Preface

Many years ago I taught a class at New York University's Center for Advanced Digital Applications (NYU CADA) on the topic of the "history of visual effects".  Some of that class is incorporated into these notes but the focus has changed somewhat.  Now this is more of "a study guide to visual effects" or what films/sequences you should have seen, at least once, in order to appreciate and give context to this work.  My joke at the time was that "this was the stuff you have to have seen if you want to work in the slave pits of the rich", by which I was referring to all those who wanted to sell out and work for a large corrupt media corporation. God bless you, all of you, I just want to help you achieve your life's goals.

I find it distressing that the noble field of visual effects is relegated to some of the lowest levels of esteem as perceived by the audience, the above the line artists, and the executives of the motion picture industry.  I see this sad state of affairs whenever I look at a modern motion picture filled as it is with both practical, traditional and special photographic visual effects.  How did this lack of respect come about?  We shall from time to time speculate on their causes even as we celebrate the work of the ages.

 

Before we begin, this is not a perfect world and special effects is not a perfect field.  There will be disappointments, failures, human feelings dashed on the floor, raw theft and many other events between biped mammals as they push each other around with their large software packages.  The fact that I occassionally wont sugarcoat things are sure to cause some of my "peers" to spit teeth in rage.  How dare I, they will spray.  What gives me the right?  To all of you I wish a slow and painful heart attack or massive stroke.  This will be for your own good.

 

To the reader, I must also mention a few things.  First, I am going to talk about technology as well as the so-called creative aspects of visual effects.  Second, I tend to use analogy, metaphor, humor, irony, sarcasm and so forth and this stuff is way over the heads of some of the people I have worked with in visual effects, sad to say.   But you, dear reader, I know you can handle it.  Someone once told me that if I was going to tell jokes all the time it would be better if some of them were funny. 

 

In many ways, this will have elements of an oral history of about 45 years of visual effects.  There will be anecdotes and assertions, there will be assumptions and guesses.  This is what I perceived, this is what I heard, this is what I think might be important.  This is not a dry history.  Where appropriate and where legal I will refer to sources of where I heard things.  Not everyone is going to agree with what I say here.

 

We will begin in the earliest days of special photographic effects back before color, sound, superheroes of the cinematic kind, and so forth.  The "way back machine" will be set to when these things were called, at least some of the time, "gag photography" and before the practitioners understood image fusion and other illusions created by our odd organic image processor located behind the eyes.

 

"You open this door with the key of imagination.  Beyond it is another dimension."  (ft-1) 

Let us begin.