This is another one of those "Remastered" posts. When I started the Terminator Trilogy site/blog, in the first few months I was just posting photos of my collectibles with little to no description or review. So I wanted to give a proper spotlight to what possibly may be my favorite Terminator-related book ever published - The Winston Effect.
The Winston Effect was published in 2006 by Titan Books, and is, as you might have guessed it, all about the legendary Stan Winston Studio's work. I wouldn't really call it a special effects book though, and I would argue it isn't. It's not in the style of "Making Of" books that are, or were, published about the production of a effects heavy film. It's more like a very rich, augmented authorized biography of the legendary Stan Winston. It follows his life, start of the career, and then follows Winston's Studio's career chronologically, but with a flow of a Biography book. While it explains how various effects were made in the films, it's not only just one of the aspects of the book, but it's written in simple terms explaining the most basic makeup/effects terms and techniques, underlining the fact that the target audience is a "regular" reader, not a special effect aficionados. Think of it that way - it's as if there's a book on a magician, and it details his life and career while also explaining his most famous stunts and tricks.
The design of the book is absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful. The design of it, the layout is absolutely stunning. It's a coffetable book so it's oversized, with sleek paper of great quality and fantastic photos that to this day are very hard to find anywhere else. And it covers such a wide range of movies, I mean there's just so much there for James Cameron or Steven Spielberg fans.
As far as the topic at hand, the book covers both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day extensively, and the sections devoted to those films are definitely the best looking pages on the films to date. Not only I would say it's my favorite Terminator book because of the fantastic, rare photos and the look of the book, but because the text reads so well and the story is so interesting. The chapters detail where Winston and his team were at the time of their careers when they got the assignments, how they got it, what their feelings were at the time, how they prepped for it and how they proceeded with the most complicated effects. Again, it reads very well, and the book is written by the master author of Making of Books, Jody Duncan.
There are 13 pages devoted to The Terminator, and 18 pages devoted to the monumental Terminator 2: Judgment Day. They cover everything I just listed, plus show design sketches and very rare behind the scenes photos and photos from the Winston workshop.
That's about all I can say without really revealing more pages form the book or its stories. For me, a 10/10. Pity the book is out of print nowadays. While it's easy to find for those who want it, I'd love to see the book back in print at some point. Great tribute to the great late Stan Winston, who was still with us when the book came out, and a great tribute to all those iconic classics he worked on, like Aliens, T2, Jurassic Park and more.
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