This week, the movie industry lost a legend. And you hear words like "legend" and "genius" thrown around all the time. Usually it just denotes someone whose name you know and out of respect, they are given the attribution. In the case of Stan Winston, however, it's only the beginning. A special effects master, Winston redefined the way we look at the movies with his designs, many of which could have never been done before him and many of which have spawned imitators (the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park) that still pale in comparison to what he created years earlier.

My friend for the past two decades, Christian Carvajal, sent me the following remembrance, and I'm more than proud to share his thoughts with you. Christian knows his movies, has written eloquently about them, and I know he much he respected Mr. Winston.

I was moved to post the following as a MySpace bulletin, mostly because the mainstream news has practically ignored Winston's death two days ago from cancer, leaving the story to fansites like Ain't It Cool News.  I hope you can use it.  Many of your readers probably frequent that site, so you saw the shocking headline last night.  It's shocking because to movie geeks, Stan Winston seemed eternally youthful.