The Washington Square Ghost appears during Ghostbusters II when the Ghostbusters were committed and Vigo has Oscar and Dana Barrett at the Manhattan Museum of Art.
History[]
On New Years Eve, 1989, the Washington Square Ghost manifested at the Victory Arch in Washington Square. Pedestrians abandoned their cars and with other bystanders ran off in the opposite direction from the giant ghost.
Behind the Scenes[]
Phil Tippett, a master stop-motion animator, was sought out to create the Washington Square Ghost. Luckily, Tippett was friends with Industrial Light and Magic and knew Pam Easley on the crew from "The Golden Child." Tippett agreed it as long as the ghost was only 160 frames long, it could be built based on an existing armature, and it would be done in one take. Tippett built the ghost with Randy Dutra, shot it, and delivered it one day early despite being injured in a car accident with his wife who was hospitalized. Tippett didn't want to be credited on account he was just doing one shot. The puppet was animated by Harry Walton, who also shared the camera work with Peter Kozachik.[1][2][3][4][5]
Trivia[]
- In the movie, the ghost appears to only have one leg, but he is often portrayed with two in other media.
- Michael Gross noted the first choice for Dana Barrett's apartment was 1 Fifth Avenue. This would have allowed for a dramatic shot of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man lumbering past the Washington Square monument arch in the first movie.[6]
- The ghost now has a toy made after him by Diamond Select as part of their Minimates line.
- In 2016, the Washington Square Ghost puppet used in the movie went up for auction. It didn't sell however.[7]
- The Washington Square Ghost makes cameo appearances in Lego Dimensions during the main story. However, it is potrayed in a smaller scale and with one leg/tail.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 30. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Like the theater ghost, the Washington Square monster was a late entry designed to add scale to the sequence. With virtually no time to spare, the production sought out master stop-motion animator Phil Tippett to create the creature."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 30, 33. Cinefex, USA. Michael Gross says: "The people at ILM were good friends with Phil and Pam Easley in our department knew him from The Golden Child. So all of us approached him and said, 'Phil, you've got to do this shot.' He agreed to do it, but only if we accepted certain limitations. Given the time factor, he said he could do it if the shot was only a hundred and sixty frames long and if he could build the creature based on an existing armature. Also, he would only be able to do one take--in camera--because there would be no time for an optical composite. Since it was a see-through ghost, we figured it would be okay--and that's literally what Phil did. He and his people built the creature, shot it and delivered it to us one day early. Right in the middle of all of this, Phil and his wife were in an automobile accident. Both are fine now, but his wife had to be hospitalized and he too was injured--but he kept working on our shot and he delivered. His name is not on the film because he did not want us to list him for just one shot--but all of us are very grateful to him."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 32 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Phil Tippett and Randy Dutra work on existing armature for Washington Square ghost, John Reed prepares completed sculpture for molding."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Both the theater ghost and the Washington Square ghost featured background material shot by Apogee while they were in New York to film the ghost train plates. Like the ILM crew that had shot plates earlier in production, the Apogee team encountered the incredible street-level popularity of the Ghostbusters."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 33 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "For the last-minute addition of a giant ghost monster striding through the arch in Washington Square, stop-motion animator Phil Tippett was persuaded to accept the assignment even though there was time to execute only a single in-camera take. Working over an existing armature, Tippett and Randy Dutra sculpted the limbering creature in clay. Crew member John Reed prepares the completed sculpture for molding. The finished puppet was animated by Harry Walton who also shared the camera work with Peter Kozachik."
- ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 41 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Our first choice for the apartment building was 1 Fifth Avenue. Washington Sqaure is close by, and we felt it would have been very dramatic at the end for the Stay-Puft marshmallow man to lumber past the Washington Square monument arch."
- ↑ Prop Store Auction "Lot 63 of 485: GHOSTBUSTERS 2 - Washington Square Ghost Stop-Motion Puppet" 10/10/16-11/3/16
Gallery[]
Primary Canon[]
Behind the Scenes[]
