Many tools are used to create movies, be it the camera(obviously), boom mike, editing, sound effects, music, and/or audio dubbing. The point is, is that making movies is never a simple process. There’s a lot that goes into making a movie. One of most important tools in making a movie that has been continuously evolving since the beginning of cinema is the use of visual effects. These can include anything from wind effects to explosions. There are many uses of visual effects to enhance a film’s look or entertainment value. Miniatures are an effect, computer or hand-drawn animations are effects, and even cold breath is an effect. The use of visual effects in today’s world has an unlimited capacity. In fact, the only limitation is the human imagination. I’ve seen a lot of movies over the years. I’ve seen visual effects constantly evolve from the simple use of miniatures and stop-motion animation to full-blown CGI duplication of the human body. The amount of options for today’s film-makers is incredible. For this post, I want to go over some of my favorite effects in movies. To be fair, not all these movies are going to be great, in fact, some of them might be pretty awful, but the visual effects can be a saving grace. Let’s dig into this one, shall we?
Volcanic Eruption – Dante’s Peak
As someone who loves volcanoes, Dante’s Peak holds a special place in my heart. It’s not just because it’s one of the best disaster movies ever made, but also because of how scientifically accurate it is….mostly. Obviously, some stuff had to be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but the film does respect the science. What makes this eruption so cool is how it was made. They built a large-scale model of the volcano and rigged it with pyrotechnics and giant air cannons. When they went off, the resulting explosion is pretty much like what you would see from one of the many cone volcanoes around the world, and just as violent, if not more so. The resulting pyroclastic flow feels a little exaggerated, but the damage that it causes is very much like what happened with Mount St. Helens back in 1980. Dante’s Peak is one of the last movies of the 90s that uses every visual effect trick in the book, from miniatures to CGI animation, and comes together extremely well. For a film that was released back in 1997, it holds up remarkably well.
Tornado – Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is one of the most cherished films in cinematic history, and it’s not hard to understand why. It’s colorful, it’s energetic, it’s fun, and exciting. The Wizard of Oz was actually pretty revolutionary in its use of visual effects, considering that the film was released in 1939. It’s got miniatures and background paintings. It’s visual story-telling at its finest. One of the greatest moments in the film, though, was the tornado sequence towards the beginning of the film. Now, understand that at this point in the film, it’s in black-and-white or sepia tone depending on the version of the film you have. What sets this sequence apart from even some of the best effects today, is the use of rear-view projection. What that is, is that the actors are on a set in front of a screen with a project behind the screen that puts an image or animation on the screen so that the actors can see what’s there. In this case, it’s a Mid-Western twister. This effect is also effective, because they also used giant wind machines to simulate the fury of a tornado. When the house gets lifted up, the set is on a gimbal which gives the illusion of the the house shaking and rattling while it’s being thrown around by the twister. You don’t really see that combination anymore these days, and it’s a shame, because it’s really cool to see.
The T-1000 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
James Cameron is nothing if not a pioneer when it comes to film-making technology. When it comes to the use of visual effects, no one has pushed the boundaries further than Jim Cameron, especially when it comes to the use of CGI and other forms of computer animation. He continues to push the envelope of what can be done with computer animation, but one of his best films was Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Like a lot of effects-heavy films during the 90s, T2 utilized every effect in the book up until that point. What separated T2 from the pack was its villain, the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 model Terminator, the T-1000 was a liquid metal machine that could imitate anything it touched and changed its form depending on how it needed to eliminate its target. This was the film that put CGI front and center in the film industry. This was a character that could form knives and other edged weapons whenever it suited him. This effectively made the T-1000 one of the most memorable and intimidating villains in cinematic history, but it also changed the way visual effects were used.
Forced Perspective – Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Now for something completely different. Sometimes the best visual effects are the ones that you don’t realize are happening. The Fellowship of the Ring has one of the best examples of this out of any movie that I’ve ever seen. Forced perspective is when you use the camera in such a way that makes one character seem smaller than the other. What happens, is that when two actors are required to be in the same scene together, but you need to show the difference in size, you take the actor playing the larger character and have him closer to the camera while the actor playing the smaller character is moved further back. The set is designed in such a way that when the camera is in a certain position, it looks like the smaller character is sitting right next to the larger character even though the reality is far from the truth. It’s a simple camera trick that’s been around for decades, but when done correctly it’s incredibly effective, and it’s done without the use of CGI. It’s a brilliant use of visual effects without actually using visual effects. It’s essentially a camera version of “sleight of hand.” It works best when you don’t realize that’s what is happening.
City Destruction – Independence Day
Independence Day was one of the last big summer blockbuster films to use every visual effects trick equally. The combination of miniatures, stop-motion, CGI, and practical stunt-work is seen in nearly every major effects shot in the film. It’s really great to see different forms of visual effects compliment each other so well. For the city destruction sequence, what the film-makers did was create a mock-up of certain cities, and stick them on a platform that would tilt at a 108 degree angle. They had to do that because fire wants to go straight up, so to take advantage of that they put the mock-ups on said platform before they detonated the explosives. When the fireball hits the mock up, the camera that’s set up above makes it look like the explosion is moving sideways instead of up. It’s amazing how well they used every tool at their disposal, as the final product is spectacular.
Flying – Superman
What can I say about Superman that hasn’t already been said? He’s one of the most, if not the most recognizable superhero of all time. It wouldn’t be until 1978 that the world would believe that a man could fly. Yeah, the world has seen it done before with George Reeves, but not like this. While Star Wars changed the way that movies were made, Superman took a different approach into how to make a man fly. The use of wire-work is pretty obvious, but the way it’s done makes it look so natural. When Superman is actually flying through the air, they also use rear-projection to sell the illusion. The one element that really sold it all was Christopher Reeve himself. The way he moved his body and angled himself when the character was banking in the air was unlike anything that anybody had seen before. While the effect may look dated now, it was incredibly unique at the time. The technique used to make Superman fly was used in other movies like Highlander II and Hook.
Medusa – Clash of the Titans(1981)
There was absolutely no way I was going to do this list without including one of Ray Harryhausen’s creations. The original Clash of the Titans was one of the most iconic effects movies in cinematic history. It was also the last movie that Ray Harryhausen did the visual effects for. His unique art-style and stop-motion animation has never been touched. One of the greatest moments in Clash of the Titans was the battle with the Gorgon, Medusa. It’s honestly one of the creepiest moments in the film, because of how hideous the creature is, and that was done on purpose. The lighting and the sound effects just sold how threatening Medusa was. The movie had a lot of great monsters, including the Kraken. Clash of the Titans is one of my favorite fantasy films of all time.
Bullet Time – The Matrix
The Matrix was one of the most well-received science fiction movies when it came out back in 1999. In fact, it did more business than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The Matrix was certainly a much better film. The film was revolutionary at the time, not necessarily because of the CGI, but because of the use of slow-motion. There were certain moments in the film that really stood out, because it looked like a character was frozen in one place while the camera swung around the character in a circular motion. The way this was achieved was what was revolutionary. What happened was that the film-makers took dozens of still cameras, set them up in a particular way, and then when the director yelled action, each still camera was set off in sequence, giving the illusion that the character was moving extremely fast. It was cool and it sold the illusion that these characters were in a computer-generated dream world. You don’t see it used anymore because it was over-used in the sequels to The Matrix as well as movies like Swordfish, because they thought it looked cool. Ultimately, it ended up evolving into something else, but as it used to be, Bullet Time is no longer a thing.
Well, those were some of my favorite visual effects that were used. At the time, they helped make visual effects a legitimate tool for crafting a visual story. While visual effects don’t make a good movie, they can show how creative visual effects team can be when they’re given an opportunity to do something that nobody else has done. What are some of your favorite visual effects shots?