Cameraman Sculpture

Cameraman Sculpture
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Walt Disney World, Florida
GPS: 28.357316, -81.559805

After entering Disney’s Hollywood Studios and making your way down Hollywood Boulevard, just before you enter an area known as ‘Center Stage’, you step into the frame of Cameraman Sculpture. The pavement turns into a red carpet, the camera is rolling, and your Hollywood story begins.

What many guests do not realize is that this ‘Cameraman” has a history that goes back generations. The roots go far beyond the history of Hollywood, and spread all the way back to Rome, and the apex of classic Italian Cinema.

Andrea Favilli – Artist

The artist, Andrea Favilli, was born in Rome in 1963. His father, Aldo Favilli, was an art director for iconic films at the world-famous Cinecitta Studios, the largest film studio in Europe. While Andrea’s father was busy designing the sets and overall aesthetic for films including La Dolce Vita, a young and extremely curious Andrea had become famous for creating chaos on Federico Fellini’s sound stage No. 5.

Andrea’s backlot, childhood friends included legendary names. Aldo Puccini, Famiglia De Angelis, Gina Lollobrigida, Liana Orfei, Federico Fellini and even his godfather, Rossano Brazzi.

But, the best part of being on site during the creation of these iconic films was not the famous friends, or causing mischief with the cast and crew. What Andrea treasures the most, was the opportunity to see his father at work, transmuting fantastic dreams into reality. Seeing how his father looked at the world and constantly found the beauty, this is where Andrea’s own artistic journey began.

It wasn’t until Andrea Favilli was attending college in the United States, he looked back and realized what a special privilege he’d had growing up in such a magical place and time.

While still in school, Andrea agreed to help a friend, legendary claymation artist, Will Vinton, with several television commercial projects. Andrea assisted Will on the Domino’s ‘Noid’ commercial, but it was the ‘California Dancing Raisins’ commercial that became a cultural phenomenon. Though he might not have known it at the time, Andrea Favilli was now in the sights of the Walt Disney Company.

Walt Disney Imagineering

Even after graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design, with honors, Andrea still didn’t think he was good enough to work for Disney, but legendary head of Walt Disney Imagineering, Marty Sklar, had been watching Andrea’s progress. Barely out of school, Andrea was recruited by Marty to work at Walt Disney Imagineering as a Lead Concept Designer.

Before long, Andrea was leading the creative process on a wide variety of projects world-wide. From blue sky to ideation and design through implementation. In addition to his Imagineering responsibilities, Andrea Favilli had been commissioned by The Disney Company to sculpt the Disney Legends Award.

This is when Andrea first met Roy E. Disney.

Creation of the Cameraman Sculpture

Roy was impressed and asked Andrea for his help in creating another sculpture. The task: to create a monumental public work of art that would capture the spirit of film making, in a classic representational fine arts style, to be permanently installed at the historic heart of the media district, in Burbank, CA.

Andrea’s schedule was already jam packed with Imagineering responsibilities. Creating a monument would require 6-8 months of studio and fabrication time. So, work on the sculpture would be done in the evenings and on weekends, when Andrea wasn’t traveling for Imagineering.

Andrea built a large, temporary, shed, to be used as his studio, in his father’s backyard and then he began the extremely long process of creating the Cameraman Sculpture

(ANDREA FAVILLI speaking) “There is a great photo of my dad and I, and I remember the afternoon well. I was really stuck. My dad had been traveling. He was the Director of Mattel Toys at the time for design involvement. It was his first day back home. And he asked “How’s it going?”. I was stuck on something and so you can see in this great picture, both of us looking at the maquette.”

The benefit of using his father’s backyard for this project, is that his father could follow the process, and guide him. On rare occasions, Aldo Favilli would assist his son by putting his hands in the clay. These were magical moments for both father and son, and the love shared, infused into the sculpture itself.

That finished Cameraman sculpture is located at 4411 West Olive Avenue, just across the street from Gate 2 of the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California.

A plaque on the Burbank statue bears the name of Andrea Favilli, preceded by the name of his father, Aldo. Andrea says that he will always place the name of his father before his own on any sculpture work, as it is his father’s voice that always guides him in all creative/artistic decisions. 

At the unveiling ceremony for the statue in 1991, the President of the Walt Disney Company, Frank G. Wells was in attendance.  Frank Wells called Michael Eisner, and then Michael Eisner called Andrea Favilli asking “Why didn’t you do one of these sculptures for the new Disney/MGM Studios park in Florida? And can you do one?” So, the process was repeated, and Andrea Favilli began work on a 2nd Edition of the Cameraman sculpture, 

In 1995, the second edition to the Cameraman sculpture was installed at Disney/MGM Studios.

Secrets of the Cameraman Sculpture ‘Script’

At the feet of the cameraman is what is meant to be an open script for the film he is making. Standing in front of the Cameraman sculpture, it is nearly impossible to see the contents of this script, because it is turned away from guest’s view. But in reality, it is not really a script at all.

The book includes the names of people — some who mentored and inspired Andrea Favilli, the artist. He refers to these special people in his life as ‘candles’.

Included is the venerable Disney artist Herbert (Herbie) Dickens Ryman and his sister Lucille Ryman-Carroll, who had been the legendary head of talent at MGM during its golden period.

Roy E. Disney and his wife Patty are also listed.

The man who first spotted Andrea and brought him to Imagineering, Disney Legend Marty Sklar, is listed.

Andrea’s first teacher and greatest artistic influence, his father Aldo, is not only listed as co-creator of the sculpture with his son, he is also listed in the script.

As is Andrea’s creative muse and beloved wife Camille Anne Favilli, who spent an inordinate amount of time with clay in hand and actually designed the contents of the book.

Favilli Studio

In 1992, Andrea left Walt Disney Imagineering and established Favilli Studio, with his very first client being The Walt Disney Company. His wife Camille joined the company in 1995. By the time the company was 25 years old, Favilli Studio had become one of the most prolific and successful entertainment design companies in the world, working on destination resorts and media projects on five continents.

So the next time you walk down Hollywood Boulevard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, on your way to your center stage entrance, take a moment in front of the lens of the Cameraman

And consider this: That the roots of this sculpture span continents and generations. They travel far beyond the history of Hollywood. The roots for this sculpture extend all the way back to Rome, and grew from the love of Aldo Favilli, a renowned Italian sculptor working in classic Italian Cinema.

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