The history of special effects in cinema

The history of cinema is inextricably linked with the history of special effects. From the first primitive illumination tricks and fake daggers in silent movies, to whole worlds and incredibly realistic creatures that never existed. Now practically ALL films with a decent budget to some extent use virtual scenery.

What is primary in the movie - the plot or the game of actors? Special effects or the skill of the production operator? Of course, all of these components are extremely important. But, nevertheless, some films became famous precisely because of the special effects used. And let today some of them look ordinary, and some naive, at one time they became milestones in cinema. Of course, in general there were many such films. But few people can boast of special effects, solely due to which it became possible to tell the conceived story. These special effects that not only caused the wow effect, but really took over the soul. Which forced to empathize to the protagonist, to like situations in which it appeared. Let's recall some of these iconic films.
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Metropolis (1927)

Perhaps Metropolis is the first film in which special effects were a real breakthrough. The director managed to perfectly convey the atmosphere of the city of the future, and without complicated technical tricks was not done. Here, the Schüfftan Process (Schüfftan Process) was first used, named after the inventor Eugene Schüfftan . Its essence lies in the formation of a combined image with the help of a system of mirrors, which made it possible to create nonexistent landscapes and organically integrate the actors in them.







At that time, Metropolis was the most complex and expensive film created in Germany. He also became a challenge to Hollywood. However, the cost of production so much exceeded the budget that the studios of Universum Film AG had to go into debt to the Hollywood corporation Gunning. As a result, Americans began to massively use the Schufftana process, until other technologies replaced it in the 1950s.



But even at a later time, the Schufftana process was regularly used in cinema.

The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966): Versailles construction site.



Socrates (1971): Athenian Acropolis.



The Age of The Medici (1973): Florence of the 15th century.



Some scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King were shot using this technology. It is difficult to say why Peter Jackson used the Schuffton effect, being armed with powerful modern technologies. It was probably a peculiar expression of appreciation and respect.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

The screenplay retells Shakespeare's play The Tempest, but the action is transferred to another planet. Here you and spaceships, and unprecedented landscapes, and a mysterious monster, generated by the mind of one of the last representatives of an extinct people. This film became a classic of the 1950s American cinema fiction.

Luxurious for that time special effects were applied in the Forbidden Planet, thanks to which they depicted views of the planet Altair IV with two luminaries and a green sky; underground cities of steel and porcelain created by an extinct race; scenes of battles with the monster and the flying spacecraft.











To create many of the scenery used technique matte painting , which was the predecessor of the blue screens for analog photography and green - for digital. In addition, it was the first film in which only electronic music sounded.

A curious fact: "Forbidden Planet" was the second work in the cinema of Leslie Nielsen , who gave us a series of films "Naked Gun" .

Space Odyssey 2001 (1968)

One of the most famous science fiction movies. A long, stormy story would bury any other movie, except this one. Stanley Kubrick managed to create an incredible feeling of a close, almost come, but still future. All the details of the scenes work on this, including the fonts of any inscriptions and interfaces. The most amazing thing is that after almost half a century the space stations and ships depicted do not look naive. And after watching, you’ll understand where the Star Wars designers got their inspiration from. True, we are talking about the exterior; the interiors were still created in the spirit of the fiction of the 1960s.



Each scene, each frame was built with incredible accuracy and attention. For shooting the film used the most complex and expensive special effects. It was 1968, the computers were in their infancy, and all effects were analog. In this case, the creators managed to achieve incredible realism.



Aypad 1968:





The technology used to shoot the first part of the film is the Schufft process:



But this scene:



was shot using slit-scan technique:



For filming inside the annular module, a huge rotating drum was built on the spacecraft:





But not all the scenes were shot on such a scale. For example, in the film there is an episode when the stewardess enters the passenger compartment and sees a ballpoint pen rotating in zero gravity. Today it would be filmed using 3D. Kubrick also managed a piece of glass and double-sided tape.

Star Wars (1977)

The history of science fiction can not be imagined without Star Wars . Yes, in general, you can not imagine the world without them. The abundance of all sorts of spacecraft, aliens, spectacular scenes of gunfire and light swords! And the scene where rebel fighters are trying to break through to the core of the Death Star? By the way, for its shooting a model of the station surface was built several meters long, and the camera was taken along it by car with decent speed.





Yes, the younger generation can no longer understand with what enthusiasm and breathless we watched these films. And it’s not at all about having more lasers and space. With the help of special effects, George Lucas was able to create an amazing atmosphere of a fairy tale, in the existence of which he wanted to believe unconditionally.





For the filming of the film was created many models of technology and built various layouts. Various alien fauna depicted with time-lapse shooting of dolls. Blue screens were actively used for the subsequent image overlay.



Interesting fact: the famous effect of the text floating away into perspective at the beginning of each Star Wars series was initially filmed in analog form:



The camera moved slowly along the panel with glowing letters. It was very difficult to ensure sufficient smoothness of movement. In addition, it was necessary to shoot the same scene in different languages, as required by the rental conditions in different countries - German, French, Spanish, etc. Subsequently, Lucas replaced these episodes with computer versions.

Alien (1982)

Very few directors use special effects to increase the emotional intensity of the story. They are mainly used to create entourage and general entertainment. "Alien" definitely refers to psychological fiction. Here technologies were used to create not a beautiful wrapper, but feelings, emotions, the soul, if you will, the main character. The strange looking alien was very persuasive, the audience very much empathized with him. A doll filled with servos made me fall in love with the big-eyed ... whatever he was.



Carlo Rambaldi , the legendary specialist in special effects (rate the list of films he has worked on), when creating the Alien, was inspired by the people of Carl Sandberg , Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway. The eyes of the animatronic puppets were crucial for the authenticity of the image, and specialists from the Jules Stein Institute were hired to create them. For the filming 4 copies of the Alien's head were made: one animatronic for common scenes, and the rest for filming various emotions in close-up.

However, the mechanical was only the character's head. A man was hiding inside the body. In different scenes costume E.. put on one of the two dwarfs. The third actor also participated in shootings - the 12-year-old boy who was born without both legs. The hands of the Alien ruled professional mime. Making all the components of the dolls took three months and cost $ 1.5 million.

Ghostbusters (1984)

Unusually charming fantastic comedy . Ivan Reitman managed to make such an exciting film, filled with ghosts, ghosts and special energy traps, without a single digital effect. Only the good old "analog." In this case, everyone who watched "Hunters", ready to swear that without 3D there was not. And yet, the creators somehow got out. The film uses a huge amount of animation and effects matte painting . All sorts of models and dolls were made, lighting effects were very widely involved. After that, painstaking work was done to mix up different video sequences.





In fact, it was not much that was applied to the SPECIAL effects in the film. Often used all sorts of "grandfather's" methods, such as the suspension of objects on the cables, pyrotechnics, and so on. For example, catalog cards start to take off from the pop-up boxes in the library. This was done using a system of pipes through which air was blown by a fan:



However, the skillful work with the special effects of the “old school”, the excellent direction and the play of the actors made Ghostbusters one of the best fantastic comedies. And the name "Lizun" even entered into folklore.

Terminator 2 (1991)

The success of the first "Terminator" allowed the creators to get much more money for shooting the second part . This allowed us to create a character, without which today the story of the Terminator is simply impossible - T-1000.

An unkillable robot made of liquid metal, capable of taking on a variety of forms, shocked the imagination of viewers around the world.



Of course, there were many other spectacular scenes, including Sarah Connor's dream, where she watched an atomic explosion. But nothing in this film compares to the fear of the invulnerable T-1000, which found us everywhere, and which could not be destroyed.



Animatronic dolls were created, special costumes were made, and computer effects were widely used to shoot different scenes with the participation of a “liquid metal” robot. By the way, in the scene where he kills a policeman and takes on his appearance, in fact, two twin brothers were shot.

Pig Babe (Four-Legged Baby) (1995)

For some reason, this film was not popular in Russia. This is a very touching story about a little pig, who, in order not to become a brawn, learns the duties of a shepherd's dog. At that time, “Pig Babe” could boast the highest quality computer animation of animals. And as with all the films in this review, the special effects were an inseparable part of the plot. Without them, it would be impossible to tell this kind and sweet story.

To achieve the plausibility of speech, the filmmakers shot and digitized the "mimicry" of various animals. Subsequently, specific phrases of the characters were collected from these materials. At the same time, real animals participated in the filming of the scenes, on whose muzzles they applied computer animation.

Matrix (1999)

The film era , which had a tremendous impact on modern pop culture. The effect of his release was deafening. The grim history of our universal enslavement shook a huge number of viewers. And the role of special effects here is invaluable. Literally the whole movie rests on them. The unusual and novelty of the scenes created by the Wachowski brothers (then brothers) led to a series of imitations. The business card of the film was the effect of frozen bullets, when time slows down and we see the trajectories of their flight.





In fact, the "Matrix" has become a classic, barely leaving the rental. The main "chip" Wachowski became scenes in which the characters froze in motion, and the camera flew around them, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the moment from all sides. This was done using the installation of several dozen cameras, which simultaneously (or with a small delay) made one frame. After that, these frames were collected in a video sequence.





The most difficult episode of the film is the scene of a shootout in the lobby of a skyscraper, where Neo and Trinity stand against a crowd of guards with automatic rifles:



Each vycherblina, each hit in the wall, accompanied by the release of fragments of stones, were made using squibs. Achieving perfect shots, Wachowski re-shot this scene about 20 times. And for this, each time it was necessary to completely restore the destroyed interior.



"I know Kung Fu!"

Iron Man (2008)

On the one hand, this is a rather unexpected choice , just like Pig Babe. I didn’t turn on this film because it’s another stupid Hollywood article on superheroes. In my opinion, the special effects used in the film make every viewer's heart shrink. If you suddenly forgot, this is not a list of the best films of all time. Here are collected tapes in which special effects are not only very good for their time, but without them it would be impossible to convincingly tell the story conceived by the authors, to make the viewer empathize with the hero.

For example, in a scene where Tony Stark, played by the inimitable Robert Downey Jr., explodes, he connects to his beating heart ... a car battery. To create an artificial chest, the actor was removed from the actor latex cast and made it indistinguishable from the real invoice chest.





And finally, remember this virtuoso flight with fighters, in which the main character turns his deadly tragedy into something amazing.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

It is probably difficult to choose another film in the last 20 years, in which the visual effects would be equally inseparable from the plot and main characters. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is unthinkable without a huge amount of computer graphics. At the same time, the authors were faced with the very difficult task of realistic modeling of primates. And it's not just skeletal animation. The most important thing is monkey mimicry, which needed to be humanized, made meaningful. But so that the monkeys still remain. Think about what a difficult task it was if you add to this still solid hair, which does not facilitate the work of specialists in 3D modeling and animation.







For the creation of facial expressions, so similar to human, shooting of actors-people was used, followed by digitization by control points.



This is one of the applications of motion capture technology: actors with special markers on the body are taken in various movements, after which computer animation is created using these markers with the necessary adjustments and 3D models superimposed. Moreover, the correction implied correspondence not only to the skeletons, but also to the muscular system of monkeys.

Gravity (2013)

I would like to complete this list with Gravity . And not because the creators spent on shooting more than 100 million dollars, and not for the seven received the Oscars. The drama unfolding in space, associated with the destruction of the shuttle and two space stations, could not have been removed without innovative special effects.





Critics would argue that even Gravity could be presented in the form of a theatrical production. But to such critics, I wish to look no more than the Viktyuk repertoire. A film that makes you feel the horror of loneliness and helplessness with the main character, hold your breath during depressurization, strain your muscles while trying to avoid a collision and reach the hatch - such a film deserves all its Oscars.



This is one of the latest films, whose special effects work not just on a beautiful picture, but primarily on the tension that does not let go until the very end, the struggle for life with a female astronaut.







For 5 months, Sandra Bullock trained to move like a person in zero gravity.





I am sure that you will not agree with not every choice, you will not find something in this list. Offer your options in comments, this is only welcome.