Special Effects in Film: A Brief History of Special Effects

Special effects, also known as SFX, are visual tricks or techniques used by filmmakers in motion pictures and other visual mediums to create an illusion that may be impractical or even impossible in a live-action shot. Special effects include mechanical effects—such as pyrotechnics, miniatures, and prosthetic makeup—and optical effects, such as motion-capture photography, matte paintings, and stop-motion animation.

Special effects are ubiquitous in science-fiction and fantasy films, which require the creation of objects, characters, and scenarios that do not exist in real life. Hollywood blockbusters and Oscar winners such as Jurassic Park, Avatar, and Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope feature stunning mechanical and optical effects.

Though digital effects, such as computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital compositing, are used more frequently in modern filmmaking, special effects bring an element of tactile “reality” to a fantasy scenario that is often not possible to achieve through CGI.

There are two types of special effects in movie making: mechanical and optical.

• Mechanical effects, also known as practical effects, are real-world special effects created physically on a set, including prosthetic makeup effects, such as the Oscar-winning make-up effects that John Chambers created for the 1968 film Planet of the Apes. Other forms of mechanical effects include pyrotechnics, or controlled combustion and explosions; miniatures, such as the spaceships and other hardware created for the Star Wars franchise; animatronics, or mechanical puppets; and atmospheric effects, such as the creation of rain, wind, and other weather conditions on a set.
• Optical effects are photographic images that give the illusion of disparate elements appearing together in the same scene. They are either in-camera effects, like a double exposure, composite images created using a green screen or bluescreen, or completed as part of the post-production process through the use of an optical printer. Examples of optical effects include the use of forced perspective cinematography in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit to make normal-sized actors appear larger or smaller than other performers or objects.

The history of special effects begins at the dawn of filmmaking in the early twentieth century:

• First attempts: One of the earliest special effects was the substitution splice, or stop trick, in which filming halts, and an actor or object enters or leaves the scene to create the illusion of appearance or disappearance. Matte paintings—images painted on glass to represent a distant object—and makeup effects were also developed during this time.
• In-house effects: Many studios launched their own special effects departments during the 1930s. The use of miniatures and matte shots also grew in sophistication, as did stop-motion animation, which used mechanical puppets to simulate movement. RKO Pictures and animator Willis H. O’Brien created one of the most enduring stop-motion creations for King Kong in 1933.
• Optical printer: The development of the optical printer during World War II streamlined studio efforts to produce more complicated special effects. The printer linked a movie camera to one or more projectors, which allowed filmmakers to re-shoot segments of the film. The optical printer produced matte shots, fade-outs and dissolves, and fast and slow motion, often within the same scene. It remained an industry-standard well into the 1970s.
• Science fiction: A boom in sci-fi films during the mid-twentieth century spurred the motion picture industry to develop more elaborate special effects. Visual effects supervisors like Ray Harryhausen in America and Eiji Tsuburaya in Japan made extraordinary advances in stop-motion animation, miniatures, and optical effects during the 1950s and 1960s. This period’s most groundbreaking special effects came in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Kubrick’s own special effects team created spectacular miniatures through motion control and rotoscoping, which involved hand-drawn animation over live-action footage. The film also used practical effects like wirework and rotating sets to create the illusion of zero gravity.
• Lucas and Spielberg: Directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg greatly advanced special effects movie-making with two blockbuster films in the 1970s: Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Lucas and visual effects supervisor John Dykstra streamlined existing effects technology, including a computer-controlled camera rig for traveling matte photography. Spielberg innovated motion control and visual cinematography. Both filmmakers would collaborate on future projects that involved Lucas’s special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic.
• CGI: Computer animation dates back to the 1940s but the process rose in popularity in the ‘70s and ‘80s, thanks to the success of Westworld film franchise and Disney’s Tron. CGI soon became the industry vanguard, creating highly detailed models, settings, and even whole characters with computer software. CGI netted the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects throughout the decade and into the 2000s; such films as Total Recall, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Spider-Man 2, and David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which allowed Brad Pitt to appear to age in reverse, all claimed the Oscar for visual effects. However, many filmmakers continue to use practical and photographic special effects.

Here are some notable examples of special effects in movies:

1. 1. The Matrix (1999): The most jaw-dropping visual effect in the Wachowski’s sci-fi trilogy The Matrix was “bullet time,” which showed the action in a scene slowing down while the camera moved at normal speed. Though it appeared to be a digital effect, bullet time uses one of the oldest special effects in film history: time-slice photography. This technique involves using a bank of cameras to take a single still picture, which editors assemble to create “virtual camera movement.” Photographer Eadweard Muybridge first employed the effect in 1876.
2. 2. The Lord of the Rings (2000): Peter Jackson’s epic fantasy trilogy required extensive digital effects, which his own visual effects company, Weta Digital, created. The most notable of these was the character of Gollum—a CGI creation brought to life by an incredible motion-capture performance by actor Andy Serkis in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). However, Jackson also used practical effects, including extensive and elaborate miniatures, thousands of prosthetic makeup effects, and forced perspective shots. These shots used moving sets, miniature or oversized props, and specific camera angles to create the illusion of size variation between actors.
3. 3. Transformers (2007): Director Michael Bay’s sci-fi/action-adventure, drawn from the popular robot toy line, used extensive CGI to bring its battling robots to life. However, executive producer Steven Spielberg encouraged Bay to use practical effects for its plentiful car crashes and explosions. Bay placed cameras in the middle of automobile stunt sequences and used a real bus, split in half and held together with wires, for a scene in which a Decepticon rips a bus apart.
4. 4. Inception (2010): Filmmaker Christopher Nolan prefers to use practical, in-camera special effects in his blockbuster films, including The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar. For his Oscar-winning 2010 science-fiction film Inception, Nolan used only 500 CGI shots (by comparison, Avengers: Endgame used more than 2,400 digital effects). Practical special effects accomplished such eye-popping sequences as a zero-gravity fight (which used a rotating set) and an avalanche, which employed real explosives on a Canadian mountaintop.

The primary difference between special effects and visual effects, or VFX, is when they occur during production. Special effects typically happen in real-time and on the set of the project, while visual effects are always added during post-production.

Visual effects employ digital equipment and computer software to accomplish their illusions. In contrast, special effects use a variety of other mediums, from prosthetics to props, animation and miniatures, and mechanical devices, including animatronics.

Become a better filmmaker with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including James Cameron, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Shonda Rhimes, Jodie Foster, Martin Scorsese, and more.