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Ernest Farino, a two-time Emmy Award winner, has enjoyed a professional motion picture career spanning more than 25 years. He began as a Designer and Animator of visual effects, contributing to projects from the Pillsbury Doughboy and The Terminator (1984) to Children of Dune (2003). He later transitioned into directing feature films, television, and stage productions, including Steel and Lace (1990) and Land of the Lost (1991). Currently, he is a publisher of high-quality books, starting with the comprehensive three-volume career biography, "Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks."
Farino's journey started in eighth grade with a 3-minute Super-8 film, The Curse of Dracula, shot and edited entirely in-camera. By high school, he was directing industrial films and local Texas TV commercials for clients like Frozen Food Express and Pepsi Cola. As president of the Drama Club, he acted in leading roles in plays such as Inherit the Wind and The Importance of Being Earnest, earning a statewide Best Supporting Actor award for his role as "The Devil" in The Devil and Daniel Webster. This acting experience later proved invaluable in directing actors creatively.
In 1976, Farino became head of the animation department at Dallas-based Century Studios, designing and directing several elaborate visual effects commercials. He moved to Los Angeles in 1979, where he was hired by Coast Productions to animate the Pillsbury Doughboy and oversee effects for national advertising accounts including AMC Trucks and Armour Hot Dogs, as well as features like ABC's Mayflower: The Pilgrims' Adventure (1979) and Hell of the Living Dead (1980). As a freelancer, he created effects for The Howling (1981), Caveman (1981), Creepshow (1982), and The Thing (1982), and led the Animation/Rotoscope department for Roger Corman's Galaxy of Terror (1981) and Saturday the 14th (1981).
Founding Kinetic Image Productions, Farino contributed animation for the Emmy Award-winning visual effects of ABC's The Winds of War (1983). His intricate James Bond-style main title for Tag: The Assassination Game (1982) earned the Silver Medal at the 25th International Film & TV Festival of New York.
Having worked with James Cameron on Galaxy of Terror (1981), Farino served as Visual Effects Coordinator on The Terminator (1984), designing and supervising all animation, rotoscope, and lightning effects, as well as creating the Main Title sequence.
Farino continued with numerous visual effects projects, including 2nd Unit Director (Kauai) and visual effects supervisor for Lady in White (1988). After designing the Main Title for The Abyss (1989), he joined Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd’s post-production team as visual effects coordinator and liaison to DreamQuest Images, supervising VistaVision compositing at Pacific Title.
Alongside his effects work, Farino wrote screenplays such as the Hitchcock-style mystery/thriller "Blood White" and the comedy Beverly Hills Vamp (1989). His action/thriller script "First Strike" ranked 11th among over 1,000 entries in the Writer's Digest national screenwriting competition.
When the syndicated series Monsters (1989-1991) needed stop-motion animation for an episode without a director, Farino was offered the chance to direct Mannikins of Horror (1989). The episode was acclaimed as the best of the premiere season. He subsequently directed the season two premiere, A Bond of Silk (1989), starring Lydia Cornell and Marc McClure, and returned for a third episode, The Offering (1990), featuring Orson Bean, becoming the only director to helm three episodes in the same season.
These episodes led Farino to direct his first feature film, Steel and Lace (1990), for Fries Entertainment. The film starred Bruce Davison, Clare Wren, David Naughton, and Michael Cerveris, with a screenplay by Emmy winner Joseph Dougherty.
For network television, Farino directed seven episodes of ABC’s top-rated Land of the Lost (1991-1992), including the premieres of both seasons, starring Timothy Bottoms.
In the summer of 1993, Farino directed his first stage play, the comedy Dub by Henry Slesar, which was voted Best-of-the-Fest at Hollywood’s Attic Theater One Act Play Festival.
Continuing his visual effects work, Farino supervised the Main Title sequence and certain opticals for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), designed and directed effects for HBO’s Cast a Deadly Spell (1991), and created Main Titles for HBO’s Citizen Cohn (1992), Brian De Palma’s Raising Cain (1992), and HBO’s Truman (1995). He served as Visual Effects Supervisor and 2nd Unit Director on Columbia’s sci-fi film Screamers (1995), filmed in Montreal and starring Peter Weller, and supervised Visual Effects for Interscope’s Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997), featuring Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill.
Farino also directed two feature-length installments in the family sci-fi series Josh Kirby: Time Warrior! Chap. 1: Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995), produced by Kushner-Locke/Paramount and filmed in Bucharest, Romania.
He directed 2nd Unit and earned his first Emmy nomination as Visual Effects Supervisor for the Tom Hanks/HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998). He later won consecutive Emmy Awards for the New Amsterdam/Sci Fi Channel miniseries Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003).
Influenced by stop-motion animation master Ray Harryhausen, Farino co-published a Harryhausen fanzine called "FXRH" from 1971 to 1974, now a collector’s item among fans. In 2008, he returned to publishing by founding Archive Editions and releasing the first volume of British author Mike Hankin’s comprehensive three-volume biography, "Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks."
That same year, Farino completed a long-time passion project: the screenplay adaptation of Don Robertson’s 1965 novel, "The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread.
