OT: How did they do effects in the old days?

SeaJohn wrote on 11/14/2004, 10:10 PM
I just finished watching the first episode of Gilligan's Island (~1960, B&W) and started wondering how they did some of the special effects back then.

The ones I noted were titles with shadows, zooms into the titles, and of course in the intro where the screen rotates around the ship's wheel. Other things were blurring, slow, and fast motion.

So how did they do this before computers? (I have no concept of what it's like to work with film)

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 11/14/2004, 10:30 PM
Easiest way to learn this is to get your hands one Herbert Zettl's old books, first or second edition, and he covers this all quite well. I found one on Ebay a few years back, cost 45.00 and worth every penny. He shows skyline masks, spinning titles, all sorts of things.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/15/2004, 3:32 AM
Back in the "dark ages" these were referred to as "opticals." The effects were done on an optical printer. Basically, it was a specialized movie camera that photographed (a frame at a time) motion picture images that had already been shot to achieve a certain effect.

You can do a Web search about "optical printers".

Jay
DGates wrote on 11/15/2004, 6:14 AM
Optical Printing

An optical printer is basically a camera and projector operating together so that it's possible to photograph a photograph. Optical printers and various rear and front projection techniques were used to join live action to backgrounds (usually mate paintings created by artists with oil or acrylic).

The combination of miniature photography, stop-motion, mate paintings, rear/front screen projection and optical printing dominated special effects from "King Kong" (1933) to "Star Wars" (1977). "King Kong", in particular, serves as a great example of early stop-motion photography and optical printing. Willis O'Brien, a pioneer of stop-motion, brought the King Kong model to life by photographing it frame by frame while optical printers and various compositing techniques were used to merge King Kong with backgrounds and actors.

Coursedesign wrote on 11/15/2004, 8:54 AM
"titles with shadows, zooms into the titles"

Ahhh, nostalgia. Laying out 3/8" thick plastic letters on an easel, then angling the light scoop until the shadow was just right. Compose in the camera and fire away....

Zooms? We didn't have no stinkin' zooms. The camera had to be moved closer with focus following. At least we didn't have to set key frames... :O)

Blurring was done with out of focus on the camera, or better (more evenly) in an optical printer if you had more money.

Slow and fast motion are still done with overcrank (increased frame rate) or undercrank (slower frame rate).

Lots of other special effects were made possible by very creative people...
It's been so long since I saw this paragon of high culture, Gilligan's Island, that I don't remember the screen rotating around the ship's wheel.
From your description it sounds like they just rotated the camera.
JackW wrote on 11/15/2004, 10:25 AM
In analog video, effects such as you describe were done with mixers like the MX-50, which provided an amazing range of special effects and image manipulation.

Jack
farss wrote on 11/15/2004, 2:03 PM
Don't be fooled, the MX50 does its effects in the digital realm.
SeaJohn wrote on 11/15/2004, 8:03 PM
Thanks for the info. I looked up optical printers - pretty neat. Also kind of humbling that they did all this without computers.

Now I'm going to have go rent Blade Runner again. One reference said that movie used up to 30 composites per shot via optical printer.
Opampman wrote on 11/16/2004, 8:15 PM
All of the above are correct...back in the 70's when I was a DP, the people at the optical house could do anything we can do today with computers. I once shot a scene in front of 2 thousand extras and it required a very slow zoom in with a 20:1 Panavision lens on a speaker in front of the crowd. Somewhere in the middle of the 2 minute zoom, the platform the camera was on was bobbled by one of the crew and the image on screen jerked horizontally. We didn't notice it until the next day when the "rushes" came back from the lab. Rather than reshooting the whole thing with all the extras, we gave it to the optical house (Exceptional Opticals) in New York and they were able to compensate, frame by frame, for the movement and fixed the scene. Somewhat like using the track motion feature in Vegas. WOW! It sure is easier and cheaper now but we could do it.