One of the strongest forces from my own childhood is my love of special effects in cinema. Matt will tell you I often rent or TiVo films just to fast forward to the special effects. I love being wowed and amazed at the cinema trickery.
Rarely can I attest to such a feeling of awe and admiration for a person's craft greater than that I felt when viewing "Titanic" and turning to Matt and saying "How could they make a set that big?" (in reference to the huge boiler room). Turns out they didn't. It was all computer generated images. It was so real that even I -- a self-professed expert on special effects -- could not tell. THAT is amazing.
The Visual Effects Society has just released its list of the Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time. (Even more interesting than the list are the comments posted below it -- many of which echo my sentiments.)
While these things are subjective, I can say one thing for certain: more early silent films should have been recognized if for no other reason than their special effects had to be done in real time -- no CGI or green screen here:
"Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1921) where film stock had to be masked off, and a roll of film run through the camera twice, so that Mary Pickford as the boy could be seen kissing Mary Pickford as the mother.
"Ben Hur" (1925) which used hanging miniatures to match real structures, allowing the coliseum set to be enlarged.
"The Penalty" (1920) which featured Lon Chaney's performance as a man with no legs.
Difficult as CGI is, it is no match for the work of the master craftsmen and craftswomen who created astonishing special effects by hand.
1 comment:
Don't forget those amazing miniature cityscapes in Metropolis!
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