Ken Ralston

Kenneth "Kel" Ralston (born 1954) is an American visual effects artist, currently the Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston begun his career at the seminal commercial animation and visual effects company, Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s.^[1] In 1976 he was hired at Industrial Light & Magic by Dennis Muren to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars.^[2] He remained in ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president.^[3] Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis.^[1]

Ralston has won five Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, including a Special Achievement Oscar for the visual effects in Return of the Jedi, and regular awards for his work on Forrest Gump, Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Cocoon. He was nominated seven more times, for The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Dragonslayer, Back to the Future Part II and Alice in Wonderland.^[1]

Filmography

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) (assistant cameraman: miniature and optical effects unit)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (effects cameraman: miniature and optical effects unit)
Dragonslayer (1981) (dragon supervisor: ILM)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) (special visual effects supervisor: ILM)
Return of the Jedi (1983) (visual effects)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) (visual effects supervisor)
Cocoon (1985) (visual effects supervisor)
Back to the Future (1985) (visual effects supervisor: Bafta)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (effects supervisor)
The Golden Child (1986) (visual effects supervisor)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (visual effects supervisor)
Back to the Future Part II (1989) (visual effects supervisor)
Dreams (1990) (visual effects supervisor)
Back to the Future Part III (1990) (visual effects supervisor)
The Rocketeer (1991) (visual effects supervisor, second unit director)
Death Becomes Her (1992) (visual effects supervisor, second unit director)
Forrest Gump (1994) (visual effects supervisor)
The Mask (1994) (visual effects consultant)
The American President (1995) (visual effects supervisor)
Jumanji (1995) (visual effects supervisor)
Phenomenon (1996) (visual effects supervisor: SPI)
Michael (1996) (visual effects supervisor: SPI)
Contact (1997) (visual effects supervisor)
Patch Adams (1998) (visual effects guru)
Cast Away (2000) (visual effects supervisor)
America's Sweethearts (2001) (visual effects consultant)
Men in Black II (2002) (visual effects supervisor: SPI)
The Forgotten (2004) (visual effects consultant)
The Polar Express (2004) (visual effects supervisor)
Beowulf (2007) (visual effects design consultant, special effects)
Alice in Wonderland (2010) (senior visual effects supervisor)
Men in Black 3 (2012) (visual effects supervisor)
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) (visual effects supervisor)

References

1 2 3 Ken Ralston at the Imageworks website
↑ Phil Tippett: Hands-On Effects at the Wayback Machine (archived June 6, 2008), StarWars.com
↑ Linda Seger, Edward Jay Whetmore (2004). From script to screen: the collaborative art of filmmaking. Lone Eagle Pub. p. 161. ISBN 1580650546.

External links

Ken Ralston at the Internet Movie Database

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1963-1980	Emil Kosa, Jr. (1963) Peter Ellenshaw, Eustace Lycett, and Hamilton Luske (1964) John Stears (1965) Art Cruickshank (1966) L. B. Abbott (1967) Stanley Kubrick (1968) Robbie Robertson (1969) L. B. Abbott and A. D. Flowers (1970) Alan Maley, Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee (1971) L. B. Abbott and A. D. Flowers (1972) no award given (1973) Frank Brendel, Glen Robinson, and Albert Whitlock (1974) Glen Robinson and Albert Whitlock (1975) Carlo Rambaldi, Glen Robinson, and Frank Van der Veer (1976) John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, and Robert Blalack (1977) Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Roy Field, Derek Meddings, and Zoran Perisic (1978) H. R. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, and Dennis Ayling (1979) Brian Johnson, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Bruce Nicholson (1980)

1981-2000	Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, and Joe Johnston (1981) Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, and Kenneth F. Smith (1982) Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, and Phil Tippett (1983) Dennis Muren, Michael J. McAlister, Lorne Peterson, and George Gibbs (1984) Ken Ralston, Ralph McQuarrie, Scott Farrar, and David Berry (1985) Robert Skotak, Stan Winston, John Richardson, and Suzanne Benson (1986) Dennis Muren, William George, Harley Jessup, and Kenneth F. Smith (1987) Ken Ralston, Richard Williams, Edward Jones, and George Gibbs (1988) John Bruno, Dennis Muren, Hoyt Yeatman, and Dennis Skotak (1989) Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin, Tim McGovern, and Alex Funke (1990) Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren, Jr., and Robert Skotak (1991) Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang, Doug Smythe, and Tom Woodruff, Jr. (1992) Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Lippett, and Michael Lantieri (1993) Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, and Allen Rall (1994) Scott E. Anderson, Charles Gibson, Neal Scanlan, and John Cox (1995) Volker Engel, Douglas Smith, Clay Pinney, and Joe Viskocil (1996) Robert Legato, Mark Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer (1997) Joel Hynek, Nicholas Brooks, Stuart Robinson, and Kevin Mack (1998) John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, and Jon Thum (1999) John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey (2000)

2001-2020	Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, Richard Taylor, Mark Stetson (2001) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2002) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2003) John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier (2004) Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor (2005) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall (2006) Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, and Trevor Wood (2007) Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, and Craig Barron (2008) Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones (2009) Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb (2010) Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, and Alex Henning (2011) Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer, and Donald R. Elliott (2012) Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould (2013) Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, and Scott R. Fisher (2014) Mark Williams Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris, and Andrew Whitehurst (2015)

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 51890614 BNF: cb14042002q (data)

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