that along with the lack of work and funds in the British visual effects community, the technology that was moving the world of film had to be found elsewhere. While effects employment diminished in the British Isles, Field's positive reputation had him working with filmmakers like Clint Eastwood and Joel Silver, for productions that dealt with minimal but delicate visual effects requirements. As the digital age progressed, Field moved towards the photography of model boats at Pinewood's Effects Associates, world leaders in the mini-maritime craft. Far away in the United States of America, big companies such as ILM and Digital Domain were investing in research and development for new visual effects technology, something that filmmaking did not offer in Great Britain. However, thanks to Roy Field's training of younger, flexible effects technicians during the Superman years, many of these young artists had created and joined commercial advertising firms, which used their revenues to keep ahead with the visual effects world. One example of this is The Mill's computer generated Milk Bottle Campaign from 1991. In the late 1990s, a digital explosion happened in the British visual effects community, and it came from these Superman trained, commercials specialising effects houses.

The current buzz of activity in London's visual effects community derives almost entirely from the Salkind Superman effects units, from the current work of Oscar Winning Mill Film through to Cinesite (Europe) Double Negative, whose recent work includes David Twohy's Below and the comedy Thunderpants. Names such as Peter Chiang, Antony Hunt, Martin Body and Field's sons Peter and Tim continue to fill the end credits of expensive films utilizing state of the art effects work, and this is all thanks to an amazingly talented, totally modest classically trained artist who always believed in a team mentally.

Roy Field, B.S.C. is one of the most influential visual effects artists in cinema history, and his work will be enjoyed by generations of audience members to come, while his contributions to the effects medium will live on throughout the entire future of film visual effects.

Roy Field, B.S.C. 1932-2002

Ahem and Oliver have put together a visual tribute to Roy Field. Featuring a small selection of films which Roy Field shall be most remembered for. It's Quicktime 5 format. Click Here to download.

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