10 Amazing Movie Special Effects That Are
Not CGI
As technology evolves, CGI has become a prevalent
tool filmmakers use for the visual effects
they need in their movies.
Just about anything is possible with computers,
meaning that the only limit is the director’s
imagination.
While digital effects are extremely photorealistic
and an easy, safer method, there are those
who still prefer to do things to old-fashioned
way.
Practical effects still have a place in Hollywood
and are arguably making a comeback in big
budget productions.
Here are 10 amazing movie special effects
that are not CGI.
The Dark Knight Rises
In the opening sequence of this threequel,
Bane and his mercenaries hijack a CIA plane
and crash it, jumping to another aircraft
for their getaway.
It seems tailor made for CGI, but Christopher
Nolan did it for real.
Stuntmen jumped out of a real C-130 jet in
the beginning, and their exterior shots on
the CIA plane were accomplished by hanging
a piece of fuselage from a helicopter.
A model was used for the part when the plane’s
wings blew off, and an actual aircraft was
dropped from the sky at the end.
The jaw-dropping scene took only two days
to film, which is even harder to believe now.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
J.J. Abrams used motion capture for two new
characters in his Star Wars sequel, but the
lovable droid BB-8 was the real deal.
Seven props were constructed for the film,
including one that had to be operated by a
puppeteer.
Having an actual robot on set was beneficial
for actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, who
shared a number of scenes with BB-8 in the
movie’s first act.
Knowing that the droid was a practical effect
was a prime example of movie magic, and wowed
fans that saw BB-8 attend conventions and
events throughout the year.
It was so successful, Rian Johnson will be
using the props for Episode 8.
Speed
This action-thriller was made before CGI became
too advanced, so the filmmakers had no choice
but to pull off one of the film’s most daring
stunts for real.
In one sequence, the bus has to jump over
a 50-foot gap in the incomplete highway so
it can keep going.
A ramp was built and an actual bus accelerated
to 61 miles per hour.
The vehicle traveled 109 feet through the
air, and the front wheels reached an altitude
of 20 feet from the ground.
It was a greater leap than anyone anticipated,
and the bus went out of frame due to incorrect
camera placement.
The gap was added digitally, but that was
the easy part.
Skyfall
In the cold open of this James Bond film,
007 tracks his prey to a train and they engage
in a fight on top of it.
The actors – including Daniel Craig – were
attached to the speeding locomotive by extremely
thin wires while they acted out the physical
scene.
This was the only thing keeping them from
falling off to impending doom.
It was a highly dangerous stunt, but it added
authenticity to the project and delivered
a hard-hitting sequence that Bond fans won’t
soon forget.
The Craig era has been defined by practical
visual effects, and this is quite possibly
the finest instance of that.
Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg’s seminal tale of dinosaurs
brought back to life was noteworthy for ushering
in CGI effects and pushing the next wave of
technology forward, but he still found the
time to blend the two techniques seamlessly.
A good portion of the dinosaur footage was
handled practically, including a full scale
t-rex animatronic.
For the famous sequence of raptors hunting
the kids in the kitchen, performers were wearing
rubber suits as opposed to be digitally inserted
in post.
Maybe this is why the film holds up more than
20 years later.
It wasn’t too reliant on CG and maintained
real world elements.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Sam Raimi’s trilogy used digital effects
to show Peter Parker swinging through New
York, so Marc Webb tried something different
for the reboot.
The 2012 film used stuntmen hanging from wires
that were allegedly “no thicker than a bootlace”
60 feet in the air.
The wire was connected to a winch on a rail,
which would move down to create the full arc
of the swing.
It’s kind of incredible that Webb went to
these lengths to bring Spider-Man alive, demonstrating
extra determination and effort.
Hopefully, the MCU films with the new Spidey
will carry over some of these techniques to
ground the hero in reality.
127 Hours
When a character needs to lose a limb nowadays,
the easy trick is to cover it in a green screen
sleeve and remove it later in post.
For the infamous arm cutting sequence of the
biopic 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle relied
on classic prosthetics.
Three fake arms were created for the scene.
One was a recreation of star James Franco’s
arm, and the other two contained the muscle
and bone he needed to chop through.
They were made in a way that Franco shouldn’t
have been able to cut all the way through,
but that’s exactly what he did when the
cameras started to roll and the take ended
up in the finished film.
Star Trek
To deactivate Nero’s drill, Kirk, Sulu,
and a poor red shirt need to perform a jump
from space into Vulcan’s atmosphere.
Initially filming the actors on harnesses
facing downward, J.J. Abrams had to resort
to a different method when they kept passing
out.
It wasn’t CGI. Abrams shot the actors standing
on mirrors from an angle so that the reflection
of the sky from behind the actors created
the illusion of them falling through the air.
It would have been simple to stick them in
front of a green screen, but this proved to
be a creative solution to a problem and nobody
knew the difference when watching it for the
first time.
The Dark Knight
The centerpiece of The Dark Knight is the
car chase through Gotham City, where the Joker
attempts to take out an armored vehicle escorting
Harvey Dent.
Always one for practical effects, Christopher
Nolan crafted it so that it could all be captured
in-camera.
This included the money shot of the sequence:
an eighteen-wheeler flipping over in the streets.
The crew actually used a real truck for filming,
building a steam-piston mechanism to put in
the trailer to create the needed upward force.
After testing it out, they closed off a section
of Chicago and flipped the truck, delivering
an iconic cinematic moment.
Inception
By now, fans are aware that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s
hotel fight was accomplished by building a
rotating set, but Christopher Nolan did even
more outrageous things practically.
When the team first enters the first dream
level in the third act, a train comes shooting
through the street, knocking over all the
cars in its path.
A life sized train was actually constructed
and then molded to a semi, which would then
drive through the set creating the needed
effect.
Even though the train is only in the film
for a fleeting moment, it was still important
for the crew to do it for real, and audiences
are all the more appreciative of their efforts.
Those are just some of the most incredible
instances of practical effects being used
instead of digital.
Which ones are your favorites?
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