
Crit Killen started working in films in the early 1980's in the Art, Design and Special Effects departments. He was fortunate to study under Industrial Designer and Professor John Marshall. The first opportunity came when Professor Marshall secured an entry level opportunity for Crit designing concepts for the movie Blade Runner. The next year Crit worked for the legendary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen. Crit designed and produced miniatures and stop motion figures for Mr. Harryhausen's national lecture tour. The following year he went to work for Douglas Trumbull, often referred to as the dean of special effects. This began a career for Crit that gave him the opportunity to work on some eighty-five major motion pictures in design and special effects and on another ninety films behind the scenes crafting and consulting on story, script and film structure.
Crit has taught classes at USC, UCLA, BYU and is currently screenwriting at Utah Valley University. Local Utah filmmaker John Uibel was one of Crit's early students and attributes much of his success to the unique perspective that Crit brought to him in the classroom.