100 Years of Special Effects

Posted by John Farrier in Movies & SciFi, Video Clips on August 27, 2009 at 8:46 pm



(YouTube Link)

YouTube user bengraphics created this montage of film clips from the past 100 years, demonstrating the evolution of cinematic special effects.  It was originally just intended for a class lecture, but has gone viral.  Featured films include The Enchanted Drawing (1900) Thief of Baghdad (1940) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Run time: 5 minutes.

Via Geekologie


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8 comments to "100 Years of Special Effects"

  1. zoomba
    August 27th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    Too bad they put in the wrong Star Wars explosion. They used the new one, but it was supposed to be the original.

  2. SenorMysterioso
    August 27th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    Movies are magic.

  3. dorkhero
    August 28th, 2009 at 10:17 am

    Nice, but one glaring omission kills it: The big gap between Mary Popins and Star Wars where 2001 should be. The effects at the time for 2001 were light years beyond anything that had been done previously. Many of those who worked on 2001 later worked on Star Wars, which in many was an equal to 2001 in effects, but did not exceed it. (I'm talking about the original 1977 release and not the CGI violation Lucas did later.) Compare the effects in 2001 to any of the George Pal scifi films (Conquest of Space comes to mind) and you can understand the massive technical leap that 2001 made. It's kind of like the huge leap in effects made with computer graphics in films like Abyss, T2, and Jurassic Park. (And no, Tron and Last Starfighter are too crude to count.)

  4. Johnny Cat
    August 28th, 2009 at 10:53 am

    dorkhero's right. What the guys did with 2001 was amazing, and it wasn't done on a computer, but in a freakin airplane hangar!

  5. CME
    August 28th, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    That's "Visual Effects" Not "Special Effects"
    Special effects are in-camera effects like explosions or costumes/makeup. Visual Effects are post work including rotoscoping, paint models shop work, stop-motion or modern CG animation.

  6. Christophe
    August 28th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    neat. reminds me a lot of jaw droppings when i was a kid ;)

  7. ted
    August 28th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

    Yeah, there were gaps, especially with 2001. And the wrong Star Wars explosion - they weren't doing that in the 70's.

  8. Inti
    August 29th, 2009 at 12:20 am

    Where's The Matrix? Probably the most innovative fx in the last 10 years.


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