Amazing Effects in Classic Films - How Did They Pull It Off? | Part 5

[@daveygivens735]

Close Encounters is such a terrific film, lost in the wash coming out the same year as "Star Wars". There are tons of practical effects way before the spaceship scene and the story itself is brilliant.

[@imagesh1]

I was fortunate in college to meet Victor Delgado, who's brother Marcel did so much of the Kong armature and FX construction. He and his wife had moved to Colorado Springs, and I cold called all the "Victor Delgado's" until I got him. What a wonderful visit. As a traditional VFX guy from the day, I still have all the 35mm gear needed to do the King Kong or Ray Harryhausen FX work; Two 35mm single frame process projectors, rear-screens, and the cameras to shoot it. The gear will never be used again... I suggest anyone interested read the Technique of Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding for a primer on all these processes. It's amazing how this stuff relates to the modern CGI world we now work in.

[@brotherfullmer]

YES! Thank you for mentioning "Movie Magic!" The flash paper bars from Demolition Man always caught my attention too. I miss that show. It had great behind the scenes for film effects big and small. Thanks for including that one.

[@jefffan171]

Think my favourite Gladiator production fact is. Due to the script issues, production problems and the tragic loss of one of the principle cast. Dreamworks & Universal had all eyes heavy on the set every day. Meanwhile another Dreamworks movie was having its own troubles changing the movie to be different in tone that allowed fans of a franchise to embrace the film we ended up with thanks to little studio interference. That film was Galaxy Quest!!! So thank you Gladiator, as while the fan blades were being cleaned, we got another Gem of a movie and Gladiator turned out okay in the end .

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

How about the skeletons-versus-actors swordfight in "Jason and Argonauts" (1963)? Do that one! 🤩

[@filmriot]

Love that one! We’ll do that soon.

[@BanthaPooDoo64]

I grew up when buying magazines such as STARLOG ,FANGORIA ,FAMOUS MONSTERS and other types would have awesome write ups plus photos showing film magic and makeup techniques which inspired many young film makes and I was one of them

[@TheRubberStudiosASMR]

I absolutely love the effects before cgi. They always hold up and look more interesting than interactive

[@petergivenbless900]

In addition to miniature rear-projection to incorporate live action elements into the stop-motion animation, 'King Kong' also used a travelling matte process called the 'Dunning-Pomeroy Blue-backing Process' for shots combining live action and animation where the scale and positioning of the live action elements (in front of the animation) made rear-projection impractical. The 'Dunning-Pomeroy Process' took advantage of different colours reading the same in black&white and used orange and blue light onstage in combination with in-camera bi-packed (running a print of a film in contact with unexposed negative through the camera to essentially film "through" an already printed shot, as a kind of optical printing, to combine them) film tinted orange, so it would contrast with the blue-backing, while the set and actors were lit with orange light so that their image would "pass through" the tinted print relatively unaffected; resulting in shots where the live action appears to move in front of the animation in large scale shots. Also, the shots of the UFO miniatures in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' used motion-control cameras, like the contemporaneous 'Star Wars, but, as bluescreen mattes would not work for their diffuse lights, the UFO models were shot twice; first in a blacked out, smoke filled, set with their lights lit-up, and then again in silhouette, with their lights off, in front of white card to create mattes. This multiple-pass motion control matte technique was refined and later also used for the "Spinners" in 'Blade Runner'. While 'Star Wars' used motion control photography for its miniatures, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' was also the first film to use digital motion control photography to shoot live action elements and combine them with miniatures as well.

[@BLTV_Photoshop]

Excellent!

[@larrytalbot3824]

15:37 When the mother ship first appears in Close Encounters, Spielberg in a documentary points out something that no one ever really brought up, that this massive ship rises up _out of the ground_ behind Devils Tower, it doesn't emerge from a cloud like the smaller ships, descend from the heavens or arrive from far off, the whole craft literally comes out of the earth, roughly where the military camp would be on the other side of the mountain, now as he pointed out this was wholly for effect, to see it rising up silently behind the mountain, it just looks cool, but as he added, the physics of this massive ship hiding below & behind that mountain doesn't work when you stop to think about it, so the audience can just put it down to artistic & cinematic suspension of disbelief _or_ this thing, by some alien technology beyond our understanding, passed or phased through the solid earth to make a spectacular & memorable entrance. Either way, it's iconic.

[@stookinthemiddle]

Film Riot!!! I've not been back in years. I first found you guys back in 2009, just before I went to Uni to study filmmaking. You guys helped me get into that course, and into filmmaking in general. Thank you :) So happy to see you still making amazing content! - love from Scotland :)

[@razumtazum3246]

The invisible bridge sequence in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade never made sense to me. The illusion works for the audience because we're watching a 2D movie. But Indy presumably has binocular vision and can see in 3D, so he would notice right away a flat surface that's just painted to look like the rocks in front of him.

[@punishedprops]

Great episode! I totally remember watching that Demolition Man episode of Movie Magic back in the 90s!

[@cinemaipswich4636]

In the Ben Hur clips, it was well known that the crew were placing bets on who would win a circuit.

[@jpeg1999]

Always love to see how they did the shots. My suggestion for the next one is the house imploding in the original Poltergeist.

[@dsr0116]

I'm so glad you mentioned Movie Magic. My childhood was making model kits and always tuning into that show. I did remember those scenes in Demolition Man and True Lies being highlighted in the show. RE kit bashing: I think I remember reading that the Death Star being built in Return of the Jedi has a San Fransisco skyline in it. I also already knew how King Kong was done from watching interviews and a full documentary on the creative effects (as they really setup VFX for the whole century). Now to subscribe and catch up on these videos!

[@toastnjam7384]

The special effects for the chariot race in the 1925 Ben Hur was very impressive.

[@TomTennisco]

It is one (remarkable) thing to pull off those visual effects in King Kong, but can you imagine trying to explain to the executive producers or financiers of the time just how you were going to pull off these shots, especially when the concepts were so new they didn't have any frame of reference? Amazing!

[@jmalmsten]

My guess is that it was pretty much a "trust me, bro" -situation. A lot of fx works were more like black boxes than now. Filmmakers would say, can you do these visuals in the budget, and as long as the results were satisfactory, noone really cared how it was made. And O'brian had already done some of these things to great success in The Lost World previously, so it probably helped in the trust. Also. If anyone was skeptical, they could just look in the viewfinder to see it working in camera. :)

[@AmritSingh-b3r]

Gigli 😊

[@williamjones7163]

T

[@Dontlicktheballoons]

The ship from close encounters of the third kind is on display at the air and space museum outside of DC near Dulles airport. It's like 3' across and really makes you appreciate how important a good gaffer is to selling miniatures😅

[@trumpdesantis243]

I never got to see the close encounters space ship but have been in the house that was used for filming, and in 1984 as a 6 yr old I got to see the model of the mountain used for filming as the owner of the house was given the model, this was filmed in Mobile Al, the house is located in west Mobile and the hangers at Brookly Air Force base now known as Brookly field were larger than any sound stage at the time so the massive sets were constructed in them. The home and hangers still exist to this day the owner of the home at the time was Larry Hill, I don't know if he still owns it, last time I saw him was 25+ years ago, he was one heck of a trumpet player though !

[@WhySteve]

Nice! That jet thing is pretty cool 👌

[@EricMBlog]

I remember seeing that demolition man BTS about those flash paper bars back when I was a teen, and also thinking “huh, you basically can’t see all that work they did in the movie.”

[@baddriversofcolga]

The elaborate practical effects are just so much cooler than CGI.

[@cardiffst]

Absolutely love this series. Thanks so much for doing them.

[@solfly6]

This was great! I've always been interested in how things were achieved in movies and still have a collection of Cinefex and other magazines BUT, there were a few tricks in here that I've never seen! I love the forced perspective/miniature stuff. The moving mattes are incredibly effective! Incredibly clever stuff! Nice presentation! Thank you!

[@emmitstewart1921]

My favorite scene from 2001, a space Odessey is when the space shuttle docks with the station to the tune of The Blue Danube Waltz. I'd love to see how they shot that scene.

[@paulsheldon8838]

Now I want an in-depth video about each and every effect.

[@jbrisby]

Would you ever consider looking at an animated film? The releasing of the power of the Stone in The Secret of NIMH is jaw dropping, all the more so because it was made in 1982 for about 7 million dollars. A lot of animated films have big magical lightshows in them, but this one really stands head and shoulders above them all. The light seems present, the fire seems hot, it's just amazing to think it's just ink and paint.

[@dougsphilippinejourney1118]

I was working as a projectionist at a local drive in when this came out. The screen was at edge of a cliff and you could believe the mother ship was rising over the cliff. I thought it was great!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Douglas Trumbull (RIP) is one of the greatest visual effects artists of all time. His list of accomplishments is extremely impressive.

[@DethronerX]

Thanks for these videos, I always find them educational and most of the time I only know 1 to 2 % of answers : D But the most fun to watch for me, is not to guess or predict anything and let the presentation reveal everything and watch the people in the video try to guess.

[@imaginationworkshopstudio]

And if you look really close you can see tiny R2-D2 figures and other neat hidden stuff the Modelmakers attached for fun.

[@DouglasDoNascimento]

Awesome.

[@B.coffin]

Very cool to learn about this stuff!

[@zongmuas]

Always a good day when Film Riot uploads.

[@williamjones7163]

It all comes down to the special effects mantra: It is not what they see, but what they THINK they see.

[@lanolinlight]

Effects. did not. begin. with computers. There is a wealth of material on the processes and techniques throughout film history, and it baffles me that so many modern effects artists know so little of it. In art, literature, music and photography, folks clamor to learn the history of their craft. But videos like this at least encourage curiosity and share some of the knowledge.

[@occularmalice]

Would live to see two shots. First the transition from sepia to colour in Wizard of Oz. Second, the heart attack scene in John Carpenter's The Thing. I know how they were both done, but they're great moments in special effect history.

[@southlondon86]

Excellent video!

[@SimonRandall]

One of the Harrier props from True Lies turns up in the Avengers, when Hulk and Thor are fighting

[@digitaldroo]

Am I just not putting things together, or was that specific coliseum entry shot not explained in a way that addresses the incorrect guesses?

[@einstankan]

Yesssss love it!!

[@myplane150]

James Cameron had the ultimate Flight Simulator rig built for True Lies. Seriiously, can you imagine having that (13:17) in your very large garage???

[@DOI_ARTS]

Demolition Man uses magic paper painted black 😁😁😁

[@shoked99]

Nice video. I love this series, especially when you highlight older movies. Thanks.

[@ryanbarker5217]

maybe it's been covered, but i'd love to see the universal logo from 1936-1946. i love the toho logo, too, the ones with the colored beams of light, that's probably a lot easier than it looks, but still beautiful and makes me curious.

[@TheMarkYes]

thank you for Falstaff music❤

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

It just goes to show that intelligent people have been making movies more fantastic since the very beginning. The tornado in "The Wizard of Oz" still stands up today as one of the best realistic depictions of a tornado in cinema. It baffled audiences for decades (and still does in some cases).

[@Ephemeral2023]

My grandmother's stocking being twisted around.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@Ephemeral2023Not far from the truth. It was made of cloth.

[@imaginationworkshopstudio]

That structure as you call it is a Gimbal. We have them here at IWS.

[@Metro-polis]

Great series on FX. Can you possibly do The Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno?

[@SB111058]

No Greenscreen back then. Blue-screen!!

[@jfess1911]

I cannot quite identify what makes composited effects (like those used in the first couple of Star Wars films) or rear projection pop out compared to the live-action portion. I don't know if it is a saturation issue, constrast, lighting, sharpness, all of those, or something else. Can someone explain this? Thanks

[@justinmathew130]

Very informative

[@benellison6232]

Might i recommend the beginning scene of sunset boulevard? The camera goes through the "water" so we see a body. that wouldnt have been able to do at the time

[@treadingtheboards2875]

I have always wondered about the Indiana Jones bridge scene. Yes the camera can't differentiate between the bridge and the back wall as it only has one lens, but Indy has two eyes and therefore there would have been some sort of parallax, however small, showing him there was something there. BTW, keep up the good work.

[@papusman]

This is something I've thought about for the past 30 years! When I was a kid I thought the bridge had to have magically appeared after he had faith and took the step, because I couldn't imagine he wouldn't notice it, no matter how great the match. Ultimately, though, it's a neat gag so I try to suspend my disbelief for it.

[@DaveTexas]

I still don’t understand the "invisible" stone bridge in Last Crusade. The only way for that illusion to work in real life would be for the person viewing it to be in the EXACT right spot - and never move. Even a movement of a couple of inches in any direction would destroy the illusion. Just running up to it would break the illusion, unless you had your eyes closed until your head was in the exact spot in space to make it "disappear." I had a lot of problems with that movie - I was actually in film school at a university when it came out - but that’s the one for which I was never able to suspend my disbelief. I didn’t care about the VFX; I was just mad at Spielberg for such a ridiculous lapse in logic. But great video, guys! VFX was an area that was woefully under-emphasized in film school. Granted, I was concentrating on audio for film (mainly post-production audio sweetening), but we didn’t cover very much about VFX in any of my production classes. We did some stuff with green screen, but that was about it. As it was the late ‘80s, there were no CG effects available to us. We had to go practical - with no time and no budget - so we all stuck to mundane dramas and comedies. I did produce a Twilight Zone-ish short that utilized a green screen for one shot, however. I wish I knew where that reel of film went…or even where my U-matic video copy of it went…

[@Classical741]

Yeah, I too would have liked that scene better more buttons open. Or with no shirt at all. 🔥💯

[@nicolagrasso1639]

Best video channel

[@siegfriedkleinmartins7816]

PLEASE !!! Explain how was done the scene when Ed Harris begins to beathe in that liquid on The Abyss. Is so realistic it gives me anguish.

[@filmriot]

Deal! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKi6g2yinLSjjaMfeature=shared

[@nickpond9337]

SO we have moved from Building Giant Set and Model s , . TO doing most of the work on a Lap ~ Top and sometime s we still use the giant sets , models VERY SORRY BUT I LEAD A VERY BOARING LIFE but the Movies are still Great Fun to Watch so Thank You ;

[@Abbecskin]

I want to know how they did the time travel effect of the delorean car reverse explosion effects

[@daliilars3350]

5:43 Ironic that the effect is more visible in motion. 😅

[@seanwilks7712]

They filmed that true lies scene in my mother’s office building!

[@UXXV]

Love these

[@shirleymental4189]

I liked the bit about hong Kong

[@ImaginationVFXhouse]

You should do this same type of series but after figuring out how it’s done you should recreate some of them the way it was done back then alongside doing it with modern technology and see which one you prefer.

[@ShmuckOnWheels]

I still need an explanation for the arrival of the mothership. How could something so massive rise up from the side of the tower? The movie amazed me 3x on opening weekend when I was 12. One of my brothers worked at a theater let me and some friends in after seeing it with the family first. Great movie but some of the fx at the end were always a bit off for me.

[@CrashTv3166]

Star Wars did the exact same thing during the pod race the crowd was I think q-tips and they use a fans underneath do make it look like the people are moving

[@Nick_Rowlett]

Unrelated but is Ryan wearing a Porter Robinson shirt? Hell yeah

[@yairfunnygaming9476]

Can't wait to see more of the electric pack ＼(^_^)／

[@KisschoGames]

Hello Film Riot, i can trully say, y'all are the best for the FX films. So, i wanna ask you. Can you do a full tutorial on "Fantastic Beasts SPELL EFFECT in After Effects" please? You did almost everything but you missed some parts like the curves or more things... Thank you very much! Your big fan.

[@stevemastnick5034]

I always thought the chariot race set in the original Ben-Hur was full scale.

[@MartinGilmour]

what's the name of that classical music piece in the start ?

[@TheTMax]

I love these breakdowns! Some movies I'd like you to demystify: The Fifth Element, Carnosaur, Spaceballs, and pretty much any Peter Jackson movie like LoTR, The Hobbit, District 9, or King Kong. Thanks!

[@DehinorVargas]

Those effects from demolition man make me see vfx in a whole new way!!

[@jiujiuli-n3s]

太酷啦

[@TheAcSstudio]

lovely series!

[@nathanjona]

Peter Fonda lol😂

[@Mr.ThomasAnderson]

Hey guys, love these. If you would, talk about the "Mean Green Mother" scene in Little Shop of Horror. I love that film but it took me forever to figure out how it was done, I mean there is an obviousness (maybe) about Audrey II but its the technique they use to make it look and move so realistically being that it's a huge monstrous plant, the size of it mixed with its quick movement is what where the mystery and nightmare fuel lies. (trying not to spoil)

[@pennygadget7328]

Misread "tell people about this" as "tell me about this", whoops.

[@Mr.ThomasAnderson]

@@pennygadget7328 was trying not to spoil

[@pennygadget7328]

@@Mr.ThomasAnderson My bad. I thought you meant spoilers about the movie, not the technique. Edited the comment.

[@Mr.ThomasAnderson]

@@pennygadget7328 yeah, thinking about the point of this series is that they guess how it was done. I know how it was done, so if they do an episode on it they (Josh, Justin and the viewers) have to figure it out. I'm guessing Ryan or someone researches and presents it to them. No biggie

[@Seanbennett10511]

could you consider making more indiana jones benind the scenes? i love indiana jones and would like to see how the face melting was done as well as the opening of the ark thetemple of kali ect. a fun fact about the opening of the ark was to make it sound like it was being opened they used a tiolet seat to get the sound effect. i would love to see more indiana jones content here. Thank you!

[@angelthman1659]

6:25 What split? I see nothing.

[@theodorelaval1133]

9:42 - Justin, i'm with you all the way on Indiana Jones' chest. 😍

[@naplesbeachfan]

Ben Hur the silent version how they did it

[@lucho3612]

Love yhis channel

[@chefwawa]

Don't ever leave us.

[@kingdesignerr]

Don't leave us

[@AnAnimatorsWorld]

Don't us

[@chefwawa]

@@AnAnimatorsWorld Don't

[@jimmykovalak6442]

Sheesh Lucas pretty much created green screen....

[@rachel_rexxx]

Neato

[@Concreteowl]

A Matter of Life and Death wasn't originally called Stairway to Heaven. That was the alternative USA title. It's British and original title has always been A Matter of Life and Death.

[@Kinemaniac-rm1ef]

Hey Ryan, can you please explain how Christopher Nolan did the shot in Inception where the cab glass was moving when Joseph Gordon Levett was crushing the mental projection? Thanks!

[@jonglassmusic5813]

Mini a ture ?

[@nightmarevstplugin3944]

😊

[@elliottswanson9307]

They bought a lot of potatoes.

[@Mark.Andrew.Pardoe]

Whato all, "A Matter of Life and Death" is the film's original name which the Americans renamed "Stairway to Heaven". Why? Who knows.

[@TheAcSstudio]

also Josh, can we get some colour contrast on them faces? ideally some cool strong directed light. It's all too yellow its mushy

[@vfx_jon]

why cant Ryan say miniature

[@JMRsDesk]

Silicon not Silicone. And you only have TWO usb ports?!?! I do nothing and I have 3 + a magsafe power port. (MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max) So this is a bit of a legal loophole piece for the iVANKY "Max 1" that can only do 1 external display with your M1 (NOT M1 Pro even though it's on a MacBook Pro and that makes it all ambiguous) chip in your MacBook Pro. All of the extra monitor support comes only with an upgraded Mac. As for all of the other ports.... I personally love it... even though you SURELY can't use all of them together or at once (that's slang for simultaneously). That means that the ONE external monitor connection will be slowed down when using (or trying to use) the other accessories at the same time as the monitor on your unit. Yes technically there is no disinformation in the advert but to the uninformed layman who thinks he can take the cheapest MacBook Pro and pimp it out with 4 external monitors ( + the laptop monitor for 5 ) he -or she- will be disappointed that they did not do the research and read the fine print. Maybe they will see this and do their due diligence. ***Enjoyed the ACTUAL content of the vid. Thx

[@ddespair]

So I guess the guessing is fake since there’s too takes of him asking the same question due to the stomach growl?

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

One of you please teach him how to pronounce ‘miniature’!

[@kernowarty]

I have never heard anyone say the word "Miniature" before and pronouncing the second "i" thus making it a 4 sylable word.

[@Ephemeral2023]

??? mini-ature. Always the way I pronounced it and have heard it.

[@filmriot]

I was corrected by an artist once and have made sure to say it the correct way ever since. Haha

[@Ephemeral2023]

My mother and I went back and forth on how to say opossum. I dropped the "o," she insisted on the "o." The name was originally spelled with an "a."

[@dirtyhannie]

Haven't seen Film Riot for a few years. Seems that the algorhythm is doing something right for a change...

[@JohnWayne-2025]

Miniatures.