WEBVTT - SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: Special Effects: A Short History 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:03.920 Hey, everybody, welcome back to the playlist. It's me Josh, 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.280 and this episode is all about special effects. We tried 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:10.280 to cram as much as we possibly could into this episode, 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.920 and there's a lot to talk about with special effects, 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:15.720 and there's all sorts of different kinds of special effects. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.680 Most of the stuff we think of today is all CGI, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:20.959 but that's built on things that people used to have 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.480 to build with their own hands to make amazing movies 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.159 look believable. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:31.240 hope you've enjoyed this playlist. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:40.920 a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.879 I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant wearing his 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.440 Stone Temple Pilot's hat, and there's Jerry over there. She's 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.200 not wearing any hat. She's got really cool hair. 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.000 It's not Stone Temple Pilots. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.320 It is too I've seen the Stone Temple Pilots hats 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:56.040 before and that's. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:00.760 What it is. STP. Because I bought hats at Auto 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:01.520 Zone yesterday. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:04.679 I have a Champion spark Plug hat. Yeah, they have 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:06.000 good hats, they really do. 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:07.280 I was getting a battery, and I was like, I 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.560 want these two hats. It was a good Year Akron, 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.119 Ohio Goodyear hat nice, which is where Emily's from. Sure, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:15.560 so I wanted that. And then I saw this stp. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:16.839 Hat Stone Temple Pilot. 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:18.959 But I would get a Champion spark plug hat too. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:20.640 Those are That's great. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.160 Okay, I'll let you borrow mine anytime you want. I 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:24.160 just got to give it back. 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:25.399 I don't know if I've ever seen you in a 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:26.080 baseball cap. 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.360 It's a weird jam, is it now? What you want 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:29.800 to see. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.479 I've seen you in shorts like twice in twelve years. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:34.560 I keep the legs covered. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.960 And I think one of them was when you came 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.640 over to borrow my lawnmower. I remember that, Yeah, like 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:41.440 nine years ago. 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:43.520 Sure, I've got a mow the lawn sometimes. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:48.360 Now things have changed. You can buy a lawnmower. Yeah, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.240 and now we can afford lawnmowers. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.360 I can wear shorts too. I actually have one of 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:53.800 those plugin lawnmowers. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.880 I have a battery power lawnmower. Dude, look at us, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:58.080 stupid liberal hippies. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.640 Well mine's mine's battery powered too, but you have to 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:01.720 plug it in and charge it. 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.160 Oh yeah, yeah, what kind do you have? I have 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:04.880 the green one. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:06.400 Yeah, I think they're all green. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:07.760 No, there's a blue one. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:09.760 Oh, I've got the green one to the sun Joe. 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.320 No, but I have a sun Joe pressure watcher. 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.119 Do you really is it battery operated? 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:15.639 No? You plug that in? 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:17.520 I was gonna say, I'll bet it just goes like 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:18.640 tinkles out water. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.280 But they do make plug in lawnmowers. Like, it's not 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.680 a battery. You just like have a cord that you 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:25.520 walk around. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:26.560 And run over with your lawnmower. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:30.320 I guess they're called electric. Sure, but yeah, I got 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.240 the battery because I have so little grass now and 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.120 we may be done period with grass. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.040 Oh yeah, that's why you're zero escaping. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.959 Well, we're definitely doing the front, but the back it 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.760 just got smaller and smaller. And my last lawnmower broke, 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:45.280 so I was paying a guy to come cut it. 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.520 It's like, why am I paying this guy to cut 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:49.160 to do a seven minute. 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.400 Mo There's just that one bladed grass that sees the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:53.320 lawnmower coming. 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.400 Like yeah, But then I went and got the battery 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.640 because lawnmowers are terrible for the environment. 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.000 Yeah, that's why I got it. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:02:59.720 They're one of the worst. 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:04.200 Full. Yeah, we're both also aware that we are charging 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:08.280 our battery powered lawnmowers with coal fired power. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:09.680 Yes, and we understand that. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:09.920 We know. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.359 I'm just talking about exhaustpiums. 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:13.480 I don't even need one. I live in a condo, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.320 but I'm so dissatisfied with the landscapers that take care 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.000 of the condo that I yes, I bought a lawnmower 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:22.920 just to do the little patch out in front of 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.359 our buildings. Now, poor Momo doesn't get long grass against 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:28.560 her junk when she's pot of you. 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.079 It is a great way to start this episode. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:33.720 So we're talking special effects. 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:35.360 Obviously, this has been lawn talk. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:38.800 We're talking special effects, Chuck. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.760 Yes, movie special effects, which, uh boy, I mean we 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.360 could do ten parts on this. This is kind of 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.200 a big summation because movie special effects can be everything 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.200 from the movie that you walk out of saying, oh, 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.760 that movie had no special effects, when in fact it did. 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:56.600 Yeah wrong. 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.160 Yeah, just tiny little things that you may not even notice, 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.160 to things that are almost whole cloth special effects like 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:04.520 Skycaptain in the World of. 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:06.000 Tomorrow yeah, or Sin City. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.320 Yeah. I like both of those Yes, did. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.640 You know Sin City? Every single bit of the set 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:11.600 was cgi. 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.280 Yeah, and that Skycaptain did it first, Yeah, a year 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.320 before huh yep, every bit of that was. It was 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.480 a green screen movie. 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:19.719 I never saw it. Was he good? 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.560 It was interesting, Like the look of it was amazing 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:24.600 and very much ahead of its time. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:25.400 Like real art deco. 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.920 Right, Yeah, for sure, I call it black and white, 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.479 but it wasn't. It was just this really washed out color. Yeah, 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.520 but it looked awesome and was not bad. 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.320 Nice. I'll have to check it out. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:36.840 And I think the dudes that made that kind of 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.239 quit making movies after that. It's very unique story. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.040 Have you ever seen This has nothing to do with anything, 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:43.240 but have you seen the Changeling? 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.440 Yeah? Sure, Oh my god, did you just see that? Yes? 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:50.840 And I have to tell you, I don't think I've 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:55.040 ever gotten chills more frequently from a movie than I 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:55.680 did with that one. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:56.039 Changed. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:01.280 It is great, genuinely, it's a genuinely scary ghost story. Yeah, 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:02.680 like it is wonderful. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.200 Yeah. I miss Georgie Scott too. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.600 Yeah, he's a good actor. And I don't remember who 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.400 the female lead was in there, but she was great too. 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:13.760 It's been a while. I haven't seen it in many, 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:14.320 many years. 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:19.520 So anyway, special effects, let's try this again. Yeah, we're 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.200 gonna get derailed like every five sets. Okay. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.040 Effects are divided, and this is by the Grab story 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.560 helped us out with this. AD's a big movie guy 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.799 and horror movie sci fi guy. Sure, so he probably 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:34.400 enjoyed writing this one up. They're divided into three general categories, 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.960 and this all has to do with where the effect 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.600 is happening. It can be practical, which is in front 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.640 of the camera, and that means it's a physical thing 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:43.560 that's happening. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:45.440 I think that's what most people think of when they 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.719 think special effects. You think, sure, okay, by most people, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:49.280 I mean me. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.320 In camera effects that happened inside the camera, and then 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.840 post production effects. And many times you're using one or 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:58.760 all three of these. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:03.120 Right right, So with like practical effects, that's things like 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.440 makeup and prosthetics, like ed uses, the example of David 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.919 Lynch's The Elephant Man, like the prosthetic makeup that was 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.000 used to turn John Hurt or John Hurd which one 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:25.760 hurt into Joseph Merrick. Yes, that's a special effect. An 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.960 explosion on set, that's a special effect, a blood packet 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:32.800 to make it look like somebody just got shot in 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.159 the chest. A squib that's a special effect. All three 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.880 of those are practical effects. They're actually happening in the 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.440 physical world in front of you on set, being captured 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.200 on film. That's a practical special effect. 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.039 Yeah. And the other one I wanted to mention there 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.120 that you might not think of as stuff like if 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.960 there is a fire like a fireplace in a scene, 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.440 and then you flip the camera around to show that 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.200 people and you see that fire shimmering on the wall. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:06:59.960 That's a practical effect too. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.120 Little things like that, But it's lighting. It's a lighting effect, yeah. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.920 Or it's a fire like you know, those aren't real fires. Yeah, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:06.919 I mean it's real fire. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:08.479 Somebody should put that out. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.720 But it's not like someone lights a bunch of wood. 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.720 They put fake wood and they have these fire bars 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.280 that it's like what you have under your grill basically, right, 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.160 Or they hide those and then that's your fire. Sure, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.680 because that's to look perfect. You can't just chance somebody 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.840 not being able to start a fire or looking wonky. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.880 That's why movie fires look perfect. Yeah, because they're fake. 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.240 They are kind of dreamy they're so good. 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.760 So in camera effects is just basically messing with the 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.760 way the film is being produced inside the camera, not 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:44.600 what's going on in reality the film is capturing, but 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.960 how the film is actually capturing this stuff. 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.280 Yeah, slow motion is a special effect in camera special effect. 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.040 Yeah, or fast motion too, which is ten times more 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.720 hilarious than fast motion. If you ask me, like, where 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.680 would the monsters be without fast motion? Yeah? 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.360 Or Benny Hill for God's sake, sure that lived and 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.520 breathed on fast motion? What else can you do there? 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.920 You can? And we'll see this some some of the 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.960 early special effects, like stopping the film, changing something, starting 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:15.640 it again. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.160 Like Bewitched appearing out of nowhere. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.840 Yeah, that's a special in camera special effect. 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.520 Yeah. One thing that struck me about all this from 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:28.400 researching this is how the basis the foundation for special 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:34.520 effects was laid immediately upon like motion pictures being like created, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.840 like the whole industry, not even the industry before the 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.440 industry existed, but basically after the invention of motion pictures, 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:47.040 and that it stayed virtually the same until the nineties. Uh. Yeah, 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.640 people refined it and got better at it, and techniques 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:50.280 got more. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.480 The same general crafts. Ye were used very much, so, 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.960 which is why craft service is called craft service. Oh yeah, 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.320 because of each department is their own craft. I didn't 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.880 know they're there to serve them pizza rolls. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.200 Yeah, man, or whatever. You can put on some weight 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.440 and film in something. I'll tell you that for you can. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.679 Oh my god, so stop motion animation. That is an 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.040 in camera effect. You're moving a little clay figure or whatever, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.760 a doll or a King Kong, a raisin one a 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.240 California raisin, one frame at a time, twenty four frames 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:22.720 per second. 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:24.720 Can you imagine? Didn't you do that with your brother 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:25.640 with g I Joe? 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.520 I did? And then years later I did a little 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.280 Star Wars thing when I got a high eight video 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.120 camera and spent like three days working on something that 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.880 ended up being nine seconds long, and I said, I'm done. 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.280 What's funny is you're going to get a seasoned desist 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.200 later from Lucasfilm after talking about us in the podcast Night. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.040 And then we have post production effects, and that is 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:48.920 I think that's what a lot of people think of 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.920 as special effects these days, really, because that's all the 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.200 CGI stuff that you will see is all happens in post. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.280 Production Okay, all right, Yes, these days I got youa like, 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.600 almost all special effects happen imposts these days. Right. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.480 Well, no, they still combined some of the old crafts 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.040 as well. But yeah, surely a lot of it is CGI. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.439 I mean, computers can do some amazing stuff. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:09.840 They can. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.719 I mean, stuff that used to take months to do 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.640 a computer can do in hours now and do it 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:20.720 a million times better. Yeah, So depending on your taste, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.560 I should say, that's right. So those are the big 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:28.000 three practical in camera and post production. And like I 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:33.199 was saying, like the basis of special effects was founded, 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.320 like in the nineteenth century, there were just some people 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:42.160 who had kind of followed in a tradition of still photography. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.040 Still photographers by that time had already figured out some 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.160 cool stuff that you could do messing around with cameras, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.080 something like double exposure, where you take a picture of 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:52.760 one thing and then take a picture of another thing 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.760 with the previously exposed film, and all of a sudden, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.680 it looks like there's a ghost looming behind you. Stuff 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.920 like that. So out of the gate, when motion pictures 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.320 were started to become a little widespread and people could 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.840 afford them and try messing around with them. They had 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.760 a basis of trickery to begin with, but there's a 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.560 lot of stuff you can do with motion picture cameras 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.280 that you can't do with still photo cameras. And they 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:18.960 figured this out right away. 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.760 Yeah. That first guy who's credited as the first special 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.160 effect is Alfred Clark. And they don't have the year 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.160 exactly right. It's either ninety three, that's eighteen ninety three, yeah, 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.120 or eighteen ninety five. He made a short film called 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.040 The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scott's, and he did 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.360 that little stop trick, like I was saying, you shoot something, 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.320 you stop the camera, you replace it, or you remove something, 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.880 and then you start the camera and in real time 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.280 when you go to play it back, it's seamless, right. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.000 And in his case, did you look at it? 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:52.679 Did you want to? Did you see that one? 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.439 It's he uses a stop trick with Mary getting beheaded, 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.800 and right when the ax is going to fall, you know, 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.200 he switches her out for a dummy, then starts the 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.160 camera back up and he chops the dummy's head off, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.120 and it's it looks pretty good, like you can't there's 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.319 no big weird jump he did for eighteen ninety three. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:12.280 He did a really good job. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.400 Yeah, and the key to that is just making sure 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.760 that no one touches the camera or even breathes on it, 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.520 don't move, and then getting the dummy in the same 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:22.319 position as the actor. 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.480 Yeah. And in fact, as we'll talk about later with 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.520 Matt Paintings, it's so crucial that the camera not move 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.320 that one technique was they used to bury the camera 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.160 tripod like a couple of feet into the earth, just 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.280 to make sure, like no dumb dumb pa bumps into 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:39.440 it like me. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.680 So Alfred Clark is credited with the first special effect, 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:50.760 but a guy named George may leise did they get it? Maylee? 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.600 We should go ask Casey Pegram. 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:53.800 Oh yeah, he would know. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.800 I think it's uh milia, Oh nice. 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:03.120 I think he just nailed it. At any rate, this 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.520 guy is known as the father of special effects. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:06.000 Yeah. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:10.240 He was very early on doing stuff that no one 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.280 else was doing. You know. Granted there were very few 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.679 people working in this field. 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:16.920 And none of the five people did. 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.480 But he was an illusionist and he said, oh man, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.080 I can really do some amazing tricks with this camera. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.440 And he really put it to good use. From a 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.080 very early, like I mean, turn to the last century. 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.920 Yeah, he actually stumbled upon that little stop trick by 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.240 accident when he was shooting a street traffic scene in 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.080 Paris in eighteen ninety six. The camera jams while I 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:43.080 think a bus was coming across frame. He's like, mad, 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:44.480 fixes the camera. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.480 Can we say that? Sure? All right? We don't have 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.640 any French people sitting? 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.760 Yeah, that's true, starts the camera back up, and of 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.360 course there's different things happening, and then when he went 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.680 back to look at it, it's he kind of just 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.080 stumbled upon this weird little substance tution splice that became 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:01.840 part of filmmaking. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.040 Yeah, because by the time the camera had started up again, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.400 the bus was replaced by a hearse. So it looked 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:09.679 like when he went back and watched it, the bus 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.720 suddenly transformed into a hearse. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.160 And he said, wait till they get a load of 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:18.280 Bewitched seventy something years from now. So or no, I 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.280 guess what was that in the fifties, sixties, sixties, all right. 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.480 So you may not recognize George Meliaise, oh I got 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.320 at that time, I think so name, but you probably 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.760 have heard of his work like a Trip to the Moon. Yeah, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.160 what's very widely sighted is like one of the first 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.720 actual movies. I think it was in the twenty something 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.920 minute range. But it was about some explorers in the 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.960 Victorian era getting into a rocket and traveling to the 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.240 moon and the rocket lands and the man in the 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.960 Moon's eye. Yeah, everybody's seen that. I don't care who 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.720 you are. If you say you haven't, you have. This 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.280 was the guy who made that. And this is a 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.040 very early movie. It was from nineteen oh two, but 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:00.720 he was doing all sorts of a maze using stuff. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:05.880 He was using extensive costuming, masks, all sorts of in 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:07.680 camera techniques. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:08.680 His painting on film frames. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.560 Yeah, and this is nineteen oh two, and like I 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.360 was saying, this stuff was refined, but it was the 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.440 basis of special effects for the next century to come. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:20.560 Should we take a quick break? 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:21.040 I think so. 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.280 All right, let's take a quick break and we will 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.520 talk a little bit about the MAT technique right after this. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:54.400 I'm actually pretty psyched about this, all right, Chuck. As 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.120 I said, I'm very psyched about the MAT. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:03.360 Yeah. So this isn't This is a little confusing the 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.520 way it's laid out here, because what Ed's talking about 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.320 here with Norman Don is called original negative matte painting. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.120 If you hear of a matte painting, that is a 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.080 piece of glass where you have and I'm going to 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.120 talk about the most common way you might see it 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.320 employed is you take a big piece of glass and 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.880 you paint like a city scape on it, like really realistic, 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.960 and then you put that in a scene and shoot it. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.080 So it's instead of having someone in front of a 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:39.320 city and this was pre blue screen and green screen technology, 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.560 you would just put Kurt Russell and Escape from New 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.480 York in a field and there's a matte painting of 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.960 New York City behind him and it looks great. And 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.960 James Cameron painted that and Escape from New York. He 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:51.600 was a matte painter. 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:52.640 Oh, I didn't know that. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:53.880 That was like his first job. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.920 It's Nate like, if you, if you even if you 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:58.880 do know what Chuck's talking about, go to the internet 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:00.920 and just look up like great matte paintings. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:01.600 It's amazing. 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.920 There's a lot of really wonderful ones. One you've seen before, 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.479 ones you haven't. But basically, anytime you've seen a movie 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:15.280 pre nineteen ninety three, maybe nineteen ninety where somebody walks 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.440 into this enormous place or this amazingly elaborate future city 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.119 or something like that. What you're actually looking at is 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.040 an expertly painted painting that has been messed with in 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.160 post production or using an in camera technique to make 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.960 it look like it's alive or actually, you know, bustling 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.400 or energetic or there. But it's really it's a painting. 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.840 It's a painting that some amazing human being painted by hand. 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.240 Yeah, and we should point out they still do this today. 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.440 They just do it digitally. And digital matte painters are 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.960 super talented as well. Sure, but it's kind of neat 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.280 to think about that old craft and James Cameron painting 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.000 a piece of glass, yeah, and sticking that behind Kurt Russell. 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.359 And I mean it was used in everything like I 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:03.199 for my money, matt painting is the single most important 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:08.119 and widespread special effect ever. Maybe hard to argue that, 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.480 thank you, like it was in Mary Poppins. When Mary 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.800 Poppins is coming into the City of London float, that's 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:18.399 a Matte painting. When Superman walks into the uh, where's 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:20.480 the what's the name of the place where he's from? 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:22.200 The Crystal Cave. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.639 Where Fortress of Solitude. 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.359 Yeah, is that where he talks with with Marlon Brando 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.320 his dad? Uh yeah, I think so, Okay, that's a 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:33.480 matte painting, and. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.520 I think the Fortress of Solitude are the remnants of Krypton. Okay, 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.000 I'm boy, Superman. People are so mad at me right now. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:41.880 People still I thought everybody's on the marble train. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.640 No, people love Superman the comics. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.520 Oh okay, because I was gonna say, I mean, you've 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.800 seen what they've done Superman lately, right and Batman? 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.600 Yeah? So, uh, that's the matte painting. And what that 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.320 is it's called set extension. So that basically means you're 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.600 just sort of extending the real life set to make 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.320 something bigger and more opulent, or maybe not more obvious, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.120 just bigger and more. 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.120 But here's the. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.760 Thing, relying on that mat painter and having the glass there, 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.840