Motion Picture Special Effects Essay -- Film Movie Essays

Motion Picture Special Effects â€Å"Special visual effects have added to the allure of motion pictures since the early days of cinema. French director Georges Mà ©lià ¨s is considered the most influential pioneer of special effects. His film â€Å"A Trip to the Moon† combined live action with animation, demonstrating to audiences that cinema could create worlds, objects, and events that did not exist in real life† (Tanis par. 1). Through examples of the new techniques and the movies where they were presented, this paper will detail the changes that special effects have seen over the last twenty-five years. Special effects have been used ever since the film industry became popular. Three-dimensional film technology became popular in the1950s, when it enjoyed a brief period of use (Sklar par. 3). Although motion-picture film, like still photography, normally yields two-dimensional images, the illusion of a third dimension can be achieved by projecting two separate movies. Members of the audience wear 3-D eyeglasses so that the right eye sees one picture and the left eye sees the other, producing the effect of three dimensions. Three-dimensional film technology is still being used today at Universal Studios in Florida. When my family visited the amusement park there was a feature 3D film that was rendition of â€Å"The Terminator.† Three-dimensional film has changed, because now the members of the audience no longer have to wear glasses with one red and one blue lens. Now the glasses are clear, but still allow the user to get the same three-dimensional effect that they would the red and blue glasses. Another example of the lasting power of early techniques is stop-motion photography. The original â€Å"King Kong† used this technique, in which the King Kong figurine was repeatedly filmed for very brief segments and then moved, so that when the film was projected at normal speed, King Kong appeared to move. The same technique animated the figures in â€Å"James and the Giant Peach† (â€Å"Nova† par. 2). After World War II there was a lull in the development and use of special effects. Technical advances in the design and manufacture of motion-picture cameras made it easier to film on actual locations, and the trend in cinematic storytelling tended toward realism, resulting in less call for fantastic illusions. Then in 1968 the film â€Å"2001: A Space Odyssey†, in which astronauts ap... ... Works Cited Tanis, Nicholas. "Motion Picture," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000 October 12, 2000 <http://encarta.msn.com>. Sklar, Robert. " History of Motion Pictures, " Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000 October 24, 2000 <http://encarta.msn.com>. Nova Online. â€Å"The Grand Illusion: A Century of Special Effects,† Nova Online 1996. October 12, 2000 < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/specialfx/effects/history.html>. Hayes, R.M. Trick Cinematography: The Oscar Special-Effects Movies. North Carolina: McFarland, 1986. Erland, Jonathan, and Kay Erland. â€Å"The Digital Series Traveling Matte Backings† Composition Components Company October 12, 2000 <http://www.digitalgreenscreen.com/NoFrame/ tmatte.html>. Thalmann, Nadia, and Daniel Thalmann, eds. New Trends in Animation and Visualization. New York: Wiley, 1991. La Franco, Robert. â€Å"Digital Dreamin’.† Forbes Sept. 1998: 223. Kaplan, David A. â€Å"Grand Illusions.† Newsweek Online 1996: October 12, 2000 <http://www.newsweek.com>. Howstuffworks Online. â€Å"Developing The Matrix,† Howstuffworks Online. 1999. October 14, 2000 <http://howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=Matrix>.