Visual and Special Effects Film Milestones

Milestones in Film History:
Greatest Visual and Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)

Part 4

Introduction: From even its earliest days, films have used visual magic ("smoke and mirrors") to produce illusions and trick effects that have startled audiences. In fact, the phenomenon of persistence of vision is the reason why the human eye sees individual frames of a movie as smooth, flowing action when projected.

Cel animation, scale modeling, claymation, digital compositing, animatronics, use of prosthetic makeup, morphing, and modern computer-generated or computer graphics imagery (CGI) are just some of the more modern techniques that are widely used for creating incredible special or visual effects.

(See this site's film terms glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.)

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star

are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects

Example

Don Juan (1926)

Using its newly developed Vitaphone (sound-on-disk) process, Warners Studios added a score and sound effects to this John Barrymore silent already in production, beginning a revolution in sound. It was the first mainstream film that replaced the traditional use of a live orchestra or organ for the soundtrack (a recorded musical score of the New York Philharmonic), and successfully coordinated audio sound on a recorded disc synchronized to play in conjunction with a projected motion picture. The sounds in the film consisted of some sound effects and music, but no dialogue.

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Although this film was not the first sound film, nor the first 'talkie' film or the first movie musical, it was the first feature-length Hollywood "talkie" film in which spoken dialogue (synchronized) was used as part of the dramatic action. Audiences were wildly enthusiastic when America's favorite jazz singer and superstar Al Jolson broke into song, ad-libbed extemporaneously with his mother at the piano while singing "Blue Skies", and proclaimed the famous line to introduce a musical number: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"

Metropolis (1927, Ger.)

Fritz Lang significantly advanced the art of using elaborate model miniatures to create vast cityscapes. In the film's opening, animated airplanes fly above the futuristic city filled with more animated automobiles. Other perspective techniques created the illusion of distance and size.

The film also employed matte paintings, complex compositing, back or rear projection (the scene of Fredersen (Alfred Abel) speaking to his foreman on a TV screen), and the German Schufftan process -- an optical special effect that was an early precursor of the blue screen. The process used mirrors to create the illusion of actors in huge sets (that were actually miniatures of painted or modeled backgrounds), such as the scene set in the sports stadium. This early process was soon replaced by the simpler, more efficient matte method and by bluescreen effects.

Napoleon (1927, Fr.)

This milestone film from Abel Gance was the first in stereo sound. Two years after its release, it was first shown on triple screens using three projectors in Paris in January of 1929 - a foreshadowing of Cinerama or 'widescreen' films. The finale was a spectacular triptych played on three screens that, together, measured about 90 feet wide. Three different images were projected in synchronization by three separate cameras, a technique known as Polyvision. It was a remarkable masterpiece, innovatively overlaying double exposures and dissolves, and composing multiple images in the same frame. It was also famous for its use of split screens, ultra-wide scenes, a moving camera (Gance mounted cameras on horses, elevators--even guillotines--to achieve unusual effects), and color tinting to illustrate setting or mood: blue tones for night and red-orange for the battle of Toulon.

Noah's Ark (1928)

This melodramatic silent film epic (part-talkie) featured a climactic flood sequence - that mixed minatures, double-exposures, and the full-scale destruction of actual sets; earlier, in a scene reminiscent of Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1923), Noah (Paul McAllister) went on a mountain trek where in one dramatic scene he experienced a burning bush and the creation of giant tablets on a mountainside with flaming letters - warning of a Flood ("to destroy all flesh") and commissioning him to build an Ark; in the massive flood sequence, a fierce storm and lightning bolts destroyed the temple and torrents of water caused a massive flood that ravaged everything; during filming of the disaster sequence, three extras died by drowning, and many others were severely injured.

Steamboat Willie (1928)

The 7-minute Steamboat Willie was first released (on a limited basis) on July 29, 1928, with Mickey as a roustabout on Pegleg Pete's river steamer, but without his trademark white gloves. It was then re-released on November 18, 1928 with sound and premiered at the 79th Street Colony Theatre in New York - it was the first cartoon with a post-produced synchronized soundtrack (of music, dialogue, and sound effects) and was considered Mickey Mouse's screen debut performance and birthdate. Although it was Mickey's second film (the first was Plane Crazy (1928)), it was his first with sound. The Fleischer Brothers' were earlier credited with the first animated films with sound, in their mid-1920s series of Song Car-Tunes.

Applause (1929)

This early film from director Rouben Mamoulian was visually stylistic, with exceptional and graceful camera work -- and marked the first use of a moving sound camera instead of using long static shots. Also it had interesting, unusual, and revolutionary camera angles (from above and below) including a triangulated shot showing two simultaneous actions, the first innovative use of background sound, and it was the first film made with a two-channel or two-track monophonic mix. Striking cinematography, with dramatic light and shadows.

Blackmail (1929)

Hitchcock's first talkie (and the UK's first full-length talkie also) was exceptionally ahead of its time, with an innovative use of sound to heighten the tension in this thriller. In the famed breakfast scene, the word "knife" was repeated and amplified in the everyday conversation for the guilt-ridden heroine Alice White (Anny Ondra) after she had stabbed her assailant Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard) with a large bread knife when he sexually assaulted her. The film also used the German Schufftan process (first used in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927)), an early blue-screen precursor, in the police's chase scene of blackmailer Tracy (Donald Calthrup) through the Library/Reading Room and the Egyptian wing of the British Museum and across its domed rooftop.

Man with a Movie Camera (1929, USSR)

Soviet director Dziga Vertov's quintessential experimental, avante-garde film was an excellent example of a "city symphony" documentary. Regarded as "pure" visual cinema, its views of Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and of Soviet workers and machines contained radical editing techniques, special visual effects, wild juxtapositions of images, freeze frames and double exposures.

The Big Trail (1930)

Fox Film Corporation led the way in developing early prototypes of widescreen films at the start of the talkies, with the introduction of 70mm Grandeur, for The Big Trail (1930), with John Wayne in his first leading role. Unfortunately, theaters couldn't afford the equipment necessary to show a film in 70mm Grandeur, and the film flopped, and led to the studio's filing for bankruptcy.

M (1931, Ger.)

Director Fritz Lang experimented with sound (and the striking pioneering use of leitmotif, to associate a sound with a film character) in this early crime film (and Lang's first sound film). It starred Peter Lorre (in his first lead role) as Hans Beckert - a child serial murderer. In the plot, a blind balloon salesman (Georg John) heard the killer's haunting, tell-tale whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 before an off-screen killing.

Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects	Example
*Don Juan (1926)* Using its newly developed Vitaphone (sound-on-disk) process, Warners Studios added a score and sound effects to this John Barrymore silent already in production, beginning a revolution in sound. It was the first mainstream film that replaced the traditional use of a live orchestra or organ for the soundtrack (a recorded musical score of the New York Philharmonic), and successfully coordinated audio sound on a recorded disc synchronized to play in conjunction with a projected motion picture. The sounds in the film consisted of some sound effects and music, but no dialogue.
*The Jazz Singer (1927)* Although this film was not the first sound film, nor the first 'talkie' film or the first movie musical, it was the first feature-length Hollywood "talkie" film in which spoken dialogue (synchronized) was used as part of the dramatic action. Audiences were wildly enthusiastic when America's favorite jazz singer and superstar Al Jolson broke into song, ad-libbed extemporaneously with his mother at the piano while singing "Blue Skies", and proclaimed the famous line to introduce a musical number: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"
*Metropolis (1927, Ger.)* Fritz Lang significantly advanced the art of using elaborate model miniatures to create vast cityscapes. In the film's opening, animated airplanes fly above the futuristic city filled with more animated automobiles. Other perspective techniques created the illusion of distance and size. The film also employed matte paintings, complex compositing, back or rear projection (the scene of Fredersen (Alfred Abel) speaking to his foreman on a TV screen), and the German Schufftan process -- an optical special effect that was an early precursor of the blue screen. The process used mirrors to create the illusion of actors in huge sets (that were actually miniatures of painted or modeled backgrounds), such as the scene set in the sports stadium. This early process was soon replaced by the simpler, more efficient matte method and by bluescreen effects.
*Napoleon (1927, Fr.)* This milestone film from Abel Gance was the first in stereo sound. Two years after its release, it was first shown on triple screens using three projectors in Paris in January of 1929 - a foreshadowing of Cinerama or 'widescreen' films. The finale was a spectacular triptych played on three screens that, together, measured about 90 feet wide. Three different images were projected in synchronization by three separate cameras, a technique known as Polyvision. It was a remarkable masterpiece, innovatively overlaying double exposures and dissolves, and composing multiple images in the same frame. It was also famous for its use of split screens, ultra-wide scenes, a moving camera (Gance mounted cameras on horses, elevators--even guillotines--to achieve unusual effects), and color tinting to illustrate setting or mood: blue tones for night and red-orange for the battle of Toulon.
Noah's Ark (1928) This melodramatic silent film epic (part-talkie) featured a climactic flood sequence - that mixed minatures, double-exposures, and the full-scale destruction of actual sets; earlier, in a scene reminiscent of Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1923), Noah (Paul McAllister) went on a mountain trek where in one dramatic scene he experienced a burning bush and the creation of giant tablets on a mountainside with flaming letters - warning of a Flood ("to destroy all flesh") and commissioning him to build an Ark; in the massive flood sequence, a fierce storm and lightning bolts destroyed the temple and torrents of water caused a massive flood that ravaged everything; during filming of the disaster sequence, three extras died by drowning, and many others were severely injured.
Steamboat Willie (1928) The 7-minute Steamboat Willie was first released (on a limited basis) on July 29, 1928, with Mickey as a roustabout on Pegleg Pete's river steamer, but without his trademark white gloves. It was then re-released on November 18, 1928 with sound and premiered at the 79th Street Colony Theatre in New York - it was the first cartoon with a post-produced synchronized soundtrack (of music, dialogue, and sound effects) and was considered Mickey Mouse's screen debut performance and birthdate. Although it was Mickey's second film (the first was Plane Crazy (1928)), it was his first with sound. The Fleischer Brothers' were earlier credited with the first animated films with sound, in their mid-1920s series of Song Car-Tunes.
*Applause (1929)* This early film from director Rouben Mamoulian was visually stylistic, with exceptional and graceful camera work -- and marked the first use of a moving sound camera instead of using long static shots. Also it had interesting, unusual, and revolutionary camera angles (from above and below) including a triangulated shot showing two simultaneous actions, the first innovative use of background sound, and it was the first film made with a two-channel or two-track monophonic mix. Striking cinematography, with dramatic light and shadows.
*Blackmail (1929)* Hitchcock's first talkie (and the UK's first full-length talkie also) was exceptionally ahead of its time, with an innovative use of sound to heighten the tension in this thriller. In the famed breakfast scene, the word "knife" was repeated and amplified in the everyday conversation for the guilt-ridden heroine Alice White (Anny Ondra) after she had stabbed her assailant Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard) with a large bread knife when he sexually assaulted her. The film also used the German Schufftan process (first used in Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927)), an early blue-screen precursor, in the police's chase scene of blackmailer Tracy (Donald Calthrup) through the Library/Reading Room and the Egyptian wing of the British Museum and across its domed rooftop.
Man with a Movie Camera (1929, USSR) Soviet director Dziga Vertov's quintessential experimental, avante-garde film was an excellent example of a "city symphony" documentary. Regarded as "pure" visual cinema, its views of Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and of Soviet workers and machines contained radical editing techniques, special visual effects, wild juxtapositions of images, freeze frames and double exposures.
*The Big Trail (1930)* Fox Film Corporation led the way in developing early prototypes of widescreen films at the start of the talkies, with the introduction of 70mm Grandeur, for The Big Trail (1930), with John Wayne in his first leading role. Unfortunately, theaters couldn't afford the equipment necessary to show a film in 70mm Grandeur, and the film flopped, and led to the studio's filing for bankruptcy.
*M (1931, Ger.)* Director Fritz Lang experimented with sound (and the striking pioneering use of leitmotif, to associate a sound with a film character) in this early crime film (and Lang's first sound film). It starred Peter Lorre (in his first lead role) as Hans Beckert - a child serial murderer. In the plot, a blind balloon salesman (Georg John) heard the killer's haunting, tell-tale whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 before an off-screen killing.