Tuesday, June 14, 2022

EARLY SPECIAL EFFECTS SECRETS


It's hard to imagine how special effects were created for vintage-era movies in the face of today's seemingly unlimited technology. For many of these effects, filmmakers relied on chemists and their laboratories to develop specific inventive "concoctions" that would work convincingly. For example, dry ice was often used to create steam, mist and the icy breath coming from an actor's mouth (by placing the ice in the actor's mouth inside a container!), silicate of soda to make icicles, Epsom salt solution to create frost on windows and hail from puffed rice! These and other techniques are explained in this article from MODERN MECHANIX (March 1936).




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