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Post by snsurone on Nov 3, 2019 1:15:58 GMT
Today, special effects are CGI's that are relatively easy to produce.
But there are effects in some films from Hollywood's Golden Age that are even more impressive because they are not CGI.
Examples:
The destructive storm from THE HURRICANE.
The earthquake from SAN FRANCISCO.
The great fire from IN OLD CHICAGO.
The fire and explosions of the Atlanta depot from GWTW.
And, of course, the creatures from KING KONG and other such films.
Granted, they weren't as numerous as in today's output, but considering the limitations (and cost) of these FX, they are damn good!
Your thoughts?
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 2:22:29 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 3:40:13 GMT
The famous "Surrender Dorothy" sky writing scene was done using a tank of water and a tiny model witch attached to the end of a long hypodermic needle. The syringe was filled with milk, the tip of the needle was put into the tank and the words were written in reverse while being filmed from below. There was an added phrase to "Surrender Dorothy" which was "...or Die!" It was cut before the movie premiered.   |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 3:46:14 GMT
The Wizard of OZ  The "tornado" was a 35-foot-long muslin stocking, spun around among miniatures of a Kansas farm and fields in a dusty atmosphere.   |
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Post by bravomailer on Nov 3, 2019 4:40:53 GMT
When the Mormon Temple was put up just outside DC in the early seventies, people said it looked like Oz. That led to a priceless bit of graffiti.  |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 4:56:36 GMT
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Post by claudius on Nov 3, 2019 18:57:34 GMT
-The Red Sea division in both versions of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923 & 1956). The former is reversed 'gelatin melting' film.
-Karl Struss' Color Filter-Lens in single-take film effects for the Leper Cure Miracle in BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) and the beginning parts of the first two transformation sequences in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931).
-The Fairies dancing on Moonbeams in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1935).
-Hermes' introduction in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1962)
-The Falling effects in SABOTEUR (1942 Norman Lloyd's descent off the Statue of Liberty) and THE POSIEDON ADVENTURE (1972 the partygoer crashing down into the ceiling lamp).
-Jane Fonda's zero-gravity striptease in BARBARELLA (1968) It's just an overhead shot of her rolling on a sheet of glass but it works.
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Post by snsurone on Nov 3, 2019 19:19:41 GMT
When the Mormon Temple was put up just outside DC in the early seventies, people said it looked like Oz. That led to a priceless bit of graffiti. Looks more like three hypodermic needles to me! LOL BTW, was the graffiti on the church itself?
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Post by koskiewicz on Nov 3, 2019 19:26:56 GMT
All Ray Harryhausen films should qualify.
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Post by snsurone on Nov 3, 2019 19:34:55 GMT
I wish Harryhausen worked on the British monster flick GORGO.
I did a thread on this movie some time ago.
And I STILL believe it should be remade with CGI.
Yes, I hate CGI, especially in animated films, but it works out OK on such epics as JURASSIC PARK.
The Oscar-winning FX there were superb!
But, again, I digress from the theme.
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Post by bravomailer on Nov 3, 2019 21:52:02 GMT
When the Mormon Temple was put up just outside DC in the early seventies, people said it looked like Oz. That led to a priceless bit of graffiti. Looks more like three hypodermic needles to me! LOL BTW, was the graffiti on the church itself? The graffiti is on the railroad overpass. None on the church as far as I know. The same overpass had "Surrender Donald" written on it a year or so ago.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 21:58:40 GMT
All Ray Harryhausen films should qualify.   
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Post by snsurone on Nov 3, 2019 22:05:44 GMT
Looks more like three hypodermic needles to me! LOL BTW, was the graffiti on the church itself? The graffiti is on the railroad overpass. None on the church as far as I know. The same overpass had "Surrender Donald" written on it a year or so ago. Would I love to see that! Somehow, I find it hard to think of Utah as a Blue State. BTW, when the Orange Baboon attended a World Series game in DC, he was greeted by a chorus of boo's and chants of "Lock him up!" Karma can be beautiful.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 22:06:01 GMT
Ghostly presences in TOPPER (1937)   |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 3, 2019 22:52:22 GMT
SHERLOCK, JR. - Buster Keaton (1924)  For the sequence in which Buster Keaton's "dream-self" enters the "movie within a movie," Keaton employed the power of suggestion. He shot an actual movie featuring Ward Crane and Kathryn McGuire in a living room setting. As the sequence begins, the movie is playing on the theater movie screen. The film cuts back and forth between Buster sleeping in the projection booth, and his "dream-self" climbing on stage as the movie is showing. In the scene where Buster's "dream-self" steps through the movie screen and into the movie, the living room setting was re-created on the theater stage, and a large hole was cut in the movie screen for Keaton to step through. The actors were placed in the living room setting, creating the illusion that Buster stepped inside the movie screen to join them. |
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Post by Prime etc. on Nov 3, 2019 23:04:46 GMT
The transformation in the 1931 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Puppet Kong putting a real Fay Wray into a tree in KING KONG 1933
The rear projected ocean scene in The Adventures of Captain Marvel 1941
The destruction of the temple in Samson and Delilah
The turning of the staff into a snake in The 10 Commandments (1950s version).
The leopard sitting on a rock on an sound stage made to look like the African savanna via Front projection in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Dinosaur sequences in WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH 1971
The melting head in NIGHT OF THE DEVILS 1972 (which predates the wax melting heads in Raiders of the Lost Ark but looks to have been the same idea)
Max Von Sydow's old age make up in THE EXORCIST
The Kong facial motion in KING KONG 1976 (very advanced for the time)
The nuclear detonations in SUPERMAN THE MOVIE (powder in a water tank)
Raising the Titanic in RAISE THE TITANIC
The animation in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT - all done pre-digital, yet they incorporated shadows and reflections like a scene where Bob Hoskins grabs Roger on a street in front of a car--Roger is reflected in various reflections on the car body and bumper.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 4, 2019 0:28:24 GMT
Royal Wedding How it was done : |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 4, 2019 1:35:38 GMT
Royal Wedding How it was done It's so nice to see all the choreography in its natural orientation after all these years. Whoever engineered that video simulation did an excellent job, getting the timing just right. The thing I think about when watching that number is that Astaire would have had to have the studio build that whole elaborate rotating rig for him before he could even properly rehearse it. The same would have been true of the gimbal assembly needed to slant the salon set when the ship encounters rough seas during the "Open Your Eyes" duet he does with Jane Powell, and even the coat rack he partners for "Sunday Jumps," which would have to have been built to precise weight and balance specifications beforehand (and who knows how many were built and rejected before he felt it was just right?).
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Post by politicidal on Nov 4, 2019 1:54:58 GMT
The toppling of the Philistine temple in Cecil B. Demille's Samson and Delilah (1949).
From wikipedia:
The bottom portion of the temple was constructed full-scale.[39] A separate 37-foot high model with a 17-foot high Dagon statue was built for the photographic effects.[39] The model was destroyed three times in order to shoot it through different camera angles.[39] Footage of the full-scale set was merged with footage of the scale model using a "motion repeater system" fabricated by Paramount, which enabled the exact repetition of camera moves.[39]
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Post by BATouttaheck on Nov 4, 2019 2:12:03 GMT
Buster Keaton in THE PLAYHOUSE (1921) www.busterkeaton.org/playhouse   "Though Keaton's performance is amazing, The Play House wouldn't have been possible without his cameraman, Elgin Lessley. To record multiple Keatons, Lessley masked part of the lens, shot one Keaton, rewound the film, masked another part of the lens, and shot another Keaton. As Keaton observed "if he were off the slightest fraction, no matter how carefully I timed my movements, the composite action could not have been synchronized. But Elgin was outstanding among all the studios. He was a human metronome" (quoted in Keaton by Rudi Blesh, p. 168). It was Lessley's finest hour."  |
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