ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK miniature effects

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK miniature effects. Robert Skotak talks about the miniature work for the film done by New World Pictures. Segment from my Sense of Scale documentary. Photos: Robert and Dennis Skotak, Gene Rizzardi, Bruce Macrae, New World Pictures

[@miked1869]

There's one phrase that seems to crop up again and again on these fascinating little videos: "We had very little money."

[@Jarumo76]

Little money, yes, but no shortage of creativity.

[@Wayoutthere]

​@@Jarumo76 Now it's the OTHER WAY AROUND.... Blah.

[@ADAPTATION7]

@@Jarumo76 All of it in ten days.

[@brockbaby]

Exactly. Creativity solves problems better than throwing money at it. That is why low budget sci-fi and horror are always the best movies.

[@joek600]

@@brockbaby ''Poverty awakens the arts'' Theocritus 3rd century BC

[@Noneyobusiness7822]

I fucking love the hard work that goes in to practical effects

[@doktor_ghul]

Most , if not all, of the films being discussed are permanently filed away in my memory, so it is always, and I mean ALWAYS, a real treat to find out just how precarious the illusion was, and what that amazing shot actually consisted of. A New York cityscape made out of cardboard and Xerox photos, hand colored with colored pencils, and detailed with wooden blocks and small bits of kit...( shakes head in awe ).

[@TheRealNormanBates]

Even after looking at that shot of the glider teetering on the edge at 5:30 I still find it hard to believe that it's just a partial model plopped on top of a photo.

[@vonkroenen]

That model city was one of my favorite things about Escape from New York. I would watch that movie several time just for that alone. I even tried to built my own version out of boxes when I was a kid.

[@dieselhorse3824]

I used to try remember the skyline and draw 'clunkers' chugging about lol

[@tinkersailorhead4360]

I once read an Anekdote on Escape from NY. The model makers worked on it without giving access to the set to the director. When he was shown the dailies of the nightlight, Carpenter was so thrilled of the night shot and how real it looked on the small budget he wanted to immediately see the set they shot it in. So they went and proudly showed him around, the tar painted on the floor to mimic the Hudson, the cardboard houses etc. They went on with shooting and new dailies came. After the lights went on Carpenter turned to the model team and said: never show me your set again. Today I saw all your tricks and not a moviescene. It was told as an example to never reveal your tricks in moviemaking. It can destroy the magic of the illusion.

[@mykelcohen]

These people are truly artists. So amazing what they can create.

[@decibelfilm]

Robert Skotak is one of those effects artists who's not only a luminary of the profession but is also highly gifted at talking about the craft in a way that's not just enlightening and very easy to follow, but also very entertaining too.

[@oliveribasta5929]

This documentary is one of most important films alongside Hearts of Darkness and Visions of Light about film craft and film history. Thank you for sharing it❤️

[@piercefilm]

Thank you for watching!

[@thepoleontheroad]

That was fascinating. Just how much they worked their asses off with the few money they had, and made it all BY HAND. I don't think it would ever happen today now that a Manhattan model is available in every 3D online marketplace.

[@RWSCOTT]

love the miniature work in this film, esp. the first shot of air force one flying through the spun fiberglass clouds. still looks cool.

[@matthayward7889]

I only discovered this channel a few days ago. Totally obsessed now! Superb.

[@hgwells1899]

Same, literally! Wonder if we'll get some Silent Running

[@piercefilm]

Thanks! More coming soon.

[@djrennauto]

Same! Gonna need to get the DVD

[@overtaxed3628]

Me too, it's amazing. I never even knew that models were used in all these movies, after watching this channel it is completely unbelievable that I did not notice that they are models and not real places !!!

[@anthonyleone2979]

The FX work I think is A Number One!

[@dafdcartoons]

I have literally been waiting to see Escape From New York featured on this channel! One of my all time favorite flicks!

[@berendharmsen]

zero views and three upvotes! I will, for the rest of my life, occasionally be pleasantly surprised by yet another installment of the awesome war stories of the model builders. This channel will never, ever stop releasing these clips; I'm absolutely sure of that now :-)

[@piercefilm]

Well, eventually I will run out, but still a lot more coming! ;)

[@berendharmsen]

@@piercefilm They're almost always a 'drop everything and just quickly watch it' for me, so thanks for them. I really have developed my favourites; Skotak definitely one of them. Bill Pearson is probably my favourite; I love his laid-back, self-deprecating style of telling stories. Do you have a stand out favourite person you interviewed?

[@piercefilm]

@@berendharmsen Tony Doublin was a blast. I have more of his work on low budget films coming up. Gene Warren Jr was also great to listen to. I enjoyed listening to them all!

[@yourhandlehere1]

@@piercefilm I like a lot of the actual model stuff better than all the CGI. Sometimes you can tell, splashing water and fire don't scale well. One day years ago, a friend's dad hands him a new video camera he bought and a fairly thick user manual. He says "I just want to know basically how to make it go". My buddy turns and hands it to me. I was working at a video production place at the time and played with a lot of different cameras. I skimmed through the book ..."oh look, it'll do do stop motion". couple or three frames at a time. I hadn't tried it before so I looked around the room for some junk to play with. Low budget? No budget. I made the epic Godzilla (lighter) vs Daishi(miniature) in a couple of hours. It's on my channel. I never added any after effects like I had planned on. Things happen.

[@chevy-is-a-good-boy]

Wonderful, please let there be more Escape from New York uploads; love this movie.

[@volvlov759]

It’s amazing what they achieved before computers. It’s sad that they had such limited budgets. Great job on a great movie.

[@bagoistvan3182]

Escape from New York !!! Al time favorite since the '80 when I watch it on VHS ....Amazing story ....amazing acting cast and especially amazing director ( Carpenter ) and tehnical - support crew . In retrospect i think that without the creative genius of James Cameron and the Skotak brother's this movie would never remained over the years on that special place in the hearts of the public. Thank you all.

[@benbishop1131]

I never realized James Cameron did his own matte paintings. I knew he was a great artist because of the pitch drawings for The Terminator but now I wonder if he painted those mountains Sarah Connor drove off towards in the matte painting at the end of The Terminator.

[@mroctober3657]

I love that shot.

[@kentallard8852]

No the matte at the end was by Ken Marschall who is a professional painter aside from doing movie mattes, look him up he particularly focuses on nautical scenes and recreating classic ships

[@benbishop1131]

@@kentallard8852 yes I discovered this on a blog about matte.

[@robatsea2009]

Bob Skotak is a superb historian as well - if you have read any of the articles he's written about science fiction films (and the artists who worked on them) made during the 1950s and 1960s they're a joy to pour through. Those early projects starting at New World reflect true creative energy, and what was achieved on very small budgets remains impressive to this day.

[@TheDieselbutterfly]

I like this guy....there is no pretension in him

[@ashman4827]

back in the good old days when visual effect specialists had to used their ingenuity rather than just dumping everything on CGI

[@grunions9648]

I would gladly pay £30 for the full documentary, this is wonderful

[@piercefilm]

There may be some used DVD´s of the doc for sale. But these segments really are the whole doc plus a lot more that wasn't included in the DVD. All 12+ hours when I am done posting all segments. Still much more to come!

[@grunions9648]

@@piercefilm It's incredible, thank you

[@lothean2099]

They did a great job.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

one of my favorite movies the effects in this movie really made the movie Robert and his crew did amazing job .

[@brockbaby]

Working in the FX world back then would of been a DREAM!

[@rickytoddbotelho9555]

Great video. Finally I see this after getting countless versions on DVD to get a glimpse of the directors cut of this movie. 'don't kill him we need him'

[@simongarrettmusic]

I love this - I love this - can't tell you how much I love this stuff :D

[@vinf.4197]

Totally enjoy these videos! Besides creativity and talent, their abilities to solve problems and make it happen is incredible.

[@piercefilm]

Thanks for watching! More coming soon.

[@rexmundi3108]

Perspiration and inspiration. I love hearing these people talk about the process.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

_"President of what?"_ 😊😊😊

[@Jarumo76]

"That's not funny, Plissken."

[@malloid]

Robert Skotak is always interesting to listen to. And of course is extremely talented. He always seems to have a nasty cold during interviews, though!

[@davidw5532]

Absolutely fascinating stuff here! I’m a huge fan of Escape from New York, so this is gold to me. Thank you very much for making this available on KZbin. To me, this is true movie magic and I have a great admiration and respect for all the people involved in this type of work. So many amazing moments these artist’s have created in movies throughout the years. Images that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Cheers!

[@jamestwhelan6693]

These are fantastic...I love watching every one of them...!!

[@piercefilm]

Thanks! More coming up.

[@TheWolfmansgotnards]

love this. The rooftop just being a photo with a fake roof.....

[@3513956]

CGI is a toilet bug next to this masterpiece.

[@michaelshea5622]

Back when you actually had to WORK to create the special effects. And it was great when it hit the screen. I salute the old school guys.

[@Scoobz187]

So what u´re saying is, that today, everybody is just sitting in his booth, and magically there appears a special effect on the screen. Aight, got it.

[@DeickFranfan]

Spectacular how this special documentary continues to feed me back fills me with a lot of inspiration in this great field of the world of scale modeling, thanks to the channel for collecting from the greatest titans in scenography effects and scale modeling behind the scenes 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🤩🤩😉🤗🤗

[@lensw0rld633]

Here's a testiment to miniatures. For most of this video I assumed the guy was in front of a window overlooking buildings outside, until I realised it was a miniature behind him

[@huckfinn9225]

excellent craftsmanship gentlemen

[@1995RangeRover]

You and the team are incredible still!!! Thank you!!

[@tankndg26]

Great insight again! Can’t get enough of it!

[@SquidkidMega]

this is great...where can I find this documentary?.....is it available to purchase, dvd or bluray?

[@piercefilm]

Thanks! The DVD on Amazon is sold out. But I am uploading everything here on my channel in segments. A new one every week!

[@SquidkidMega]

@@piercefilm much Appreciated, these are a joy to watch

[@tomasteran1585]

I just watched that movie last month

[@s0nnyburnett]

Incredible.

[@tremorsfan]

I was hoping they would talk about the computer wire frame effect. Basically, they just covered the miniatures in black fabric and put green tape on it.

[@piercefilm]

That was done by a different company. Dream Quest Images, I think.

[@Joshua_N-A]

Glow in the dark tape?

[@cesarriquelme9487]

Okay piercefilm i lovet reaction escape from nevv yorks miniature effects congratulations tanks you very much okay bye bye 👍♥️♥️♥️👌😘😁😂😀🙏♥️

[@mattyboyanderson]

"How did you get that incredible wireframe computer image of NYC back in 1981?" "Well..."

[@piercefilm]

Yeah, that was done by John Wash and Mark Stetson at Dream Quest, I believe. I forgot to ask Mark about those miniatures when I interviewed him.

[@mattyboyanderson]

@@piercefilm My jaw popped when I first found out how that was done. So simple, and so genius.

[@piercefilm]

@@mattyboyanderson The same thing was also used for Megaforce, which I have a segment about here on my channel.

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Great new video .Like it very much.

[@only257]

Awesome love this movie 😎

[@tac6044]

Incredible man. Fucking awesome.

[@MrTaylorTexas]

Back when things were made by hand and required talent.

[@timmyinthewell1]

Those looks like some Troll 2 heads in the background.

[@zarahirt699]

AMAZING🥳🥳

[@StudioDaVeed]

I had no idea the glider was miniature. Figured it was an old one or just a mock up being drug across a parking lot roof top set. Probably would have been cheaper ;)

Thats great, a shame he dont mentions the 3D effect they did using black lights and neon strips with the buildings.

[@piercefilm]

Those scenes were done at another company.

[@JENDALL714]

The should re-make this as a reality show, since the movie is pretty much reality today!

[@vinesauceobscurities]

Still floors me that they modeled much of downtown Manhattan just for a scene that only displays a wireframe of it.

[@piercefilm]

Another company made the black and white wireframe models. These NY miniatures were for views of the city at night.

[@vinesauceobscurities]

@@piercefilm Oh yeah, I completely forgot that. Thanks for clearing that up.

[@tontaelli]

Is the whole film available? Or is it just in sections on KZbin?

[@piercefilm]

Just sections here on my channel. Must be around 20 hours or so online now

[@tontaelli]

@@piercefilm Wow that is truly incredible. For the love of art form. Thank you so much.

[@benlahrman4149]

Wonder if they could miniature trains? maybe HO Scale? Perhaps Grand Central Station?

[@kentallard8852]

I'm surprised they didn't keep and reuse that NYC model considering its Roger Corman

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

I often wonder how the scene of Snake looking from inside his glider of the 3D representation of the buildings was done. Although it looks like CG, I suspect it was done by lining real models with luminescent strips on the edges and lit just right to give that appearance. Has anyone seen how that shot was done? I had no idea that James Cameron worked on the VFX for this movie, though I did know that he worked for Roger Corman (the king of doing things on the cheap).

[@piercefilm]

You can find many photos of the city models that were made for the computer 3D graphics at the beginning. Google it. And there are some pics of those models in this segment. They were black and white and used to help set up design ideas before the actual miniature buildings were made.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@piercefilm I figured that's how it was done. Sure enough I googled "escape from new york 3d simulation models" and found many photos and more. Thanks.

[@Hirsbrochannel]

75 years old?? when was this recorded?

[@piercefilm]

Not sure what you mean by 75 years? I did the interviews from 2010 to 2012.

[@ADNZ5442]

Which lens for full frame would you advise for large scale miniatures?

[@simonbyrd6518]

The only shot I never liked was the water just before AF-1 hit the building. Looked like ice.

[@bigearedmouse17]

ONE HUNDRED !

[@Scoobz187]

The piece at 0:56 sure looks quite like the underbelly of ISD, with hangar bay and all.

[@afriend9428]

*Great movie or Metal Gear Solid the movie LOL* ⭐️ 😂 ⭐️

[@vitocorleone8437]

Escape from New York was both a hit and a miss imo. The premise is so exciting with many ideas... But most of the potential wasn't crystallized.

[@huddunlap3999]

Do these people make any real money doing this?

[@piercefilm]

They used to! But CGI has hurt the business.

[@KYNG000]

Escape from Miniature New York😂

[@DoctorEnigma01]

These days there’s no need for miniatures, just use the real city