Amazing Before & After VFX Breakdown - Ghostbusters (1984)

The original Ghostbusters film is now 36 years old and by today's standards, its visual effects aren't brilliant, but Ghostbusters comes from a time before CGI and digital effects, it comes from a time of camera tricks, optical illusions and physical effects that relied more on ingenuity than computer engineers.
Like the music in this video?
Get it on Google Play:► bit.ly/2F10vbs ◄
Get it on itunes: ► apple.co/2ENGfu9 ◄
Listen on Spotify: ► spoti.fi/3boTfCl ◄
Buy it on Amazon: ► amzn.to/2QVJZfk ◄
This classic film was a comedy written by Dan Aykroyd and although funny, it received more praise for its special effects than for its humor. In this breakdown we're going to look at how some of its more memorable scenes were made.
The Ghosts
The ghosts were mainly puppets, some of which like the ghostly librarian we done by making a body mould of the actress playing the librarian to make an animatronic double which was then rigged with cables to allow the face to move and the mouth to open and the jaw to unhinge all this was controlled by just one person. ghosts or spectres that weren't puppets had to be animated in frame by frame so 1 second of footage took approximately three weeks to complete.
Slimer
Possibly everyone's favorite ghost, Slimer was actually a puppet made from 1 inch foam latex that was worn by puppeteer Mark Wilson. the puppeteer was dressed in black and was filmed with a black backdrop so they would disappear when later combined with location photography. Slimer's facial expressions were controlled with cables operated by off screen puppeteers meaning that Slimer had to stay in a fixed position when being recorded. The team overcame by setting the camera up on a dolly and moving it towards Slimer, making it look as if Slimer moved towards the camera.
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Supposedly over 110ft tall the marshmallow man was just a man in a suit, a very expensive suit, costing around $30,000. it was made from a foam the was possibly toxic (gotta love the 80's) so the puppeteer had to be supplied with air. finding toy cars the right scale was difficult so the team bought about a hundred of the same model and painted and adapted them to suit. In one part they used a remote controlled car to crash into a fire hydrant and the water from the hydrant was actually sand, because water doesn't look right when scaled down.
Neutrino Wands
The neutrino wands had a light bulb on the end of them which was powered by batteries in the proton packs on the actors backs. These bulbs were there so that the animators had a point of origin for the light stream which they created by combining a series of explosions, which were filmed off set with classic animation to achieve a rubberize light effect. There were also a variety of different back packs, the ones with batteries weighed 30lbs, lighter ones without batteries were used when the actors didn't need to shoot the neutrino wands and there were even some rubber backpacks for the stunt scenes.
Please give us a like if you enjoyed this video, don't forget the links to the music in this video are in the video description and be sure to let us know, in the comments, which movie VFX you'd like to see behind next!
Read more here: www.famefocus.com
Follow us on Twitter: / focusfame

[@TerriHardinSpeaks]

I worked on this and the Marshmallow man and a few of your facts are a bit off...I'm happy the chat if you'd like. I also played the Terror dog Sigourney Weaver turns into. Glad you love the first Ghostbusters film. me too.

[@bubbythebear6891]

If I may ask, what facts did he get a bit off? Also, good job on bringing to life one of the most recognizable movie villains ever made!

[@stefs6964]

I just watched today again every year around Christmas i was in Cinema in 84 when the movie comes out a real ghost Buster fan and a Weaver fan

[@LextheRobot]

Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman had previously worked with magician Doug Henning on some stage shows. For Sigourney's levitation, they adapted a stage technique to do the shot live, all in-camera. A fiberglas shell was made to a cast of Sigourney's body, going from approximately the armpits to the knees. A mechanical boom arm extended from her waist out the wall of the set, blocked from the camera's view by her body. It could not only raise her off the bed, it could rotate her at the waist, with the circular gear for this hidden by the belt sash of her dress. As Sigourney wrote in her Slime Poem for the wrap party, she was "levitated more than once"; the shot had to be refilmed after they realized the shadow of the boom arm was visible, giving away the trick. The lighting was changed for the reshoot.

[@LextheRobot]

@@Ghostbutersreturn I don't think there's video that shows the shadow on the wall. But jump to the 6:57 mark of this behind-the-scenes featurette and you can see a brief snippet of the empty fiberglass shell of Sigourney's body rotating in midair. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4bMZHqXoLWnmJYsi=ZkI1GKKVxFtv9s7S

[@jdmtechllc6589]

My 8 year old and I both love and appreciate your work!

[@zacharylee1995]

I don't know how The original Ghostbusters didn't Win an Oscar award For The Best Special effects, I thought The Special effects looks absolutely amazing and looks Way better than CGI 🤔

[@brucebehner4142]

Dan Aykroyd wasn't the only one who wrote the script, Ramis had a lot to do with that too.

[@reeganevans6707]

Now THIS!!! is how you make a Ghostbusters movie!! The Terror Dogs in Afterlife were perfectly balanced with the Practical effects as well as CGI. 60% up close shots as well as 40% CGI for quick motion 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@tonymata8070]

Looks like we're doing that again in the upcoming Frozen Empire, why? Slimer is coming back baby!! And judging by the images that someone took from a theater standee, he's going to be depicted with a practical suit with digital effects! AND, he looks like his first movie design!

[@bloodking4049]

Amazing ingenuity.

[@JohnPerez-lf6jx]

1:51 is that a BUTT!?!?!? SLIMER HAS A BUTT!?!?!! I THOUGHT GHOST DON’T HAVE BUTTS!?!??!??!! I am freaking out because it looks both hilarious and weird at the same time

[@mitrooper]

You're just finding out now... I noticed it in the cinema back in 1984.

[@zacharylee1995]

Am I The only one that Been noticed that Slimer has a Butt 😂

[@dypteseu]

You've played the long con, for once the thumbnail is actually how it was done :D

[@matrxreal]

Impressive!

[@bangofumisato4206]

NO need to be Full CG . Ｉ love this .

[@YodatheHobbit]

No need to not either.

[@zacharylee1995]

Yeah I absolutely Agree with y'all

[@bangofumisato4206]

@@zacharylee1995 Thanks !

[@zacharylee1995]

@@bangofumisato4206 I Agree with you because your Statement is actually a Fact, We don't Really need CGI if we can make practical effects, I think we All can Agree that practical effects is so much better than CGI The original Jurassic Park movie is another example for perfect Practical effects ☺️ And your Welcome

[@bangofumisato4206]

i know ! The original Jurassic Park is best of series , and if Christopher Nolan will understand our thinking .

[@mikesilva3868]

Classic movie 😈

[@BrianMoro-gz8de]

The effects in the first Ghostbusters movie look better than the new ones.

[@Ali_Kisitu]

THIS IS NICE

[@andrewtm85]

The f/x still hold up. Practical effects are so much better then the excessive cgi in movies nowadays.

[@Artist_apu_drawing_world]

VERY NICE BROTHER......

[@somasekhar1172]

Kungfu hustle after and before plz

[@HumphreyAlphaandOmega]

My favourite was the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

[@netkongen]

Who Brought The Dog ???

[@mitrooper]

So much more interesting and memorable than CG.

[@Ghostbustersfan64513]

Where did you find tje thumbnail never seen that photo of slimer before and it looks like it was took not too many years ago as the camera quality seems really good so dose sony and Columbia still have the original slimer costume ?

[@onikaconstantine8861]

Nice

[@KittiesRCool]

I believe the foam used for the stay puft suit was only toxic while it was being burned.

[@DanySahne85]

This movie was for me one of the most impressive movies ever made. Without CGI or other things, done with camera and actor tricks only... that is so cool... but today every movie "MUST" made with CGI, because the people WANT TO HAVE it so real as it gets (no, that's not my opinion!)...

[@Sajjad3DArtist]

Good We also have a Studio

[@danielcurtis2886]

Slimer favorite ghost ain't no way Stay Puft is my favorite

[@thelukeofficial9626]

After life special effects

[@gerv55]

Neutrona Wands. not Neutrino. That was something Mattycollector somehow got wrong and it's been lingering ever since.

[@roquefortfiles]

I've never understood the the hoopla around this film. I watched it and thought Meh!!. Over rated.

[@ashleyp3662]

😎

[@MetalJuggalo]

I always thought with the ghosts they just used the early CGI that they had

[@DockingFreidmanRecords]

Any early visual overlays were just traditional animation that was later composited in. In 84, such complex images of ghost could still not be done yet.

[@reid3524]

Slimmer has a bit crack?

[@advrthulasikumar1089]

first comment

[@cdw442]

And it was a worthless one... you had your chance to say somthing profound that everyone would see, and you squandered it .

[@hm2966]

@@cdw442 that's right

[@v509-cassiopeiae3]

Doing everything with CGI these days was a mistake. Most of it doesn't seem as realistic as what was done back then. Jurassic Park 1&2 the Dinosaurs look better than they do today, Star Wars too etc. Hollywood has forgotten how to make really good films. See Ghostbusters 2016, Afterlife and Frozen Empire. Its a shame.

[@HumphreyAlphaandOmega]

Slimer with his butt

[@Joel-lp8eu]

copyright thumbnail 😅😅😅😅😂😂😂😂