Smoke, steam, explosions, people on wires, miniatures of spaceships and robots – all in the day‘s work for this mechanical effects wizard.
There is a sturdiness to Danny Lee's manner that implies the nature of his job as head of Disney's special effects department. A special effects man is the fulcrum between the dreamers and the builders at a movie studio. “Give us a car that drives on water!" the dreamers demand. “Give us a robot that floats on air!" Danny Lee and his peers. people of equal parts imagination and practicality, more often than not can deliver what is asked.
As Lee speaks from his glassed-in office on Disney‘s backlot, he looks out across a shop strewn with Volkswagen parts, the makings of another “Herbie” movie, which will require 20 cars rigged to perform such mechanical stunts as wheelies, blind driving and swimming. This is Danny Lee's last major chore in two frenetic years of Disney special effects films.
Most of 1978 and the first half of 1979 were taken up by THE BLACK HOLE, a $20 million production heavy on the mechanical effects. “I would say that we used just about every type of mechanical effect in THE BLACK HOLE," Lee says. “Of course there was a lot of wire work, where the actors were supposed to be floating weightless. And all of our robots floated, so they had to be on wires most of the time. Then there was the smoke, steam, miniatures, explosions – you name it, we had to do it.
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